The Impact of Intercultural Communication on the Success of French Offshoring Projects to India

Diploma Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Business Management Corporate Governance grade: 17 Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences (Wirtschaft 2 - IBIS) language: English abstract: Today communication between different cultures becomes more and more necessary due to (1) economic changes such as globalisation (2) political changes i.e. the formation of international communities or problems which do not care about borders and thus problem solving cannot either and (3) changes in personal lifestyle.But communication is already a complex process for members of the same culture. In interaction with different cultures it is even more difficult to establish the true intention of the sender of a message. Misunderstandings and communication breakdowns are part of intercultural business reality. Difficulties can arise through language barriers misinterpretation of verbal and non-verbal behaviour or different shared values and experiences. Other reasons for communication difficulties are ethnocentrism stereotypes and prejudices.This thesis provides an insight in the challenge of offshoring French IT projects to India. First it gives an overview of outsourcing and offshoring including advantages and disadvantages. Second it presents India as an IT nation and offshore location. Afterwards it describes the current state of global offshoring with a special focus on developments in France. In the following chapters it explains culture its phenomenon such as ethnocentrism stereotypes and cultural layers as well as the culture's impact on business. Moreover this thesis analyses the communication between French and Indian nationals. It begins with describing the communication process including the phases of an offshoring project and communication interfaces. Subsequently verbal and non-verbal elements of communication across cultures are explained. Additionally the influence of cultural values on communication between India