Managing knowledge workers: benchmarking Indian IT organisations

Abstract

Knowledge based industries such as information technologies, financial services and consultancy are increasingly becoming more important for developed as well as developing economies. In India, IT industry has grown at the rate of about fifty percent in domestic as well as export market for the last five years. The domestic software industry had a turn over of rupees 40 billion in 1997-98 and is expected to touch rupees 125 billion by the year 2000 AD. The software export from India in 1997-98 had exceeded US $1 billion and is expected to reach a level of US $ 4 billion by the year 2000 AD (NASSCOM,1997). This phenomenal growth of IT industry in India has been possible due to availability of highly competent and cost competitive IT professionals. These unique advantages have led to Indian IT industries becoming suppliers of software to a large number of fortune 500 companies. In turn Indian IT professionals have been getting opportunities to work on site with number of these fortune 500 companies. By working with best of the companies in different part of the world, Indian IT professionals have learnt a lot and are on par in terms of professional capabilities with IT professionals anywhere in the world. This has led to creating employment opportunities abroad for Indian IT professionals and has made the task of managing and retaining IT professionals in India very complex and demanding.