Developing Intercultural Competence in the Workplace: A Reflection on the Film 'Outsourced'

The content reflects on the film 'Outsourced' and how it highlights the challenges and recommendations for developing intercultural competence in the workplace. It explores the cultural differences between American and Indian culture and how Todd, the leading character, learns to adapt to the Indian culture.

Developing
Intercultural
Competence In The
Workplace

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
Books and Journals:..................................................................................................................11
Online:.......................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In the fast pace of evolving economy around the world, the globalization has led to an
elaboration interconnection of international marketplace with the aid of supplying products and
services, and an exchange of people, ideas and capital. Whenever, there is dealings of people and
ideas, there is an emersion of cultural diversity. Diversity brings cultures together and it
simultaneously has evolved innovative products, various associations and new thinking. An
intercultural experience defines as the moment individually experienced when making a
connection with some other culture (Azevedo and Shane, 2019). Every individual have had
intercultural experiences in their lives, whether through expatriation, immigration, travel or
simply through the associations or classmates, even it can be next door neighbour. Intercultural
competence can be understood as the ability to function across various cultures in an effective
way, to act and think suitably, and to convey, share and work with diverse individuals from
diverse cultural backgrounds, at domestic country or foreign country. It is used a valuable asset
in a progressively globalised universe where every person is more probably to interact with
people from various cultures, together with nations who have been formed by diverse beliefs,
values and experiences (Barbosa and Ferreira-Lopes, 2021). The following essay will reflect on
the intercultural experience in the workspaces. The topic of this study is based upon the film
“Outsourced”. It will highlight the empirically informed reflection on this film from an anti-
essentialist and essentialist perspective It will also provide recommendations or advices to the
lineament in the film on the evolution of intercultural competence in the organisation.
MAIN BODY
The film “Outsourced” is the American romantic comedy movie, launched in the year
2006. John Jeffcoat is the director of this film and was scripted by Jeffcoat and George Wing.
This film explored and highlighted different aspect of cultural experiences, exportation and
complexities through interaction, adaption, experience and cultural competences by recreating
stereotypical fragmentation integrated in various communities and culture with diverse ethical
background, languages, background, identities. These cross cultural disparities between
American as well as Indian culture (Bordbar and et.al., 2021). It is delineated in the romantic
comical manner. Todd Anderson from United States is the leading character in the movie. He is
centred with diverse cultures in India. The leading character Todd have a job in the US based

organisation, established Seattle, US. The name of organisation is Western Novelty. With an
intent to reduce the cost of the organization outsources its call centre to the another country that
is India. Todd was asked by his employer to give guidance, direction and training to his
replacements. In this movie, the other leading players are Asha (an employee in call centre, in
India branch), Puro (the replacement of Todd in India) as well as Aunty Ji (the landlady of
Todd). It is identified in the movie that Todd has faced the number of challenges from the day
one of this reaching. Before this chance, he had no idea of Indian culture so he sometimes feel
consciousness and uncomfortable to deal with the local people in India (Bullen and Flavell,
2021). Cultural shocks, along with unusual circumstances have created major concerns for the
Todd. Culture shock is the prime concern for the Todd as he senses it both physically and
emotionally. For instances, Todd had a drastic interaction with the taxi driver in India as the taxi
driver tried to bargain with him to enter in the cab. Eventually, then, he bumped into the train
which is full of people which seemed extremely dangerous to him. This character was also
shocked as he identifies a cow in the office premises where other employees in the premise
remain untroubled by the same. Other key challenges that he had faced are diverse experiences in
food, festivals, languages, music and many more. Todd also observed that Indian people have a
perception that eating with the left hand to be disgusting. Moreover to this, he also went to
McDonald's, Bombay in order to eat cheeseburger, but somehow he was disappointed by the
services as this was a copy of McDonald's and indulges only veggies burgers. Holi is one of the
greatest festivals in India where people throw colours on each other at this day. It was also a
shock and surprise to see activities like that (Comstock and Kagan, 2020). Later, Puro helped
him to realised the value of this festival as it is a symbol of dynamics of seasons. Furthermore, it
also gets the support from his peers, staff members and the Indian friends, where he eventually
begins to acknowledge the traditions, culture and the way of people living in India. Therefore,
intercultural understanding and relationship is one of the lineament of cultural complexities,
which covers unlearning, learning or relearning by allowing personalities cognitive obliques and
grasping compromises. Although, merging into the community that is completely diverse can be
quite challenging experienced by the leading lineament of the film that is Todd (DiFrancesco and
et.al., 2019).
Culture can be pictured from two contrastive perspectives. The first is an Essentialist
approach which is regarded as the positivist, on the other side, non-essentialist approach can be

viewed as the interpretive. Essentialism defines as the value that people have earthy attributes
that are unchanged and inherent. Cultural essentialism refers the way of identifying and grouping
the people with their domestic traditions and beliefs (González-Lloret, 2019).
In the following section, there is an assessment of Outsourced film with the view of
essentialist, exploiting Hofstede's theory of cultural dimensions. This concept primarily
concentrate on the comparison between Todd from US and his peer members, friends or
neighbours from India (What is the Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory?, 2022).
High Power Distance Cultures v/s Low power distance, power distance defines the
magnitude of inequality in the culture. It defines the concept that not all people are treated evenly
in the community. As the Todd is from USA follows low power distance and in this country,
there is quite less tolerance in terms of inequality. From the film “Outsourced”, it is clear that
Todd has a very straight forward nature and due to this he is able to make a clear and transparent
conversation with his boss Dave, and also calls by his name only. On the other side, in India, the
employees are not allowing to do the same while have to respect their seniors with addressing
Mr. or Sir with the names (Greischel, and et.al., 2021). Hence, it signifies that India has a higher
power distance culture.
Individualism versus collectivism, the main concern with this dimension is the extent of
inter-dependence that people carry with themselves, among its members in the community.
Individualistic culture defines the culture in which people are chiefly obsessed about themselves
as well as their very direct or close family members. While, in the collectivist cultures,
individuals dwells to a team or a group while having a close structure taking care of each person
in return for responsibility. Todd follows individualistic culture as he is mainly looking aspects
for himself first than others. While, Puro, follows the collectivism work culture. Both characters
shows their different cultures (Irimias and et.al., 2019). For example, from the film it is seen that
Todd is living all along and hardly seen their family, although they stay only two hours from the
residential area of Todd, whereas Puro is a family-oriented person and cannot visualise himself
without his family.
Low-context culture versus high-context culture, this culture shows the opinions,
perceptions or ideas as evidently as realizable. Communications with low context are
straightforward, while high context culture is more relies and delicate on more non-verbal hints
to share the concept which is adhered to defend the social harmony. In case of Outsourced, Todd

is comparatively straightforward as he belongs to the country where low-context culture is
followed. In India, if the people or colleagues does not doing well or he anything they felt
unsuitable, the Todd being straightforward, say anything to them, whether it is work-related or
personal (Li, 2020). On the other side, Puro follows the high-context culture and listens
everything from the Todd. Hence, it is sensed that as Puro is from India where sentiments and
emotions matters, he does not try hurt any feelings of others.
Specific orientation versus diffuse orientation, a diffuse orientation defines the value
of maintaining a balanced relationship between work and other life facets. It is supposed uphold
a long term bond between an employee and the organisation. While, in specific orientation
culture refers to uphold the work life distinguished from other facets of life. In context of
respective movie, the specific orientation culture is shown in the movie, demonstrating the
attitude of Todd and Dave, where the main concentration is done on reducing the MPI rates and
not genuinely concerns of their employees at the call centre (Nghia, Giang and Quyen, 2019).
Puro from India, showcases the culture of diffuse orientation as he taking the concerns or issues
of Todd very seriously such as he takes care where Todd was not well over the work tasked to
do. Todd is also taking steps such as asking his co-workers in India as they have any desire to
make their professional life more affirmative, and then, one of the members showcase the desire
to keep their family pictures on his table, which undoubtedly, represent that Indian people like to
opt a diffuse oriented culture.
Achievement versus ascribed culture, achievement culture shows the culture that
emphasise that knowledge, skill or cognition are the criteria to justify for attaining respect in the
community. While, people belonging to ascribed culture addresses that diverse criteria such as
education, gender, age or expertise to gain. Asha, the other leading character is come from the
ascribed oriented culture where she had to face difficulties for everything she had attained in her
life. In a conversation with Todd, Asha had told that she had forced to adhere the decisions taken
by other people in her life as what she should do in her studies or in her professional career
(O’Dowd and Dooly, 2020). On the other side of the story, Todd represents the achievement
oriented culture doesn't consider in “inherited” responsibilities or obligations. Considering the
abilities, knowledge and cognition of Asha, he promoted her to the next higher position at the
call centre.

In this section, the film Outsourced's scenarios are unlocked from the view of an anti-
essentialist. As per the viewpoint of anti-essentialist, culture is changeable and complex in
nature, while highly relies on human circumstances. As per the viewpoint of Peck and Yates,
(2019), he stated the generalisating cultural dimension to each and every member in the nation
or points out that people could either be opposite or parallel to these dimensions, but it relies
altogether on certain circumstance (Peck and Yates, 2019). For instance, based on environment,
a selection could be done by an individual personally or collectively, but it has nothing to do
with one's domestic culture. People to a lead have specific impacts of these cultural dimensions,
but is not regarded to be permanent. It can be differ from one individual's life experiences and
opinions towards their life. In addition to Outsourced, alterations in the cultural dimension are
visualised in both Todd and his co-workers in the company. For example, although Todd was
indeed as a human who adhered individualistic culture, the basic thing he did one time he
returned to his home place from India was to call his mom and dad. The time he spend in India
was moulding him into a family oriented person as the decision he taken to call his mom and day
is sign of the change. While at the start of this film, Todd pictured as the most bossy character
who only shows tantrums or order on his employees in India, but with the positive change with
the exposure to Indian culture, he shaped himself to a more chummy character. Finally, at the
end of this film, it has been seen that Todd and his employees initiate to work together as a group
while taking small and big concerns of employees on a serious note such as he fixed the issues of
electricity with an intent to attain the targets of team (Pylväs and Nokelainen, 2021). Also, it is
sensed that the transition of Todd had made the company towards more success and growth and
without it, it would not have attained their aspirations.
From another perspective by Roy Douglas, Doe and Cheng (2020), he stated that usually
people have minimal access to information about the different social structure of other
individuals. Therefore, too many miscellaneous have been evolved on culture which leads to
dishonest mental representation. For instance, as per the dimension of Hofstedes cultures, India
is identified as the high power distance oriented culture, and it is found that Asha (Indian
employee) believes in the low power distance (Roy Douglas, Doe and Cheng, 2020). When Todd
evaluates and reviews the Indian call centre employees for their advanced MPI rates showing
that they are domestic English communicators. Asha speaks out without any fear or hesitation to

discuss the issue that they are domestic English speakers but communicates other than American,
on the other side, Puro simply hears the suggestions of Todd.
Another such stereotyping, from the concept of Hofstede, India is more of uncertainty
avoidance culture than uncertainty tolerant as America. From the movie perspective, it has been
seen that Indian neighbours of Todd has demonstrated a marvellous competency to react to the
changes while found an unique solution to his problems. Todd as an individualistic is stereotypes
as he shares his food with others across the building. This has shown that even he might have
individualistic culture, but he certain features of collectivist culture.
For instances, it is also seen that Todd as well as Asha both are achievement oriented
peoples who appear to link each other very quickly. It is also found that Todd is feeling more
connection than people from America. The relationship he build up in India is not based on the
domestic culture but on their readiness to enhance the workplace. Small culture is continual and
different which develops under changing conditions allows team members to work productively.
When Todd first reach in India, he was very uneager to make connection with people in India
and his chief goal is only to complete the target and move on. This biggest problems are
languages used in India as he was unable to understand each other culture and religion. Later on,
Todd had a sense of enhanced confidence while dealing with such people in India.
By distinguishing the lineament of Dave and Todd or Asha or Puro, it can be said that
intercultural conflict in the firm Outsourced was not between American and Indian culture but
between culturally diverse people of India and America (Stratilaki-Klein, 2019). Nonetheless,
Outsourced as the movie grants the message that under any conditions, humanity will modified
and survive to meet the unpleasant realism of the globalization.
After concluding all the things it can be said that Outsourced movie gives a healthy and
affluent framework for elaborating cultural diversity as well as intercultural experiences at the
workspace. Todd being one of the leading characters, faced cultural shock from the start of this
film. This cultural shock has led him to become frustrated and unpleasant at organisation, which
even lead to being hurtful to other main character named Puro for a certain time period.
After the end of this movie, all the characters Todd, Puro, Asha and other employees in
the company were influenced in a positive way by such an intercultural experience. This learning
became an attainment only after the Todd and his co-workers began collaborative working with
mutual interest. For such intent, Todd had to take his time to acknowledge his employees first

and give them incentives. Therefore, the mutual interest of Todd and other members in the
company turned out to limit the rates of MPI. As per the viewpoint of Zhou and April (2020),
mutual interest among a team of individuals to be a cultural thread. An effective manner to
evolve intercultural experience in the workplace is by advancing cultural thread, instead trying to
understand cultural blocks. The cultural thread has the strengths to limit the obstacles of cultural
blocks and link individuals from diverse backgrounds. Grasping cultural threads is more
applicable way of non-essentialism. The core principle is that one must be ready to open up his
or her thread so to know the mutual grounds which supports to evolve intercultural experience.
It offers the base to interact with one another in an effective way. Todd could have enhanced the
rates of MPI much in beforehand if he was ready to make relation with Indian people at the call
centre. He should have accented to more cultural threads by sharing things with others,
acknowledging the threads of individual's cultural trajectory and linking these threads to other
people. On the other side, one he was willing to understand his mistake, he not learn and adapt
the new things in the culture, but also Todd found that he had made the vital management tactics
to make the business work (Zhou and April, 2020).
Nonetheless, throughout the Outsourced movie, it has been sensed that Dave (the
manager of Todd) does not look to be daunted about the workers in India or even those workers
who have been outsourced in America straight from the beginning. The chill and unagitated
attitude of Dave while deploying his workforce in US signifies that he is more concentrated in
limiting the costs of employment rather then hiring of the future employees. Hence, it is
recommended that Dave, being a manager would be to develop an impressive workplace by
giving right training and learning sessions to his workers to be more efficient of working in the
environment of intercultural. Training and development sessions should be created by taking
other elements into the mind such as intercultural opinions or perceptions of the globe, to show
on how people explain diverse culture externally, their personal cultural backgrounds. People
that have strong cultural and positive cognition to intercultural interaction.
CONCLUSION
From the above stated discussion, it has been concluded that cultural diversity and
intercultural competence is a subset of the surrounding credence of cultural complexities which
is an outcome of the individual knowledge to discriminated between mutual belief or better to
voice out collectivist or individualist approach to the phenomena of cross cultural. No matters

how the perceptions or opinions of one is different from others, it is better to embrace the belief
and the culture that is comparatively unmatched from what an individual carries with him or
herself. It is found that together, the human is more able to attain and accomplish aspirations or
targets as it gives the strengths and power. Apparently, in intercultural competence, uncertainty
differs based on social and culture group, such as in some culture attraction limits uncertainties,
whereas in some others, it sharing predicts low uncertainties. Cross-cultural and intercultural
communication is comparatively vital in learning the cultures. Overall, the film Outsourced,
defines how cognitive and cultural bias could be overcome through collective learning of
variations but so far to work and mutually together to attain the shared objectives of cultural
competence, sensitivity and tolerance.

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Online:
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<https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/hofstedes-cultural-
dimensions-theory/>