Film Project Noof Almarzooqi Stephen Trinder H00293466 LSS2113 - Intercultural Studies Film Project Stephen Trinder Noof Almarzooqi H00293466

Film Summary. Outsourced is a modern day comedy of cross-cultural conflict and romance. Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) spends his days managing a customer call center in Seattle until his job, along with those of the entire office, are outsourced to India. Adding insult to injury, Todd must travel to India to train his new replacement. As he navigates through the chaos of Bombay and an office paralyzed by constant cultural misunderstandings, Todd yearns to return to the comforts of home. But it is through his team of quirky yet likable Indian call center workers, including his friendly and motivated replacement, Puro (Asif Basra), and the charming, opinionated Asha (Ayesha Dharker), that Todd realizes that he too has a lot to learn - not only about India and America, but about himself. He soon discovers that being outsourced may be the best thing that ever happened to him. (Outsourced the movie)

Long term and short term orientation . Puro is introducing his self to Toad and gave him his business card, and it was written that he is the future call center manager, so toad was shocked . Long term and short term orientation . This scene shows the difference between India and the USA on long and short term orientation dimension, which India represents long term orientation based on what was written on Puro’s business card that he is “the future manager”, which shows that India focus on the future more . And in India the time is not linear. Toad was surprised when he saw Puro’s business card, so USA shows short term orientation because they look at short term goals ,and focuses more at the present. (Hawkinson, E Comparing Japanese and American Culture w/ Hofstede 2015) India Score : 51 USA Score : 26

Toad is having a conversation with Puro, and he told him that he doesn’t live with his parents and he see them few times a year, and Puro thinks that not living with the family is strange, while Toad think it’s natural and normal. This scene represents that India is a high context country, and this because they have a strong sense of family, and this is because Puro was shocked we he knew that Toad doesn’t live with his family and he visits them only few times a year. In the same time Toad who thought that living individually without his parents is something normal, we could tell that in the USA society they have less commitment towards their family, and Individuals freedom, privacy and responsibility is considered. (Trinder, S High/low context culture 2016)

Individualism vs Collectivism Based on Puro and Toad’s different perspectives about family, we could also conclude that this difference refers to Greet Hofstede’s in individualism/collectivism dimension which it’s the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. India is an collectivism country because people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty, and they define themselves in terms of ‘we’. On the other side USA is an individualism country, or in another word it’s one of the most individualist countries in the world this is because they expected to look more after themselves than others, and people’s identity there is defined in term of “I”. (National Culture) India Score : 48 USA Score : 91

Asha is telling Toad that she is settled for an arranged marriage just the way her parents got married, and marrying this way is very common in her place . India is a high context culture, because they have rare marriage with outsider just like Asha said that she was engaged since she was four years old with someone that his family and hers has been know each other for generations, so did her parent got married, and it’s common and usual to be settled for arrange marriage in India. In addition, USA is a low context culture, because of Toad’s opinion about the arranged that it’s not fair and just like he said for Asha :“you have the right to choose for yourself”, in low context culture they have a strong sense of fairness, and going back to marriage in low context culture intermarriage is common. (Trinder, S High/low context culture 2016)

Puro Is Calling Toad By Mr Puro Is Calling Toad By Mr. Toad and he was speaking to him very formally, since He’s His Manager. and Toad was telling him call me just Toad. Toad was speaking to his manager he called him by his name, and he was comfortable while talking to him. Power Distance On the pervious two different conversation between an employee and his manager, there were a culture difference on the fact of equality among society members which it’s basically the Greet Hofstede’s power distance dimension.

India Score : 77 USA Score : 40 When it comes to the conversation between Toad and his manager, Toad was more comfortable that he was calling his manager by his name and he was speaking informally to him, and this is because USA is a low power distance country and there the supervisors and employees are considered almost equals. On the other hand Puro was more formal in his talk with Toad, and instead of calling him by his name he was calling him Mr. Toad, considering that India is a high power distance country they have strong hierarchies, and a big gaps in compensation, authority and respect. (National Culture) India Score : 77 USA Score : 40

Toad got angry, because Puro wasn’t on work, and Puro was out to bring Toad some food because he looked sick. From this scene we could know that Toad comes from a low context culture, because of his priorities and the way he spoke to Puro, and since in the low context culture they prefer to have short term relations, they are informal, and when it comes to making decision they put values and logic over feeling, and those all are things that could be seen when Toad got mad at Puro when he was not on work. Conversely, from Puro’s attitude we could see that India is a high context culture, where they have close personal relationship, just like when Puro was worry about Toad and he was trying to take care of him and to build a good relationship with Toad, furthermore in high context culture people put’s emotions into account when making decision, and that could be seen when Puro went out of his work to get Toad some food. (Trinder, S High/low context culture 2016)

References : - Synopsis.(n.d). Retrieved March 5,2016 From Outsourced the movie: http://www.outsourcedthemovie.com/synopsis.html Hawkison,E. (2015 , March 6) Comparing Japanese and American Culture w/ Hofstede. Retrieved March 3, 2016, From Culture at Work: communicating across cultures: http://www.culture-at-work.com/highlow.html - National Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2016, from The Hofstede Centre: http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html Trinder , S (2016) High Context and Low Context. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2016, From Intercultural Studies : http://www.culture-at-work.com/highlow.html