With the rise of the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), their governments have been making huge investments in higher education, which have been paying off. In India, the elite technical universities produce graduates with training and competencies similar to those from Western academia.
The increase in students entering the global workforce from Indian universities carries important implications for workplace culture. In a recent blog post by Neil Miller of Learning India, Miller discusses how beyond learning technical skills, university students pick up behaviors and strategies that eventually carry over into workplace interactions. The key to Miller’s post is that Indian university students often learn different workplace strategies and behaviors than their counterparts in the West. The implication for non-Indian managers and leaders is that Indian workplace culture needs to be managed in different ways.
Miller identifies four major aspects of the Indian university system, and explains how they carry over into the workplace (paraphrased below):
1. The professor/student relationship is one based on deference. The student expresses respect for the teacher by not questioning his or her authority. This relationship may be reflected in how a graduate interacts with their boss in the workplace.
2. Continuing on the theme of deference to the professor/boss, questions are not common during lectures or meetings. For recent graduates especially, there will be a learning curve of how to interact in and add value to group meetings.
3. Again, questions to the authority figure are few and far between. So, instead of direct questioning, it is much more common to check with friends or peers at the same level to see how they interpreted what may have happened or was discussed.
4. In Indian universities, quantity matters. An acceptable way to demonstrate your commitment and effort is to learn and write as many facts and related details to the topic for a given assignment. High context communication is thus the norm in the workplace.
It is important to point out that these tendencies are not bad or wrong, they simply reflect different interaction styles that can bring value to any business environment. Still, in a global, diverse work environment, these behaviors need to be understood so that management is fully leveraging the talents of their staff. Most would agree that for a work team to learn and grow together, all members must be comfortable putting forth their questions and insights. It is the charge of management to integrate cultural differences find ways to make Indian university graduates comfortable with Western styles.
BRIC nations are investing heavily to reverse the “brain drain” of their best and brightest to Western universities. The growth of BRIC universities means that global teams need to learn how to accommodate and incorporate the skill
