For Volunteer Projects
A Case Study - Lisa, Volunteer in India
Lisa has just moved to India for her volunteering assignment with an NGO in Kerala. In her role as a volunteer, she reports to Uma, a middle-aged woman social worker who has been in the organisation since its inception. The NGO is run by Madhavan, an elderly gentleman in his sixties who is held in high regard and veneration among the employees of the NGO.
As a volunteer, Lisa's duty is to teach English to the underprivileged children, who are taken under the NGO's wings and given an education. Uma hands Lisa the curriculum on her first day on the job and explains to her how the children need to be taught, during what time and for what duration. This is Lisa's first time in a foreign country, outside of her home in London. She is excited and thrilled as she and her best friend, Benni has decided to go on this adventure together.
Lisa goes on her duty wholeheartedly, and sees that the children respond to her very well. They seem friendly and eager to learn and extremely curious about who she is and where she is from. Her colleagues seem very friendly too and invite her to join for lunches with them. She refuses during the first couple of days as she and Benni have plans to meet up for lunch and discuss the day so far; after all, they have just arrived and they need to look out for each other!
Through the first week, being a very earnest worker, Lisa realises that there are better ways of teaching the children, through which she might get better results. She tries to bring it up with Uma who seems very busy at the moment. Lisa decides to take it up with Madhavan who is at his office through the day. She greets Madhavan with the "namaste" that she has practised and proceeds to tell him her plan. Madhavan seems uninterested and brushes off her suggestions and asks her to talk to Uma. Through the conversation, she notices that Madhavan does not make eye contact with her and continues with his paperwork.
Perplexed by his reaction, Lisa proceeds to action out her plan to teach the children in a more "effective" manner. The following week, Uma calls Lisa into her office and seems very irate at her new teaching methods. She insists that Lisa should just follow instructions and not try to "be a hero". Now confused and a little upset, Lisa tries to talk to other colleagues who avoid her and seem to be talking behind her back. Meanwhile, the students seem difficult to control too, becoming increasingly unruly and unwilling to take instructions.
(Please note that this is a case that is created merely for the purpose of example.)
* What went wrong with Lisa's interactions with the locals?
* Why did Madhavan brush aside her inputs?
* Why was Uma upset by Lisa's initiative?
* Why did the students refuse to cooperate with her?
What in this case seems like an irredeemable situation is in fact, a mere cultural difference that 1) Lisa did not recognise and was not prepared for and 2) The locals did not appreciate.
These are common situations you may face when you travel to a culture that is very different from yours. What if there is a way that you can avoid these situations or better yet, understand these situations better when they occur so that you can take quick corrective action and thus, don't entirely jeopardise your volunteering stint?
This is why Intercultural Competence is important when you travel to a new country. What are the differences in your host country's attitudes to power, wealth, relationships, ambiguity, decisions related to future or basic desires or impulses, vis-a-vis your own? You may read up on greeting in the right way or eating with your hands or how to dress appropriately, but situations such as those mentioned in the case can throw you off guard and leave you perplexed and truly ruin your experience in a new culture.
Now let's look at what Lisa could have done better:
India is a country that values relationships that are beyond just immediate family and friends. In India, it is important for one to have a favourable relationship with colleagues, and those you meet on a regular basis. It was important for Lisa to acknowledge her colleagues by joining them for lunches right at the beginning, in order to earn their trust and friendship. This Collectivistic attitude of Indians can be confusing to most foreigners, as most in the west are programmed to look out only for their closest family and friends.
Lisa's interaction with Madhavan was a breach of hierarchy when you look at the Indian context of working (of course, this may change in the more urban parts of India and several corporates are trying to go past this norm). In typical Indian organizations, there is a definite hierarchy and the boss is very often considered a "godly" or "patriarchal" figure that those at the junior most level have almost no access to. Lisa should have taken her plans to Uma, whenever she found the time.
Uma, on the other hand has seen this initiative from Lisa as aggressive and lacking respect. Lisa was after all, her subordinate and should have consulted with her before taking decisions that questioned her authority and judgement. In India, employees or subordinates are expected to follow orders and not take the initiative to do things differently (This again, varies in urban and more corporate companies), whereas in most western countries, one takes ownership and initiative to achieve their task in the best possible manner.
The children, who are used to having a strict authoritative figure in front of the classroom (teachers in India are expected to be so), see that Lisa lacks authority and will not discipline them, and decide to misbehave. If Lisa had been aware of the hierarchy (or expectation for hierarchy in the classroom), she would have better handled the situation.
Her colleagues, who she did not make an effort to familiarise herself with, now talk behind her back about her "attitude" and her "boyfriend". People, especially in the rural parts of India, do not accept friendship between different sexes, as easily as those in the west. India being a restrained culture, boys and girls are expected not to mingle more than at an acceptable limit (thus, different entrances for men and women in public transportation, different sides of the classroom for seating, etc.). Lisa would have done well to introduce Benni to her colleagues or to wait till her colleagues knew her better before she overtly went for lunches with him.
Though this may seem like a drastic difference in culture and unacceptable to many, it is important to realise that in order to experience and truly enjoy a new cultural experience, one needs to look at different cultures with unprejudiced eyes and know that the reason why that culture fascinates you is because it is indeed different from your own! Getting culturally attuned with a professional trainer is thus very important to better understand these differences.