Indian railways
scope and opportunities for
research
B.V.L.Narayana
Railway staff college
Introduction
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Restricted to research in
management
Management
Young growing field
 Research
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Fragmented
 Dispersed
 Disaggregated
 Pluralistic
 Positivist dominated
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Management research
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Management research
Started with studies in public
domain
 More focus on private domain
 Western oriented—US dominant
 New focus on orient/ east
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Is a function of
Volume of business activities
 Variation in business activities
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Indian railways
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Large organization
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Geographical spread
Multiple sub contexts within common
context
Large number of systems
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High volume of variation in activities
In public domain, service orientation
mix of oriental and western culture
Great history of achievements
Old organization
Human resource dominant yet
technology dependent
GIGANTIC DIMENSIONS OF IR
63,500
ROUTE KILOMETERS
48,000 COACHING VEHICLES
7,900 LOCOMOTIVES
2.22 LAKH WAGONS
7133 BLOCK STATIONS
14.20 LAKH WORK FORCE
RS. 618 MILLION EXPENDITURE ON
STAFF PER DAY
RS. 1171 MILLION REVENUE
EXPENDITURE DAILY
Scope for research
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Management research
 Needs accumulation, integration of theory
 Cross discipline research
Three streams likely (Volberda and Elfring 2003)
Organization level
 Boundary conditions
 Configurations
 Routines
 culture
Individual level
 Capabilities
 Motivation
Community level
 Communities of practice
Boundary conditions
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Organizational forms
Wide variation in organizational
forms seen
 Consistency of main organizational
structure
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Matrix organization– mixed M form
 Other forms
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Evolution of forms
 Organizational culture
 Flexibility
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Capabilities
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Resource allocation
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RAP model
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Strategic resource/ factors
Technology evolution
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strategy as iterative resource allocation
Technology adaptation
Models of capability development
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Dynamic capabilities
Learning
Strategy as learning
Configurations
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Organizational performance
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Strategy implementation
Frame works
 Process models
 Implementation capabilities as SCA
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As systems
Autopoietic systems
 Self generation
 adaptability
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Configurations
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Learning systems
Absorptive capacity
 Knowledge management
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Frameworks
 Link with performance
 Cognitive architectures
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Stake holder theory
Stewardship
 OCB or Public service motivation
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Strategy as time
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Time
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Railways
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an important variable in research
Part of processual studies
Consistent performance over 150 years
Research on
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SCA
Implementation
Evolution of forms
Learning
Individual level
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Work place conditions
Interaction between work place
and family conditions
Motivation
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Linkage to performance
Transfer of training
Individual level learning
Scope for research
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Scope in railways
LARGE
 Huge variation in topics
 Large repository of data
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Conducive to quantitative and
qualitative methods
 Ideal for processual studies
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Organizational need for research
Easy access
 Collaborative effort possible
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Community level
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Do railway men form a
community?
If yes –how
 How does it impact
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Transfer of skills , capabilities,
learning
 Creation of social capital
 Formation of networks and their
working
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THANK YOU