My Work
(Portrait of a Renaissance Man )
I currently work at XLRI, Jamshedpur, where I wear two shoes, not just one ( somehow, when put that way, it doesn't sound so weird ). One shoe I wear is as Member of the Organizational Behaviour (OB) Area, where I teach Individual Behaviour, Leadership and Group Dynamics and Organizational Theory, and the other is as a Member of the Marketing Area, where I teach courses in Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Communications.
There is not one, but several biographies (narratives) one can write about oneself. Here is a brief biography of my intellectual life and choices. As is true of all narratives, this is a the result of a selection process, where certain events are remembered while others aren't.. then again, so are ALL narratives.
(The advantage of the internet is that you don't HAVE to read everything. If you are bored by all this stuff, please feel free to explore other links on the left!! Or you can skip the story and go straight to the juicy last chapter of the detective story, by clicking here.)
When I was in my teens, I decided that the topic that held the most interest for me was human behaviour. Which explains my choice (Duh!) of Psychology as the major area of specialisation for B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. During the undergraduate days (BA Days), my focus was on individual behaviour. In a paper presentation during my undergraduate days, I asked the question, "I have now learnt about conditioned responses, neurotransmission, and perceptual processes, but not really come much closer to my goal of understanding human behaviour.
I can remember the following significant events that have had an impact on my thinking in those days.
- Preparing for my black belt in karate
- Reading Erich Fromm and subsequently Abraham Maslow, which pointed me in the direction of Humanistic Psychology
- A close friend of mine went through an acute psychotic episode, a journey which I shared with him (to the extent one can) through uncharted and frightening territory. This was also the time I discovered R.D. Laing With Graduate Studies (M.A.) came a significant shift in my studies. This time the influences on me were.
- Reading Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig
- Disqualification from the karate black-belt test due to a permanent knee injury
- Discovery of a link between academic psychology, cognitive processes and Indian Spiritual Traditions through Transpersonal Psychology (was I too late for psychedelics, and "cleansing the doors of perception" as Aldous Huxley puts it)?
Having reached this far, I felt a kind of closure at this level, meanwhile there were issues that were still nagging me. R.D. Laing had brought up issues that I couldn't wish away. Was insanity within a person's skull? Or was it part of a social context? What are the social and family influences on individual behaviour?
I knew I couldn't use my existing analytical tools to understand this, so I needed new tools, yet didn't know where to turn. Doctoral studies
If you promise not to tell anyone, I will tell you a secret. My arrival at IITB, now thought to be one of the highest portals of learning in India, was sheer serendipity.. or put it more bluntly ACCIDENT!! I was off to Waltair in Andhrapradesh to explore the Department of Yoga and Consciousness which was being set up under the aegis of Andhra University, when an advert appeared in the papers offering Ph.D. in Existentialism, Phenomenology and other interesting subjects. I wasn't even at home when my wife sent in a request for the application form!! But at the H.S.S. Department, of IIT Bombay, I truly felt at home. My research Supervisor, Dr. M.Gupta gave me the freedom of work that most people can only dream of. This was further enriched with long walks and talks I had with some of my seniors who were doing Ph.D. in philosophy, and a geat deal of personal effort and time put in by professors who had absolutely NO obligation to talk with me.
I was for the first time exposed to Critical Theory and the idea that much of what we call "Identity" is only social construction. While it did not directly link to Laing and his thought, it did have strong parallels. While Laing challenged insanity in his book, The Divided Self, Michel Foucault wrote Madness and Civilisation.
Paranoid Schizophrenics often talk about hidden codes (the movie starring Russel Crowe - A Beautiful Mind), but here were a group of philosophers who supported the paranoid perspective!
However theoretical study slowly lost its exciting and I felt ready to see the world and understand group dynamics in real. Management provides us with just that context and it is well funded too! Organizational Behaviour on the one hand, allows us to look at a small group and how behaviour of individuals add up to an organization. Issues of Leadership, Group Behaviour, etc.
Marketing on the other hand takes a broader perspective. If Organizational Behaviour is about group behaviour, Marketing, to my mind is about a larger set. What are the "Codes" that determine consumer behaviour? How do people choose which car to buy? What are the differences in the ways that a woman's identity is constructed in a family? These are some of the issues that address questions relating to social construction and closely related to some of the issues that have been of interest to me.
The Final Chapter (until I write another one ;) )
- Is there a difference between knowing a person and understanding a person?
- Can this be the difference between Natural Sciences and Social Science?
- Why are organizations necessary?
- What is the purpose of an organization? (Is it about adding value to people.. or rather to mankind... or about making a profit?)
- What is the purpose of work? (To make money/ security, or to form a context, or platform for self expression?)
- How do people work together to a common objective when their own objectives could be so different?
- What are the changes taking place in society today?
- What is the role of consumption in shaping society?
- Do consumption patterns help us to understand people better? Ø How do I go beyond the "How Much" of consumption to the "WHY" of consumption? (Knowing Vs. Understanding ?)
I am sorry I don't have answers. Indeed a set of questions give way to other questions and so life continues. The questions we ask are the source of humility for ourselves and a sense of awe and beauty in the universe.
If all this weren't enough, here are some of my interests broken down into more specific areas.
Marketing:
- The issue of trust between buyer and seller.
- Semiotics - Symbols that communicate meanings (symbols and symbolic acts) Qualitative Research
- "Retro" (- an interest and affinity for things that are considered old-world.) and other consumer trends that represent a small but significant movement contrary to the mainstream. The word "Old World Europe" used during the Iraq War, is to many Europeans, a rallying call.
Organizational Behaviour
- The purpose of work.
- Work Life Balance - The larger picture of the place of work in one's life along with personal and spiritual growth
- Distributed Intelligence - The ability of a number of intelligent beings (or robots) to be able to work together without having strict formal rules about working.
- Servant Leadership: Leaders who derive their own energy from a commitment to something beyond themselves. The way Moses considered himself a Servant of God, rather than a leader of the people.
- Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis and the analysis of discourses and narratives within the organizational context.
I also have an interest in Healthcare and the Relationship between the Doctor - Patient (or rather the helper - helped) and the broader socio-economic context of healthcare delivery.