Culture Difference Harms Offshoring

Filed in archive Outsourcing Issues on August 3, 2006

One of the reasons why offshoring and outsourcing seems to be unsuccessful is because of culture difference. This was the conclusion given in the latest study done by Accenture.

The study also revealed that 2/3 of the 200 US business executives remarked that "miscommunication arising from cultural differences" is one of the major problems when outsourcing offshore. Aside from that, 76% of the respondents identified that the difference in communication styles is often the reason for conflict in offshoring and outsourcing.

Other problems that were mentioned in the study includes a different approach when completing tasks, different attitudes toward conflict, and different decision-making styles.