film project – outsourced · web viewpower distance indicates to what extant people accept...
TRANSCRIPT
Higher colleges of technology
Film Project – Outsourced
Nouf Saleh H00251007
Instructor: Stephen Trinder
LSS 2113
17th June 2016
High Power Distance:
This situation shows the extant of power distance between Puro who represents Indian society
and Todd who represents American society. Power distance indicates to what extant people
accept inequality and the power a person’s has over another person (Minkov & Hofstede, 2011).
Puro accepts the higher power Todd has so he behaves accordingly which indicates that Indian
society scores higher than US in power distance. As stated by Geert Hofstede India has a score of
77 in power distance and 40 in US (Geert Hofstede Centre, 2016).
From the situation as Puro keep saying Mr. Todd, Todd wants to break this kind of barrier by
telling Puro to just say Todd. This might be because Puro is familiar with this type of actions due
to the level of hierarchy acceptance in Indian society even outside the work place as well as
expecting that Todd will act the same. Puro was surprised that Todd is asking him to just say
Todd not Mr. Todd and this was because the lower power distance Todd’s society has. On the
other hand, Todd was surprised from the way Puro talks to him and he didn’t realize the cultural
differences between him and Puro even on the way of running business so as he is from a society
that accepts flatter structure in an organization this was unusual.
Low Power Distance:
In compare with the previous example: the very formal language Puro uses, Todd’s language
was completely different when he was talking to his manager Dave in the start of the movie. The
way Todd talk was informal unlike the way Puro talks. The reason behind this informal language
is the low score of power distance America has in which the society try to reduce the inequality
between people and having softer hierarchies than the high scored ones. So the situation shows to
what extant this society accepts equality, unlike other societies like India it wouldn’t be
acceptable for a subordinate to talk informally with upper levels. According to Hofstede
dimensions, “Both managers and employees expect to be consulted and information is shared
frequently. At the same time, communication is informal, direct and participative to a degree”
(Geert Hofstede Centre, 2016).
In this situation, when Todd had a question about the decision the manager made it wasn’t wrong
to ask or talk about this decision for example when Dave said “we decided to restructure order
fulfillment” which is the department Todd’s manage, and then Todd said “restructure how?”.
This question is accepted in America because of the low power distance the society accepts
questioning the upper level positions while in higher power distance this question can’t be asked.
Also, when Todd thinks that Dave was just joke, he said “Good one” and Dave replayed “I’m not
kidding”. This is a good example of flatten the hierarchy and make the relation between the
employee and the manager more comfortable. In addition to that, Todd used to call his manager
Dave not Mr. Dave which represents the informal language used. Also, he calls Dave a
‘corporate slimeball’ which considered quite rude to tell a manager.
Individualism vs Collectivism:
This situation is an example for the individualism dimension which measures the degree of
individual’s independence. In individualist societies people concern about the “I” concept which
means people care about themselves and place their benefit over others. People also prefer to
work individually and depend on themselves quickly by having a job or leaving home unlike
collectivist societies in which people has relationship with each other. Collectivist individuals
behave according to the term “We”, people care about each other and try to build long-term
relations and place the group/family benefit over themselves.
This basically applies to the situation, Todd is from a high individualist society with score of
(91) and Puro is from a collectivist society with score of (48) which drives Puro to suggest that
taking Todd to Puro’s aunt house in better and he wouldn’t feel lonely. This considered as caring
about Todd even if he is new to the place by not wanting Todd to feel lonely and caring is a
characteristic of collective societies. From the talk it is clear that from the first meet Puro was
trying to build relation with Todd not only business relation but friendship. An indicator about
the strong relation with family and how it is important is when Puro said that his aunt will take
care of Todd better than his own mother because Puro knows how parents care is important. The
strong sense of family is applied to the high context culture which has more emphasis on being
in the group/family and the importance of the strong relation between its members.
On the other hand, Todd prefers to stay alone in the hotel and depend on himself due to the
individualistic society he belongs to and his individualistic was shown in another situation which
will be explained later.
Individualism vs
Collectivism:
In this seen the opposite happens, Puro was surprised when he know that Todd doesn’t live with
his parents which is not preferred in the collectivists societies and leaving home considered as a
shameful thing or hiding the shame. But due to the individualist society Todd belongs to this is
familiar, people start leaving their homes at a young age and depend on themselves and having
their own life.
Moreover, it was a shock for Puro when he asked Todd “But you see them every week?”, Todd
replied “No”, this was a shock because in Puro’s culture people value the close relationship with
family and meeting them weekly even if they don’t live together. Unlike Todd in his culture, the
relationship between the families doesn’t required to be strong and it will be good if you manage
to meet your parents few times a year.
Individualistic people usually have horizontal relationships in their families rather than having
more vertical relationship (parent and child) as in collectivist societies. Everyone is independent
and responsible for the decisions made and no one has influence over others choices even
parents. Whereas, collectivist societies accept this influence from elders for example if Puro was
in Todd’s situation he wouldn’t leave his parents without a reason and if he do so he has to visit
them because of his strong collective relation with his parents.
Long Term Orientation:
Long term orientation is a dimension that was expressed in the movie by the following situation.
Long term oriented societies which have high scores are usually emphasize on present effort to
secure the future while societies scoring lower scores tend to seek short term results and benefits
with value traditions and norms and viewing the social changes. India has a higher score for long
term orientation of 51 than America which scores 26 (Geert Hofstede Centre, 2016).
As an Indian individual, Puro was excited about his future salary and before he even gains it he
engaged to a lady. His action represents his long-term oriented since he plans for his future
salary and how to use it effectively and prepare and thrift for his future. Additionally, his future
plans were planned upon his new salary which was considered as a very high payment with the
ability to secure the future buy this job. The disadvantage for his plan or the risk is when the
company wanted to shift the fulfillment to China this might end up all his future dreams.
On the other hand, the lower score of this dimension was shown in another seen when the
manager Dave tell Todd about the new restructure and said “The savings are incredible” what
indicates the short term benefit the company seeks as the American society is more a short term
oriented and present oriented. This orientation also contributes to the fast changing in decisions
following the short term results or savings.
Therefore, doing business in another country has to be done after deep study of the foreign
country and the cultural differences as well as doing business in that market in order to avoid the
problems and misunderstanding happens in Outsourced movie.
References
Geert Hofstede Centre. (2016). Retrieved from Geert Hofsteede: https://geert-
hofstede.com/united-states.html
Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions. (2016, June 5). Retrieved from Intercultural Studies:
https://stevehct.wordpress.com/
Minkov, M., & Hofstede, G. (2011). Cross Cultural Management: AnInternational Journal.
The evolution of Hofstede’s doctrine, 10-20.
Outsourced. (2013, March 17). Retrieved from Amara:
http://www.amara.org/en/videos/nGNElEJCmjg9/info/outsourced2006dvdripxvid
ac351-rock/