DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDIAN WORK CULTURE AND WORK CULTURE IN U.S.
• In USA, people strictly adhere to the time. They work in the office for eight hours a day. They attend the meetings sharply in scheduled timings. . They take lunch break for half an hour.
In India, people do not adhere to the timings. No doubt, they work for long hours approximately for 10-12 hrs a day and sometimes even on
weekends, but take long tea breaks and lunch breaks.
They are not very imperative on deadlines and keep
negotiating for extension of timeline. Some times
scheduled meetings are canceled, due to absence of some
key persons.
• One more major difference is the work-life balance. In
Western work-culture, they give more value to the time
spent for their personal life. They do not carry the
workplace pressures or stress to home. Eventually work
is a part of their life, but not the life itself.
Nevertheless, they stay back at office occasionally,
when they need to work.
Most of the Indians think workplace as an
opportunity to build their future and put forth extensive
efforts to climb the corporate ladder and earn monetary
benefits. They work day and night beyond limits, which
results in losing work-life balance .This also makes
them encounter a lot of pressure ,as the demands at
work place and family are almost opposite. There may
be a greater sense of ownership of work in Indians and
they value work more than that of personal life.
• The relationship between the boss and subordinates is
believed to be more formal and hierarchical in India.
People in power openly display their ranks according to
which importance is given. Employees are not
supposed to expect clear guidance from the managers
and they are often not assigned with important work.
Subordinates are expected to take the blame for things
that go wrong. The relationship between boss and
subordinate is rarely close/personal. In general
company meetings only few people dominate, even
though their decisions are wrong. However, it may vary
from company to company.
Whereas in western work culture the relation
between boss and subordinate is not more formal and
hierarchical, superiors treat subordinates with respect
and do not demonstrate ranks. Subordinates are
entrusted with important assignments. Blame for things
that go wrong is either shared or is often accepted by
the superior, due to it being their responsibility to
manage. Managers often socialize with subordinates.
Meetings are interactive sessions to arrive at best
decisions.
• In mentoring, Indian managers are a bit soft in critical
assessments. Seniors tend to lean more on positive
feedback during an appraisal, leaving the criticism
unsaid. In India either due to the appraisal process or
due to the lack of skill of the appraiser, the muchneeded
critical assessment is often held back.
In the US, there is a better balance in practice.
• In Indian work-culture, people do not accept change
easily; lot of resistance is encountered in order to
implement change.
In western work-culture, people are adaptive
and conductive to change implementation.