28 Mar 2018

Managing Intercultural relationships can be quite daunting. Your team mate comes from another state. You can't stand him.Your friend's friend can be quite loud. You don't agree with her views.And now at work you have to deal with a team from three different countries in Europe. Now not only is the culture not same but you don't even have similar beliefs.Is life testing you?Cross ...

26 Mar 2018

Conflicts in Cross Culture Here's another conflict in cross culture. Heard of gender stereotyping? The blue-for-boys and pink-for-girls kind? It's not just us. It's cultures all over the world. Not exactly that way but yes, well-defined gender roles are yet another dimension of culture. And conflicts in cross culture can arise from here. Masculinity vs Femininity - A Cultural Dimension I...

25 Mar 2018

Cross Cultural Conflict based on Hofstede Scores Conflicts in cross culture often occur in societies which differ in degrees of individualism. We spoke of cultural differences based on hierarchy. There is another overarching difference - that of individualistic societies and collectivistic societies. Individualism vs Collectivism is one of the dimensions propounded by Dutch culturologis...

24 Mar 2018

Cross culture and language pitfallsWhen an Englishman goes to China, he knows that he is on alien territory. The obvious part being that the people speak a different language and he is unlikely to understand a single word.But unfortunately for cultures like UK and US, when people come and interact with Indians, this is not so. With largely decent English-speaking skills, it is so...

24 Mar 2018

Cross Culture and its challengesOne of the most important differences across cultures is that of hierarchy. Cross culture understanding or misunderstanding can stem simply from this one dimension* of culture. Hierarchical societies have a clear ranking of authority in the society. It's the ascribing of power to the higher authorities by the lower. This hierarchy exists in the society - a...

22 Mar 2018

Cross culture understanding comes with a bit of awareness and empathy.Working with another country culture is not easy.Just because you speak the same language does not mean you are saying the same thing. When working as a team, say with Indians, here are three vital things to remember - 1. Don't jump to conclusions It's okay to ask questions. Sometimes you may not realise why are person...

21 Mar 2018

A ROUND UP OF THE BEST CROSS-CULTURAL CONVERSATIONSIn the past week I have been talking (to those who cared to listen) about Cross-cultural Conversations and their significance in the workplace. Today it's worth looking back at each of them and seeing what they spoke about.Click on the links below to read any of the postsWe started with how important cross-cultural conversa...

21 Mar 2018

Cross-cultural communication can literally make or break a team. In a workplace without borders, increasingly every function in a large organisation has a global team. Large US corporations have a back-end team in Europe. European organisations may be working simultaneously with the US and India. And some may have a team that consists of members from China, India, Germany and the US. Whi...

18 Mar 2018

Much of cross-cultural communication rests on understanding of the culture. India is often knows as the culture of celebrations. And what better than today to talk about it. It's day for celebration! And a new year celebration at that. Today marks the new year for many communities in different parts of India.Gudi Padwa for some, Ugadi for others, Cheti Chand for still others.Gove...