• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

FOR help in `managing the interface of cultures' here is Jai B. P. Sinha's Multinationals in India, from Sage (www.indiasage.com). Culture is tough to define; yet a few generalisations may come in handy. For instance, Scandinavian culture lays "a strong emphasis on pragmatism that is manifested in action and outcome orientation," explains the author, citing the research works of others. Human considerations carry greater weight than sheer intellectualism and strict efficiency requirements.

An interesting example is of Ikea, "the world's largest home furnishing company" with 96 outlets in 24 countries, selling 11,500 products. "Its products are simple, durable, straightforward, easy to live with, and `young at heart'. All outlets have the same blue and yellow colours as in the Swedish flag," describes the book. "All managers spend a week working in stores serving customers, working in the restaurant, and so on... The policy is to hire young people from any culture so long as they subscribe to Ikea's values and are not yet corrupted by other companies' cultures."

Yet, when Sinha writes about Swedish Home Care International in India's operations here, he reports that it came as a shock to Indian managers whenever a Swedish expatriate questioned an Indian employee about why he had to take leave when his child was sick, a family member was hospitalised for surgery, and so on. Indian managers complained that the expats did not appreciate that Indians had to cope with many exigencies that had to be met during working hours.

Kaizen, we know, is the Japanese concept of continuous improvement. In contrast, Korea has the concept of koenchanayo or `that's good enough'. The Japanese can often "trace their product faults back to their design phase" and so need a very small area for rework. Korean approach, in general, is to "go for it first and fix it later", so quick actions are preferred to detailed planning.

Indian culture, despite being influenced by liberal thoughts, continues to carry relic values such as the seniors relishing expressions of respect. "Despite flexitime, some bosses expect their subordinates to adjust their schedules according to the bosses' schedule so that the latter could get whatever assistance they needed," writes Sinha. Habits die hard.

In a different chapter, where the author discusses the Hilton Roulunds case, there is an interesting comparison between Indian and Danish styles of operation:

"Once Indian managers' mundane needs are fulfilled, they do not want to exert further. They become indifferent to their responsibilities and arrogant to their subordinates. Their time management is extremely poor... Indians tend to have more time to enjoy or just chat."

What about the Danish managers? They prepare well for a meeting, follow the pre-set agenda, and do not take unnecessary time to finish the agenda, explains Debabrata Haldar, as cited in the book. Thus, Danish can "accomplish in half an hour what their Indian counterparts may not finish in half a day."

The chapter on VM, an Indo-Japanese JV, recounts an insight: "Give a difficult task to an Indian and a Japanese. The Indian will start working on it within five minutes, but is likely to run into problems because he did not understand it properly. The Japanese, on the other hand, might take 40 minutes to understand, but then he will complete the work perfectly... At times, they sit silently for a while thinking about a problem and then take a decision. But once a decision is taken, implementation is very quick and efficient."

Unfortunately, Indians have the reputation of promising what they cannot deliver "because they are not serious or not quite aware of the barrier that they might run into,' and to compound the shortfall in performance, you may find them blaming others or the system.

"Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection," said Matthew Arnold. However, it is not easy to make any perfect generalisations and properly describe any culture because of possible exceptions. With that caveat in mind, you can look at Sinha's work as a useful collection of multicultural cases.

ManageMentor@TheHindu.co.in

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
ICAI's opinion on negative report

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line