he theoretical roots for the study of human resource management (HRM) in organisations have existed in the Western contexts for over a century when seminal ideas
of influential management thinkers such as Taylor, Drucker and McGregor were in
prevalence. Earlier conceptualisations of work and employment adopted a different
(pluralist) emphases and focused on terms such as labour welfare, labour relations,
personnel management and industrial relations to name a few. One could argue, this
view reflected contemporary developments in the field of HRM, albeit with different ideological and philosophical focus that have been in operation for several centuries. For example, in India, work practices were influenced by the ancient ideas of
Chanakya (also referred to as Kautilya), whose pioneering work on Arthashastra
was regarded as a treatise in the field of economics, politics, military strategy and
governance. This seminal work had also developed ideas of organisation and administration in the fourth century BC. Indeed, one only needs to turn back and look at
the practices of one of the world’s oldest multinational corporation–the erstwhile
East India Company, which was founded in the early 1600 in India by the British to
pursue trade with the East Indies. Even though it ended up trading, in the main, in
the Indian subcontinent, its operations spanned across several borders.