SOUTH ASIA

South Asia is formed by Afganistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldive Islands, and Sri Lanka. As it is obvious diversity is one of its main elements.

It is important to see how culture changes from one country to another, so as fallows there are some important aspects of some of the countries that are part of South Asia as one of the riches regions according to diversity.

AFGANISTAN
The languages are Dari or Pashtu, religion is one of their pillars, that is why part of their habits is to pray five times a day.
The biggest religion is Sunni Muslim 80%, followed by Shi'a Muslim 19%, and others just 1%. The Islam rules the personal, political, economic and legal activities of the Afghanis. It is not curious then that they have what is called Ramadan, one of their biggest celebrations, a holy month for them.

In their personal behavior Afganhis are very hospitable, which is essential for them, in order to represent what is very important for them: Honor.

BANGLADESH
Age an position is what defines hierarchy in this society. It is common, then, to see that to denote respect Bangladeshis will add a suffix to a name for this.
The biggest religion is Muslim 83%, followed by Hindu 16%, and others other 1%.
Its language is Bangla. There is a strong tradition of music, dance, and literature and that’s why festivals are so important.

PAKISTAN
Very similar to Afghanistan because of the Islam religion.
For them the most important is Family which is the basis of the social structure. Family is not only the nuclear family but also relatives and neighbors.
They like doing business and are highly skilled for doing so.

INDIA
India had become very important for South Asia because is a very pluralistic country, multilingual and a multiethnic society. Is also one of the most attractive markets for outsourcing in products and services from other countries, because a large population speaks English and the labor is very cheap. The Indian economy is very close to the western economies, friendly relationships the government and some overseas companies help to improve the stability of the country.

“For Indian companies, managing a diverse workforce is no longer a choice but an imperative” Managing India’s organizational culture: a salad bowl rather than a melting pot.

“The following are some important guidelines to manage diversity effectively:

* To consider female employee needs, such as child care and job sharing, to prevent their turnover.

* Commitment from top management towards value diversity is a pre-requisite.

* To arrange mentoring program by senior managers to identify promising women and minority employees and play an important role in nurturing their career progress.

* To arrange diversity training programmed to bring diversity awareness and educate employees on cultural and sex differences and how to respond to these in the workplace.

* There should be an apprenticeship program to train promising prospective employees properly before they are actually hired on a permanent basis.

* Employer should set up a support group to provide a nurturing climate for employees who would otherwise feel isolated or alienated.

* To conduct diversity audit to review the effectiveness of an organization's diversity management program.

* There should be a proper communication which includes speeches by senior executives, inclusion of diversity in corporate vision statements, the publication of diversity brochure and inclusion of diversity as a topic in new employee orientation.

* Managers need to be sensitive to the needs of working parents.”*

Guidelines taken from: http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC578/fc578.html March 2010 (Dr. Parimalendu Bandyopadhyay, Gunamoy Hazra, Kajol Goswami)

Most of the information was taken from the class presentations.

What do you think are the reasons behind the fast-growth outsourcing industry in India?

In the past two decades, India has been making sustained progress on a scale, size and pace that is unprecedented in its own history, dramatically improved literacy, emerged as a global player in information technology, business process outsourcing, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals.

Some of the Reasons why India is a target market for outsourcing are: Quality and education, Language, Time zone, cheaper labor force, technological platforms, and some others.

India is now seen as a huge competition for workers around the world specially in United States, Reduce costs are one of the main reason of why to outsource specially in India, in India there are more access to skill people and at the time of the real day to day business this will give you an advantage from others, when you outsource to India you are going to be outsourcing to people highly educated often holding degrees from universities sometimes of the US. Clearly language and cultural barriers exist; the good people of India speak better English than the majority of Americans.

According to the Indian overview 2009, made by the world bank: : It is equally important the building of skills among India’s rapidly rising work force, whose ranks are joined by some 8-9 million new entrants each year. Presently, nearly 44 percent of India’s labor force is illiterate, only 17 percent has secondary schooling, and enrollment in higher education is a mere 11 percent. Moreover, the quality of most graduates is poor and employers offer very little upgrading of skills; only 16 percent of Indian manufacturers offer in-service training compared to over 90 percent in China. To help produce engineers of international standards, the World Bank has supported improvements in the quality of education in engineering institutes in 13 states. A project is now supporting 400 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to become centers of excellence in technical skills that are in demand.

A good article to read about outsourcing in India: http://www.cio.com/article/146451/Seven_Reasons_Why_Outsourcing_to_India_is_Good_for_Your_Business?page=3&taxonomyId=3197

I also recommend to watch the movie ¨Outsourced¨

Outsourced is a modern day comedy of cross-cultural conflict and romance. Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) spends his days managing a customer call center in Seattle until his job, along with those of the entire office, are outsourced to India. Adding insult to injury, Todd must travel to India to train his new replacement. As he navigates through the chaos of Bombay and an office paralyzed by constant cultural misunderstandings, Todd yearns to return to the comforts of home. But it is through his team of quirky yet likable Indian call center workers, including his friendly and motivated replacement, Puro (Asif Basra), and the charming, opinionated Asha (Ayesha Dharker), that Todd realizes that he too has a lot to learn - not only about India and America, but about himself. He soon discovers that being outsourced may be the best thing that ever happened to him.