Culture has often been cited as one of the biggest barriers to successful offshore outsourcing. While we all know and agree that that is the case, and often talk about it, not all of us understand specifically how different cultural aspects show up in offshore projects and how the resulting barriers can be addressed.
To know more about how culture differences show up, one can either rely on research studies or on first hand observations and experience. When it comes to research, Geert Hofstede's work in identifying cross-country cultural differences based on five measures: power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and masculinity, is a good starting point. A few examples: Western countries like U.S. and U.K. are more individualistic compared to the collective culture in Latin America and Asia; Asian countries like China and Japan score high on long term orientation while western countries are more short-term oriented. Richard Nisbett, a social psychologist, found that Easterners perceive objects holistically through a wide-angle lens whereas Westerners perceive them in isolation, through a narrow lens with sharper focus. Another study looked at culture and mum effect, which occurs when one or more stakeholders who have information indicating a project is failing decide to remain silent and let the project continue. It indicates that the risk of mum effect is higher in Asia than in the West. Of course, there are caveats and assumptions in these studies so they should serve only as initial anchors rather than absolute truth.
