a case of cultural chaos

8/8/2019 A Case of Cultural Chaos

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A CASE OF CULTURAL CHAOS

Presented by: Akshay Sharma - 2009067

Maya Bhat - 2009089

Rohan Kamat - 2009104

Siddarth Naik - 2009113

Vishwesh Singbal - 2009119


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CASE OVERVIEW

Life of Arun Borate:Born and brought up in Kolhapur, Maharashtra

B.Tech in Electrical EngineeringAchiever in aptitude tests and interviews

Accepted a call from Cognizant for a six figure

salary

Disappointed to find out his location wasChennai

His only hope was his perspective work group


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CASE OVERVIEW CONTD.

Life at Cognizant, Chennai:His group consisted of residents of Chennai

itselfAll decisions and discussions were done in

their native language that Arun could not

understand

Arun was not included in a group outing due tothe lingual barrier


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CASE OVERVIEW CONTD.

The whole setting made Arun resent his

office, making him negative and bitter

towards the company

Bad-mouthing the company and advising

his friends against joining Cognizant

Eventually, as time passed, Arun got used

to the routine of his job, and also gainedthe acceptance of his work group

After 18 months at work, Arun finally got

an offer for a transfer


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CASEANALYSIS:

GROUP DEVELOPMENT STAGES


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CASEANALYSIS:

GROUP DEVELOPMENT STAGES CONTD


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CASEANALYSIS:

GROUP THINK

It can be observed that group think did occur in

Aruns team.

Arun could seldom participate in the group

discussions, he quickly gave up his right to voicing

his ideas and let his colleagues run the show.


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CASEANALYSIS:

SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY

Social exchange theory posits that all human

relationships are formed by the use of a

subjective cost-benefit analysis and thecomparison of alternatives.

For example, when a person perceives the costs of

a relationship as outweighing the perceivedbenefits, then the theory predicts that the person

will choose to leave the relationship.


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CASEANALYSIS:

SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORYCONTD..

In this case, the rest of the team members have a

feeling that the inclusion of Arun in their

informal group is of no benefit to them.

The cost of a cultural adjustment outweighs the

benefit of having them in their midst. They prefer

to have members who share the same culture andinterests.


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CASEANALYSIS:

SOCIAL LOAFING

As a fallout of the deviant behavior exhibited byArun, social loafing would occur routinely until theteam was in the forming stage.

Arun would show least interest in the tasks allocatedto him.

He would not fill up timesheets. He knew that hismanager or a colleague will fill his timesheet to avoidlosing revenue from the client.

Arun thought that his deviant behavior was justified.So it was difficult to convince him against socialloafing.


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CONCLUSION

The case has brought out some obvious problems

that may seem to haunt any office setup.

Companies today try to strike a good socio-economic and cultural balance in the office by

hiring employees from varying financial,

educational and cultural backgrounds.

While this technique assures diversification of

talent and avoids giving an unexpected identity

to the organization, it also brings about tensions

amongst the employees.


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CONCLUSION

The company needs to stress on culturalsensitivity training programs to arm managers

with a keen eye for such problems and the skills

to defuse such situations.

Job expectations and constraints need to make

clear to the candidate. Often, the Indian IT

companies provide a vague declaration of the job

details which leads to dissatisfactions amongst

employees once they join the company.

Deviant behaviours like negative feedback of the

company, absenteeism and irresponsible work

styles should be dealt with seriously.

a case of cultural chaos

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