The Hindu Business Line : Connect with culture

Companies are beginning to realise that cross cultural training isn't just about the language or about how to use a fork and knife at mealtime," says Sreemathi Raman, Founder and Principal Consultant, Immer Besser Cross-cultural Consultancy Services. Sreemathi, who markets and handles `Argonaut', an online cross-cultural training tool, spoke to eWorld about the software, and the expanding market for the product in Indian IT companies.

Argonaut, a cultural learning system that aims to enable international teams to work efficiently together, was conceptualised by Coghill and Beery International, UK. The technology is provided by Transdemica, Finland, and Immer Besser will be promoting it in India and providing the expertise.

According to Sreemathi, Argonaut has a market in India for two reasons. First, as mentioned earlier, IT companies are waking up to the fact that employees need to communicate effectively with foreign counterparts and clients. Second, the same companies simply cannot afford a full-fledged training course - time is money, after all.

Sreemathi, who has done several cross-cultural training workshops for IT companies - she has done 80 workshops for SAP alone - was once given the figures of the notional cost to the company as a result of the time that the employees spent at her workshops. "It was about 10 times what I was charging," she says.

Argonaut circumvents this problem simply by being online, and therefore accessible at any point of time.

A user can take the entire course - choosing the relevant culture from the base of 54 cultures - and finish it in about 15 hours flat. "Naturally nobody would do it over that period - I would assume that it would take about a month with breaks," she says.

Immer Besser is currently in talks with TCS and is anticipating an order from them in the near future.

The software works in this way - you click on the country you wish to learn the culture of, and you are provided with facts. Then, it gives you a questionnaire that aims to find out your impressions about that country, and it provides you parameters to compare yourself with.

The lessons from that point on include a simulated negotiation, where you choose your partner, you are given an `issue' and you start dealing with it.

The software then prompts you on whether you are on the right track with a `trust meter', which measures whether you are breaking or building trust. The exercise is based upon axioms set by recognised cross-cultural scientists.

"Argonaut software has isolated five different factors such as the `power distance' factor, upon which the exercises are based," says Sreemathi. Expanding on this, she explains that power-distance refers to the relative standing of an employee with his boss in different cultures. In Sweden, for example, power distance is about seven compared to India's 95, she says.

This would imply that a Swedish employee coming to India for the first time might be considered rude towards his or her employer, whereas the reverse situation might find the Swedish employer put in a distinctly uncomfortable position if he or she finds the new Indian employee giving a lot more respect than is `normal'.

In addition, the software also allows the user to perform a corporate culture audit, interdepartmental audit — it has feedback options, tutorials, articles, and discussions. As a result, it aims at enhancing relations overall, and not just cross-cultural efficiency.

abhinav@thehindu.co.in

Illustration: P.Manivannan

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