Case Study
Monsooned: A case study on project deadlines, the Indian ‘yes’ and high-context versus low-context communication.
Rebecca works with United Technologies, a Chicago based company. She is talking on the phone to Abhinav, the manager of one of United Technologies vendors for customer service outsourcing.
Rebecca: We really need to get all of the customer service representatives trained on our new process in the next two weeks. Can you get this done?
Abhinav: That timeline is pretty aggressive. Do you think it’s possible?
Rebecca: I think it will require some creativity and hard work, but I think we can get it done with two or three days to spare.
Abhinav: Ok.
Rebecca: Now that our business is settled, how is everything else?
Abhinav: All’s well, although the heavy monsoons this year are causing a lot of delays getting around the city.
Two weeks later…
Abhinav: We’ve pulled all of our resources and I’m happy to say that 60% of the customer service representatives are now trained in the new process. The remaining 40% will complete the training in the next two weeks.
Rebecca: Only 60%? I thought we agreed that they all would be trained by now!
Abhinav: Yes . The monsoon is now over so the rest of the training should go quickly.
Rebecca: This training is critical to our results. Please get it done as soon as possible.
Abhinav: I am certain that it will be done in the next two weeks.
Questions based on the Above case Study:
1. Did Abhinav agree to the initial timeline requested by Rebecca?
2. What might Rebeccabe thinking about Abhinav?
3. What might Abhinav be thinking about Rebecca?
4. How will this incident affect their future interactions?
