Although there was much speculation about whether the Commonwealth Games would run this year, they took place in October for two weeks. After several delays and corruption New Delhi finally managed to get ready for the games. The Commonwealth Games were an excellent opportunity for India to establish itself as an emerging global power, but the path to delivering them wasn’t an easy one.
 © istockphoto.com/ Sven Hoppe |
The Commonwealth Games are held by the Commonwealth, an association of independent states from all over the world. Its members represent about 30% of the world’s population. The Commonwealth Games feature many different sports and take place every four years in a different country. Often called “The Friendly Games”, the Commonwealth Games are a great opportunity to improve society and general well-being of the members of the Commonwealth. To ensure their success, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) focuses on three core values: humanity, equality and destiny.
For the first time since its existence the Commonwealth Games took place in India. The Delhi Games Village was located in the centre of the city and had a capacity for 8,500 athletes and officials. Sports like aquatics, badminton, and table tennis are just some of the sports that were played in existing and newly built stadiums.
Despite careful planning, the games in New Delhi had several setbacks. Experts were prevented from going from the venues to work because too many passes had been issued. In the meantime, a significant number of tickets for the opening ceremony went missing and many other passes had been issued without performing the required security checks. Is this reflective of a casual attitude towards deadlines from Indian officials or are they just stereotypes?
Some people think that CGF Chief Executive Mike Hooper is partly to blame. Others believe that Indians are generally not very time conscious and therefore have the tendency to miss deadlines and be late with projects. India is traditionally known as a polychronic culture. In other words, people in India tend to prefer to do many tasks at the same time and will often re-prioritise tasks based on what else is happening. Instead of sticking to fixed deadlines, Indians stress the importance of establishing relationships with their business counterparts.
Indians also tend to have a high context communication style and will be more indirect and implicit. Anyone working with Indians should therefore pay special attention to what is not said in conversations. Naturally, this can lead to misunderstandings and confusion and is perhaps another reason why there were so many delays and challenges leading up to the start of the Commonwealth Games.
The success of the Commonwealth Games relied not only on the ability of the Indian government and organisations involved to deliver the required facilities and services on time, but it required successful working with Swiss Timing, a company that deals with sporting events and advertising management systems. Based in Switzerland, Swiss Timing won the tender to ensure that all required systems were in place for a successful event.
The significant differences in the way that Indians and the Swiss work and approach projects made preparing the Commonwealth Games successfully all the more challenging. For one, their attitudes to the concept of time are significantly different. While India tends to be high context, the Swiss are much more traditional in their approach and appreciate a low-context communication style. They are also very monochromic, the opposite of polychronic, and have a fairly strict attitude to deadlines and time.
Although the Swiss are very good at managing time and meeting deadlines, there were some serious problems working with the Indians on the Games. Throughout the delays, problems with facilities and issues with tickets, India risked losing face in front of the entire world. With face being one of the key Indian values and a prominent part of daily interactions, this was a huge concern for the whole country. In the end, the games turned out to be successful despite all of the problems. The head of the organisation, Thomas Fennel, said that the world got a very positive image of India.
The challenges the Swiss and Indians faced in working with each other are just one example of where cross-cultural difference can play a huge role in hindering projects and creating conflict. Different perceptions of time and approaches to completing a task can create serious problems.
Anyone doing business globally should consider cross-cultural differences like these in order to anticipate misunderstandings and ensure successful working. Participating in a cultural awareness training programme like Doing Business in Indiais just one way to prepare yourself for cultural differences and idiosyncrasies like these. By going through a tailored intercultural training course on the country or countries you work in, you can be more confident that you will be able to avoid cultural clash and conflict which can lead to loss of money, time and credibility.
Craig Hunter, Team England Chef de Mission, said ‘It is like an Indian wedding, we are in Dehli and it will come together at the last minute’. Luckily, he has proven to be right and the games were a success. Showing the world that India is capable of hosting an event of this size and impact was a great opportunity to defend its position as one of the fastest growing economies in the world and will be remembered.
© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010
© admin for Communicaid Blog | Cross Cultural Training and International Communication Skills, 2010. |
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Post tags: Commonwealth Games, cross cultural communication, culture courses, doing business in India, Indian cultural core values, intercultural communication, intercultural courses, intercultural training, New Delhi, Working Successfully across Cultures, working with Indians
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