Agricultural Professional Ethics versus Corporate: Bringing some such points, which perhaps or ever noticed or brought to light about agri mannerism, behavior and its professional ethics. Though Nidana village is taken as a reference but sametime fits to whole Haryana Agri business pattern a minimum; may further be of India's at bigger level. So presenting a comparison between the two extremely dependent on each other by nature but totally opposite on behavior profession streams i.e. agri versus corporate.
Similarities between Agri and Corporate Ethics:
There is no hierarchy when you are at work in agri fields: Whether you are owner or worker in the field, you enjoy a brotherhood relation of equality on village agri standard norms. There is no “noukar-maalik” pattern, neither imposed nor in show off manner; very simple and easy going system. You will be adressed on relation band system. It is the same principal but in different format, used in some of the Multi National Companies (MNCs) where you call the colleagues or boss with their name despite their designation except few businesses where using sir or madam terminology is used in practice.
Experience and knowledge is only the hierarchy: It is seen from daily behavior that village farmers give importance to person with experience and knowledge of agri profession. They consult with them about their profession by going out of the boundaries of castes, religion, ownership and servantism so that could make a healthy decision to take profitable steps in their work. The same philosophy practiced in corporate world too but vary from work culture of organization to organization.
It is all about behavior and attitude: In village, how so intelligent or rich you are, at last it is your behavior and attitude which makes you accepted and popular among villagers; one of the most important formula to win people in corporate too.
Youngsters of Village should notice: When it comes to behavior, you are inherited with same mannerism which is practiced in various domestic as well multi-national companies. The difference here is just of field and language, and you move from Agri background to Corporate world and Haryanvi or Hindi to English; rest is just your inherited ethics, and that’s it
Dissimilarities between Agro and Corporate culture:
Work of mind versus body power: The biggest fundamental difference between the two domains. In business you may need not to be physically strong but mental power makes your 90% work done. Where as in agriculture it is both required, mind as well as healthy body. Agreed that with the increasing availability of machines you don't need to frcition your body fuel by handling the hand of plough and toiling behind the bull-plough with bulls but even you require certain set of physical ability to govern agri-business.
Boss of the Business: In agriculture big-boss is God, where as in corporate big-boss is human being in roles of CEO, MD, Chairperson, Manager or Team/Project Leader etc. How the psychology is developed, how it works in these two sectors, lets have a comparative look as below:
Work and Expectations in Culture of Agriculture (Brown Color Field) |
Work and Expectations in Culture of Corporate (White Color Field) |
1) Your ultimate and single authority boss is God |
1) Your ultimate boss is Human Being |
2) Ultimate way to praise your boss (God) is sincerity and hard work, no cross overs, by-passes or short-cuts.
Being manipulator in agri is like wasting yours and others is of no avail. |
2) More than God you may need to be a big manipulator, act clever more than a wolf in neck cutting competition, making others a laddars to climb the top. |
3) To get promotion you need to be sincere and hard worker, promotion here is to get the best yield with idealistic climatic conditions where God grace is a must. |
3) Though sincerity and hard work are key to prove your talent but to get your talent recognized, you also need to learn how to keep happy and play politics with people around you and be in focus and attention of key persons.. |
4) Your final output of work totally depend on God's mood. God may destroy your fully riped crop by bringning clamities like hail-storms. |
4) Just be the lime-light and sometimes a big surrogate and its all achieved. |
5) Your overtime and extra efforts are always paid. |
5) It depends on the taste and kind of nature of your boss. |
6) All employee of team are seen equal by the boss. Only mantra is to be sincere and serious on your job. |
6) You have to be the most favorite of your boss because you are not the only one in team and race. |
7) Don't need as such big level communication skills, only spirituality in deeds is enough. |
7) Good communication skills is a must, who knows when and where to convince someone, even someone other than your boss or boss of boss. Spirituality is an accessory, which people often do by going to nearby temples like of Shani Maharaj (the most recent trend). |
8) Minimum interaction with people, knowing your job is all about. Introverts can survive equally. |
8) In addition to knowing your job, you require to be interactive thus need an extra set of skills called being interactive. |
9) Being proactive in plan but have to reactive on field. |
9) You have to be pro-active throughout the job; whether it is planning or acting. |
So finally in parallel to way of sincerity and harwork, you can convince human being with alternatives like false politics or other unwilling means but God only can be made happy with sincere and hard work. So Brown business has only one way to success where as in corporate world you have two ways a minimum.
That is why farmers and rural people are called simple, straight and sometimes orthodox. The kind of set of skills they need in their business is fixed and somehow static because due to God's direct interference in their business their is no place for manipulations or surrogatives. Where as people in the field of corporate are some how more clever, good at negotiations and sometimes cunning enough to take their share or grabbing. But it doesn't mean that corporate is full of those people only. No, it is also about stricking to right person on right time at right place.
Hierarchy is based upon generation gap (to keep the village brotherhood alive): If you are the owner and one servant working in your fields but in your village relation he or she is your uncle or aunt then you should call them uncle or aunt instead of their name and vice-versa. Calling by name is recommended for same generation people only otherwise relation band is practiced for rest. Even the expatriates who come from other sister states for work also use the same method. So the respect and experience in a relation is considered as supreme. Where as in corporate both manners are practiced, hierarchal as well as equal base system depending on company culture and mannerism of working. And it is understandable too as in corporate, they are made of people from different origins, cultures and ethics, who need to converge themselves into company's own defined working ethics.
Changing Ethics: Though as of the day there is no MNS or Shivsena kind of belief organization recognized in Harayana which in fact is a very good things and proving Haryana a more social, open and adapting society to externals but change occurs as and when migrants or; in human terms two different races merges on one land. Above all said principles were on peak of local social preferences until there were no immigration of other state expatriates to Haryana. But now they are entering and bringing their home state “noukar-maalik” or “thakur sahib” mannerism and behavior in Haryana too. Even then village fabric is intact and still if you have hired your own villager or a Haryanvi then they still use the same mannerism said above. But when it is compared with corporate, story becomes more complicated and blamed as orthodoxy. It further has a reason on why so because corporate businesses are movable, where as agri-business is immovable. While being in corporate you need to work in different regions thus diffrent cultures so ultimately need to be more changing and co-operative. So in one line it is nature of business movable versus immovable.
Je Jatt Bigad Gaya versus brain-washing: When work conditions become tense or on par an old saying “Je Jatt bigad gaya”, which again happens because of down going working relation in agri business which is a short and straight method to find out the solution where as in corporate you are tackled with mind-games and shocking goes until you are left with no use to them and then silently kicked-out sometimes even blocking your ways of working somewhere else. In agri it is not a big deal, servant can leave any time, are free to change the employer or even free to take rest as much as you need
(a bitter truth of farmers pain) a year best part is this that your work is judged from your skills and capability not from how your relation was with your previous employer until or except you are not exciled or banned socially.
To conclude it comes out as making both kind of solutions. Changing ourselves according to working environment and bridging the above gaps so that coming new generations (especially from agri domain) would find it easy for them to fit in corporate culture and vice-versa. Vice-versa because corporate also has to go in rural to run their business. If to see then we have reached back to same line with which we started the dicussion that these two segments of extremely dependent on each other but opposite in behavior should bridge out on later adjective.
Note: More points and info will be added with time.
