Legal outsourcing firms based in India are creating jobs for US lawyers in a new trend, according to the New York Times. US based employees of legal outsourcing firms describe their working environment as “truly global”.

In April, Pangea3 sent Kirit Amichandwala, a senior manager from Mumbai, to train new employees in Texas on how to conduct document reviews and other tasks the way the company’s lawyers do in India. The new hires ‘all have good document review experience,’ Mr. Amichandwala said, ‘but a lot of the processes we follow are pretty unique to us.’

Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

The “unique” processes are certainly related to Indian culture, which inform the Indian way of business: indirect norms of communication, intensive management of tasks, hierarchical decision making and beyond. Through the process of what we might call “modernization”, many technologies and methodologies have been transferred from West to East, but knowledge transfer for these firms has gone in the opposite direction. In a way, Mr. Amichandwala went to Texas to conduct a pseudo-intercultural awareness program for his American trainees – a key step in preparing a company for success with colleagues working across cultures.

One of Pangea3’s main competitors, UnitedLex, has started regularly swapping teams of lawyers between the United States and India so that employees in both countries can learn to work the same way.

The big challenge is ‘how do you get a bunch of American lawyers to believe that we might be doing things smarter’ by using a process developed in India, said Shelly Dalrymple, senior vice president for global litigation support at UnitedLex.

One American law firm was so won over that it asked a UnitedLex document review manager from India to train its own team in Boston, Ms. Dalrymple said.

The crossing of cultures in the legal world will likely be fraught with the same challenges BPO and other offshoring companies have found in working with its Western clients. It will be interesting to see how this industry continues to expand operations in the US, creating jobs when for years it took jobs.

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

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One hundred people sign up to LinkedIn every sixty seconds. How will LinkedIn fare in China?

Ushi is China’s answer to Linkedin and it too is expecting explosive growth.

What’s unique about Ushi is that it takes into account cultural differences. Ushi (which means ‘outstanding professionals’) is focusing on off-line events such as dinners, banquets, networking meetings, etc. Chinese people place high value on face-to-face meetings and are reluctant to do business with people they don’t know.

“There’s more proportion of Chinese who will only do business with people they have met before and people who have a mutual friend,” says Dominic Penaloza, Ushi’s CEO who has family roots in Xiamen, southeastern China. In an interview with Reuters he explained, “If you ask them to pay $25 equivalent for a three-hour networking party they would not hesitate to pay, they would line up to pay.”

REUTERS/Aly Song

Ushi is hoping to monetize the central Chinese value of guanxi , which is defined by personal networks of influence. As our CTO Josh Sturtevant commented on LinkedIn,

It’s fascinating to me that unlike LinkedIn, Ushi has a very clear built-in revenue model across it’s entire usership because the Chinese will pay top renmibi for the chance to attend social gatherings and get introductions through premium offerings.

Ushi (www.ushi.cn) is currently operating on an invitation-only basis – attracting the A-list ‘outstanding professionals’ before opening it’s doors to China’s 450 million internet users. Will its presence in China surpass that of LinkedIn? Penezola thinks so: “Ushi will work better for Chinese people because it is made in China, made by Chinese, made for Chinese and that’s a huge difference.”

However, do Chinese establish guanxi without ever meeting face-to-face? Do internet users in China except online connections and communications as ways to build guanxi?

Click to join our Ushi discussion on LinkedIn.

Mark

RW3 CultureWizard

+ Greeks are proud of their cultural heritage and their contribution to world civilization. A recent study found that Greeks’ pride in being Greek surpassed the ethnic satisfaction of all other European countries.

+ To a Greek, “philotimo” is similar to the Asian concept of face. It is an intangible quality that reflects a person’s reputation, dignity and prestige. Honor is everything to a Greek.

+ Greeks are spontaneously generous people, provided you do not offend them. They can be easily offended, for their pride matches their generosity. Therefore, they do not openly criticize, insult or put anyone on the spot.

+ Business is personal in Greece. As such, it is important to understand that exchanging favors is part of the business culture. If a Greek businessman feels sufficiently comfortable to ask you for a favor, it means he trusts you, which is necessary for successful business dealings.

+ As you might expect in a culture that appears spontaneous, Greeks often interrupt a speaker if they think that they understand what the person is saying. This conversational overlap is not rudeness, but merely the common communication style.

+ Greek businessmen will treat foreign businesswomen with the same courtesy and respect that they treat all women.

+ Women should expect attention and compliments from Greek men. While many businessmen are cosmopolitan, Greece remains a patriarchal culture. Men on the street may verbally show affection or make comments to women, believing such attention is flattering.

- from RW3′s CultureWizard® Country Profiles

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Under duress, we revert to our basic cultural behavioral styles. And, taking to the streets to riot is not uncommon in Greece’s history.

As everyone who has worked in the international arena knows, culture is learnable, but not easily changeable. While it’s not too difficult to learn to adjust your behavior to accomplish objectives in a different cultural environment, the difficulty comes when you’re faced with stress. Most of us will revert back to our core cultural behaviors. The Euro Zone has learned quite well to work together across myriad cultures, but the question is: how well will it perform under the stress it is now facing? Has the Euro adequately transcended the cultural differences so as to allow Europeans to pull together with a single solution?

The struggle today in the Euro Zone is that test. Will it survive under the duress being placed on it, right now, particularly by Greece? (Click here to read our Culture Tips for Greece). This Athens News article describes the intense struggles that leaders of the EU are encountering. What are your thoughts?

Charlene

The Santiago Times highlights We-tripantu, the Mapuche celebration of the new year, which falls on the winter solstice each year. Chile’s largest indigenous group comprises 4% of the entire population.

The Mapuche Flag

“We want to maintain the culture and the languages. Traditions as important as the We-tripantu should serve to renew the relationship between the Mapuches and the non-Mapuches,” said Jorge Retamal Rubio, the director of Chile’s ministry for indigenous affairs.

According to the article, “Thursday night, families will get together to feast on traditional Mapuche dishes like sopaipilla, a fried bread, muday, a fermented corn drink, and catuto, a bread made of ground grains, oil and salt. In addition to meaning ‘new year,’ We-tripantu also means ‘sunrise of the new sun’ and at sunrise on Friday, Mapuche will bathe in the frigid waters of Chile’s rivers in order to purify their bodies and souls for the new year.”

RW3 CultureWizard

The Atlantic published an article questioning a trend in Japan where Prime Ministers decide to resign when their popularity wanes. In contrast to the US, where the President is expected to carry out a full term, the majority of Japanese citizens have come to expect PMs to leave office quickly when they no longer favor them.

According to Japanese cultural norms, individuals are loyal to the will and desire of the group or the whole. Members of a family make sacrifices for the well-being of the family unit, employees work hard to ensure group harmony is maintained and dissenters are quickly weeded out, as the Japanese proverb aptly puts it: “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down”. Does this strong orientation to the group inform to any degree the trend we see with Japanese leaders?

REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoo

The Atlantic draws a connection between Arab and Japanese cultures to try and figure out how to best explain this trend in Japan when the same values ostensibly characterize Arab cultural values:

So why is Japan different? Why do its top officials — and this trend extends across senior government posts — resign office, seemingly at the drop of a hat? The theories are endless, most of them relying on oft-repeated but simplistic stereotypes about the supposed centrality of honor, saving face, and respect in Japanese culture. But if these traits really are so important to Japanese culture, then the same could be said of Arab culture. But, clearly, Arab political leaders feel no compunction to step down, even if they become so loathed that the country rises up by the millions to demand their exit.

What do you make of this? Arab culture is not similar enough to Japanese culture to make this kind of comparison (read an article I authored in MOBILITY on the topic for more information on Middle Eastern culture). What may look like corruption in the Arab world is not necessarily seen as such by Arab leaders. Fierce authoritarianism and a prideful, paternal culture would better explain the reasons why many Arab leaders refuse to step down. An aversion to change and a low tolerance for risk are also key values that prevent a regular shift of power.

In a general sense, it’s true that Japanese highly value rank in society and recognize the responsibilities of its leaders to conform to the nation’s needs. A loss of face, or a tarnished reputation because of low popularity ratings, would be hard to overcome in Japan, especially when highly visible. What is it about Japan that compels its leaders to so easily step out of office? Are there any Japan experts out there that can provide their insights?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

Read insight from Michael Schell, RW3 CultureWizard CEO, in an HR Executive article by Andrew R. McIlvaine titled “The Risks of Foreign Managers”. Here is a blurb describing the article:

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s recent arrest stirs up a glaring concern: Should U.S. employers be on the lookout for troublesome — and possibly criminal — behaviors of managers coming from overseas to work for their organizations? Absolutely, experts say.

Schell offers specific advice to foreign-born and foreign-trained managers working in the US.

The workplace structure at foreign companies tends to be more hierarchical than in the United States, says Michael Schell, CEO of RW3 CultureWizard, a consulting firm in New York, and author of Managing Across Cultures: The Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset. This hierarchy can result in foreign managers feeling entitled to treat subordinates more or less how they wish, he says.

‘When foreign managers come to the United States, they need to learn what the culture of the U.S. workplace is and the rules here; otherwise, people will get sued,’ says Schell.

What is your perspective on this issue? We welcome any comments or questions.

RW3 CultureWizard

Read Sean Dubberke’s article, Middle East Culture Redux, in the June issue of MOBILITY magazine. The following blurb describes the article:

The Middle East is a vast region encompassing a multitude of distinct cultures, dialects, and attitudes toward business with the West. Dubberke addresses those issues and examines important elements of Middle Eastern cultures: communication, relationships, and rules, as well as how these cultural characteristics affect business practices. He also examines how to successfully interact with Middle Easterners.

RW3 CultureWizard

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* Strauss-Kahn Case: Questioning French Identity
* The Culture of Shapes and Colors
* Learning the Local Lingo
* A Spectrum of Cultural Emotion

CultureLinks
+ “3 Tips on Getting to Yes in China”

CultureTips
+ South Africa

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