The BPO Cultural Conflict

The BPO industry in India has grown from a nascent industry less than a decade ago to a sector that determines important economic policy decision in India. The sector witnessed considerable activity during 2004–05, including a ramping up of operations by major multinational corporate players and Indian organizations stepped up hiring. There were over 400 companies operating within the Indian BPO space, including captive units (of both MNCs and Indian companies) and third-party services providers.

The BPO segment will continue to experience healthy growth and consequently the employment opportunities are bound to see significant rise for some time to come. This growth has led to several significant social frictions in India by giving birth to a new generation of youth that has disposable income and a different biological and social clock. This has resulted in an alienation of a large population of direct employees working nights to contribute to the growth.

Traditional socio-economic statistics would indicate that the moment the number of unemployed goes down crime rates and socially unacceptable behavior head south. But this has really not been the scenario when we turn our eyes to observe the 20 something youth who spend and in absence of social alignment, often spend along the wrong channels and adapt to behavioral pattern not quite our traditional path of life. There have been continuous media bombardments along allegations of drugs, crimes and sexually deviant behavior.

What has caused such alienation of a generation of youth from our neighborhood who works after sunset to add a significant amount of our economic prosperity? Is this really an issue of BPO employees living American and UK time or is this a more deep rooted social inertia to change?

I feel that the friction is a result of our traditional society failing to adapt to a new reality which wears the same basic human traits but are dressed differently. And we have alienated this new generation instead of trying to understand and advise and provide for a channel to the lifestyle that has therefore gone astray in trying to find a vent for their urges.

It is also perhaps now time for us to try and accept the change that is here and will spread wider. And this must have a beginning in our trying to understand and align ourselves with the dawn of a culture that is here to stay. This must be a joint onus of the corporate employing these young people and the society they hail from. While several corporate houses have taken initiatives to spread awareness and built controls to develop constructive work cultures and healthy competitiveness, the society has failed to respond with commensurate measures.

We must learn to coexist and create a social framework to be able to sustain the economic benefits of the industry.