Organizations must make effective use of their resources in order to succeed in today's global marketplace. To get the most out of their human resources, organizations empower employees to allow them to work to their highest potential. In doing so, firms are attempting to make employees aware that there is a link between their efforts and subsequent performance. In other words, employers are making employees responsible for their behaviour and then rewarding those who show signs of the most appropriate behaviour; however, these strategies will not work with all employees. One specific reason, empowerment may not work, is because some individuals exhibit learned helplessness behaviours. Due to such negative impact of learned helplessness attributions on performance in organizations, it is important to understand how people develop learned helplessness attributions and what role organizational culture plays towards developing or helping to cope up with such negative way of thinking which essentially impairs the performance of individuals. Learned helplessness as a deed per se is highly influenced by the philosophical foundations, value systems, and ethos of the organization and therefore the basic premise of the study is that the organizational culture is one of the fundamental causes of creating learned helplessness attributions. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explore the relationship among different dimensions of organizational culture and learned helplessness attributions for R&D professionals of pharmaceutical industry of India. Different strategies to manage R&D professionals have been suggested based on the results. The study revealed that: the organizational culture variables were negatively related to the learned helplessness attributions the role of organizational culture was significant in order to create or remove learned helplessness the attributions played an important role in causing depression and vulnerability situations that eventually results in learned helplessness all learned helplessness attributions were quite closely related and created a well-defined dimension for representing LH attributions the outcome dimension of learned helplessness was fairly well predicted by the set of organizational culture profile variables when acting as a set learned helplessness was brought on by a handful of uncontrollable, stress-creating factors including time and performance pressures, lack of free time, the competitive and demanding nature of research projects, and lack of opportunity to socialize or engage in recreation.

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The establishment of a public sector enterprise in India is based on socialist philosophy, and socialist philosophy believes in the role of government as an agent for change and entrepreneurial function. A more practical definition of public enterprise is given by Friedmann, (1954) a well‐known jurist. He termed public enterprise as an institution operating a service of an economic or social character on behalf of the government but as an independent legal entity, largely autonomous in its management, though responsible to the public through government and parliament and subject to some direction by the government, equipped on the other hand with independent and separate fund of its own and the legal and commercial attributes of a commercial enterprise.

PurposeWith rapid industrialization and population growth in the urban and rural areas in India, the demand for public transport has risen sharply. In the fast changing scenario in the public transit sector, the role of a bus depot manager (DM) has also undergone substantial transformation. This paper aims to identify and gauge the organizational and individual training needs of DMs, necessary to design and delivery of effective training.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data were collected by visiting three bus depots, nine in‐depth interviews with the top management team, 15 in‐depth interviews with DMs, performance data of 15 DMs and a survey of 114 DMs, using open ended questions. After primary analysis a ranking order instrument was designed and administered to 114 DMs.FindingsThe results explored current and future training requirements for the role of bus DMs based on their preference and priority. Seven differentiating competencies and ten priority training areas were identified using “priority index”. Further suggestions have been made for enhancing training effectiveness.Practical implicationsThe paper provides practical insights into how to conduct training needs analysis for bus DMs using differentiating competencies and priority index. Training managers may use such tools to identify training gaps in different roles while designing effective training strategies. It provides insights into the role of bus DMs, current and future role requirements, seven differentiating competencies and training gaps in the role of a DM.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are presented based on one single role in one organization only, i.e. DMs of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC). Replication studies should examine different roles across different functions.Originality/valueThis paper investigates how to identify training needs for depot managers using differentiating competencies and priority index. It provides inferences on how to align business objectives, individual performance and training needs. The tools used are ready‐to‐use and replicable for different roles in medium and large MNCs.

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