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/