Indian Firms and the New Era of Corporate Social Responsibility: Raising the Bar for People above Profits

Abstract

Traditionally, many Indian firms, both private and state-owned, acted as grandfather organizations that not only took care of the employee, but the entire family during and after that employee’s tenure at the organization. For example, Bank of Baroda, a prominent Indian multinational and one of twenty-six public sector banks (PSBs), has a policy in which if the employee of the Bank passes away in harness, the Bank would hire the next eligible kin of that employee, with the clear intention of securing that family’s financial well-being and social reputation in the community (Khandelwal, 2010, p. 115). If a kin was not available or eligible, the family would receive compensation and pension benefits from the Bank.¹ This represents just one of many humanistic policies that put people and the community above profits in India. More importantly, it is not an isolated policy upheld by some extraordinary firms, but a reflection of deep rooted Indian ethos coupled with a historically collectivist institutional and national culture. A brief history of many Indian firms reveals that they have always been steadfast and pioneering in their belief and practice of humanistic management. In other words, putting people above profits or placing community well-being above economic well-being has been at the center of many Indian businesses from their inception. In this chapter, we examine the shift in CSR policies pre-and post-liberalization (also referred to as globalization) with in the Indian public sector as such.