Views expressed by Mr.

GAURAV Katiyar (IR Manager HONDA)

Mr. Katiyar talked about what it means to work in a foreign Multinational

Company (MNC) in India, managing relations with the workforce and gave his
views about how it would be different in a domestic company. He told us that the
top management in a foreign MNCs Indian division is generally run by
expatriates who do not understand the Industrial Relations (IR) scenario of our
country. Hence it becomes a little challenging for them. It has to be continuously
explained to them that there is a difference in the conditions, not only from
country to country but also in the different regions in India. What the IR situation
might be in Delhi might not be true down south. The IR scenario is mostly
governed by the local conditions. There needs to be constant communication
between Mr. Katiyar and the top management. They cannot directly import the
policies that they are following elsewhere. What is working in Japan may not
work in India.

Coming to a domestic firm, here, the organised procedure is missing and it is not
a policy driven thing. Rather, its situation specific and keeping in view of the
external and internal factors. Hence, it is more flexible in an Indian organisation.

Mr Katiyar, talking about the Japanese organisations and specifically Honda told
us that there is no unilateral decision but decision by consensus. They make
decisions in consultations with the trade Union and its a collective decision.

We next enquired the frequency of strikes in MNC and comparing them to the
frequency in a domestic firm along with the reaction of unions to the
management in an MNC. For this, he replied that in his experience, and speaking
only about the automobiles sector, we would find that in all major MNCs, there
has been, at one time or the other, a major strike - be it Maruti, Honda, Toyota,
Hyundai, etc. Why this happens is that there are number of factors one of which
would be involvement of people external to the company who may be having an
ulterior motive. The fact that it is a foreign company, also makes it more
vulnerable to strikes.

He does not think that the labours would be more apprehensive about policies
being forced upon them more than in an Indian organisation since all the foreign
MNCs provide good salaries and better workplace environments. However, he
agreed that there is a hype that foreign companies are here only to exploit our
countrys resources. But this can be managed by maintaining a healthy
relationship which depends upon the organisation culture. Specifically, to
Honda, trust was the most important factor the managements trust in its
workers and vice versa. If the trust is not there, however much they try to
communicate and in whichever way, it would not make a difference. This trust
was not developed in 2 to 5 years or from plain words. It is developed over
decades through action of the management. There may be times where the
management or the workers are not able to accept the others conditions, but if
that trust is there, some solution can be reached.

In Indian companies, the middle management is empowered to take decisions

while in a foreign MNC, there are certain processes that need to be followed and
at times, these processes take time. IR is something where decisions have to be
taken at the spot. You cannot go into processes, discuss them, and then evolve.
Because by that time things will go haywire. Management flexibility not being
present in MNC, affects the relations. In Indian companies, everybody in the top
management also understands the conditions and state of affairs. For example,
no Foreign MNC will allow you to manage your compliances by hook or by crook.
They are process driven and for them these compliances and brand value are at
the top most priority. We Indians are grown up in such a way that we want
everything to happen instantaneously by hook or by crook.

Finally, On asking about the case of Honda Motorcycles and how the
management deals in these types of cases, he said that the main thing is to keep
communication channels open with the key leaders of the employees. They have
gone on a strike because the demands are not being met. You need to have a
good rapport with the local administration to control if something goes out of
hand, if something goes berserk to maintain law and order. Even when they are
on strike, identifying the leaders of the workers that can persuade, mould and
influence the workers and keeping the negotiations open with them is important
It can also happen that a third party has to intervene (govt dept., labour dept.)
but this generally doesnt happen).