“Culture hides more than what it reveals, and strangely enough what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own members.”
Edward Hall, Anthropologist
Lost Opportunity
Lalita, an Indian engineer, has passed the first hurdle in her job application for a senior position for a British telecom company in London. The qualifications listed in her resume matched much of what the job posting required. She has made it to the virtual interview where three British managers drill for detail on her current and past roles and responsibilities. In addition, they engage her in a discussion of some challenging situations she handled successfully.
Lalita feels that the achievements listed on her resume speak for themselves. She is not used to self–promotion and, in fact, has never had any coaching in this type of “personal marketing.” Since she values humility, she feels that it would be inappropriate to boast about her accomplishments. However – and Lalita does not realize this – the interviewers are looking for someone who can communicate confidently and assertively and be candid about both her failures and successes. She is over 30, and neither her technical university nor the organizations in which she has worked ever offered a business communication or cross-cultural training program. She is highly qualified, but doesn’t get the job. Her lack of familiarity with the appropriate cultural use of language in the interview hinders her prospects for success.
Mismatched Expectations
Robert, a senior engineer in Silicon Valley, is preparing for a telephone call to Bangalore with Anil, also a senior engineer. Robert’s electronics firm had recently contracted Anil’s Indian organization for design support in its new products division. Relieved to have the support, Robert intends to map out project steps in detail with Anil on the call. On the meeting agenda, he highlights the key design challenges and decisions to be made, and emails it to Anil two days before the call. Robert also invites Anil to include any other agenda items. He doesn’t receive anything to add from Anil and assumes that all is well.
The reality on the call does not mesh with Robert’s expectations. For sure, the two engineers communicated in culturally different ways, but beyond that, Anil appeared to have neither the technical expertise nor the authority to make decisions about the best ways to execute the project plan that Robert had expected from him. Robert is frustrated with how little they accomplished during the call.
What happened here? Anil is an exemplary employee in his organization, but is not the “senior engineer” Robert thought him to be. Why was this? DL&A associate, Dr. Bidhan Chandra, explains the discrepancy between the two positions labeled “senior engineer,” and the pitfalls of mismatched expectations that may arise as a result.
First, there are often many more layers of titles in an Indian company than in a U.S. organization. Dr. Chandra explains that for every title in an American organization, it is common for an Indian partner company to have at least twice as many titles. Acquiring a new title suggests a step up, but may not always be accompanied by a salary increase.
Dr. Chandra emphasizes the importance of recognizing that faster promotions (i.e., higher-level titles) are an incentive for employee retention in India, in large part, because of the relative value placed on hierarchy and personal status. Because there are often proportionately more employee titles and rankings, nothing can be assumed about the level of knowledge and expertise between two professionals with identical organizational titles in India and the U.S. or in other Western countries. The discrepancy may represent a significant gap, and then result in miscommunication. Dr. Chandra suggests that for both scenarios described here, it is critical to assess capabilities in ways that take into account cultural differences in educational systems, communication style, and country-specific workplace practices.
The recognition that one set of behaviors or workplace practices can be subject to multiple interpretations is key in developing cross-cultural competency and a global perspective. This requires, as a starting point, the ability to step outside of one’s cultural self in order to see things as others do.
