Can Indian Companies' HR Help Them Deal With Free Agent And Virtual Teams?

With the rise of the creative age, people are looking more at vocations rather than careers, and it is passion that drives them. These creative people will become more and more entrepreneurial and give up the comfort and the anonymity of large organizations to chart out recognition as independent consultants.

HR needs to understand how to manage these people to enhance creative input and also needs to guide line managers. It needs to remember that for these folks, independence and eminence is the motivating force, and money is just a by-product. The Human Resources group in Indian organizations also needs to identify who are potential free agents in the organization and what to do to optimize their contribution.

As more and more work gets done in a globalized economy by groups of part-time, temp or independent consultants working along with full time employees in different cultures and time zones, creating a culture of inclusion and tolerance of diversity becomes an imperative for HR professionals. This would be a strategic differentiator for the business, because diversity if managed well, could give rise to ideas and innovation that the competition cannot come up with. HR needs to educate the business about the edge that diversity brings and that it's not just a 'nice to do' kind of thing!

The question that comes to mind is why are Indian organizations never focused on diversity as a group initiative. Is it because we feel that we have a better grasp on dealing with diversity having done it as a civilization over the last 4 millenia? Or are we really diverse in our thinking?

A typical senior management group in an Indian organization can be from various parts of the country and speak different languages at home. But are they really that different in their thinking? If not, then what hopes do Indian organizations have of becoming creative and innovative to compete on a global scale?