Working as One Team - USA and India

Catherine Mercer Bing
Managing Director,
ITAP Americas, Inc.
(w) 1.215.860.5640
http://www.itapintl.com
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©2018 ITAP International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Working as One Team:
USA and India

A Case Study:
A Global Team in Trouble
• Ronda and Shayam are composites of
team leaders that have worked with ITAP
• This presentation highlights some insights
that ITAP shared with professionals such
as Ronda and Shayam
2

Overview
• An Indian manufacturer is building
capacity in the USA
• The global team leading the expansion is
composed of US Americans and Asian
Indians
• The team leaders are Ronda (a US
American) and Shayam (Indian)
3

Leaders of a Global Team
• Both Ronda and Shayam have travelled
the world
• They assumed that they can easily guide a
cross-cultural team to success…
4

Global Team with a
Disappointing Performance
• But their team’s performance was weak
• The employees were good and
experienced, but the work that the team
produced fell short of everyone’s
expectations
5

A Low Performing Team is Bad
for Business…
• Communication seems to suddenly break
down, and team members fail to focus on
key priorities
• Some of the best employees left the team,
and hiring new talent has been delayed
• Time and money is wasted on rework
• The business failed to renew three
contracts due to missed deadlines
6

Seeking Help
• Shayam and Ronda realized that they
needed to gain a deeper understanding
into how culture shapes human process
interactions in the workplace
• They searched for a consulting firm that
supports core business partnerships--
identifying, implementing, managing, and
evaluating partnerships, and found ITAP
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Prioritizing Curiosity
• Ronda and Shayam decided to put their
feelings of anger and frustration aside
• With ITAP’s help, they realized that as
global leaders they needed to embrace
key prerequisites:
–Be curious about differences
–Leverage the differences
8

Initial Conversation
• ITAP interviewed Ronda, Shayam, and
some key team members about their
experiences working with each other
– Frustrations
– What worked well
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Findings: USA Team’s Perceptions
of Indian Team
The Indian team members are more
congenial than necessary
Is their politeness necessary? They are
polite because they are weak!
10

Findings: USA Team’s
Perceptions of Indian Team
Indians tend to be passive, disinterested,
not particularly bright, and not sufficiently
committed to telling the truth. They say
yes they will get it done and then they
miss deadlines
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Findings: USA Team’s
Perceptions of Indian Team
• Compared to US Americans, the Indian
team members are less likely to speak up,
challenge others, share bad news...
contradict the client...
12

Findings: Indian Team’s
Perceptions of USA Team
US Americans seem to be disinterested in
thinking... only interested in defining a plan
of action.
They only value thoughts that are closely
connected to the bottom line
The US American team members are less
qualified and able than the Indian team
members
13

Before I visited the USA, I perceived the
US Americans as convivial and fun. They
go out drinking after work
After spending more time in the USA, I
started to notice some cut-throat aspects
of US corporate culture
US Americans are very work driven, and
are proud of working around the clock
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US Americans have no experiences
similar to the ones Indian have been
exposed to in India, such as bribery and
abusive bosses
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Perceptions of USA
• US American companies have lot of
energy and dynamism and excitement
My US American team members have more
opportunities for advancement than their
Indian colleagues
I prefer having a US American boss and
working in the US
16

Perceptions of USA
Team members in India respect the
buyer/supplier relationship much more
than their US American colleagues
US Americans should respect the success
Indian software and technology companies
have had
17

An Outline of ITAP’s Proposal
Align the team with resources and support
within the organization
Improve the team internal dynamics
Develop better communication around
tasks and deadlines
Create early detection systems to address
problems, barriers and issues well before
milestones are not met
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ITAP’s GTPQ Helped Shayam
and Ronda
• The Global Team Process
Questionnaire™ (GTPQ) assesses human
process interactions on teams and takes
15-20 minutes to complete
• Measures change over time
19

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Key Insights from the GTPQ
Ronda and Shayam learn the extent to
which team members agree with each
other about the team’s strengths and
areas that needed improvement
Areas that the team members agree
needs to be improved present an
opportunity for an early intervention
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Exec Overview
Regularly track
results over time
Individual Question results
Data comparisons
The GTPQ Helped Shayam and
Ronda

Results Overview
• Drawing on GTPQ’s assessment of team
members’ perceptions of areas of
strengths and weakness, ITAP designed a
series of interventions
• The next few slides show some highlights
from a workshop that was part of the
intervention
23

Sample Insights from the
Workshop
• It’s normal for the team members from
India to come to the US for 3 months
• In contrast, some US American members
visit India for 2 weeks
24

Workshop
• Indians respect power differences, both in
the family and in the workplace. US
Americans… much less so!
• In an Indian family, children sometimes
exaggerate when they share good news
with their parents. They want to please
people who are superior to them in status
25

Workshop
• Indian employees are less comfortable
with direct communication and expressing
emotion than US American employees
• Some Indian men prefer not to show their
vulnerability or that they feel much
emotion
– They might hide their true feelings and
desires from others, including their own
families
26

Workshop
• US Americans believe that their Indian
colleagues “don’t say what they mean nor
mean what they say…”
• Yet US Americans give each other 2nd
chances; employees can fail and make a
comeback
27

Workshop
• The Indian team members are more afraid
to fail than their US American teammates:
They’re status conscious and do not
expect 2nd chances
28

Workshop
• Employees in India are more controlled by
their boss. The boss has a lot of leverage.
In India the boss writes the performance
appraisal
29

Workshop
• Immigrants from India might prefer
working in the USA because they face less
competition, less regulatory harassment,
fewer scenarios where they will be asked
to give a bribe
30

Workshop
• In India there is more tolerance for when things
don’t go right
• Yet abusive bosses in India are far more abusive
than bosses in the USA
• In the workplace in the USA, someone who is
nice to you on the phone can turn around and
write unfavorable feedback
– Corporate culture in the USA can be
perceived as “very mean”
31

Workshop
• In the USA, if you commit to a timeline, you are
expected to meet it
• In the US, one hears the phrase “this is not
acceptable”
• Conversations can be very forward and blunt
32

Workshop
• In India, managers insert themselves into the
work and the interactions, buffeting employees
• Indians have a greater Need for Certainty* than
US Americans:
– US Americans don’t lay out the task in detail
– In contrast, Indian managers are very specific
about the expectations. Employees in India
prefer specific instructions
* See next two slides for an explanation
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The Deeper Learning
• The intervention that ITAP designed
included a discussion of how cultural
values impact behavior and work styles
• The concept “Need for Certainty” is a
cultural value that features in Geert
Hofstede’s comparative framework
• Here is a brief overview of Hofstede’s
framework
34

CULTURAL HARMONY: WORKING IN A MULTI-CULTURAL COMPANY 35
35
The Cultural Values Featured in
Hofstede’s Framework
Individual Orientation
Self-reliance
Group Orientation
Interdependence
Hierarchical Orientation
Discipline
Participative Orientation
Acceptance of Responsibility
Need for Certainty
Precision
Tolerance for Ambiguity
Innovation
Achievement Orientation
Efficiency
Quality of Life Orientation
Custom Outputs & Personal Service
Long-Term Orientation
Developing New Market
Opportunities
Short-Term Orientation
Fast Adaptation
Individualism
Power Distance
Certainty
Achievement
Time Orientation
Indulgence Orientation
A sense of well-being
Restraint Orientation
Work-ethic
Indulgence
*This slide showcases ITAP’s terminology for Hofstede’s dimensions

Outcomes
The workshop and follow up interventions
yielded results:
Communication improved
Team members focused on key priorities
New talent joined the team, and retention
is at all time high
The team is efficient and brings in new
business
36

Ronda and Shayam’s Experience
with the GTPQ
• Three months later, team members retook the
GTPQ. The results confirmed:
– Team members’ interactions improved
– Process and performance improved
• Ronda and Shayam:
–Continue to depend on the GTPQ to identify leading
indicators of the team’s progress and performance
–Have been certified (with two of their colleagues) to
use the GTPQ so they can:
• Access the tool online
• Co-facilitate discussions of team results

What Ronda and Shayam Like
About ITAP’s GTPQ
• The tool includes:
– Some questions which never change (for data
comparisons over time or with other teams)
– Additional questions which are customizable
• Team members and leaders can use data to:
– Focus on real/current issues
– Resolve misunderstandings
– Establish team interaction protocols
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GTPQ Brings Sustainable
Practices
• ITAP supports core global business
partnerships -- identifying, implementing,
managing, and evaluating partnerships
• ITAP contributes to sustainable practices
such as:
 Win-win outsourcing
 Value chain integration
 New product development
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ITAP Can Help!
The Global Team Process Questionnaire
(GTPQ):
– Client has the option to certify team leaders
in the GTPQ process
– Personal help from ITAP for interpreting the
results and resolving team issues
ITAP delivers an executive summary with
analysis of the results in addition to the
respondents’ answers
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• ITAP recommends Many Cultures One
Team: Build Your Cultural Repertoire, a
new book on virtual teams by Catherine
Mercer Bing
• http://www.TechnicsPub.com
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Many Cultures, One Team

Acknowledgement
• This presentation draws on the
contributions of a number of experts
• ITAP is especially grateful to
– Erik Granered, former Senior Consultant,
ITAP International, Inc.
– Sharon Horowitz PhD., Founder Centernorth
International, Inc.
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Catherine Mercer Bing
Managing Director
ITAP Americas, Inc.
ITAP International, Inc.
353 Nassau Street, 1st floor
Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
(W) 1.215.860.5640
http://www.itapintl.com
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Working as One Team - USA and India

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