4 Comments Add your own

• 1. Ryan Moore  |  October 27th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

  On the article about Japanese women who fetishize black US servicemen, there are a lot of different forces at play. Cultural, racial, and socio-political motives and discrimination underly the actions of the actors in the story and the reactions of the media and the Japanese government. The article briefly mentions MTV’s position as a “global influence peddler” and in my own personal opinion, MTV and other reality shows are a major source of many social ills facing the world today, but I do not think it is the primary issue here. In this story, it is up to the servicemen to be responsible for their actions. It is also up to the military to educate these men about the dangers of their actions and the possible results. If our service men and women are stationed in another country and are accused of any wrong doing during their “off duty” time, they should be subjected to the criminal justice system of that country whether or not we agree with their version of what constitutes fair treatment, due process, innocent until proven guilty, or any other American legal jargon you want to use. When in Japan we play by their rules. A large part of the responsibility of the protection of these men should fall on the shoulders of the military. They should have an extensive education on Japan’s legal system and their rules of law. Most important — teach them to think twice before cutting loose on foreign soil.

• 2. Jeff Mohr  |  October 31st, 2007 at 2:55 pm

  I was very surprised to hear about the hiring situation in India reported in “The New Expatriates”:

  In India, Leonhardt has to wage a full-court recruiting press. Candidates might receive dozens of offers, accept them all–then simply show up at the one that’s most appealing. Leonhardt estimates that as many as 3 in 10 accepted hires are no-shows on the first day of work. “It’s pretty frustrating, as you can imagine,” he says. Employers there thus use what’s called a keep-warm strategy, in which newly approved hires are plied with informational packets, calls from executives and even small gifts for their parents (Target sends stuffed versions of its mascot, the dog Bull’s Eye), before their first day of work. Appealing to workers’ filial loyalty is so critical in India that some employers fly parents to headquarters for visits, and at least one is said to offer parents free Internet service. Target competes by offering health insurance to workers’ parents.”

  The most surprising item to me was the no-show tendency. It seems that in the United States, our culture believes that a no-show is rude, and thus uncommon. Do others feel the same way? I would appreciate it if someone could shine some light on the cultural difference in India of the hiring process and whether this is taken as being disrespectful or whether it is simply part of the process. This would add a lot of complexity to the hiring process and would require a process similar to that of airline companies and their overbooking strategies. In addition, the intense competition to find the best employees and the use of gifts to family members was also surprising. I will be on the lookout for further information on this topic and if I find anything significant, I will post it on the main blog and comment again here.

• 3. Jay Singh  |  November 1st, 2007 at 1:47 pm

  So, here is the situation; by some estimates, India produces 200,000 engineering graduates and another 300,000 technically trained graduates a year. Companies like GE, HP, IBM, American Express and Dell are rapidly absorbing qualified candidates form the Indian talent pool. Instead of just being a “system integrator specialist”, India is rapidly becoming an R&D hub for global companies.

  To give you an idea there are an estimated 150,000 IT professionals in Bangalore, India alone, as compared to 120,000 in Silicon Valley. India, as China, is rapidly veering away from being a “cheap”, talented labor pool to an “affordable” one. Long gone are the days when employees in India would do a job at ¼ the cost of their US counterpart.

  “….[T]here is a shortage of talent at the upper end of the employment scale, particularly in IT. There simply aren’t enough candidates with the necessary experience to fill top roles. Turnover levels have gone up in many industries, including IT and IT enabled sectors and to a lesser extent in advertising, marketing, and retailing. Though still below the rate of comparable industry segments in the West, turnover can be a problem, as economic growth, increased salaries, and a shortage of skilled employees at the top of the scale can tempt the best and the brightest to change jobs often…” (http://www.pacificbridge.com/publication.asp?id=31)

  That said; now let’s think what is going through a prospective employees mind after they have received multiple offers.

  It has not been too long when India was experiencing a “brain drain”. The situation now has been termed as “brain gain” by some, alluding to the fact that India is now employing US graduates as well as providing opportunities for Indian expats to venture back to their motherland. Job hopping not so long ago was an option not commonly practiced in India. Most people at the upper end of the employment scale that I know in India had no more than 2 jobs all their working lives. Not showing up on the first day of the job in India did not, until recently, have the implications it might have in the US, meaning the word does not get as far around as to jeopardize one’s career in most sectors in India. Qualified recruits also realize that with their increasing demand they have more options than before and as such pay little heed to the consequences of being a no show on the first day.

  My personal feeling is that they also are too afraid to willingly turn down a well paying job and would rather be a no show.

• 4. Tai Massion  |  November 1st, 2007 at 3:39 pm

  The no-show tendency surprised me also. In our Organizational Behavior class my team is researching organizational culture. We are looking into the Geert Hofstede cultural dimensions- five categories that can be used to describe cultures (1- individualism/collectivisms, 2-power distance, 3-uncertainty avoidance, 4-masculinity/feminity, 5-long-term/short-term orientation). The website http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_india.shtml has links to almost every county/culture and (according to Hofstede’s studies) shows how the country’s culture ranks on the five cultural dimensions.

  India ranks as the highest in the world on the power distance score- meaning there is the highest level of inequality between those that are powerful and wealthy and those that are not. It seems to me that if there is such a distribution in wealth and power those that are educated and destined to be well off may have a sense of entitlement and freedom(?). In addition India ranks very low in Uncertainty Avoidance dimension meaning that there may be fewer cultural rules that guide people on how they are supposed to act. To me this means that many situations in Indian are “up for interpretation”. Not showing up for a job in India might not be that bad.

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