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Cultural Differences When Working with Indians

 Cultural Awareness (/blog/categories/cultural-awareness), Training (/blog/categories/training)  Culture Vulture (/blog/blogger/culturevulture)

Do you work with or do business with Indians? Do you sometimes

find it confusing?
Well, believe us you're not the first or the last.
Working with Indians can be confusing for foreigners, mainly due to some acute
cultural differences.
What’s important to always remember in any cross-cultural situation is that people
are not trying to be confusing – what’s happening is that one side is usually not
interpreting another’s actions or words correctly. This is what leads to cross-
cultural challenges.
For foreigners working with Indians, it is critical not to make the mistake of
stereotyping Indians (/blog/what-are-common-stereotypes-about-india) as a
result of these challenges. This leads to more problems.
(//www.commisceo-
What foreigners need to do is take a step back, reflect on their own behaviour and global.com/images/easyblog_articles/1883/indian-business-man-
cultural preferences and then try to and understand the Indian point of view. This orange-file.jpg)
will lead to finding more common ground and overcoming challenges.

DON'T MISS THE FREE SAMPLE OF OUR

INDIA CULTURAL TRAINING COURSE AT THE END!

What's Important to Know About Working With Indians?

We’re going to be giving you our top tips on Indian culture and specifically what foreigners need to be aware of when working with Indians in a
professional setting.

These are based on common experiences faced by, mainly North American and European, foreigners shared in cultural awareness training
(/training/webinar/india-cultural-awareness).

a. Hierarchy
If you don’t understand hierarchy in Indian culture, you’ll never understand Indians. Hierarchy impacts everything from behaviour to decision
making. It’s crucial foreigners appreciate how respect and deference are shown to superiors and how they control the flow of information.

b. ‘Yes’ Culture
Indians try to please people when they communicate. As a result, they have a tendency to say what they think will please someone, even if it conflicts
with the truth. On top of this, losing face is a serious no-no in Indian culture which means that people will say ‘yes’ to try and save face.

Do you know that India is ranked as one of the most complex business cultures?
Among the top 50 economies of the world it's ranked 49th by
The Business Culture Complexity Index™ (/resources/bcci)!
c. Sticking to Your Job
Indians have a reputation among some foreigners for sticking to their roles and not showing initiative when needed. Well, this is a stereotype based
on a cross-cultural misunderstanding. In India, doing something outside of your role/job/project description is not doing your job – it’s the opposite.

d. Relationships Matter
Indians tend to get very close to people they work with very quickly. Asking someone the first time you meet them what their qualifications are, salary
is and how many kids they’ve had is normal in India (/blog/the-essential-guide-to-indian-business-etiquette) – they are not prying. Indians want to like
and trust people they work with, so investing time in building relationships is essential.

e. India Stretchable Time

Indians are not as time-sensitive as in some other cultures. This should not be confused with tardiness or a lax attitude; again, that would be lazy
stereotyping. What you need to appreciate is that, in the Indian mind, time is a flexible concept. Things happen when they should happen.

Do you negotiate with Indians for work?

 Click here to learn about the Indian negotiation style (/blog/what-is-the-negotiation-style-in-india)
Photo by IAEA Imagebank (https://www.flickr.com/photos/iaea_imagebank/)on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

f. Conflict Avoidance
Indians will do anything to avoid conflict, even in private. As a result, their communication style can be very indirect and relies on listeners reading
between the lines. Some foreigners rely too much on what is said and miss clues when Indians are trying to give negative opinions or share sensitive
information.

g. Business Meetings
From the start, foreigners need to understand that in Indian culture the meeting is not a place for open and frank discussion. This risks conflict
which risks losing face. Meetings are more about giving information to subordinates or sensitively testing out ideas. Foreigners need to address tricky
topics before a meeting, during intervals or at another time.

Take a Professional Course on Working with Indians

Would you like to learn more about Indian business culture and get more in-depth information about
working with Indians?
Then sign-up for our India Online Cultural Awareness Course (/training/elearning/india-online-course)
which is jam-packed full of fantastic insights into the people, culture and communication style.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE A FREE SAMPLE OF THE COURSE (https://elearning.easygenerator.com/93ff201a-cf00-487e-8bf5-

d82cb123bf2a)

Photo by RODNAE Productions (https://www.pexels.com/@rodnae-prod) from Pexels

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