A Perfect Match? Cultural Clashes and Gendered Work Ideals in Transnational IT Companies

In this chapter, Joan Acker’s concept of gendered work ideals is used to understand the cultural clashes in transnational collaboration between Swedish and Indian firms. Interviews in two firms show that Indian employees collaborating with Sweden meet with conflicting ideals which they find difficult to realize, because of the differences between the prevalent organizational cultures in the different national contexts, India being more Tayloristic and Sweden being more entrepreneurial. The gendered work ideals also differ. The Indian ideal worker is extremely difficult for women to realize, due to societal expectations, which effectively prevents them from fulfilling the organizational expectations. Acker’s description of the gendered work ideal proves to be insufficient in this cultural context, where the differences between the societal gender roles of women and men are built in the organizational culture and women’s societal role as mothers overrides their role as employees in ways not covered in Acker’s presumptions.