“The working styles of Indian corporates differ widely from their American counterparts.” This article focuses on the differences between the working style of American corporates and their Indian counterparts.
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Author: Divya Singla
The working styles of Indian corporates differ widely from their American counterparts. Though many Indian expatriates are thinking of returning home to take up jobs in the highly paying multinational companies, it is generally difficult to adapt to Indian style of working after one is exposed to the American and European style of work culture.
The tremendous growth of IT sector and BPO’s has lead to implementation of the American working style in many offices. But the problem is that such reforms are confined to large corporate and multinationals only.
Smaller and mediocre companies still lack facilities like training programs for employees, motivational meetings, teleconferencing. Constructive criticism, employee bonding etc are unheard of and are still considered alien and set aside for the American working style.
One of the biggest drawbacks of Indian working style is the lack of time management. Where on one hand Americans are sticklers for punctuality and time management, this important characteristic doesn’t rank high on the priority list of Indians.
Americans value their time as well as others time and are keen that the employees are punctual at work. In India, if an employee is late he or she always has a good convincing reason. It is very common to find business meetings getting rescheduled or delayed by an hour or two in Indian companies because of this slackness. Time management is the least important attribute as far as Indian government jobs are concerned. A simple work which should normally take a few hours is easily postponed to be completed in a week without any guilt feeling or regret for incompetence.
Americans don’t indulge in gossiping and unnecessary talks during office hours. This is probably one of the reasons for their timely wrap up of work and diligence. Indians, on the other hand, can never finish their office work without prying into other lives and offering unsolicited advices to others. You would find majority of focused individuals eating at their workstation to meet their deadlines in America and you would hardly find anyone loitering around the coffee machine to chat with colleagues and while away time in America.
According to the Indian style of working, it is alright to be dressed in semi formals. Such attire is not acceptable in America where you have to be dressed in formals like blazers and suits. In fact, in some companies you are subjected to paying fine if you are not properly dressed.
Another major difference in the work cultures of India and America is the facility of “work from home”. Where on one hand the facility of working from home provides a lot of flexibility to people in USA, it gives the impression of laxity and casualness in working attitude in India. Indians who get customized to American style of working find it very difficult to adjust to the Indian mindset of unnecessary display of long hours of physical presence in the office to prove their caliber. Smartness and efficiency is not measured by the quality and timely delivery of work, rather by the number of hours you work in the office.
The biggest advantage of working in USA is that only your output matters. People are very open to the concept of work from home as long as the deadline of the deliverables is met. And more importantly it never surfaces as a negative at the time of appraisals.
Although this Indian dogmatism intrigues a lot of the new generation working males and females, it is we who are to be blamed for it. We Indians like to take undue advantage of any kind of liberty given to us. Majority of us misuse the flexibility of “work from home” by converting the convenience of a working day into the relaxation of a paid holiday.
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Comments:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Chillibreeze,
I just happened to tumble over your blog today and I was totally taken by surprise. Your portrayal of the American Work culture is anything but factual. I don’t which American company and culture you are talking about. I have been working in India for 5 years and in the US for the past 3 years, based on my experience I can tell you American work force is not all that effective as portrayed.
They show less commitment towards their work compared to their Indian peers. An Indian employee would be highly effective in troubleshooting and giving his heart out in extreme cases that required high level of dedication, but on the contrary American shut their brains off after official hours.
American work culture makes you lazy and retarded. I’m sure expats likes us willing to go back to India are going to find it so difficult because we have been reduced to mere fundoos.
I cannot or willingly wouldnot differentiate between American and Indians. Also I wouldnot completely agree with what is commented on blog before I have done. It is merely a proactive OCA principle that would differentiate one individual from above. OCA expanded is Ownership, commitment and accountability, towards myraid of works whether professional or otherwise.