Introduction
Wipro Technologies Europe is the information technology (IT) division of Wipro Limited (India) which is oriented to the Western market. Wipro Technologies Europe has its office in Reading, England, to guarantee the provision of customer-oriented IT services in European countries. The promotion of Wipro Technologies in the Western context is led by Vivek Paul, the president of the company, and Sudip Nandy, the director of the sales and marketing division of Wipro Technologies in Europe (Yemen et al. 1). As a result, it is possible to speak about a range of challenges faced by the company’s leaders on their path to developing effective cross-cultural relationships between Indian and European specialists. The purpose of this case study is to analyze the effectiveness of strategies used by Nandy to promote the company in Europe with the focus on building a cross-cultural team and to describe alternative steps which can be taken by Paul to develop the business.
How Effective the Business Will Be
The effectiveness of strategies applied by Nandy in Europe to work with local customers and attract local employees should be analyzed with reference to Geert Hofstede’s culture model. According to this model, there are six key dimensions: power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence. While focusing on power distance, it is possible to state that Indians value hierarchy in society and require strong managers to lead them (“India”).
On the contrary, in the United Kingdom as an example of the Western European culture, the class system and hierarchy are not valued, and employees tend to treat each other as equals (“United Kingdom”). As a result, Nandy’s decision to attract Indian leaders to hiring locals can be viewed as a good idea to support Indians in the Western context, but it can create additional challenges when determining who can take leadership positions in Wipro Technologies Europe, and what type of relationships based on hierarchy or equality will be promoted.
The Indian society can be discussed as both individualistic and collectivistic, and it is important for Indians to feel loyalty and support of an employer, as well as to build strong teams (“India”). The representatives of Western cultures are highly individualistic in their approaches to decision-making in business. Therefore, it is possible to predict that the hired locals will be less focused on the collective work under the Indians’ supervision than it is expected by Nandy (Thomas and Peterson 54). As a result, a clear distribution of responsibilities for Indian and local employees can be viewed as an appropriate decision.
Both Indian and UK cultures are masculine; therefore, it is possible to expect that employees will do their best to perform tasks. From this point, the creation of cross-cultural teams can be beneficial for Wipro Technologies. Both countries, as well as many other Western countries, also have similar scores regarding uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation (“India”; “United Kingdom”). Thus, it is possible to expect that Indian employees and their European colleagues will follow similar approaches to setting goals and implementing changes in the organization (Gelfand et al. 515). While assessing indulgence, Indians are more restraint than representatives of Western cultures.
As a result, employees of Wipro Technologies Europe can have problems while understanding interests and values of each other. To make the cultural integration more effective, Nandy should focus on improving communication channels for interactions between Indian and European colleagues because rare visits and communication using phones, videoconferencing, and e-mail can be inefficient.
Alternative Steps to Develop the Business by Leveraging Differences
To develop the business and address cultural challenges while leveraging differences in Wipro Technologies Europe, it is also possible to take some alternative steps. Firstly, it is important to attract more Europeans to work not only as representatives of the customer service department but also as managers who are professionals in developing the IT business in the Western context. It can be a good experience for European employees to work under the supervision of managers who belong to the same cultural background (Patel 112). Furthermore, it is also possible to attract specialists who had experience of working in India to guarantee that they understand the specifics of the Indian business culture and can help their workers to adapt to them.
Secondly, it is possible to follow the recommendations by Shalom Schwartz and the main principles of his culture model. According to Schwartz, there are three important to dimensions to focus on: embeddedness vs. autonomy, mastery vs. harmony, and hierarchy vs. egalitarianism (Patel 38; Thomas and Peterson 72). For the Indian culture, embeddedness with the focus on traditions, harmony with the focus on self-development, and hierarchy with the focus on order and control are very important to develop their business relationships. Therefore, an alternative decision for Paul is to hire Europeans who have qualities or attributes related to these categories. While working with such people, the India-based company will achieve success in the European market.
Conclusion
Wipro can be discussed as an India-based company that is focused on expanding its operations in the Western markets. A business’s global expansion is usually associated with challenges and barriers to building effective cross-cultural teams. While focusing on hiring locals for Wipro Technologies Europe, managers need to pay attention to certain differences in cultures. In order to leverage these differences and guarantee the business’ growth, it is important to hire specialists who can easily adapt to the cooperation with Indian specialists or who had experience in working in this specific cultural context.
Works Cited
Gelfand, Michele J., et al. “Cross-Cultural Industrial Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior: A Hundred-Year Journey.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 102, no. 3, 2017, pp. 514-520.
“India.” Geert-Hofstede.com. Web.
Patel, Taran. Cross-Cultural Management: A Transactional Approach. Routledge, 2014.
Thomas, David C., and Mark F. Peterson. Cross-Cultural Management: Essential Concepts. 3rd ed., Sage Publications, 2014.
“United Kingdom.” Geert-Hofstede.com. Web.
Yemen, Gerry, et al. Wipro Technologies Europe (A). Darden Business Publishing, 2002.