dilip subramanian | NEOMA Business School (original) (raw)
Papers by dilip subramanian
Economic & Political Weekly, 2007
Economic & Political Weekly, 2004
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 194.167.104.21 on Fri, 08 May 2015 12:23:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Special articles _ Impact of Deregulation on a Public Sector Firm Case
Economic & Political Weekly, 2005
Economic & Political Weekly, 2001
Economic & Political Weekly, 1998
Economic & Political Weekly, 1997
Economic & Political Weekly, 1997
Economic & Political Weekly, 1980
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 194.167.104.21 on Fri, 08 May 2015 12:23:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The MICO Strike: A Retrospective Dilip Subramanian This article attempts a retrospective of the 88-day long strike at the Motor Industries Company (MICO), Bangalore, that eame to an end on New Year Day, 1980.
Networks and Communication Studies, 2009
Can an industrial organisation simultaneously fulfil economic and social functions, that is to sa... more Can an industrial organisation simultaneously fulfil economic and social functions, that is to say successfully reconcile its own priorities of optimal resource utilisation and productive efficiency with the larger objectives of social justice defined for it by public authorities? This is the central question this paper whose compass is restricted to the 1980s asks, and seeks to answer on the basis of a study of locational and technology choices at a big public sector manufacturing firm, Indian Telephone Industries. It will show how decisions pertaining both to the implantation of new state-owned factories and the sourcing of technology were shaped not by an economic rationale but a political one where employment generation took precedence over all other considerations. This was a consequence, on the one hand, of the paradigm of state-initiated industrial development embraced by India after Independence in 1947
Les travailleurs du médicament (Ed. P. Fournier, C. Lomba, S. Muller), 2014
A partir d'une recherche menée chez un industriel producteur d'anticoagulants, dans ce chapitre o... more A partir d'une recherche menée chez un industriel producteur d'anticoagulants, dans ce chapitre on mettra l'accent sur les conditions matérielles de production de médicaments et les conditions de travail des salariés. A l'appui des chapitres précédents montrant de fortes variations de production, on analysera les manières de gérer une situation d'urgence, résultant d'une crise sanitaire, où l'usine doit rapidement augmenter ses capacités de production en faisant appel à des intérimaires. On verra également comment, en dépit d'une forte demande, le dispositif technologique hétéroclite de l'usine fait obstacle aux tentatives pour optimiser les ressources en interne afin d'écouler davantage de produits. Aussi, l'analyse s'appuie-t-elle sur cette crise pour révéler des tensions qui s'équilibrent lors de périodes de production plus ordinaires. On peut plus généralement se demander comment les entreprises répondent à ces variations des commandes, tant à la baisse qu'à la hausse, ainsi qu'aux contraintes de production.
International Journal of Manpower, 2013
Purpose -The purpose of this tri-sectoral comparative study is to analyze the scope and content o... more Purpose -The purpose of this tri-sectoral comparative study is to analyze the scope and content of vocational training policies, and their practical implications and outcomes for employers and employees at three French-based companies, one in the pharmaceutical sector, the second in the consultancy and information technology sector, and the third in the automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is a qualitative study and relies on a cross-fertilization of methods valorizing the triangulation approach: in-depth informal interviews with different categories of personnel, participant and non-participant observation, and documentary investigation. Findings -Our results show that though the three companies investigated rank as training friendly organizations both in terms of the level of financial investments and training densities, these statistical regularities mask significant qualitative differences. The focus, goals, opportunities and outcomes of training policies at the three firms share few common attributes. The paper goes on to propose a typology identifying three types of training organisations: skill up-dating, learning, and capability enhancing. Originality/value -The paper demonstrates that product specificities and the technology associated with it matter less than the system of work organisation and the mode of management in determining the scope and content of training programmes as well as their outcomes in matters of professional development. Whereas researchers have invariably monopolized the term of learning organizations to designate service-sector corporations, staffed by highly skilled workforces, operating at the core of the knowledge economy, our findings shows that even neo-taylorist industrial firms can justifiably qualify to be learning organizations. Finally, the paper proposes a comprehensive analytical grid to facilitate further qualitative research in the field of vocational training.
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2014
India's policymakers justified the introduction of neoliberal economic reforms by advancing one o... more India's policymakers justified the introduction of neoliberal economic reforms by advancing one of the main grounds that it would help optimise the performance of state-controlled enterprises. This article argues, on the contrary, that the reform process had an extremely deleterious effect on these enterprises' operations. Based on a detailed ethno-historical case study of ITI, a large public sector manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, the article highlights the contradictory nature of neoliberalisation. Even as public sector companies were exposed to new rules of competition, they continued to be subjected to a web of bureaucratic constraints. The article then proceeds to contest the official narrative of the transition from a command economy to a market economy as a gradualist and pain-free process. For public sector managers and workers, in fact, the rupture with the past proved to be a precipitous and fairly violent experience. The article concludes by examining a key strategic measure adopted by the ITI management to enable it to adjust to the changed business climate, voluntary retirement and workers' responses to this scheme.
Modern Asian Studies, 2015
Independent India's new state-owned infrastructural industries were not only entrusted with the m... more Independent India's new state-owned infrastructural industries were not only entrusted with the mission of producing essential public commodities, but they were also required to promote the economic and social advancement of their workforces. To achieve this objective, big public enterprises in particular, helped by the financial power they derived from their control over the strategic sectors of the domestic economy, established generously endowed welfare programmes. This article argues that such a developmental ideology shaping managerial policy orientations is central to understanding why accepted explanations for the rationale of employer-sponsored social benefits are insufficient when it comes to studying similar initiatives in the Indian public sector. To substantiate its argument, the article explores the provisioning of social needs over a period of roughly half a century at a large state-run producer of telecommunications equipment, Indian Telephone Industries. The welfare regime as it evolved here boasted one unique feature: it rested on dual foundations, with both the company and the trade union assuming independent responsibility for the well-being of employees. A range of informal self-help schemes devised by workers further supplemented the institutionalized social security net set up by the management and the union. The article also discusses how the firm sought to scale back its largesse in the aftermath of economic liberalization. * Different versions of this article were presented in Nantes and Göttingen. I am grateful to all the participants at these two venues for their comments. Special thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback, to Johnny Parry for asking the right (tough) questions, and to Mark Holdsworth for vetting previous drafts.
International Review of Social History, 2008
Contributions To Indian Sociology, 2009
Work, conceptualised as a concrete and practical activity, continues to remain an under-explored ... more Work, conceptualised as a concrete and practical activity, continues to remain an under-explored problematic in the field of Indian labour studies. The neglect of ethnographic research techniques could perhaps account for this shortcoming. Based on non-participant observation in a public sector company, this article examines the practices and attitudes of workers specialised in assembling printed circuit boards for electronic telephones.
Contributions To Indian Sociology, 2005
Work, conceptualised as a concrete and practical activity, continues to remain an underexplored p... more Work, conceptualised as a concrete and practical activity, continues to remain an underexplored problematic in the field of Indian labour studies. The neglect of ethnographic research techniques could perhaps account for this shortcoming. Based on non-participant observation in a public sector company, this article examines the practices and attitudes of workers specialised in assembling printed circuit boards for electronic telephones. Despite the standardised nature of the product and its low economic value, operatives allocated to this task experience a significant degree of autonomy in their daily activities. In consonance with their personal inclinations and interests, they are not only free to structure their immediate physical environment but also to control their work pace and organise the way they perform their jobs. In all these spheres of practice, important variations can be observed from one individual to the next. This situation belies the conventional thesis equating semi-skilled occupations of the kind described here with job fragmentation, the absence of individual discretion and stringent managerial controls. The departure from the norm stems in part from the desire to preserve a harmonious industrial relations climate and in part from the non-strategic character of the end product-telephones-in the company's portfolio. But slack disciplinary controls, a problem common to state-owned enterprises in general, could also explain the latitude granted to workers.
Economic & Political Weekly, 2007
Economic & Political Weekly, 2004
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 194.167.104.21 on Fri, 08 May 2015 12:23:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Special articles _ Impact of Deregulation on a Public Sector Firm Case
Economic & Political Weekly, 2005
Economic & Political Weekly, 2001
Economic & Political Weekly, 1998
Economic & Political Weekly, 1997
Economic & Political Weekly, 1997
Economic & Political Weekly, 1980
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 194.167.104.21 on Fri, 08 May 2015 12:23:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The MICO Strike: A Retrospective Dilip Subramanian This article attempts a retrospective of the 88-day long strike at the Motor Industries Company (MICO), Bangalore, that eame to an end on New Year Day, 1980.
Networks and Communication Studies, 2009
Can an industrial organisation simultaneously fulfil economic and social functions, that is to sa... more Can an industrial organisation simultaneously fulfil economic and social functions, that is to say successfully reconcile its own priorities of optimal resource utilisation and productive efficiency with the larger objectives of social justice defined for it by public authorities? This is the central question this paper whose compass is restricted to the 1980s asks, and seeks to answer on the basis of a study of locational and technology choices at a big public sector manufacturing firm, Indian Telephone Industries. It will show how decisions pertaining both to the implantation of new state-owned factories and the sourcing of technology were shaped not by an economic rationale but a political one where employment generation took precedence over all other considerations. This was a consequence, on the one hand, of the paradigm of state-initiated industrial development embraced by India after Independence in 1947
Les travailleurs du médicament (Ed. P. Fournier, C. Lomba, S. Muller), 2014
A partir d'une recherche menée chez un industriel producteur d'anticoagulants, dans ce chapitre o... more A partir d'une recherche menée chez un industriel producteur d'anticoagulants, dans ce chapitre on mettra l'accent sur les conditions matérielles de production de médicaments et les conditions de travail des salariés. A l'appui des chapitres précédents montrant de fortes variations de production, on analysera les manières de gérer une situation d'urgence, résultant d'une crise sanitaire, où l'usine doit rapidement augmenter ses capacités de production en faisant appel à des intérimaires. On verra également comment, en dépit d'une forte demande, le dispositif technologique hétéroclite de l'usine fait obstacle aux tentatives pour optimiser les ressources en interne afin d'écouler davantage de produits. Aussi, l'analyse s'appuie-t-elle sur cette crise pour révéler des tensions qui s'équilibrent lors de périodes de production plus ordinaires. On peut plus généralement se demander comment les entreprises répondent à ces variations des commandes, tant à la baisse qu'à la hausse, ainsi qu'aux contraintes de production.
International Journal of Manpower, 2013
Purpose -The purpose of this tri-sectoral comparative study is to analyze the scope and content o... more Purpose -The purpose of this tri-sectoral comparative study is to analyze the scope and content of vocational training policies, and their practical implications and outcomes for employers and employees at three French-based companies, one in the pharmaceutical sector, the second in the consultancy and information technology sector, and the third in the automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is a qualitative study and relies on a cross-fertilization of methods valorizing the triangulation approach: in-depth informal interviews with different categories of personnel, participant and non-participant observation, and documentary investigation. Findings -Our results show that though the three companies investigated rank as training friendly organizations both in terms of the level of financial investments and training densities, these statistical regularities mask significant qualitative differences. The focus, goals, opportunities and outcomes of training policies at the three firms share few common attributes. The paper goes on to propose a typology identifying three types of training organisations: skill up-dating, learning, and capability enhancing. Originality/value -The paper demonstrates that product specificities and the technology associated with it matter less than the system of work organisation and the mode of management in determining the scope and content of training programmes as well as their outcomes in matters of professional development. Whereas researchers have invariably monopolized the term of learning organizations to designate service-sector corporations, staffed by highly skilled workforces, operating at the core of the knowledge economy, our findings shows that even neo-taylorist industrial firms can justifiably qualify to be learning organizations. Finally, the paper proposes a comprehensive analytical grid to facilitate further qualitative research in the field of vocational training.
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2014
India's policymakers justified the introduction of neoliberal economic reforms by advancing one o... more India's policymakers justified the introduction of neoliberal economic reforms by advancing one of the main grounds that it would help optimise the performance of state-controlled enterprises. This article argues, on the contrary, that the reform process had an extremely deleterious effect on these enterprises' operations. Based on a detailed ethno-historical case study of ITI, a large public sector manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, the article highlights the contradictory nature of neoliberalisation. Even as public sector companies were exposed to new rules of competition, they continued to be subjected to a web of bureaucratic constraints. The article then proceeds to contest the official narrative of the transition from a command economy to a market economy as a gradualist and pain-free process. For public sector managers and workers, in fact, the rupture with the past proved to be a precipitous and fairly violent experience. The article concludes by examining a key strategic measure adopted by the ITI management to enable it to adjust to the changed business climate, voluntary retirement and workers' responses to this scheme.
Modern Asian Studies, 2015
Independent India's new state-owned infrastructural industries were not only entrusted with the m... more Independent India's new state-owned infrastructural industries were not only entrusted with the mission of producing essential public commodities, but they were also required to promote the economic and social advancement of their workforces. To achieve this objective, big public enterprises in particular, helped by the financial power they derived from their control over the strategic sectors of the domestic economy, established generously endowed welfare programmes. This article argues that such a developmental ideology shaping managerial policy orientations is central to understanding why accepted explanations for the rationale of employer-sponsored social benefits are insufficient when it comes to studying similar initiatives in the Indian public sector. To substantiate its argument, the article explores the provisioning of social needs over a period of roughly half a century at a large state-run producer of telecommunications equipment, Indian Telephone Industries. The welfare regime as it evolved here boasted one unique feature: it rested on dual foundations, with both the company and the trade union assuming independent responsibility for the well-being of employees. A range of informal self-help schemes devised by workers further supplemented the institutionalized social security net set up by the management and the union. The article also discusses how the firm sought to scale back its largesse in the aftermath of economic liberalization. * Different versions of this article were presented in Nantes and Göttingen. I am grateful to all the participants at these two venues for their comments. Special thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback, to Johnny Parry for asking the right (tough) questions, and to Mark Holdsworth for vetting previous drafts.
International Review of Social History, 2008
Contributions To Indian Sociology, 2009
Work, conceptualised as a concrete and practical activity, continues to remain an under-explored ... more Work, conceptualised as a concrete and practical activity, continues to remain an under-explored problematic in the field of Indian labour studies. The neglect of ethnographic research techniques could perhaps account for this shortcoming. Based on non-participant observation in a public sector company, this article examines the practices and attitudes of workers specialised in assembling printed circuit boards for electronic telephones.
Contributions To Indian Sociology, 2005
Work, conceptualised as a concrete and practical activity, continues to remain an underexplored p... more Work, conceptualised as a concrete and practical activity, continues to remain an underexplored problematic in the field of Indian labour studies. The neglect of ethnographic research techniques could perhaps account for this shortcoming. Based on non-participant observation in a public sector company, this article examines the practices and attitudes of workers specialised in assembling printed circuit boards for electronic telephones. Despite the standardised nature of the product and its low economic value, operatives allocated to this task experience a significant degree of autonomy in their daily activities. In consonance with their personal inclinations and interests, they are not only free to structure their immediate physical environment but also to control their work pace and organise the way they perform their jobs. In all these spheres of practice, important variations can be observed from one individual to the next. This situation belies the conventional thesis equating semi-skilled occupations of the kind described here with job fragmentation, the absence of individual discretion and stringent managerial controls. The departure from the norm stems in part from the desire to preserve a harmonious industrial relations climate and in part from the non-strategic character of the end product-telephones-in the company's portfolio. But slack disciplinary controls, a problem common to state-owned enterprises in general, could also explain the latitude granted to workers.