Innovativeness in Indian railways

Abstract

Indian Railways (IR) is very complex and mammoth organization with twin objectives of commercial viability and social responsibility. Innovativeness is indispensable for IR to achieve these objectives simultaneously. On the contrary, higher levels of systematisation and standardisation are equally essential for IR to handle repetitive train operations, stringent safety mandates and complex administrative structures. IR innovates despite this contradiction. Innovation receives due importance at policy level in IR as the organization recognises innovation as important pillar of management. (Indian Railway Vision 2009)Existing literature is limited to occasional references about innovations and innovativeness in IR in official reports (Railway Budget, 2008) documents (Indian Railway Vision, 2009) and some academic studies (Dash, 2005) addressing few case studies. Despite efforts of IR to promote innovations through Innovation Promotion Group, and Innovation Incubation Club, practically little empirical studies exist to understand innovativeness in IR in a rigorous academic manner. This study intends to fill this gap. It studies innovativeness in IR in a multi-dimensional approach from behavioural, process and strategic innovativeness points of view. This study adopts both survey and case study methods. The reason is to bring in both generalisation and accuracy in findings of the research. The sample space chosen comprises of three vertically hierarchical layers of Indian Railways i.e., Railway Board, Zonal Headquarter, and Divisional Unit. A division is an operational unit which monitors day to day train operations, whereas the two other layers are policy oriented. The sample size is 250, covering officials across levels of seniority, years of service and departments. A case of innovation in Indian Railways is studied in depth and results of both methods are compared. Functional unit of working influences railway officials in considering the organization as innovative. Individual proclivity to be innovative is conditioned by the encouraging culture. A factor analysis is conducted which brings out the focus on individual efforts, support from management, facilitating culture as three distinct factors within behavioural innovativeness construct. IR is inclined towards continuous changes in its processes against reactive correction to failed processes. Strategic innovativeness in Indian Railways is target and opportunity oriented in nature than process oriented and is positively correlated to overall innovativeness. The study is one of the very few empirical studies on innovativeness in Indian Railways. Its results assume importance in the back drop of Vision 2020 Document which shuns business as usual attitude by laying stress on overall innovative mindset at all levels of organization.