Organizational Schizophrenia embodies an interesting discourse on the widening gap between intent and execution, promise and performance, in organizations with reference to customer service quality. It appears to be an attempt to explore the reasons why operating practices in a company tend to drift away from the declared policy, particularly with reference to customer
care, and to investigate the phenomenon of ‘cultural schizophrenia’ even in well-meaning companies. Recent years have witnessed a diverse and wide ranging set of publications pertaining to customer service. The book under review appears to fill a conspicuous gap in the existing body of knowledge.
The book consists of 18 chapters divided over four parts with a stimulating Foreword by R. Gopalakrishnan. Part I, titled “The Promise”, is predominantly descriptive, dealing with the mission and vision statements, and the internal and external communications, of respondent companies. It purports to examine organizational policies and “promises”. Part II, “The Performance”, attempts to capture the actual practices in organizations. It is partly autobiographical, illustrating, to a great extent, the real-life interactions and experiences of the author. Part III, “The Cultural Schizophrenia”, outlines the reported outcome of the author’s empirical research, leading to the formulation of the construct “organizational schizophrenia”—a term that the author appears to have coined to describe issues related to policy-practice gaps. Part IV, “Back to Basics”, underscores the essence and magic of living the core values as enunciated in the ‘promise’ of organizational policy. Overall, the book has touched upon various aspects related to the promises and the actual performance of organizations, and the cultural schizophrenia that appears to fracture the two.
The distinctive aspect of Organizational Schizophrenia is its focus on the gaps and organizational dynamics within a company. The voices of various employees in different functions at several levels of the organizational hierarchy are also neatly captured, which is an appreciable effort. However, what is offered in the process is a rather cumbersome journey, from a reader’s
perspective, because the transitions in the discussions on organizational policy, practice, and the gaps therein, are not well-mapped. Also, the reader cannot help but wonder about the relevance and appropriateness of the “Afterthought”.
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The book is supposedly an outcome of an empirical research study. However, the reader has to struggle to identify the details of the methodology followed, as they are not systematically documented. Organizational Schizophrenia is also rather ambiguous on how the qualitative analysis and related aspects have been carried out. Furthermore, it is not clear as to what thematic matrix has emerged out of the qualitative empirical research. Mixed methods (qualitative plus quantitative) research is the contemporary approach to understanding the paradigm that the book deals with, and is likely to offer robust scientific findings. It is therefore surprising that there is no mention as to why such an approach has not been contemplated by the author. In the light of this, Gureja’s fuzzy methodology might seem dubious to academicians, behavioural scientists, and serious management thinkers. At first glance, the main title Organizational Schizophrenia arrests the attention of the reader. But on reading the book, one gets the impression that this title has been chosen for impact value. Moreover, the terms
“organizational schizophrenia” and “cultural schizophrenia” appear to have been used synonymously. An effort to operationally define “organizational schizophrenia” would have been useful, especially since the author claims to have carried out an empirical study. Perhaps, Organizational Neuroses would have been a more apt title as the phenomenon described in the book has similarities with the concept of neurosis. The key theme enunciated by Gureja is that the eternal conflict between ‘maximizing customer’s satisfaction’ and ‘maximizing shareholder’s value’ leads to organizational schizophrenia. It appears that he has drawn inspiration from Jim Collins’s Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t (2001). Gureja advocates a culture of disciplined thought and action across the organization to fill the gap between promise and performance—a solution which has already been suggested by Collins. On the one hand, India has witnessed tremendous growth in the services sector. On the other hand, it has been documented that the distance between the service provider and the customer is steadily widening. In this context, Organizational Schizophrenia is timely, the first of its kind publication in India, and should serve as an eye-opener to executives across the company—right from the front-line customer contact personnel to the top management. In a rare exercise, Gureja has experimented with blending the perspectives of the theoretician and the practitioner, which adds value to the work. Organizations in the country will certainly benefit from the author’s experience, which the book attempts to capture. All those who believe that
the ‘customer is king’ may want to read this title.
By K. N. Viswanatham, Professor, Human Resources area, Centre for Management
Studies, Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad (e-mail:
viswanath@asci.org.in).
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