Human Murmuration (large flocks of starlings that fly in a whirling, ever-changing pattern) allows for the intricate dance of individuality and community. Much like thousands of starlings come together in a flock to create stunning and synchronised patterns, individuals, too, seek a sense of belonging within their clans or communities. This yearning for connection taps into the very essence of human psychology, where the need for belongingness is a fundamental and deeply ingrained drive.
Yet, the allure of individuality and personal agency is equally potent. It’s akin to a single bird within the murmuration, not breaking away but gracefully soaring while contributing to the collective’s beauty. Individuals yearn for the freedom to express their unique views, strengths and desires while remaining integral to the collective whole. This desire for autonomy and self-expression is deeply rooted in our psychology.
I am when we are and we are when I am
In seeking autonomy, the actor engages with his impulsivity and the possibility of being a loose cannon. ‘Freedom is seen as licentiousness’ and ‘Responsibility ends up getting equated with burden, compulsivity and lack of choice’, says Ashok Malhotra. He swings back and forth from a world of belonging and protection to a world of individual strengths and desires. The actor has a desire for personal agency, a wish to break away from the restraints of a clan, experienced as smothering and engulfing. At the workplace, he swings from a disciplined and restrained leader to excessively loud and erratic behaviour, especially when under stress or in the safety of anonymity. As civilised societies force more conformity, the marginalised leader becomes more of a loose cannon. Hogan has an elaborate list of ‘derailers’ that operate when a leader is bored or under stress, and these start to operate to dysfunctional effect. Nakamura reported Indians engage in fantasising, which is ‘free, boundless, and extravagant, and often goes to extreme’. His distrust of authority is often because of inconsistent rewards and punishment in childhood, and suppressed emotions give way to uncontrolled temper tantrums and contradictory behaviours.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, writing in his book Flow, argues ‘an internal symbolic system can become a salvation’ whenever the external environment ‘offers no mercy’, and where such systems do not exist, one can be ‘easily manipulated by demagogues, pacified by entertainers, and exploited by anyone who has something to sell’. We need to exercise one’s power to decide ‘if the order will be restored from the outside (over which we have no control) or whether the order will emerge from an internal pattern that grows organically within.’
The Arena and the Clan culture are the opposite polarities – the first seeks to be distinctive (apart), and the other to be part of. An ongoing tussle exists between the ‘entrepreneurial’ leader and the tribe chief. In this ever-present fostered communal environment, there is a desire to display one’s strengths and desires – an Arena, a showcase for individual actors wishing to flex their muscles, whet their curiosity and seek adventure. From dependency on the group, the other counterpoint is replaced by a counter-dependent, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me” stance.
We can look at organisations as well. When an organisation has a subdued arena, it inhibits self-desires and self-belief, and when over-engaged, others are viewed as ‘invaders’ and considered adversarial. Even to allies, the leader is functional as long as he continues to play the game and it serves their interest. Thus, he is in a double bind. and with ongoing pain, betrayal, and exploitation from others, he regresses to clannishness and parochial belonging with the danger of fixation.
Organisational cultures in India are a mix of clan and arena. In a Clan, Leaders have a strong identification with the organisation, and a need for safety and security drives Individuals. Even today, despite increased opportunity, job security continues to be an anxiety for most employees. There is a high degree of comfort with the familiar and known, a preference to operate within defined patterns and precedents. Dominant in the psyche is conformity to tradition. Diversity may feel like a threat. The culture looks to preserve tradition, heritage, and seniority and support continuity and anchorage. Most Indian organisations recognise the ‘not invented here syndrome’.
It will wish to foster familiarity, harmony, and predictability. This does have the benefit of a close-knit family-like culture, but it inhibits taking risks for progress, working towards change, and developing meritocratic leadership orientation. When over-engaged, it may create a fear of the unknown, mistrust of the out-group, and, when subdued, a feeling of rootlessness and not having a home. Leaders see themselves in the role of mentors and others as proteges to mentor and shape. She is comfortable with close personal relationships and values sincerity.
The search is for a ‘perfect’ idealised system. In this world, there is constant tension – on the one hand, the organisation is a safe ‘haven’; on the other, a ‘prison’. Schwartz’s model of competing values suggests pursuing this idealised approach to “balance” between “self-enhancement and self-transcendence”. Yet, on the one hand, there is comfort, and on the other, restlessness. Our tradition parses the issue with the iterative use of Kushal / Akushal as a compass to navigate and recalibrate the contexts of existential, emotive cognitive and phenomenological choices for seeking balancing and elusive coherence. Deep within, the rumbling of ‘I belong, I do not belong’ plays out in a drama, alongside the other drama of ‘I matter, I do not matter’. Caught in this oscillation, one is trapped in either a captive, rebel, orphan or wanderer mode. In many ways, this dynamic of tension and balance and how we work with it defines our humanity in a universe predicated on the twin constants of the very nature of multiplicity and simultaneity of the elements of this tension in everyday life.
(Steve Correa is an Executive Coach and Author of The Indian Boss at Work, Thinking Global, Acting Indian Satish Pradhan is an independent consultant. He retired as Chief of Group Human Resources at Tata Sons)
