Final Paper----Jona Muhameti

6/26/2007
Mgmt 245-02
Role of culture in India vs. UAE
Cross cultural education is important in today’s society for a few reasons. It is important because today’s society is becoming more globalize and diverse, and by understand each others’ culture it is easier to know how to communicate and to create relationships. For new upcoming business women cross culture education is especially important because it helps facilitate better business and this will be helpful to incorporate the country’s culture in the business practices. By understanding the country’s culture one is able to find out the reason why its citizens behave the way they do, practice different beliefs, think the way they do, and do business in different ways. There are specific traditions within different cultures that make those people unique and interesting, and these bring diversity in our world. Our experience in India was as exceptional and as shocking at the same time, and as our counterparts explained the same feelings were felt between those that traveled in the Emirate States. The experiences were exceptional because the cultures and traditions in both these countries are so different to those that most of us are exposed around here, that they could be from different worlds. Though somewhat different our experience in India was very similar to the experience of those in UAE. These are two very rich and fascinating cultures, which include a lot of religion, family involvement, traditions, and diversity in many levels. Women in both cultures are still in the process of recognition and reaching some level of equality.
As mentioned before there were many similarities between the two countries, even though one contains the second largest population in the world, and the other which is 100 times smaller is trying to become the biggest touristy place in the world and is also one of the richest, financially, small countries in the world. A few similarities revolved around women were family values, rank in society, common professions, privilege, and religion. Family as it was clear in both countries is was the most essential entity for every person; each person is clearly defined by their family name. We saw this in India from the numerous articles that we read, and from experiencing firsthand the importance of family and the family name. While in Western countries one may define their family name, in UAE and India each person is clearly defined by their family name, and everything they do they must only bring honor to that name, because it follows them everywhere. In India it was easy to understand its importance to the point that one of the women entrepreneurs at NIILM identified herself as “I’m a Gupta that is the way we are” when she was speaking of the path to her growing business. In a study which explains how gender roles are shaped in the Middle East, four out of four elements mention family, to go so far as to talk about family laws (Metcalfe, 2006). It is only surprising because in the US the citizens are closely bound to the common laws that apply same to each individual, and the individual is one unit. The first element explains that family is the central unit in the society, and each individual is part of this unit, and is bound to respect the rules of this unit that it belongs to (Metcalfe, 2006).
The UAE and India are quite similar when it comes to performance orientation, though is different aspects of performance. UAE women and men are working hard on setting goals to become one of the most visited countries by 2010, and to reach this there needs to be a lot of work done from all levels of work. UAE citizens have high performance orientation which means that they have high achievement motives, where they praise success and fear failure (Gupta & House, 2004). This is important to UAE women because it opens some opportunities to contribute to this goal, although as of fiscal year 2000 only 13% of women were part of the workforce, it is a chance to increase this number (Mostafa, 2005). It also can help women to reach positions which they could not think of reaching before, because of different barriers. India on the other hand is a high performance society for the most part because of its push for learning. All the students that we met identified to us that education is important but doing well when in school is most important, companies, unlike most US companies, look strongly at the education performance to base their decisions to hire graduates and their salaries. India has proved that it is a high performance oriented society because they work hard, and it is currently working on becoming one of the major players in intellectual property. This need to achieve higher standards and be more innovative and reach different heights, allows more women to enter the workforce and to be able to be promoted and break some of ‘the glass ceilings”.
Although high performance oriented societies, these two countries allow women very little independence, when it comes to working. Many of the women that we meet in both countries were women that had truly achieved new heights. These were some very high power women; in India we met Dr. Nambiar, who was a neurologist and head of the Delhi hospital, in UAE our colleagues had met Raja al Gurg, who heads her fathers business, and has more than 30years of experience in the business world. These are two of the more success stories we heard during both trips, but what was somewhat evident was the importance of having a great family name and strong family ties. All the women that we met that had succeeded had had a lot of help from their fathers or husbands, excluding here the women from the Nud village, who build schools on their own. The point is not that women are incapable of starting their own business, but it seems that this is the easiest way for many women entrepreneurs, they had to start with a foundation created by a man in their life. Once their business started off, it was easy to see that these women were able, intelligent, and independent. Needless to say women in these countries are not fully independent financially, though for every business everywhere in the world there is a need of financials, many women depended on their man counterparts to supply the foundation of their business. It would be unfair to conclude that all women who started their own business or reached the high positions in India and UAE, had an unfair advantage, that they were privileged through their family, be it the fathers’ or husbands’, but being from a well known and financially stable family allowed some women to gain very high positions in the society. It was up to the women to maintain these positions, and as we experienced some were expanding even further and all were very satisfied with their positions in the society, but the support of their families was crucial in their success.
The common professions that were attributed to women in both countries were banking, human resources, teaching, handicrafts, and entrepreneurs. Most of these professions deal with personal contact with people, women are friendly, motherly, and great people’s persons; these are some of the reasons why women are fit for these positions. Many women felt that these are not necessarily reasons why women should get stuck with jobs that will not allow them to expand their professional career, or jobs that will make women less visible in the workplace (Mostafa, 2005). Women seek jobs that are compatible with their abilities and their education, just like their male counterparts. Many times because of some gender inequalities women are offered jobs that fit them better, jobs that they have more potential, motherly jobs, because these traits are taught to women since they are young. “Arab nations strongly supported gender equality in education but not equality in employment” many Arab nations believe that women should learn as much as they can, but there is no need for the education to be utilized (Metcalfe, 2006). Such a statement allows for managers to have the ability to not promote women, regardless of their performance, or hire women in positions that are entry levels or low levels. In India work discrimination is against most corporations’ policies, but at the same time, as we learned from the Fulbright Foundation that managers have a hard time trusting women employees if they are promoted for higher positions, because of the high drop out rate. Many women in India are obligated or culturally bound to take care of their children and family, and many seem to choose this route, which makes it hard for some employers to spend so much funding on training and they are not guarantee a return. Family is important and it is part of the culture and religion for women to take care of their family and children even though they have spend a great deal of their lives getting an education. Maybe for me or someone else this might be absurd, but many women are happy to have that education so they can help their children and they can help their husbands or fathers with their family businesses.
Most of the reasons above have been pointing some of the similarities between the two countries but also visible are some differences between India and UAE. Materialism, gender inequality at work, and reward systems for men. When anyone thinks Dubai, UAE they think the hotel on the strip, they think lights, they think innovative and creative, they think rich. Some women in UAE are thought to be more materialistic because where they live is a very different world from that of some of the cities in India. Although a survey showed that western women compared with Arab and Indian women responded that they work for their career development, most Arab and Indian women responded that they work because of the salary (Alafrangi, 2005). Money is important for all women, but what is also important is a career acceleration, and because of the setting UAE women are more exposed to the monetary values. Another reason for UAE women to be more materialistic is their need for independence, more and more younger women are looking to be financially stable, and this growth is being seen mainly in women age 25-34 (Alafrangi, 2005).
Unlike India which is constantly promoting a fair equality at work, the Middle Eastern societies still govern with their urf (customs), these customs do not accept equal employment between the genders. When visiting Evaluserve, a Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) company we were told that the human resource department makes sure that there is fair employment. Even though this might not be as widespread and might not be the case for all companies in India it is a problem which is being looked after. It is also true that the custom system in UAE also rewards men for being men, and then they would be rewarded a stipend for being married with UAE women, and for having a son. The government is promoting financial gender inequality. In India men as well as many women are encouraged to broaden their horizon by studying and working abroad, though this might not be the case with all families.
Cross-Cultural Communication
India’s culture and traditions are very rich and diverse, and being from another country I though it would be easier for me to adjust to these differences. There were many aspects of the trip that I was completely unprepared for, though some of the things that we went through I had experienced before. Although we learned a lot about the Indian culture through the readings and class time, there were some experiences that are easier learned in practice. India showed to be a very high humane society, they were extremely hospitable. The culture shock was tremendous, because I have never been used to being spoiled and looked after in that manner. When comparing it with my arrival in the US, it is quite the opposite end of the spectrum, because in India everyone welcomed us, even those that were not part of our itinerary.
Another factor that impressed me was Indians’ high performance orientation. As we have read in the Understanding Leadership in a Diverse Culture reading, and as I mentioned above Indian students made quite the impression on me, when it came to their performance. Many of the students that we met did not have a job outside of school, but when it came to studies I was not match, they would attend school all day and then would have time for homework and some socializing. Sleep was not part of the process, while most of us were restless; some of the Indian students were still working at pleasing us and making sure that all our needs were fulfilled. I found it hard to grasp the power they had to accomplish so much during the day. After talking to some people I soon understood that studies were extremely important to students, and their performance in school was important for their future career placement. India has a high performance trait also in the workplace, since we were told that most workers work very long hours and some travel from quite some distance to get to a good job.
An aspect that I was not very excited about was the high power distance that I noticed throughout the trip. I am used to respecting those that are older and higher of status than me, but I am also used to respecting those younger than me, so it made an impression on me when we had to wait for so long for the Education Advisor to the Prime Minister. I do understand that he is a very important figure, and I was honored to be there and listen to his speech, but I thought that the wait was too long, and it caused us to be extremely late for the Women Entrepreneur Forum. High power distance is visible in other countries as well, but in India it was even more visible, and though it was done to honor and respect someone, it took a few days to get adjusted to the things one can do to honor someone.
Indians’ way of communication was a factor that needed some time for adjustment; their communication was very indirect and high context, which made it hard on top of all other culture understanding. Growing up in the US and receiving my most mature education here, I have gotten very used to low-context and more direct communication. While most messages are unspoken and are meant for the receiver to understand, it was hard for me to accurately decipher the message that the Advisor was sending to us. In this case it would be hard for me to go and ask him, if the point that he was making was exactly what I had understood, I resulted to asking Prof. Gupta to explain to me some of the things since he is a native. Verbal communication is such a great challenge because in many part of the world what can be positive in one country, it can mean completely opposite in another one. To adjust to verbal communication one needs to be attentive at all times, make sure that one reads some materials that can help solve some discrepancies, and possibly travel with a native for assurance.
Time is important in the US, and I am not a good example of that because it is one trait that I have not forgotten from my home country, a meeting that starts at 9:00 starts at 9:15 for me still. This was the case with most of the activities that we did throughout the trip. For me it was not a great issue since I am used to this quite often, but it made it very difficult to do all the activities planned. To solve this challenge all we could do is relax and go to the next activity, as long as the hosts do not feel disrespected. Although there were a few challenges throughout the trip, this has been one of my most memorable experience, and more so because of these challenges. Culture shock is not new to me anymore, and this time around it would be a lot easier for me to handle to wherever I travel next. Indian culture has helped broaden my horizon and expanded my knowledge about India, but most importantly it has challenged some of my misconceptions and answered some questions.