Words: 1989
Outsourced First of all, I must say the task was very strange to me as we have never had before an assignment like this in Hungary. But after I have seen the movie Outsourced I was under a spell. It was really good to see the process of acculturation how Mr.. Toad’s behavior and skills developed. In addition I love Indian culture, music and dance so it was really fantastic. Review and analysis of the movie: At the beginning of the movie Todd is told that he and his entire department are outsourced to India but of course he also has the possibility to quit.
He travels to India to train his own replacement and to visit the call center to improve their minutes per incident. What is behind it? Of course all is about the money. When he arrives in India he experiences culture shock because of lots of things such as catching the train and hiring a taxi. After all these things he is taken to Auntie Jig’s guest house where he is asked about his personal life that is unusual to him: What does his father do? What is his salary? Is he married?
Here Todd tastes of Indian culture as he should not place the hand that has been in his mouth back in the food ND he should not eat with his left hand because left hand is considered unclean. Then he goes to his new workplace with his friendly and motivated replacement, Purr. After he gives the first accent training to his team of Indian call center workers he realizes that he too has to learn, not only about India but also about himself. One day he calls his ex-girlfriend in the US but he finds that she is with another man.
Todd is very depressed, but he discovers that being outsourced can be the best thing that ever happened to him. Toddy’s Job is to reduce the time needed to complete an average call from 12 minutes to 6. If his team achieves it he can go home. He meets with another call centre administrator in Bombay who tells him his goal is hopeless. He suggests Todd to find himself a wife. Then the next day he puts his clothes on as usual but something happens. That is the day of Hold when he should not wear good clothes. After this something changes in himself and something new begins. Sakes control in the call centre and Todd realizes that the time is getting better and better. So he apologizes to all of them and congratulates his team and asks them hat would make their work day a more positive experience. Workers ask to bring family pictures and items from home, and to be allowed to dress as they want. Moreover, workers would like to try and get different products of Western Novelty that they are selling. So Todd makes a deal with them that whoever improves their PM’ (minutes per incident) the most on a given day, can take their pick of the merchandise.
During the conversation between Todd and Purr I realize something different between the American and the Indian cultures. While in India people live with their parents in America they do not. During his stay in India Todd keeps thinking about his parents, but when he is at home he does not miss them at all. So in different countries different things are important. Todd has a request to ship hundreds of Western Novelty products to India. When the boss calls him to complain, Todd convinces him that he introduces the products to a potential new market of a billion people.
The boss responds to ship the products overnight. But accidentally the products are sent to another Geographic. Todd and Ash (the future assistant manager) decide to go to get the incentives back. Before they depart Todd asks a tatted of the goddess of destruction (Kali), which he sees on the taxi (and on the wall in his room), to destroy something while they wait. The ferry coincidentally burns up. So they go to a hotel where only SUMATRA SUITE is available. Firstly they are nervous, especially Ash because how she can tell her parents she spent the night with Todd in the Sumatra Hotel.
But then, they end up making love. When they return to work, Ash says to Todd that she has been engaged since age 4. Todd grows sad a little bit. Ash explains that the families have known each other for generations ND she will learn to love her future husband like her mother and father did with each other. Todd does not understand that someone as strong, and smart and as opinionated as Ash would settle for an arranged marriage. To this Ash responds that America’s 50% divorce rate is crazy. So what is going on between them? It is called “Holiday in Ago”.
So Ash shows him how he can see things from a different point of view. After this, Toddy’s boss suddenly arrives in India to check on the progress, which was just over 6 minutes per call; they find the call center flooded because of the gibbering farm’s irrigation system. Todd finds out to go up to the roof and they rewire the whole place with the help of his neighbor (the new consultant). One of them manages to break the 6 minutes mark. Before Todd goes off with the other workers to celebrate at the local bar, Lotus, David tells him that the company will be outsourcing to China for a much cheaper price.
So, all the employees have lost their job. Todd tells them the bad news but they do not complain because they will get severance pay and can get a Job anywhere. Only Purr is disappointed because he will tot get a Job, he is not young anymore and he will not get enough money to marry the woman of his dreams. Todd refuses traveling to China but he offers this Job to differently and thinks differently, he does things how he did them in India such as drinking coffee with lots of sugar. In the closing scene Toddy’s phone rings with Ash’s special Remington and he is happy.
Acculturation model: Culture Shock: When Todd arrives in India he experiences culture shock because of lots of things such as catching the train and hiring a taxi. At the beginning he rejects things that re around him and he even does not understand why people are different. He behaves as an American who does not care about the Indian workers and their culture he Just want to assimilate them to American way of working and speaking. By this time he does not manage to reduce the PM’, actually he does not know to handle the situation and does not know to solve the given task.
Hold day: After the day of Hold something changes in himself and something new begins. One night Ash helps him when he begins to pay attention to people instead of reducing the time. He apologizes to all of them and congratulates his team and asks them hat would make their work day a more positive experience. From this time the PM’ is getting better and better. Check: When Toddy’s boss suddenly arrives in India to check on the progress, they find the call center flooded because of the neighboring farm’s irrigation system. Todd finds out to go up to the roof and they rewire the whole place with the help of his neighbor (the new consultant).
At the end of the movie Todd can stand up for himself and for his workers, he can decide what solution is the correct. Furthermore, when David tells him that the company will be outsourcing to China for a much cheaper price and his employees have lost their Jobs he tells them the bad news (what he could not do at the beginning of the movie). To sum up, we can see how Todd, his personal behavior and leadership behavior change, and how he acculturates to India. While at the beginning he hated the whole situation, at the end he has loved India.
Theoretical background: At the beginning of the movie I could see the problems deriving from the cultural differences. I think learning different cultures are important to be effective as a leader in a different country. Ouzel (2010) emphasizes the thoughts of Scheme (2004) hat: “Many management consultants and theorists asserted that “strong” cultures are desirable as a basis for effective and lasting performance. But strong cultures are assume that the appropriate way for humans to behave in relationship to their environment is to be proactive problem solvers and learners. I have experienced also ethnocentrism during the movie. What does it mean? According to Culture and Leadership I would like to mention that: “Ethnocentrism can be a major obstacle to effective leadership because it prevents people from fully understanding or respecting the world of others. The more ethnocentric we are the less open or tolerant we are of other people’s cultural traditions or practices. ” Moreover, Milton J. Bennett also deals with ethnocentrism in the Golden Rule. He says that ethnocentrism is the tendency to see our own culture as the centre of the universe.
We tend to see our own groups, our own country, our own culture as the best, as the most moral. It was really typical of Todd at the beginning, he had his own frame of reference, but finally he could leave it. I think it is important to write about the connection between leadership behavior and ultra clusters as I have read in the Culture and Leadership. “The profile of leadership for the Anglo countries emphasizes that leaders are especially charismatic/value-based, participative, and sensitive to people.
Stated another way, Anglo countries want leaders to be exceedingly motivating and visionary, not autocratic, and considerate of others. Furthermore, they report that leaders should be team oriented and autonomous. The least important characteristic for Anglo countries is self-protective leadership. They believe it is ineffective if leaders are status conscious or prone to face saving. The US is characterized by the Anglo leadership profile, while India is characterized by Southern Asia leadership profile. “The Southern Asia leadership profile is similar to the profile of Confucian Asia.
They both place importance on self-protective, humane oriented, and team-oriented leadership, and they both find participative leadership ineffective. Southern Asia countries differ from Confucian Asia countries in believing that charisma is an important leader attribute. The Southern Asia countries characterize effective leadership as especially collaborative, inspirational, sensitive to people’s needs, and unconcerned with status and face saving. Furthermore, they believe leaders who tend to be autocratic are more effective than those who lead by inviting others into the decision-making process. Actually we can see similarities between the two leadership profiles, but the problem is with the different cultures and traditions. Finally I would like to mention what culture is. As I have read in the Journal of World Business (2002): “There is no agreed upon definition among social scientists for the term culture. Generally speaking, culture is used by social scientists to refer to a set f parameters of collectives that differentiate the collectives from each other in meaningful ways.
For the GLOBE research program, we theoretically define culture as shared motivates, values, beliefs, identities, and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common experiences of members of collectives and are transmitted across age generations. ” 1. Culture and Leadership 2. Milton J. Bennett, Golden Rule: Sympathy and Empathy 3. Ouzel, Oxidize, (2010), The impacts of different cultures on leadership effectiveness. 4. R. House et al. , Journal of World Business 37 (2002)