Globalization and Culture

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses that commerce and business are pushing people from different cultures together much more rapidly on a global scale than has ever been true in the past, and this is just accentuating culture shock. Throughout this assessment, two contrasting examples are provided. The writer first discusses Indian call center employees learning Western dialects and diction to be more accepted. Then the writer examines the story of Silvio Napoli and looks at his many challenges in trying to fit into the Indian approach to doing business. The writer notes these two examples are very topical given the current focus on India. Finally, lessons learned and a short series of observations are provided.

From the Paper:

"Taking from example one of the many stories in The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman notes that call center employees in India are taking voice training and diction courses to deliberately sound more westernized to inbound callers from the U.S., U.K., Canada and other English-speaking nations. Experiences of call center representatives who have gone through this training indicate that higher levels of customer satisfaction are achieved and less derogatory comments made about outsourcing in general occur when callers think they are more westernized. Just one of many examples of the dynamics of the Indian culture being influenced by western values and cultural norms, the ongoing training of Indians to sound more like westerners casts an unflattering light on the entire aspect of globalization. The elimination of regional differences in culture to "fit in" globally also highlights how strong ethnocentric behavior influences others, even half a world away, in a matter of minutes on a telephone call. This reaction to the world shrinking in terms of who each of us interact with every day to get things done personally and professionally is driving changes in behavior no government, organization or company can dictate."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Case Study Analysis (2005) - From the research and advisory firm LWC Research. Orange, CA. Accessed from the Internet on March 10, 2006: http://lwcresearch.com/filesfordownloads/SchindlerCase.pdf
• Selling Into India: Lessons Learned From Silvio Napoli (2005) - Article from CRM Buyer Magazine. Louis Columbus. April 22, 2005
• Silvio Napoli at Schindler India (A) (2003). - Accessible after purchase from the Harvard Business Review website: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml;jsessionid=3XHOCFKZZ3NGQAKRGWDSELQ?id=303086
• The World Is Flat (2005) - Thomas R. Friedman, author. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. New York, NY. Published 2005

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