Colonial hangover? A case of multiple cross-cultural influences on Indian Railways

Vijay Pereira*, Ashish Malik

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Employing a reflexive-ethnographic design involving past experiences and analysing qualitative data contained in 73 interviews with senior managers from the Indian Railways (IR), this study argues for the remnants of colonial influence on the management, governance aspects and culture in IR. Findings from the study further ratify and confirm aspects of our four scenarios and indicate that the interaction between colonial culture with both national and organisational culture collides to create a complex and conflicting culture in this extremely large and diverse organisation. Such organisational culture, despite the resilient presence of Indianness, paradoxically retains strong elements of the colonial influences as this is seen at times a legitimate and dominant way of governing the world’s largest commercial employer–The IR.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)293-311
Number of pages19
JournalSocial Identities
Volume24
Issue number3
Early online date18 May 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 04 May 2018
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

  • colonialism
  • cross-culture
  • ethnographic
  • Indian Railways
  • Indianness
  • reflexivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science

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