I heard about Udai Pareek when I joined M.A. in Psychology in the year 1966 at Osmania University Hyderabad. In my first year, I was told about Udai Pareek who was the President of Andhra Pradesh Psychological Association promoted by the Department of Psychology at Osmania University. I never met him as he already left for the USA and was teaching at the University of North Carolina. He was Director Behavioural Sciences at the Small Industry Extension Training Institute (SIET), Yousufguda, and Hyderabad. I was introduced by Dr.E. G. Parameswaran to Dr. Somnath Chattopadhyay who was deputy Director at SIET. I had the opportunity to work on a research project correlating productivity and organizational climate of small-scale industries. He used to tell me to work with Dr. Pareek if ever I get an opportunity to work with him. In my second year, one of our seniors got admitted to a Ph. D. program at North Carolina and we all gave him a big send-off. He went to work with Dr. Udai Pareek. A few weeks after he left, we got a letter from him with full praise of Dr. Pareek, who came to receive him at the airport and took good care of him as a Ph. D. student. In the next letter he wrote that he bought Dr. Pareek’s car for $500 and is Driving. This has created a new Dr.eam to study well and go to USA to work with Dr. Pareek. In my first year, I topped in Psychology and that further strengthened my resolve to go to the USA to do my Doctorate. I was applying to some Universities but was particularly aiming to go to work with Dr. Pareek. One day I got a letter from him that he could not take me fora Ph.D. as he is returning to India and he would write to some other professor to admit me. He wrote to Dr. Rensis Likert recommending my case. Of course, Dr. Likert could not help me in any way because I never applied to the University of Michigan where Dr. Likert was working and instead I applied to Michigan State University. Those were the years when I did not know that they were different Universities!
I met Dr. Pareek in 1968 for the first time at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) after his return from the USA along with Prof. Suresh Srivastava of IIMC doing a lab in ASCI. Dr. Pareek joined the National Institute of Health Administration and Education (NIHAE) in New Delhi. I was already in employment at the Andhra University, Waltair, and started the Department of Psychology and Parapsychology with Professor K. Ramakrishna Rao. Both Prof. Srivatsava and Dr. Pareek offered me research jobs at IIMC and NIHAE. The year 1968 was about halfway in Dr. Pareek’s professional life and was the beginning of my career. Since then, I have been fortunate to have been associated with Dr. Pareek for almost 42 years which constitutes my entire professional life. In these 42 years, we have co-authored or co-edited 15 books and also edited two journals (Indian Behavioural Sciences Abstracts and Indian Psychological Abstracts).
My initial Years with Dr. Pareek in Delhi:
I joined to work with Dr. Udai Pareek as Assistant Research Officer (ARO) in the ICMR Project “Motivation Training for Mental Health”. As they call it, he was the Principal Investigator and we were three AROs. The study was to analyse the classroom behaviour of teachers in primary schools and link it with the positive mental health of school children. The hypotehes is was that “Directive teachers” have a negative impact on student mental health s compared to “Non-Directive” teachers. The project was a great learning experience in developing psychometric tools to assess the mental health of pre-adolescents and observe the classroom behaviour of teachers and statistically analyse their associations. I learned a lot about test construction, observation e techniques, and feedback-giving methodologies. It was at this time I also enrolled in a Certificate program in programmed Instruction with NCERT.
It is at this time that NIHAE advertised for the post of Assistant Professor of Education & training. They needed a Master’s degree holder with a B. Ed. and three years’ experience. I completed only a year and a half and was short of the minimum qualifications prescribed. Prof. Pareek took my bio-data and Dr.ove to meet Dr. V Ramalingaswamy who was chairman of the Selection Committee and recommended me to be invited as a contact candidate. In those years there was a provision in government rules to invite anyone short of qualification as a contact candidate by overlooking the minimum experience advertised. This is a very touching move by Dr. Pareek. My NCERT qualification, mathematics background, and top ranks both in B. ED. and M. A, must have helped besides my interview performance. I was selected and was out of Dr. Pareek’s department within one year of my joining him. Isn’t that a Miracle? We were in the same Institute and different departments. My new boss was Dr. Haricharan Singh Gandhi. Dr. Pareek made me a Co-investigator of the project which enabled me to contribute and complete the project. When he left NIHAE to join the University of Udaipur a year later he wrote to ICMR and got me appointed as Principal Investigator.
We published many joint papers as a result of this project and two decades later a book “Changing Teacher behaviour through Feedback”. I enjoyed working with him so much when there was no position of equivalence to Assistant Professor of NIHAE in Udaipur University, I decided to go and work with Udai Pareek at Udaipur as a Lecturer in Psychology, a grade lower than that in NIHAE. I did not have an iota of hesitation.
The reasons why Dr. Pareek went to Udaipur leaving such an important position in NIHAE, a Ministry of Health Institute is interesting. Dr. Pareek and Dr. Prayag Mehta conducted leadership training for student activists of Udaipur University and converted them to be positive contributors to the University. Some of the students who already were Master’s Degree holders (in Physics, Sociology etc.) got interested in Psychology and influenced the University to get Dr. Pareek and Prayag Mehta to start a department of psychology. Dr. Pareek joined as Director of the School of Basic Sciences and Humanities and Prayag Mehta as HoD of Psychology and I joined himas Lecturer. Seeing the hostility of a Chemistry Professor who aspired to be Director of SBSH, Dr. Pareek managed the same by giving him a lot of financial power and other forms of importance. Dr. Pareek was not possessive of power. He believed and practiced that the power you get is by your scholarly work and personal conduct. He was brave in encountering students with mischievous behaviour and correcting them. Students and faculty used to respect him for his openness, principled behaviour, and conduct. He was known in the industry and had a lot of projects. He got projects at the University also. It was only after working for three years Dr. Pareek did not feel comfortable continuing with the new Vice-chancellor. I still remember the night when after a series of encounters with Dr. Pareek, he called up Ravi Matthai and asked him if he is now willing to take up the offer made to him to join IIMA a few years back. I think Ravi relinquished his Directorship by that time and suggested Udai discuss it with Prof. Paul. That is how Udai shifted to IIMA at the end of 1972. A year later I joined IIMA.
Work at IIMA (1973-85)
Our story at IIMA and in subsequent years is well known. Both of us were involved along with Ravi Matthai in Education systems group work. It was during this period we conducted many programs together. Some of the activities we were involved in included:
1. Restructuring and managing organizational health and decision-making at Gujarat Agricultural University (along with Ravi Matthai)
2. Self-renewal programs at Lawrence school Sanawar (along with Ravi Matthai)
3. Educational Innovations in Rajasthan (Jawaja project) (along with Ravi Matthai)
4. Managing Change in educational institutions (along with Ravi Matthai)
5. Designing and Starting of Human Resources Development Function at Larsen & Toubro
6. Starting a course of Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation
7. Writing books on the status study of population research, Handbook of Social and Psychological Instruments, Performance appraisal manuals, designing HR systems, etc.
8. Conducting Motivation Training Laboratories.
9. Participation in ISABS programs
10. Introducing HRD in BEML, State Bank of India, Crompton Greaves, etc.
11. Teaching Personal Interpersonal Dynamics to IIMA Postgraduate students
12. Participation in various programs of other colleagues at IIMA
Dr. Pareek was L&T Professor of Organizational Behaviour and retired in 1985. A couple of years prior to his retirement he went on leave to work with Rolf Lynton in Indonesia to develop local talent in Health training and Development project.
Post 1985-2010
For the next 25 years after his retirement from IIMA Dr. Pareek was invited to be a distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR), Jaipur. During this period besides contributing to IIHMR, Dr. Pareek spent most of his life writing, guiding, and advising scholars, executives, and CEOs. Institution builders and others. He was the third President of the National HRD Network from 1991 to 1993 but was actively involved in guiding and building it until he died in 2010. He was instrumental in christening the NHRDN Centre for Education and Researc has the Academy of HRD along with M R R Nair, the second President of NHRDN, Fr. E. Abraham (Director XLRI), Rakesh Kumar, Prof. Keith D’Souza and T V Rao. He was also its Chairman and actively supported it till his last days. He was an author, researcher, scholar, and above all a great teacher. Like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and Abdul Kalam, he was simple living, hardworking, and high-thinking. He is highly integrative in his thinking and does not like to see people by their caste, language, place of origin, community, etc. He is a great human being, a self-proclaimed atheist but a practicing fully evolved human being of high spiritual heights and greatness. He is vegetarian in food habits but felt quite comfortable with non-vegetarians. In his OD work with Roman Catholic missionary sisters, he used to first mention his atheist beliefs and suggest them re-think if he should be used at all. Some sisters remarked once to Professor Pareek, “We are not inviting you to teach any religion to us. We are excellent at that and we want you to teach us and help us strengthen our human systems and processes.” Dr. Pareek and his wife Rama Pareek (who is highly religious) would feel comfortable working and living with those sisters. Both were great human beings.
My experiences narrated above may give you enough indications of what a great human being means.
Dr. Pareek had written his book “Beyond Management” in 1981. He revised it in 1984 and again in 2002 and re-titled it as “Effective Organizations”. He dedicated the first volume to Ravi J Matthai, the second one to T V Rao, and the third to Rolf and Ronnie Lynton a unique couple engaged in institution building across cultures. It is not unusual for Dr. Pareek to dedicate his books to his students. He dedicated one of his books to his disciples -Dr. Mahin, Dr. A Singhvi and Dr. Naren, Dr. A Dixit. This is something to emulate and speaks of the person.
For most of you who do not know Dr. Pareek, he earned his B.A. from St. John’s College, Agra (Agra University), 1944, B.T. Teachers’ Training College, Ajmer (Agra University), 1945; M.A. (Psychology), Calcutta University, 1950; M.A. (Philosophy), Agra University, 1952 and Ph.D. (Psychology), University of Delhi, 1956. He also did his diploma certificate in Research Methods from Italy. As his biography would indicate Dr. Pareek widely travelled and experienced living in most countries representing the modern world ranging from the USA to Europe to Asian and South Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. His students are spread across continents of the world; Australia and Africa to name a few. He admired all cultures and people from different countries and for the same reason, he had very close friends in all parts of the world.
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