A Study on Challenges of Cross-Cultural Management Encountered by Software Mangers in Handling Diverse Workforce, with Special Reference to Bangalore City

Abstract

The Bangalore workforce has been changing dramatically. It is more diverse racially,women are in the labor force in much greater numbers than ever before, and theaverage age of the workforce is now considerably older than before. As a result ofthese demographic shifts, HR management in organizations has had to adapt toa more varied labor force both externally and internally. The 21stcentury has witnessed many international companies have rushed into Bangalore. In the fierce competition, the winners will be companies who know foreign culture of especially cultures of countries like UK, USA and also different parts of World. Cross-cultural Human Resource Management becomes necessary for international companies in this situation. There is much literature about Cross-Cultural Human Resource Management, but they discuss in this field generally instead of specifically guilds for international companies; in real practice, there are many companies lost managing cross-cultural human resources, which will lead them to the fail.The aim of the study is to get a clear picture of cross-cultural human resource management and therefore knowing how to managing the harmonious working relationship between expatriates and local employees by analyzing problems consist of the concept of cross-cultural human resource management.

Introduction

Bangalore, known as India’s Silicon Valley, attracts many tech-savvy expatriates due to its booming IT sector, which includes giants like Google, Dell, and Amazon as well as numerous startups. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face challenges competing for talent and affordable resources, partly because large companies attract highly qualified international professionals. While expats often occupy upper management roles, local employees generally fill mid- and lower-level positions, sometimes at lower salaries. Returning Indian professionals with global experience also compete for these roles.

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace not only promote fairness but also improve business performance, customer loyalty, and employee retention.

The study aimed to understand cross-cultural human resource management in Indian IT companies using quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. It focused on challenges faced by managers and expatriates working together in multicultural environments.

Key findings include:

• Most employees have significant international work experience, which reduces cultural and language difficulties.

• Communication challenges primarily stem from cultural differences (52%) and language barriers (40%).

• Younger employees and those with more international exposure report fewer issues.

• Employees generally perceive expatriate supervisors as empowering and not overly rigid or authoritarian.

• Some cultural clashes arise due to differences in management styles, expectations about hierarchy, decision-making, and approaches to mistakes and teamwork.

The study highlights the importance of understanding cultural norms in India, where workplace harmony, respect for authority, and personal relationships are highly valued. Successful cross-cultural management requires patience, respect, and adaptation to local behaviors to improve cooperation and performance in diverse organizations.

Conclusion

Firstly, from the survey done among employees, who have frequently working relationships with the foreign expatriates, most of them do not have strong English skills. It is a strange situation if you work with a foreigner, but you don’t talk with each other, or even if you talk, you cannot fully understand each other. Communication in work place is a very important element for every single individual in the company. To improve the language skills in the company, company can recruit employees who have good English skills and offer employees some English training. Recruiting employees in the Human Resource Management department is a very important activity for company. We suggest recruiting younger people, because as we have stated the younger the employees are, the higher their English levels are. In this way, companies can save money in English training. Talking about the recruitment of the Human Resource management department, we have another suggestion to recruit some young employees whohave longer and richer international experiences as they usually have technical and language skills, and English. Many international companies require years of working experience, but for the young employees, learning fast is another of their skills.Secondly,the selection of foreign expatriates? is another “have to consider” element.An inappropriate expatriate will bring any kinds of problems, such as conflicts between expatriates and employees. Even human resource management department has the responsibility to tune the conflicts, manage labor relations, and motivate the staff; Companies should avoid problems before their arrive instead of keeping on solving problems. As we have discussed in the beginning that selection in right candidates is significant- adaptability, professional ability, age and experience, and language skills are the criteria that help a company to select the right expatriate. Cross cultural management is study of differences in cultures that exists in the changing demographics of the world and particularly w.r.t to an Organization and managing it by learning and practicing to benefit Organizations Geographically. CCM is very important to understand the dynamics within an organization because of ethnic and cultural diversity that exists. With increasing Globalization the importance of CCM pervade even vast and has much relevance in today’s business scenario. Globalization and open markets have paved the way for creation of MNCs. These MNCs with their presence across many countries have to undergo the Local cultural adoption/Shift in order to perform efficiently and smoothly. The need for understanding different cultures is necessary as Cultures have their own way of interpreting things and what is good for one may be bad for others. And what is believed to be an essential for one group may not be necessary for others. Hence with this diversity an organization has to understand and adapt sensitively to different group’s want and needs and strive hard to keep the gap among these groups to minimal. The main challenge though is to align Organization culture with the Local culture and try to have sync with each other. The harmony of these together is very essential for survival and success of organization, ignoring these aspects might challenge the very existence.

References

[1] Cross-Cultural Management: Essential Concepts, David C. Thomas, SAGE Publications, 2008. [2] Cross-cultural Management: A Knowledge Management Perspective, Nigel Holden, Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2002 [3] The Blackwell Handbook of Cross-Cultural Management, Martin J. Gannon, Karen Newman, Wiley, 2002 [4] International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational, By Peter J. Dowling, Marion Festing, Allen D. Engle, Cengage Learning. [5] International Human Resource Management, edited by Anne-WilHarzing, Joris Van Ruysseveldt, SAGE

Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Nagaraju M G. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.