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Page 2 of 2 My personal experience has shown that failure, especially in nearshore projects, is due not so much to a cultural clash as to bad management or personal shortcomings. Furthermore, given the freedom to speak and act without censorship, team members of different nationalities behave in a strikingly similar way, further reinforcing the hypothesis that nationality's role in project failure can be relatively minor. However, for a successful offshoring process, you must avoid "they versus us" conflicts. In these, nationality blocks off groups of members from the rest of the team. Contributors can become paralyzed between their personal convictions and their nationality group. An interesting offshoot of the nationality issue is when emigrants offshore to their home country. To some extent such people are in a favorable situation, yet at the same time they face difficulties that complete strangers do not. The advantage of offshoring to one's home country is that you are returning to a familiar place and culture. You also have some idea what you can expect from your countrymen, and, even if you have lived abroad for decades, you still carry with you features of your original nationality, thereby making communication a simpler task. On the other hand, when you return to the place you left, you might experience the strange feeling that your countrymen perceive you more as a foreign body than as one of them. Since you are returning to your home country to invest money, you can expect some degree of malice and envy, as you are viewed as someone who went abroad to make money and now returns to exploit his fellow citizens. In addition to the general cultural pitfalls, there are also business-specific differences you need to be overcome, such as meetings and paperwork. Lengthy daily meetings are the norm for many corporations. While many American, British, and German citizens find this is acceptable, the majority of Eastern European and Latin American workers view them as a waste of time. Their attitude towards paperwork is similar. Another difference among nationalities is their approach to communication. You may discover that your offshoring partners are not talkative and that they do not voice their thoughts, even when you explicitly ask them for their opinion. Often the reason is the language barrier. Despite claims that they are fluent in English, some workers' level of proficiency allows for only the most basic understanding of what is being said or written, and not full-fledged communication. A person in this situation may appear shy and ignorant, but may actually need greater assistance in learning the language. Offshoring partners may also communicate badly because their culture has taught them to be shy and obedient and not to complain about problems. In some cultures you might encounter the "boss is always right" syndrome. As a result, these workers appear more servile than obedient and keeping quiet about existing problems can be regarded as not complaining. Unfortunately, not being told of a problem at the time, when it can be solved quickly and easily, not only makes it difficult for you to deal with it later but sometimes it might be too late to solve it at all. Offshoring management While it is true that managing offshore projects has its tips, tricks, and techniques, it seems that bad management has no nationality. An incompetent manager will be incompetent in any environment. The only difference will be the length of time to failure. There is also a remarkable tendency to giving failed managers offshored assignments. Although it might be an easy way to remove someone who does not contribute at home, it also means that the offshore project will be a mine field from the very beginning. If there is no other choice but to send a failed manager overseas, risks of failure could be reduced by extensive training and more control from onshore. In summary, offshore projects have special aspects that managers must be familiar with, such as cultural diversity. However, competent management can deal successfully with the issues. There are many companies and universuties that offer offshoring management courses. If you are contemplating an offshore project, it would likely be a wise investment to enroll the proposed management, including any foreign managers, in offshore management training courses. In doing so you might avoid the mistakes other companies have already made.
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