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Longer waiting period: When Accenture outsourced the projects to India, there will be a time gap of five and half hours between the working hours. Hence, the work cannot be synchronized due to these time variations. Outsource and offshore model cannot work in this way. And hence the company is looking for a different solution such that there will be a cooperative model designed between the companies.
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Cultural variations: Accenture is based upon the United Kingdom and the outsourced company is in India and there is a lot of difference between the work cultures. Due to this multi cultured environment, the companies are not in a position to synchronize the cooperation between the employees of the two companies.
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Different mind sets: The people are from different regions and hence the mind sets vary according to the regions. The employees in the Indian outsourced company do not have any idea about the mind set and the work culture of the people in the United Kingdom and the same is the case with the employees in United Kingdom.
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Insecure feeling: The outsourced work is mainly related to the data of the United Kingdom customers. The customers do not want to share their data with the outsourced employees in India and hence they will always prefer not to talk with them. If a customer in UK wants to share the information regarding his/her portfolio, he/she is not in a position to disclose the data to the outsourced employees and hence this is creating problems.
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Work ethics: The ethics in the work place will be decided upon the nature of the people and the country they are residing. The same is the situation with Accenture and the outsource company. Accenture being operated in UK and the outsource company in India, the variation in the ethics is posing a big problem to the company and the rules and regulations of the companies are not allowing each company to cooperate with each other in certain areas like the number of working hours, week end work hours etc.
Though these are the reasons which are affecting the organizational culture and outsourcing, there are other specific reasons when it comes to the managers. The managers though want to perform better in the respective fields, due to the lack in the required skill sets and the training resources they are not able to provide better output to the companies and hence they are not in a position to make good business. Though being efficient managers in the offshore team, when it comes to the outsourcing, the managers are not in a position to deliver their best. Hence, this is giving rise to the cultural clash and the situation will become unhandled after a particular period of time. There are solutions through which the outsourcing can be made true for the employees and the managers and thus reduce the cultural clashes in the work place.
4. Analysis of the situation
The situation can be analyzed through the Geert Hofstede's Dimensions of Culture and Edward T. Hall's Time Orientations. This will help to analyze the situation and point out the problems that are being faced by the organization in handling the cultural issues. The main advantage of this theory is to identify the solutions for the problems which will help to reduce the unethical culture in the company.
- Power Distance Index (PDI):
This is the index which will tell about the willingness of the less powerful people of a company about the unequal distribution of the power. The index is very high in the outsourced company and hence the employees think that the power is distributed unequally among the employees and thus this creates a huge gap between the employees and the managers. The employees will always think that they are given priority in the decision making and implementing the new ideas and they will be de-motivated and the work performance is very less when compared to the other employees.
- Individualism
Individualism is generally defined as the way of the people behave in an organization or a society by looking after only their needs and do not worry about the other people. In the outsourced company, the employees are individualistic and hence they are not in a position to cooperate with the other employees and hence there is a lack of communication and knowledge transfer. This is finally affecting the company’s performance and thus the clients’ business. The better understanding of the work culture by the employees can only be done by the effective communication and educating themselves with the help of others in the company.
- Masculinity (MAS)
Masculinity (MAS) describes the nature of the competitiveness over the quality of the life. The competitiveness is generally termed as the ‘masculine’ value where as the quality of the life is called ‘feminine’ value. Hence, it is the duty of the company to reduce the feeling of feminine. The high feminine value will certainly reduce the productivity of the organization whereas the high masculine value will increase the productivity of the employees as well as the organization. The culture tributes are high only when the masculine value index is very high and hence we can say the society and thus the institutions in the society will perform well according to the expectations.
- Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)
The level of the tolerance to which the uncertainty can be tolerated by the society or an organization is generally referred to as uncertainty avoidance index. The more is the index, the more will be the tolerance of the society to accept the uncertainty. The same is the case with the outsourcing and the employees are forced to accept tolerate the ambiguity in the company and they are forced to obey the laws of the company without opposing them. This will reduce the competitiveness among the employees and the work productivity will be reduced. Hence, the employees should work hard to reduce the uncertainty avoidance index value so that the company will be healthy.
- Long term orientation (LTO)
The company which will work hard for the long term benefits will get the good results according to long term orientation. According to this, the outsourced company should have to strive hard to increase the potential of the company in the short term as well as long term and should be aware of the problems that are faced in the long run. If these hurdles are crossed, then the company will be in a position to make a better understanding of the situation and hence the long run fruits will be easily accessible by the employees as well as the organization. The more is the experience in the outsourcing field the more will be the chances of making good profits and thus reduced problems.
SWOT Analysis of the outsourcing
Strengths
Outsourcing is very cheap in Indian due to the less cost of the labor. This will help the company to recruit the talented people at very cheaper rates than the other countries. There is no limit for the talented people due to the vast population and educated people. The low cost infrastructure will always help the organization to build an efficient outsource communication medium and thus encourage the business. Though the people are from multi lingual, cultural and religious backgrounds, they are mingled with each other and hence the cultural clashes are not much encouraged. The long term insight of the business is a boon to the outsourcing for the outsourced company.
Weaknesses
The employees of the company are individualistic and hence they are not cooperating with each other. They just want to improve themselves but that is the fact that if they won’t help others or get help from others, their knowledge cannot be improved and at the same time, the whole organization will face the problem. Due to the high tolerance index, the employees are not able to perform well with their utmost productivity and creativity. Due to the high level of variation in the management as well as the employees, the employees are forced not to take any decisions in case of urgency and hence they have to wait till the approval of the managers.
Opportunities
The high standard training programs are good opportunities for the employees to improve their standards and skills. This will help them to increase the output of the company as well as themselves. The frequent interaction with the client and the customers will help the employees to improve their communication skills and thus the negotiations skills. The productivity of the outsourcing will always be improved with the increase in the development of the employees and the managers’ relations.
Threats
The high power distance index value, the individualistic mindset of the employees, high feminine values of the employees, high uncertainty avoidance index and the low relationship between the managers and the employees are posing big threats to the organization to improve the outsourcing standards. These problems are hindering the mindset of the employees and thus the productivity of the organization. However they can be reduced by the better understanding and the cooperation of the employees as well as the managers. The customers are not willing to talk with the people from outsourced countries for disclosing their banking or financial portfolio data to get the support. This is the biggest threat the company is facing in the present days.
5. Recommendations and Solutions
The recommendations that are designed based upon the problems that are identified in the organization are:
Accenture should outsource the project to the companies which have the low power index value. The low is the power index value, the more will be the freedom of the employees in the outsourced companies and hence they can perform according to their capacity. The feminine values have to be eradicated from the organization environment and thus this will give a place for masculine environment where the employee are highly motivated and strengthened. The individualistic nature of the employees is critically affecting the organization and hence the collectivism among the employees should be increased so that they can cooperate with each other in every perspective of work culture. The good thing is that the cultural variations are not showing effect in the work place. However, steps have to be taken so as to reduce the cultural variations among the employees of the outsourced companies and the customers from abroad. Then only the customers will be willing to speak with the employees of the outsourcing companies. The employees are tolerating the uncertainty in the organization from the managers. This index has to be reduced in the organization so that the certainty will prevail in the work place and will give rise to collectivism and the employees are treated with care and affection.
6. Forecasts and Outcomes
The outcomes of the above said recommendations can be seen in the very near future. The implementation of the collectivism and the masculine environment will increase the developments in the way the outsourcing can be handled. The relations between the employees and the managers will be improved and the employees will be given rights to take decisions when needed. The customers and the employees will build up a relation such that they will have to manage a long term relationship. The variations in the culture will be reduced due to the broad mindedness of the employees as well as the customers. The client will be happy for providing better outsourced solutions to the customers.
References
[1] Marc J. Schniederjans, Ashlyn M. Schniederjans, Dara G. Schniederjans, Outsourcing and insourcing in an international context, M.E. Sharpe Inc, USA, 2005
[2] Ronan McIvor, The outsourcing process: strategies for evaluation and management, Cambridge University press, UK, 2005
[3] Karen E. Fisher, Sanda Erdelez, Lynne McKechnie, Theories of information behavior, American society for information science and technology, 2005
[4] Triandis, H. C. (2001). Individualism-collectivism and personality. Journal of Personality, 69, 907-924
[5] Ess, C., and Sudweeks, F. (2005). Culture and computer-mediated communication: Toward new understandings. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1), article 9
[6] , Strategic Outsourcing: Leveraging Knowledge Capabilities, , ISSN 0019-848X, , P. 9-21