The Hindu Business Line : India Inc yet to set to cross-culture tunes

Understanding local cultures is an essential part of good business practice. It helps avoid tribulations and adds value. In today's times, it is imperative to go intercultural, to ensure value, profits and thus survival.

- International marketing consultant Roland Dunn.

India Inc has shaped up right. In recent times, India has seen an influx of multinational companies, and with them a new asset — the expatriate manager.

The expatriate is a global manager who is at ease in any part of the world and can replicate success for the parent company in diverse societies. But has India Inc welcomed the expat manager with open arms?

International marketing consultant, Roland Dunne, argues that companies doing business in Australia, or any other country for that matter, should undertake an intercultural audit.

Intercultural audit

Says Mr Dunne: "We all know Australia, right? Where else in the world would you read this notice in the company lobby: `You may notice that the person you have come to see is dressed casually. We like to respect the way our employees prefer to dress. But be assured, although they may look casual, they mean business'.''

But India Inc, despite all its global flavour, still retains the basic British Stiff Upper Lip and defines formal wear in stark contrast to Australians. Casuals in offices are frowned upon.

This is not to say that Indians would not like to work with foreigners. In fact, India Inc acclimatising itself well to work with companies from diverse cultures. Employees are increasingly being given specialised training on cross-cultural interactions. Financial whizzes would argue that the benefits of an inter-cultural approach go a long way in reducing risk and thus result in value enhancement for the company's business.

Becoming an inter-culturally mature company involves an awareness of where your business is coming from, their inherent cultural facets and balancing them with Indian ethos.

`Informality is not laxity'

According to Mr Dunne, "It is very easy to see and treat Australian culture as lax. But assuming that informality is the same as laxity could bring big trouble. Informality is not laxity.

As Martin Sims, a Sydney-based intercultural consultant, puts it: `I read laxity as laziness. Informality is different in the Aussie context. Informality means using first names, sometimes calling people `Mate', feet on chair, not sitting up straight, generally behaving at work as more formal cultures might expect people to behave at a barbecue.' But reading only the tip of the iceberg could result in the same errors as a superficial reading of a report: misreading, simplification and miscasting."

Understanding different cultures

Companies operating in the global market are quickly discovering that business success depends heavily on expatriate managers' knowledge and familiarity with the cultures in which they do business. Culture clashes have a momentous influence on an expatriate's assignment, and understanding the host country's culture is a significant piece of the puzzle.

Since expatriate failure can be costly, it is to a company's advantage to provide cross-cultural training to employees working on overseas assignments. In recent years, researchers have attempted to isolate the criteria that most contributes to the success of expatriate assignments.

Three areas have been identified: Assignee's ability, knowledge and personality. While ability and knowledge can be "trained," personality is an innate trait and, therefore, more difficult to influence.

Cross-culture training

In 1990, cultural experts J. Stewart Black and Mark E. Mendenhall conducted a comprehensive review of previous studies that specifically looked at the effectiveness of cross-cultural training in influencing an individual's personality.

Black and Mendenhall's review showed overwhelming evidence that cultural training fosters the development of cross-cultural skills and leads to improved performance. Cultural training has also been shown to improve an individual's relationships with host nationals and allows expatriates to adjust more rapidly to a new culture.

(The author is an expatriate advisor based in New Delhi. He is also an expert on cross-cultural management. He can be contacted at rohit@ikan.com)