Navigating Cultural Differences

Wolfgang Messner

Chapter 7 in Intelligent IT Offshoring to India, 2010, pp 160-168 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In every cross-cultural collaboration there is scope and potential for misunderstanding. Some surveys go as far as to show that cultural differ-ences are the biggest challenge in offshoring. While I would not fully agree with this point of view — since many other aspects highlighted earlier in this book have an important effect on the functioning of an offshore relationship as well — culture is certainly the most underes-timated, neglected and often wrongly interpreted hurdle. The super-ficially similar aspects of culture (like English as a common business language, Western office dress or world-class business parks in India) may lull you into complacency, making you believe that you can easily navigate other differences. However, attitudes, work ethos and values of Indians are at first glance invisible to you, just as your attitudes, work ethos and values are initially hidden from your Indian colleagues. My simple advice is to not underestimate the differentness; it not only impacts the working and collaboration style, but brings with it serious business implications. When dealing with India, you need to expect similarities and differences, but you need to accept and respect the country’s diversity.

Keywords: Caste System; Extreme Party; Indian Counterpart; Business Implication; Indian Meeting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-29126-3_7

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230291263

DOI: 10.1057/9780230291263_7

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().