8. Outsourced and
Cultural Dimensions
Outsourced is an excellent film to give
meaning to intercultural concepts.
There are
five sets of cultural dimensions featured in Adler and Elmhorst’s (2008)
textbookCommunicating at Work.
Below
is a brief explanation of the cultural dimensions:-
Low-context and high-context
culture
Individualism and collectivism
Low power distance and high power
distance
Uncertainty tolerance and
uncertainty avoidance
Task orientation and social
orientation
and
examples from the film that represent each of the dimensions.
Low-Context Culture and High-Context Culture
A
low-context culture “uses language primarily to express thoughts, feelings, and
ideas as clearly and logically as possible . . . The meaning of a
statement is in the words spoken”
(Adler& Elmhorst, 2008, p. 47). A high-context culture, on the other
hand, “relies heavily on subtle, often
nonverbal cues to convey meaning, save face, and maintain social harmony.
Communicators . discover meaning from
the context in which a message is delivered” (p. 47).
Low-Context and High-Context Culture
In the
film, Todd has a straight-talking style that reflects a low-context
culture. For example, when Todd is first taken to the ramshackle
building that houses the call center in Gharapuri, he does not hide his
reaction: “Oh, you gotta be kidding me. This is it?” he asks Puro.
Similarly, Todd does not hide his dissatisfaction with the call
center’s high MPI, the average number of minutes per incident spent to resolve
each call: “Why is the MPI so bad?” he asks. “Puro, this place is a disaster.”
In
contrast, Todd’s Indian counterparts reflect a high-context culture.
For example, when Todd asks Puro if he can take a long trip to recover a
shipment that has been sent to the wrong location, Puro declines the request in
a very indirect manner, in line with collectivists’ concern for maintaining
social harmony. “No problem,” he says. “But first I must sleep for two hours,
so that I can come back for the interviews with the new agents, and then I must
make sure that my mother gets to the hospital.”
Individualism and Collectivism
Individualistic
cultures “offer their members a great deal of freedom, the belief being
that this freedom makes it possible for each person to achieve personal
success” (Adler & Elmhorst, 2008, p. 48). Members tend to “put
their own interests and those of their immediate family ahead of social
concerns” (p. 48). In contrast, members of collectivist cultures
“have tight social frameworks in which members of a group . . . feel primary
loyalty toward one another and the group to which they belong” (p. 48).
Todd has his own apartment in
Seattle, he lives alone, and he is ambitious and consumption-oriented. As he
explains to Puro: “In my world, it just makes sense to work your ass off and go
into credit card debt just so you can have that 50-inch plasma.”
Todd also does not see his
parents often, even though they live only two hours away from him. This news
stuns Puro, who also cannot understand why Todd continues to work for a company
and a boss he dislikes.
Todd and
Puro are at opposite ends of the individualism-collectivism continuum.
A series
of events at the beginning of the film also highlight the contrast between
individualist and collectivist cultures:
When Todd sits down on a crowded
train after a boy has given him his seat, the boy unabashedly sits on Todd’s
lap, much to the surprise of Todd, who is used to the private personal space of
a person from an individualist culture.
When Puro is taking Todd to his
accommodations, Puro changes the plans for Todd to stay at the Gharapuri Palace
Hotel. “That place is very lonely,” says Puro, in true collectivist manner.
“I’ll take you to Auntie Ji’s guest house. She will take care of you better
than your own real mother.” When individualist Todd protests that he would
prefer to go to his hotel, Puro insists: “We go to Aunti Ji’s. . . . You’ll not
be lonely there.”
Finally, when Todd arrives at
Aunti Ji’s, this is the first question she, as a collectivist, asks: “So, Mr.
Toad. What does your father do?”
Interactions between Todd and
Asha also highlight the contrast between members of individualist and
collectivist cultures. When Todd asks Asha if she would ever consider living in
the United States, she says: “I would miss my parents; it would be too hard.”
When they are in public together,
Asha is concerned what others will think. Todd, on
the
other hand, cannot understand this preoccupation. “You’re a free woman!” he
exclaims.
Then when he hears the news that
her parents have arranged her marriage since she was a child, he cannot believe
that a smart, opinionated woman like her would accept this.“What about your
right to choose for yourself?” he asks.
Low Power Distance and High Power Distance
Cultures
with low power distance “downplay differences in power” (Adler &
Elmhorst, 2008, p. 50) and its members are comfortable approaching or
challenging superiors. Cultures with high power distance accept an unequal
distribution of power and the fact that “some members have greater resources
and influence than others” (p. 50).
The low power distance
characteristic associated with American culture is revealed in the totally
uninhibited way in which Todd speaks to his boss, Dave. On different occasions,
Todd calls Dave a “corporate slime-ball” and a “cheap bastard.”
Todd’s demonstration of low power
distance contrasts with the deferential way in which his Indian employees
address him, using Mr. Todd and Sir.
Uncertainty Tolerance and Uncertainty Avoidance
Cultures
that tolerate uncertainty are more comfortable with unpredictability and
risk taking, and they are “relatively tolerant of behavior that differs from
the norm” (Adler & Elmhorst, 2008, p. 50). Cultures that avoid
uncertainty “are less comfortable with change. They value tradition and formal
rules, and show less tolerance for different ideas” (p. 50).
In Outsourced,
Asha refers to practices in India that are characteristic of uncertainty avoidance:
“A girl in my position has her
whole life mapped out in front of her.” Asha explains that her father is an
assistant manager in a phone company and that her mother comes from a small
village.
Low-context and high-context
culture
In a significant moment for Asha,
Todd shows her that people can change their “inherited” roles. Representing a
culture that tolerates uncertainty, Todd promotes her to assistant manager,
saying he believes that “Asha can do anything.” Those words are magical for
Asha. “I always wanted to believe that, but until you, I didn’t think it was
true,” she tells Todd.
Task Orientation and Social Orientation
Task-oriented
cultures focus on making its members “more competent through training and
use of up-to-date methods and are highly concerned with individual
success” (Adler & Elmhorst, 2008, p. 51).
Cultures
with high social orientation “focus more on collective concerns” such as
cooperative problem solving and maintaining a friendly atmosphere (p. 51).
In Outsourced,
the continued pressure to achieve a lower MPI rating reflects the task
orientation of Todd’s and Dave’s culture.
Puro, on the other hand,
represents a social orientation when, early on, concerned about Todd’s unwell
appearance from eating gola, he abandons his job responsibilities
to go find food that will help Todd’s stomach.
Using the
cultural dimensions framework and backed up by specific examples from the filmOutsourced,
helps students to see general differences among cultures.
But, Outsourced also
shows cultural dimensions not usually associated with their native cultures:
o Individualism and collectivism:
At the end of the film, the first
phone call Todd makes when he arrives home in Seattle is to his parents. His
experience in India has changed him, and this phone call is one manifestation
of that change.
o Low power distance and high power
distance:
Indian call center workers begin
to address Todd by his first name.
o Uncertainty tolerance and
uncertainty avoidance:
In the midst of tradition-bound
India, Todd’s Indian neighbors who live on the other side of the wall of the
guest house demonstrate an extreme ability to adapt to difficulties and to find
creative solutions to problem. Thus, a sterling example of uncertainty
tolerance exists within a culture prone to uncertainty avoidance. Todd himself
is inspired by these neighbors when he takes action to restore electricity to
the call center after flooding.
o Task orientation and social
orientation:
Although Todd is the task master
at the beginning of his tenure in India, he later veers toward a more social
orientation, by asking his Indian employees: “What would make your work day a
more positive experience?”
For their part, the Indian
employees become more task oriented as they respond to an incentive program
that rewards MPI improvement by giving them access to company merchandise.
To conclude, Outsourced provides
a rich backdrop for exploring the meaning of intercultural concepts, in terms
of broad generalities as well as accompanying complexities.
This information sheet has been
adapted from an article by Carol Briam from Zayed University
References
Downloaded
from bcq.sagepub.com at SWETS WISE ONLINE CONTENT on November 14,
2011
398
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY / December 2010
Adler, R.
B., & Elmhorst, J. M. (2008). Communicating at work: Principles and
practices for
business
and the professions (9th ed.). Tuas Basin Link, Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
