Astrid Kainzbauer, my thematic paper advisor, who specializes in the area of cultural differences and international work team. In the globalization market environment, the cultural differences are one of the topics that were considered as the important things to study in order to improve the efficiency. Companies need to study the cultural differences in all aspects to ensure that they can handle the differences between the people in the organization well and reduce the conflicts that may arise in the international work team.
This study focuses on the cultural differences between Thai and Indian, as they are the majority of nations working together in Company A. This study is conducted in Company A, which has the large international work team in the IT department. This policy was applied to each country by moving the task of development and support to the sub-company in India, the name "COMPANY B", the reason why India has performance in IT and they can communicate in English very well.
Cultural diversity refers to "the representation, in one social system, of people with distinctly different group affiliations of cultural significance" (Cox, 1994, p.6). I conclude these studies in the topic as the effect of cultural diversity on creativity, problem solving, turnover and conflict in the organization. By the way, there are also the negative effects that show that cultural diversity can create conflict in the workforce.
Although Thai and Indian people are in the same region they have some similarities eg.
Conceptual Framework
METHODOLOGY
In the in-depth interview, I use the open-ended questions because it allows the respondents to include more information, including feelings, attitudes and understanding of the topic in their answers. And it also helps the interviewer to better access the respondents' true feelings about a topic. It also gives the interviewers the opportunity to ask for clarification if they are not clear about the meaning or the answer that the respondent gave.
I interview 7 people in the IT department, of which 4 are Indian staffers and another 3 are Thai staffers who have the experience of working with each other. He was asked to replace the old IT support in this project that is going back because he is getting married. He is currently responsible for implementation, implementation, control and advice on the new version of the SRD system.
He is the IT staff technician of COMPANY B, who has a good performance in implementing the new system for the Asian country. He will be working in Thailand for about 1 year and the project he is handling is the highlight plan for company A this year. He is 33 years old and has more than three years of experience working with the Indian staff in various projects.
She currently works in the store line team where more than half of the team members are Indian staff. What activities do you think it can help you to work with Thai staff more efficiency. Can you please tell about the situation that happens while working with Indian staff.
What the activities you think it can help you to work with Thai staff more efficiency.
FINDING AND DISSCUSION
The problem that Thai staff mostly mention is the work process and time consumption that Indian staff use to solve the problem. The Thai staff have the perception that they have to follow up Indian staff many times until they receive the correction from them. The smell of Indian staff as the Indian eats a lot of spices so they have their own smell which Thai staff don't like.
The Indian staffs solve this problem by trying to adjust their pronunciation when speaking to Thai staffs and give the sample to give the explanation more clearly. On the other hand, Thai staffs also have a hard time with English by Indian staffs. The way that Thai employees use to solve this problem is to ask for the document or email, e.g.
Therefore, sometimes the Thai staff decide to solve the problem themselves instead of writing a long email and again following the advice and actions of the Indian staff. From the interview, I found that Thai and Indian staff differ in terms of language. The Thai staff say that the Indian accent is very hard to make out and they speak very fast.
But surprisingly Indian staffs think their English is easier for Thai staffs because they speak slower than westerners. On the other hand, the perceptions that Thai staffs have of Indian staffs are that Indian staffs have technical IT knowledge. The Thai staffs have the perception that the Indian staff are over-skilled, so they feel that they cannot rely too much on the Indian staffs because they already have experience of this on clams.
Thai staff think that because the Indian staff are too confident, they overlook the problem that could happen to their system. As the Indian staff who come to work here have the special knowledge in each system that they take care of which is useful for Thai staff to learn their thinking and their work experience. The experience of Indian staff helps Thai staff to use less time to solve the problem.
These difference factors lead to the problem as Thai staff have the bias towards the Indian staff and effect on the performance of the project. From the interview, Indian says that they come to work in Thailand as the consultant and manage the system, but Thai staff see that the Indian staff only come to Thailand as the technical support.
RECOMMENDATION
The clear policy and job description will help both Thai and Indian staff to have the same understanding about the responsibility for each other. The policy and job description should include the fair evaluation to resolve the bias that Thai staff have against Indian staff. And the specific evaluation process will help Indian to understand the requirement of Thai staff and deliver it as they expected.
The company should also review the contract period for Indian staff as some functions require the continuous work rather than changing the team member often as the work depends on the knowledge of the staff taking care of it. The related relationship activities such as sports day, field trip and CSR will help to improve the relationship between the people who come from different culture, because it helps to break the ice and create the opportunity for them to know each other outside of work duty.
LIMITATION AND FURTHER RESEARCH
