IndiaThink

What is: Collectivism?

Indians live in a collectivist society where individuals set aside personal goals for the good of the whole.  Identities are born and cultivated through family lineage and caste membership resulting in an identified in-group rather than striving for a personal identity. India’s people to not strive for independence from their in-group seeking individual rights” and desires over the group. Instead, respecting elders and taking on tasks to insure the happiness of the in-group, which includes workplace teams, are top duties. This is challenging to an American mind because our society is the most individualist in the world..or the opposite of collectivist.

Indian collectivist preferences coupled with in-country hierarchical structures and a fatalistic belief system result in an employee who appears to be the bi-polar opposite of the typical American worker. Employees tend to be satisfied with their current position within their team. They may avoid working at a faster pace or at a higher level than their perceived in-group to avoid individual attention. Exerting effort to achieve the goals of the in-group, is seen as a top priority. Enhancing these preferences is the overwhelmingly valued seniority system. Workers in the tech community may ignore the seniority system entirely, instead opting to seek out the same position at a different company for higher pay.

American awareness of these cultural aspects decreases surprise over the lifetime of a project. Accounting for these differences is requires creativity:

• Assigning tasks to the team instead of individuals is a perfect strategy for a group so willing to work together. By tracking the status of each project milestone as a group, they will share successes and failures. This is highly prevalent inside the call centers in India, where teams work together to meet a goal and are rewarded as a team with a team activity. 

• Avoid expecting teams to have a few overachievers, or those looking to take on additional responsibility. Instead, focusing on the group as a whole will be more effective.

• Market training as required by the employees’ position instead as a career stepping stone.  Americans must remember that training often appears as a stepping-stone in the US to a larger position. This branding may cause a low attendance rate through erroneous perceptions by the team.

• Realize teams that have strong underlying cohesion may produce a product with greater efficiency through their thorough understanding of the strengths and weaknesses existing inside.

Educating Americans on Indian Culture

Hurray!

“After years of hardselling India and educating themselves about the cultural mores of foreign clients, the country’s IT and BPO companies have begun to sensitise these customers about business etiquette, behavioural patterns and cultural sensitivities of Indians.”

This is something I have not yet talked about here: “One issue that often crops up is that of personal space, and ways to deal with personal enquiries." Personal space in India is a foreign concept; forgive the pun. In line at a ticket counter at the airport I was suddenly accosted by three--that would be THREE men who jumped in front of me in line. Thing is--they didn't think I was in line. The space I had allocated between myself and the person in front of me was so "large" in their minds that they assumed I was just standing there.

Time orientation is also mentioned in this article. The author explains “Clients are at times asked to confirm a meeting, even after it is fixed.” Great tip—cause the chances of it changing, happening on another day, or just plain being off the radar of the Indian group are very high. Time is not “wasted” in India as it is in the US. Instead, it is an ever-flowing phenomenon. Triple checking schedules and getting names attached to times are mission critical when doing business in country. I learned the hard way; after being left at my hotel, when no car arrived to escort me, by one BPO whose contact had completely forgotten that I was to train over 500 employees that evening.

“Companies are even known to tell customers that Indians are generally too polite to say an outright no, and hence body language can be read to gauge a negative attitude.” Great tip, but the author, who is Indian himself forgets to remind us that the body language for “yes” in India looks a LOT like NO in the US. Yes is a motion of shaking the head left and right with a slight twist around. When I talk to folks about this I like to ask them to try this move. Try to say Yes and shake your head NO. Its hard, a strong message to you that this physical action has formed a steel chain link in your brain to Yes/No.

How To: VideoConference

Talk, talk, talk. We talk too much. American’s love the limelight (floor control) and we are disquieted by silence.

The individual speaking in a group setting owns what is known as “floor control.” What most of us don’t know is that floor control preferences are cultural and happen quite naturally. Aspects of floor control become important to achieve a successful interaction with an Indian audience when communicating through a videoconference.

Americans, operating under low power distance, will spontaneously take the floor without formal cues. We then complain when no response from India is received. Indians experience high organizational power distance, making it likely that a team will wait for their leader to speak for them, or they will seek out a formal cue to speak. Both of these processes involve non-verbal cues, which are absent if everyone is on the phone or using a video system that does not enable sight of the entire group. In their absence, lengthy spaces of silence may be prevalent. We would do ourselves a favor by following my S.O.’s advice to me when I interrupt him mid-stream: “Wait for it”.

Americans can attempt to facilitate balanced conversation by offering up open-ended questions and waiting patiently for a response. Researchers Dustdar and Hofstede go so far as to recommend the use of a timer to temper the length of discussion on both sides in a work published in 1999. This added formality encourages increased Indian participation and reduces overzealous Americans.