Strategic Opportunities and Cultural Challenges

Question: Discuss about the Strategic Opportunities and Cultural Challenges. Answer: One of the fastest growing economy in the world is that of India where there has been a drastic increase in the overseas ventures, outsourcing activities and foreign business investments in the country. However, there are few management challenges in the cultural environment of India that create hurdles for the management of the organization and its operations (Thomas and Peterson 2014). There are strict rituals and protocols in the country with a strong structure of hierarchy that is based on the title of the job. Because of this hierarchy in the business community, the managers tend to have a paternalistic attitude towards the employees which is absent in the culture of the western organizations. The culture in India is polychronic where the people change priorities that are dependent on the importance. This relaxes the punctuality and this is in contrast to the western business culture where the global organizations strictly adhere to the deadlines and quick decision making abilities (Kapur and Janakiram 2015). Therefore, the management of these global companies struggles to cope up with the Indian culture while conducting business in the country as they fail to control the time limits. On the contrary, Singapore does not face such cultural management challenges as the country is highly influenced by the cultures of both the west and the east by combining the western technology with the eastern philosophy. The culture of India is very much different from the western culture that raises unintentional challenges for the business persons from the west as the communications between the hierarchy levels is rarely passed over, especially from the lower levels to the superior ones. Culture, Socialization and Normative Behavior The Indian culture describes the people and their way of living and the culture differs from one place to another throughout the country. Several cultures are amalgamated into the Indian culture that includes its cuisines, philosophy and religions that have left a profound impact throughout the world. All the relationships follow a hierarchical structure due to the influences of Hinduism (Budhwar and Debrah 2013). Indians prefer to carry out commercial and business activities with their known counterparts as the relationships are built upon the pillars of respect and trust. Unlike Singapore, business does not follow a strict chain of commands in India and rather, third party introducers are involved in the commercial relationships to gain immediate credibility. India is recognized as the land of festivals and a harmonious co-existence of people belonging from different religions is a factual manifestation of the rich traditions and culture of the country. Socialization in India is much more fluid in India as compared with the western world and it is a common practice to suggest another get together upon departing while meeting for the first time. Traditions of exchange of gifts are absent in a get together however, certain etiquettes are followed like avoiding of black colors as they are considered unlucky. Social interdependence is a prevalent theme in the life of the Indians and people are deeply involved with their groups and communities and do not prefer to stay alone (Shah 2014). The normative behavior of India starts with the greeting gesture saying Namastay' which means The God in my heart greets the God in yours.' This gesture is used everywhere following the hierarchical pattern where the inferiors are offering the greeting either to their subordinates or superiors. While sitting, it should always be considered that the feet should not be pointing towards any religious images kept on the wall, an altar or at another person. T hese normative behaviors are unique to India. Descriptive Models of Culture Among the oldest civilizations of the world, Indian culture is one that dates back to about 4,500 years ago (Ardichvili et al. 2012). Significant advances have been made by the Indians in the fields of medicine (Ayurveda), mathematics (invention of zero) and architecture (Taj Mahal). According to the descriptive model, the culture of India can be segmented into religion, food, art and architecture, clothing and celebrations and customs. The language of India is highly diversified wherein Hindi is the language that is used throughout the country. Other leading languages of the country include Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and Telugu. Buddhism and Hinduism are considered to have evolved in India which is the fourth and third largest religions. India is also considered one of the biggest Islamic nations of the world. The cuisine of India is influenced by several countries and is known basically for its liberal use of spices and herbs. Pulses, rice and wheat, are the staple Indian diet and the foods are rich in spices and curries that include cardamom, coriander and ginger (Cole and Cole 2016). The most striking illustration of Indian architecture is the Taj Mahal and also there are several ancient temples. The popular dance forms of India consists of the Odissi, Kathak and Bharata Natyam are based on the mythological themes and literature. Colorful silk sarees forms the traditional clothing of Indian women and along with that, dhoti and kurta form the traditional clothing of the men. The most important festivals of India are Diwali and Holi which are the festivals of lights and colors respectively. Cultural and Institutional Environments The basic style of business in India has remained same since its independence and most of them are the family controlled business. The leading business families of the country are Reliance, Tata and Birla where the major posts of management are held by the family members who are responsible. It is also a part of the cultural management of India that the economy has the largest share occupied by the non-corporate sector (McFarlin and Sweeney 2014). The service and manufacturing industries are managed by the non-corporate sector that mostly consists of the family business. The institutional environment also plays a decisive role in Indian business as the language of business is a mixture of the local language with English, especially in the urban parts of the country. Though Hindi is the predominant language in the country, yet the state dialects are also involved in the commercial processes, especially in the rural parts. Therefore, a business negotiator from a western country has to be well versed with the language of the region where he expects to trade. Since the middle class is the prime consumer of goods and services in the country, they believe in the Indian culture that will make the Western multinationals to adopt themselves to the tastes of the country. Cultural Complexities and Contradictions There are several cultural complexities throughout India due to the diversities of the caste groups, class and religion that influence the society in terms of economic, regional, linguistic and ethnic multiplicity. The north and south Indian difference are the most significant that is prominent in the systems of marriage and kinship. The Indian society is considered to be multifaceted that is one of the widest single nation variety and there are remarkable changes occurring in the contemporary Indian culture that is affecting the different socioeconomic groups and religions (Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014). This has brought about several contradictions in the modernity of India. Unlike the western states, boys are favored by the parents in India over girls as they continue to reside with their parents and support them in their old age. Whereas girls, they drain the resources of the family in the form of dowry and weakens the economy. As they depart to the home of their husbands, they cannot provide support to their aging parents. However, these concepts are changing and dowry is getting abolished and love marriages are getting recognition. A person might shake hands with his business partner and might kneel down before his elders for receiving their blessings. Therefore, the complexities and contradictions of cultural norms have to be observed by Western business persons while establishing trade relations in India. Cultural Diversity and Multiculturism India is the best example of cultural diversity and multiculturism as people here speak 1599 minor languages and 122 major languages (Stock, Strecker and Bieling 2016). The beauty of the country lies in its unity in diversity and its constitution promotes the pluralistic tradition by assigning equal duties, privileges and rights to every citizen of the country. Clear distinctions are notable in the rituals, religion practices, food habits, language and dress in the largest democracy of the world that is based on cultural diversity and multiculturalism. It is important for any organization in India to respect the cultural diversity as it helps the organization to compete, develop and grow the human talent and to retain its greatest resource. India has started to produce categories of cultural markets on a global scale for developing globalized technical workers and linking them with the global economy in technology-mediated and novel ways. Multicultural global management practices have been placed in practice for managing the multinational workforces that have helped the Indian organizations to govern the works that are outsourced to the offshore clients. India has produced multi-sited and multicultural virtual teams to maintain the cultural differences in the corporate workplaces. References Ardichvili, A., Jondle, D., Kowske, B., Cornachione, E., Li, J. and Thakadipuram, T., 2012. Ethical cultures in large business organizations in Brazil, Russia, India, and China.Journal of Business Ethics,105(4), pp.415-428. Budhwar, P.S. and Debrah, Y.A. eds., 2013.Human resource management in developing countries. Routledge. Cole, G. and Cole, G., 2016. Smoothing the passage to India: How cultural knowledge enhances HR management.Human Resource Management International Digest,24(4), pp.41-43. Eriksson, S. and Hgg, C., 2016. Cultural Diversity: How to Manage a Cross-Cultural Workforce in a Global Organization: A case study between India and Sweden. Freeth, M., Sheppard, E., Ramachandran, R. and Milne, E., 2013. A cross-cultural comparison of autistic traits in the UK, India and Malaysia.Journal of autism and developmental disorders,43(11), pp.2569-2583. Kapur, N. and Janakiram, B., 2015. Cross cultural management and it's role in diversity management: Evidence from companies in India.International Journal of Research in IT and Management,5(7), pp.7-19. Liang, P., Biswas, P., Vinnakota, S., Fu, L., Chen, M., Quan, Y., Zhan, Y., Zhang, G. and Roy, S., 2016. Invariant effect of vision on taste across two Asian cultures: India and China.Journal of Sensory Studies,31(5), pp.416-422. Mandair, A.P.S., 2013.Religion and the specter of the West: Sikhism, India, postcoloniality, and the politics of translation. Columbia University Press. McFarlin, D. and Sweeney, P.D., 2014.International Management: Strategic Opportunities Cultural Challenges. Routledge. Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014.Managing cultural differences. Routledge. Pohjonen, M. and Paul, S., 2013. Theory and Practice in Emerging Digital Cultures in India.Indian Mass Media and the Politics of Change, p.184. Raj, S., Singh, A., Goel, S., Malhotra, A., Kaur, T. and Thingham, N., 2016. Comparison of Health Promoting Lifestyle of Undergraduate Students from Two Diverse Cultures of India.Healthline, Journal of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine,7(1), pp.37-43. Shah, P., 2014. Critiquing the Western Account of India Studies within a Comparative Science of Cultures.International Journal of Hindu Studies,18(1), p.67. Stock, R.M., Strecker, M.M. and Bieling, G.I., 2016. Organizational workfamily support as universal remedy? A cross-cultural comparison of China, India and the USA.The International Journal of Human Resource Management,27(11), pp.1192-1216. Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2014.Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage Publications.