Prof. Vandana Sharma-Passion for research that keeps me motivated

Dr. Vandana is an assistant professor (Management), Banasthali Vidyapith India. Her doctoral research focused on Determinants and Strategies of Employee Retention in IT Industry in India. Her area specialization is Human Resource Management and Economics. She has proposed BMER (Bhartiya Model of Employee Retention), and presented and her work at various national and international forums and published in various national and international journals.

She holds the key interest in Indian Ethos, Diversity Inclusion, Technological changes, and HRM.

Inkpothub: How did you feel after getting the best paper award?

Prof. Vandana Sharma: Receiving the award is a great feeling and motivation to contribute to academics and research. This makes you feel that hard work and patience with determination bring the desired results. Winning an award in research is also an inspiration and motivation for students and researchers that they can perform better and give their contribution to society through research.

Inkpothub: What’s are your research interests?

Prof. Vandana Sharma: I have worked on Employee Retention, Implication of Bhartiya Wisdom in HRM, Employee Engagement as well I am moving ahead to working on research in Indian Ethos, Diversity Inclusion, Technological changes on HRM.

Inkpothub: What is VUCA World? Explain about it in the research context.  

Prof. Vandana Sharma: VUCA term originally originated from U.S. Military Academy (Whiteman,1998) which means Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. The world is getting volatile, uncertain, complexed and ambiguous with the advent of globalization, rapidly changing technology and increasing generational gap.

This is a challenge and need of the hour to identify the strategies to work in the VUCA  scenario. Banasthali Vidyapith the largest fully residential women university in the world has presented a new term conceptualized by Prof. Harsh Purohit (2018) instead of VUCA its VUCA-NW that adds natureapathy and wisdom lessness to the concept of VUCA is coined with learning from lessons by Bhagwan Krishna.

Inkpothub:  What is the implication of your latest work ‘on leadership competencies of the Z generation in a VUCA world.’?

Prof. Vandana Sharma: The main objective of the study was to Examine the essential workplace skills required in an organization. Investigate the indicators or the latent variables of Leadership competencies: Leading the Organization; Leading the Self; Leading others; Global Leadership Competencies on VUCA essential skills and Draw implications to the Z Generation and corporate managers for the strategic development of leadership competencies for sustained organizational growth. The findings of the study provide supportive evidence to research studies and reports of Core and Global leadership competencies of the Indian Z Generation in a VUCA world. The study reveals that Leadership competencies of Z generation are limited to the workplace and there is a need to develop new leadership competencies of Z generation in Leading themselves and leading others in VUCA scenario.

Inkpothub: Please share about your work on ‘Factors Prompting Employees to Seek an Alternative Employment with special Reference to Gender Diversity in Indian IT Industry’.

Prof. Vandana Sharma: Rapid growth in the Indian IT industry with new innovations and new markets increased the demand and competition for skilled and talented employees. This rose the question what are the factors which prompt employees to seek alternative employment simultaneously with the increase in the participation of female workforce especially in IT sector in India it is a need of the hour to find out the difference between male and female employees’ perception regarding these factors.

While exploring the preference of female and male employees, the study highlights that females in India also prefer their careers along with their family responsibility. The most preferred factor is career development opportunities followed by the type of work while compensation ranked third followed by company culture and family circumstances. The present study could be helpful for building retention strategies for the diversified workforce (gender). By placing emphasis on factors affecting employee retention, (Type of Work, Compensation, Lack of Recognition, Company Culture, Quality of Supervision, Work condition, Family Circumstances, Career advancement Opportunities, Overseas Assignments) considered important by male and female, the retention practices in IT organization can increase the level of employee retention and employee turnover cost can be decreased.

Inkpothub: What is Bhartiya Wisdom? What is your research in this broad area?

Prof. Vandana Sharma: The ancient Bhartiya wisdom enshrined a variety of texts and scriptures spanning the Vedantic tradition that provides the most integrated and comprehensive psycho-spiritual world. “Indian has developed an encompassing cognitive system (Dumont, 1970), an enfolding mode (Schulberg, 1968), or a holographic world view (Singh, 1990). There exist Indian literature rich in principles and methods related to human resource management but long remained ignored by the researchers. Ancient Bhartiya wisdom has, become a basis for developing new ideas and theories in the field of human resource management. Indian Vedic literature and philosophy are very vast and full of discussion on the different aspects of self-management, stress management, transformational leadership, motivation, and many other aspects which are now an essential part of HRM discussion. Our Vedic HRM practices are synonymous with total personality development: physical, mental, spiritual and ethical. My research in this area explores Managerial Insights from Bhartiya Wisdom on Employee Retention as well as study proposed BMER ( Bhartiya Model of Employee Retention) Ancient Bhartiya management Wisdom suggests various employee retention strategies from various dimensions like organizational harmony, compensation, reward, appreciation, work environment, leadership behavior, motivation, communication, and employee relations. These strategies, as well as the BMER model, may have significant contributions to retain employees. My another research on Stress Management Stress Management Strategies: Insights From Bhartiya Wisdom was one of the was  listed on SSRN’s Top Ten download list for: CSN: Ethics, Morality, Religion, Spirituality, Transcendence (Topic), CSN: Spirituality (Sub-Topic), Cognition & Culture: Culture, Communication, Design, Ethics, Morality, Religion, Rhetoric, & Semiotics eJournal, Conflict & Dispute Resolution eJournal, Human Resource Management & Organizational Behavior eJournal, Individual Issues & Organizational Behavior eJournal, MRN Negotiations & Dispute Resolution Network, Motivation, Influence & Organizational Behavior eJournal, NEG Subject Matter eJournals, ORG: Behavior Modification (Topic), ORG: Employee Training & Development Programs (Topic), ORG: Values, Attitude, & Perception (Topic) and PRN: Social Norms & Institutions, Collective Action, Rational Choice (Topic).

Inkpothub: Writing research papers is an alone task. It is time-consuming. What keeps you motivated?

Prof. Vandana Sharma: It’s my passion for research that keeps me motivated. My curiosity and eagerness to learn, Willingness to contribute for society through my work and my strong belief in Bhagwad Geeta, Blessing, and Support of my research Supervisors, my parents,  brother, family, and friends who provide me strong support system and keeps me motivated to work harder and helps me to keep myself enthusiastic and energetic and things happens effortlessly.