Overview
This case will be about a French consultancy company, which operates internationally. Some of the countries are amongst others: China. India, United States of America, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Japan, and other countries in Europe. Since the company in question operates in so many different countries, there will be many different situations regarding cultures. In this report, there will be a case between the company, and the cultural events, which happened with Indians.
Identify any cultural limitations
To start with, in this case a comparison between a French woman working for a French company and an Indian man working for an Indian company will be made. The countries, to begin with, are both located in two totally different world parts, France in Europe being a western country and India in Asia being a third world country. Considering language, in France the mother language is French and is therefore also spoken by most of the people. A stereotype that comes forward is that French people dislike speaking other languages other than French. However, since we are talking about an international company, speaking different languages, like English, is not a barrier. Now moving on to the Indian company. Since India was colonized by the British, English is one of the two official languages in the country. This makes language again not a barrier. Furthermore, cultural roles. In France man and woman are equal in everything this, however, cannot be said about India. In India there is hieratical distance between a man and a woman, where a man has more power than a woman. Here we encountered our first cultural limitation. The woman we interviewed from the French company had quite some difficulties while she was trying to do business with the man from the Indian company. Here the man felt that the French company was not taking them seriously because they send a woman to do business with them, while the woman felt that the Indian company was not taking them seriously as the negations took two months longer than expected because the man “took his time”. In India, it is common for man to have higher position jobs than woman. This comes from their high masculinity culture. Furthermore, there is also a high-power distance in India, this makes man really look over woman. Therefore, the man working for the Indian company might have felt offended when the French company send a woman to do business with them, while this is of course something normal in western countries. In France, masculinity is lower than in India, which makes it more common for woman to work in high position jobs. Moreover, there is a high-power distance in France, which probably made the French company send the woman to India because she has the position to negotiate with the Indian company.
What could be perceived as either prohibitive or inhibitive issues that the organization addresses?
Even in business, cultures could play an enormous part. It could even cause a result, which could be different than desired. Therefore, it is of great importance to acknowledge what could be seen as either prohibitive or inhibitive. This will include sexuality, social violence, and male/female roles.
Sexuality
According to the Times of India (2020), sexual activities or sex in general, is a conversational topic which is still considered as taboo. In India, people believe while growing up, that sexuality is only meant for a married couple. This would mean that speaking about sexual activities to anybody apart from your partner, would be considered prohibitive.
According to a Wikipedia page (2022), the rights of the LGBTQ community has been evolving and is becoming more accepted in India. Despite the growing acceptance, it could be still difficult in India to talk about sexuality, due to social influences. Therefore, it is inhibitive to talk about homosexuality in India.
According to an article on France24 (2018), Mossuz-Lavau states that the French’s behavior could be considered as liberated. It has been normalized in a large fashion. A writer of this case with French origins (J. Genot) confirms that the French are indeed open about it. Genot states that the French speak about it with friends and other acquaintances. He also mentioned that homosexuality is generally accepted in France.
Social violence
In India, social violence is a rather larger topic, especially when talking about the more domestic side. According to a Wikipedia page (2022), there is quite some violence against women in India. This goes from domestic violence to even death. A case of death is called honor killing. This means that the woman will be murdered, due to examples as divorce or refusing to enter an arranged marriage as an example. This is because refusing to enter an arranged marriage or divorcing is considered prohibitive in India.
In France, there seemed to be a similar situation regarding social violence. According to an article from The Guardian, France had 146 femicides in 2019. This makes France the country with the highest femicide rate in Europe. Femicide is a term used to describe murder on women. Yet in France, it would be considered murder on women by their (ex) partner.
Male/female roles
In India, the gender roles could be considered as more traditional within a family. According to the Pew Research Center (2022), there was a survey done with the statement that a wife must always obey her husband. According to the survey, around 90% agrees with the statement. Another statement was that if there are a few jobs, men should have more rights on a job than women. On that question, 79% agreed with the statement. This means that it would be considered prohibitive if a woman does not obey a man.
According to the Cultural Atlas (n.d.), nearly all French women are engaged in labor, and it also starts to become more of a norm. Yet men are still considered bread winners in a French family, while women have more stereotypical roles which include cooking and taking care of the children.
Hofstede Dimensions
France and India are two obviously very different countries: We will show this by starting with Power distance.
It is quite widely accepted that, in both cultures the power is not distributed unequally. Although this trend is more pronounced in India, probably due to the still-important caste system, whilst it is less important in France, due to the French revolution and the French’ almost natural instinct to rebel against any authority figure.
Now, to individualism. France is a much more individualistic society than India. The importance each one gives to themselves in France is around 47% higher than the one found in India. This is because, in India, there is a much greater emphasis placed on belonging to a group than in France, where each individual is supposed to stand on his/her own.
France and India are closer when it comes to the masculinity score. Although a greater emphasis is placed in France on a better quality of life (35hrs work week, five weeks of vacation, Sécu etc…) whilst it is more important to be the best in India. This is quite visible when it comes to displaying power and wealth.
The uncertainty avoidance is where France and India differ the most: France’s is almost double India’s. This is an enormous difference; it means that the French hate surprises and prefer stability. It is quite in line with the country’s history: the three last big “surprises” were the Franco-Prussian war, WW1 and WW2. Furthermore, it is quite normal for one of the oldest nations on earth (2nd, 3rd or 4th depending on who you ask) to be weary of uncertainty, as it is stability that has kept it going for centuries. India on the other hand has a much higher tolerance for uncertainty, it means that not everything has to go to plan in order for the people involved to be fine with it. The long-term orientation is a weird one for India: with a score of 51 there is no real preference in society, this can be explained by the karma system that is still very much alive and vibrant in the country whilst being balanced by the pragmatism that the people show in many situations. . France on the other hand, has quite a higher score with 63 which means the country is more flexible. It still keeps strong ties with its past but it is more accepting of the change of times.
Outcome
The outcomes of those differences are always the same: miscommunication, delays and everybody getting annoyed. Which results in even less communication and a less productive solution. This can ultimately cause an entire deal to collapse.
This will not only create a great financial burden for booth companies but also implies a lot of time wasted and does not entice anyone to do business with another party from the same country anytime soon. A great example of miscommunication is the now infamous submarine deal between France and Australia that was partly canceled because of a lack of comprehension between the parties involved (that was, at least, one of the reasons stated to terminate the contract). This has caused a great deal of harm to Franco-Australian diplomatic relations. Furthermore, it caused a 10-year delay for the RAN (Royal Australian Navy) to get their submarines. Cost-wise the contract was worth 50B$. Now the price tag has jumped to 100B$ on top of the Australian government having to pay 555.000.000€ to Naval Group (the french shipbuilder). Miscommunication at its finest and most expensive.
Possible solutions
To compare deeds and words we can take a simple example: we need to understand that in India, everything they ask for is urgent and must be done within the hour whilst anything you ask can wait 4 weeks. (In reality almost nothing is as urgent as described. They just use the same language that they would use with other Indians. Urgent means 2-3 weeks of time)
One of the implicit rules of business in India, Africa and the middle east is that being there in person is much more important than it is in Europe. Indian culture, in this regard, is halfway between European cultures and African cultures.
It is also important to remember that India is a very diverse country. Therefore, it depends a lot on which person you are dressing. However the Indians are quite tolerant when a westerner makes a cultural mistake, as it is common and it is almost expected to make a mishap, it is often used as an ice-breaker.
In India, like in Africa, and middle eastern culture is a high-context culture, where there are tons of implicit communication. Europe and North America are more low-context cultures, with the USA being the champion of such things. It is often said that, to say 100 things, a Frenchman will use 110, whilst an American will use 150 and a Japanese will say 50. An Indian would probably say 70. That is a difficulty, but it is easily breached by using written communication where the implicit cannot really exist.
Last but not least, Indians speak English but with a strong accent for most of them but that is not really a problem. As stated previously, India is a very diverse country, so it depends a lot on who the interlocutor is.
Authors
Student:
Jules Genot, (linkedin)
Kozminski University – Kedge Business school
Year 2 Semester 2 06/06/2022
Student: Giv Tabrizi, (Linkedin)
Amsterdam School of International Business
Block 4., Semester 2 06/06/2022
Student: Gacik Ackam, (linkedin)
Amsterdam School of International Business
Block.4, Semester 2., 06/06/2022