Soft Skills for the BPO Sector

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SOFT SKILLS

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Join some  nishing school.

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Read self-help books. Some such books worth reading are:

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Cultural Intelligence: A Guide to Working with People from Other

Cultures by Brooks Peterson

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Cross-Cultural Competence by Slawomir Magala

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Complete Business Etiquette Handbook by Barbara Pachter &

Marjorie Brody

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Intercultural Business Communication by Lillian H. Chaney and

Jeanette S. Martin

MICRO MONITOR: A CASELET

Cultural awareness ⫹ Cultural sensitivity ⫹ Cultural  exibility ⫹

Cross-cultural communication ⫽ Cross-cultural intelligence

We discussed in the micro monitor caselet of Chapter 4 the role of EI

with the spotlight on the growth prospects of Rahul, Molishka and

Sushant in a BPO environment. In Chapter 9 we analysed the SI aspect

of those three individuals which served as one of the deciding factors

of their growth in the BPO sector. Here we will try to analyse the CCI as-

pect of one’s competence in the light of one’s cultural awareness, cultural

sensitivity, cultural  exibility and cross-cultural communication as the

four essential skills needed to perform optimally and succeed continu-

ously in any multicultural organization. The case in hand deals with the

competence of Rahul, Molishka and Sushant when their Gurgaon-based

BPO company, SKL, decides to select two persons as part of the Indian

team and send them to the US to work collaboratively with the American

engineers in one of the projects.

As you already know, the three individuals—Rahul, Molishka and

Sushant— had varying degrees of EI and SI, and surprisingly the degrees

of their CCI were found to be even more diverse when assessed through

internal assessment with special focus on their cultural awareness, cul-

tural sensitivity, cultural  exibility, and the quality of their cross-cultural

communication.

Rahul’s low CCI in the assessment sheet got re ected pretty evidently

mainly because of his below average EI and SI, which shadowed not

only his sharp analytical and logical ability and steel-trap focus but also

highlighted his lack of empathy and adaptability, which almost tagged

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