Learning directness in India

communication — By Bob Riel on June 16, 2006 at 8:53 am

Some cross-cultural trainers in India are being asked to teach employees to be more direct in their communication style. This goes against the Indians’ traditional approach of being indirect, but it’s an effort to accommodate the Western business style and to continue growing the country’s outsourcing industry.

Junk the fake accent, young workers in India’s booming outsourcing industry are being told, and instead speak up, speak clearly and get to the point.

Indian workers are known to shrink from being direct with customers or bosses, a cultural trait leaders of India’s booming outsourcing business say must change if the industry is to make the leap from merely providing low-cost services to helping clients build stronger businesses. …

They are teaching “everybody to talk back and to be aggressive – that’s not a piece of Indian culture,” she said, adding that Indian workers are polite to a fault. Instead of telling a client, “there’s a problem with this file,” Thorne says most Indians would say, “Excuse me, I know you’re busy, but do you mind if I bother you?”