Cultural Differences Between America And India
The U.S. and India are populous and vast nations that creating cultural comparisons between the two countries that can result in sweeping generalization. However, there are numerous deep-seated behaviors in every culture that makes such comparisons a critical tool for smoothing the business journey between the two nations. The paper compares the differences between India and America.
In India, people are mostly family-oriented, unlike in America, where the citizens are individual-oriented. It means that in Indian culture, family values are granted huge prominence instead of individual values. People of India respect family values. On the contrary, Americans have a culture where they only value individual distinction instead of concentrating on family values. In other words, in the Indian culture, people are extremely devoted to family while in America, the culture is of getting committed to themselves. According to Bhachu (2017), Americans plan things, and they also believe in dominating and controlling nature and the environment around them. For the Indians, they think in harmony. The cultural values in India hold that the head of the family or company as the maker of the decisions. Older people are deferred and respected, and they addressed absolute respect and formal manner, especially if they are not members of their family. They are raised to rely on the family instead of thinking independently solely. The cultural values in the U.S. are almost different. The people are expected to stand the consequences of their actions on their own and feNd themselves. Older people in the U.S. are venerated as a result of their age but because of their achievements in life. Americans are allowed to question their superiors only with ample reasons for doing so, while India, this would be totally be treated as disrespect. In India, more emphasis is directed towards hierarchies. Those who disregard the hierarchy in Indian as seen as being unethical in their behaviors, and they are not allowed to make policies having an individual interest in their mind. Most Americans treat the Indian hierarchy style of acknowledging ethics in business as being extremely inefficient.
Social culture differences between the two nations bring about values that determine the way people conduct themselves. Marriage is one of the ways India practices its social values. In India, the family is at the center stage for deciding the mate their child will marry. They call it an arranged marriage. Mostly, the groom and bride hardly talk to one another, not until they get engaged. This is very different in America as one can marry according to their wish and depending on the person they love. Parents have no influence on who their child will get married to.
India is basically a high context culture meaning the way things get done in India is not explicitly defined. The Indians just understand that there are subtle cues, including body language, which can also be sued to pass a message together with verbal languages. The Indian archetypal head wobble is the most famous of their high context culture, which causes many outsiders as it means various things ranging from don’t know? Yes? No? To maybe? The high context system of India is promoted by its comprehensively ingrained caste system. It directs all swathes, and it helps in the upbringing of Indians to have implicit knowledge of various castes. Additionally, the reason for India’s high context system is because of linguistics and many Indian languages. On the opposite, the U.S. has a low-context culture in which they believe indirectness of doing things. One must get to the point as quickly as possible. Low-context cultures have characteristics such as being more straightforward and use of direct communication to pass their messages (Machery et al., 2017). Additionally, low context cultures foster visual imagery and the use of colorful languages. The American culture has made it possible for them to perform videoconferencing, manage remote teams and social media teams as a result visual language has increased its relevance, which is perfect in keeping people inspired and engaged. The American way of speaking is also defined by the use of simple vocabularies. This culture stemmed from the desire of the American colonists to grow a separate parameter from that of the aristocracy. A low context culture is often by communication with a flat pitch. This implies that they stretch their vowels horizontally, unlike India, which applies the vertical style of pitch motion.
India is a current that deeply believes in spiritual values. This means that to industrialize or modernize its society would appear challenging in line with the fundamental values of the people of India. The need for material things which is presupposed by the industrial growth needs the presence of other values such as spiritual intervention for economic development to be a success. The U.S. cultural economics defines the position of the Americans as well as the actions they need to put in place to ensure the success of the American dream. The U.S. culture affects leisure, work, and consumption, which are significant elements that define the economic growth of a nation. Therefore, economic behaviors in the U.S influence economic success.
References
Bhachu, P. (Ed.). (2017). Immigration and entrepreneurship: culture, capital, and ethnic networks. Routledge.
Machery, E., Stich, S., Rose, D., Chatterjee, A., Karasawa, K., Struchiner, N., … & Hashimoto, T. (2017). Gettier Across Cultures 1. Noûs, 51(3), 645-664.