CHALLENGES FACED BY EXPATRIATES

Challenges and Complexities Faced By Expatriates in Managing Across Cultures

Challenges and Complexities Faced by Expatriates in Managing Across Cultures

Introduction

Learning with the help of movies is considered as a valuable tool because these movies communicate through their story line, plot, characters, dialogues, and context and helps in better understanding of a subject or an issue. The story may be fictional but it gives a general idea on the overall topic or situation it revolves around and helps in observing all possible attributes of a particular topic. “Outsourced” (2006, director- John Jeffcoat) is used as a teaching tool in understanding challenges and complexities faced by expatriate manager when managing across cultures (Pandey, 2012, p.1). written and directed by John Jeffcoat the story revolves around the character of a Seattle based customer service manager Todd Anderson who is sent to India in order to train his replacement and the challenges and complexities faced by him adjusting in a totally different environment.

The movie is produced by Tom Gorai and the screenplay is given by George Wing (Mishra, 2011, p.3). Released in 2006 “outsourced” focuses on the problems faced by Todd's character and the cultural shock he faces in India, the relationships he developed, and the way he managed all the challenges (Briam, 2010, p.385). The plot of this movie revolves around the central character of Todd Anderson played by Josh Hamilton. The organization where Todd works outsources its call centre in India and asks Mr. Todd to go to India and train his replacements which he accepted unwillingly. This movie gives a review on how to manage work in a cross culture environment. It describes the unusual experiences and situations of Todd Anderson and how he managed to overcome all his problems and managed his employees despite of cultural differences between them (Pandey, 2012, p.6).

Discussion

The movie “outsourced” can be used as a case study in order to understand the complexities and challenges of working in a cross-cultural environment. This movie gives an excellent explanation of the problems faced by expatriates and how to deal with them. It gives us an overview on how to live with people with diversified backgrounds and how to plan the task assigned smartly in order to achieve the target. It describes the common traits of employees living in different areas their priorities and the style in which they work. It also describes the different techniques by which expatriates can deal with change in a cross culture setup and the importance of cross culture communication.

Over the years the professional growth of expatriate managers has become very important for organizations (Bartlett, 2003, p.45). Some national and multinational companies send their most competitive, talented, and hardworking employees on international assignments so that they may use their knowledge and experience in the development of an organization (Crocitto et.al, 2005, p.522). Multi national companies send expatriates abroad with some special international assignments for a short period of time (Borstoff et.al, 1997, ...