The purpose of this assignment is to observe how people with different cultures and languages

from different country communicate and act toward each other in the same working place and
to determine their cultural profile based on the observation. In the movie “Outsourced”, the
subjects are Todd Anderson who is an American sent to India to train the newly established
call center and Puro, who is the manager for the Indian team in the call center. Below are the
observations and interpretations to determine the cultural profile of Todd Anderson and Puro
based on the movie.

When Todd reached India and met Puro for the first time. He called Puro as Puro while Puro
called him as Mr. Todd. Todd asked Puro to just call him Todd, yet Puro still call him as Mr.
Todd in the further conversation. This shows a low-power distance in Todd. According to
(Hofstede 2008), low-power distance considers superiors and subordinates as equal existence
and inequality of roles exist in the hierarchical system are merely for convenience. The way he
wanted Puro to see him a someone who is in the same line with him but not his superior meet
the observations of Hofstede, therefore Todd is a person with low-power distance. Besides that,
the conversation shows a high-power distance in Puro. According to (Hofstede 2008), high-
power distance considers superiors and subordinates as unequal existence and the hierarchical
system is the representation of the inequality. Therefore, Puro is high in power distance as
supported by Hofstede’s analysis, he sees Todd as his superior and respecting him by calling
him Mr. Todd and consider himself is in lower position than Todd.

Todd confronted Puro about his dissatisfaction on the high MPI being nowhere near what they
should be. Puro then said, “no problem” and will get the MPI down. But Todd was angry and
told Puro not to say no problem when there is a problem. We can see a low context culture
reflected by Todd by the way he spoke. According to (Hall 1959), direct message and fast
speaking is one of the characteristics of a low context communication. According to (Hofstede
2011), an individualist is also practicing low context communication. Therefore, Todd is also
an individualist. Other than that, Puro is practicing a high context culture reflected by his
action of saying no problem and avoiding the conversation on the issue of high MPI to maintain
a working environment that is harmonious and to avoid conflicts in the workplace. According
to (Hofstede 2011), A person who is practicing a collectivism culture are also found liking a
harmonious working environment and avoiding conflicts. Therefore, we can conclude that Puro
is a person high in collectivism cultural value practicing high context culture to prevent
conflicts and to create harmonious working environment.

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Todd gets angry with the poor performance in the call center and scold Puro for leaving his
position in the work time. Having no idea that Puro actually left his position to get Todd clean
and filtered food as earlier Puro noticed Todd is not feeling well from the foods he ate. Todd
then apologize for what he did after realized Puro’s courtesy and thanks him for the foods. This
shows Todd as a short-term orientated person. According to (Hofstede 2011), personal
loyalties varies from business needs, Todd meet the criteria for being a short term orientated
person to be focusing on his job more than establishing his relationship with others. On the
other hand, Puro is more toward a long- term orientated person. According to (Hofstede
2011), Investment in lifelong personal networks, Puro sees his relationship with Todd is more
important than his job, that he is willing to leave his job position to get cleaner and filtered
foods for Todd to help ease his adaptability with the Indian foods.

Todd apologizing to everyone in the call center and saying that he should learn more about
India then Todd and the team came up with an idea on a performance based rewarding system,
attire to wear to work instead of office wear and idea to personalize their workplace according
to their preference. This reflected Todd having a weak uncertainty avoidance. According to
(Hofstede 2011), person who have weak uncertainty avoidance will only work hard when it is
necessary, and he/she is comfortable with their own laziness. Therefore, Todd is working hard
to find a solution to lower down the MPI, just so he can leave India to go back to USA. As for
Puro, he is also having a weak uncertainty avoidance. Puro work harder to assist Todd to
become the manager to be able to earn more money to marry his girlfriend.

When the shipments are wrongly shipped, Puro was too busy to accompany Todd to retrieve
the shipments. Asha then suggested to go together with Todd to retrieve their shipments. Puro
then doubt with Asha’s capability and question Todd if he really wants to go with Asha. Asha
then replied that she is the future assistant manager and Todd agree with her statement and
companion. This shows Todd in high feminine cultural value. According to (Hofstede 2011),
careers are optional for both gender. Therefore, Todd believe Asha can do anything and achieve
anything others or even what Puro can do. On the other hand, this situation shows Puro is high
in masculine cultural value. As mentioned by (Hofstede 2011), Careers are compulsory for
men, optional for women. Therefore, Puro is doubting Asha’s capability in replacing his
position in retrieving the shipments together with Todd. Therefore, Puro behavior met the
criteria of Hofstede in being masculine in his cultural value.

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In a nutshell, Todd is low in power distance, where he sees the position of superior and
subordinate are the same and hierarchical is just to ease the job. Next, he is low in context
culture where he expresses his word in a style of straight forward without hidden meaning.
Besides that, he is individualist where he is more self-orientated. Furthermore, Todd is short-
term orientated, where he sees relationship come after job and achievement. In addition, Todd
have weak uncertainty avoidance, where he works harder when he sees fit or to gain benefits
or rewards. Last but not least, Todd is femininity valued where he thinks work are optional for
both men and women.

As for Puro, he is high in power distance where he sees position of superior and subordinate
are not the same and have certain respect toward his superior. Next, he is high in context culture
where he expresses his words with hidden meaning and avoiding issue or conflicts in the
workplace. Besides that, he is collectivist, where he is more likely to stay in a harmonious
working environment. Furthermore, Puro is long-term orientated, where he sees relations is
more important than the job and achievement. In addition, Puro have weak uncertainty
avoidance, where he works harder when he sees fit or to gain benefits or rewards. Last but not
least, Puro is masculinity valued where he thinks work are compulsory for men but not women.

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References

1. Hall, E 1959, The silent language, New York, Double day.

2. Hofstede, G 2008 A summary of my ideas about national culture, viewed 27 January

2019, <http://feweb.uvt.nl/center/hofstede/page3.htm.>.

3. Hofstede, G 2011, Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context, viewed

1 February 2019, <https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014>.

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