EFFECTS OF CULTURAL ADJUSTMENT CHALLENGES OF NON-KERALITE PROFESSIONALS IN THE IT PARKS IN KERALA

In recent decades, the peoples of the world have been brought closer and closer by fast technological development in transportation and communication.Working in multicultural team involves many challenges, disagreements and conflicts.The study covers the cultural shock of non-Keralite IT professionals in the IT parks in Kerala. The institutions selected are Info Park Kochiand Techno Park Trivandrum.This study derives its significance from the reality that organizations which are able to create work environments in which cultural differences among employees are properly harnessed and synthesized usually enable their employees to improve their potentials, maximize their efficiency and improve productivity.The study is exploratory and descriptive in nature. It is exploratory as it tries to identify factors of cultural shock and identify management practices followed or cross-cultural training provided by IT parks in Kerala to reduce the effects of cultural shocks.Descriptive statistical tools like percentage, mean, standard deviation and mean percent score were used for describing the collected data and independent sample t test and ANOVA were used to test the hypothesis with the help of SPSS software.The result of the study shows that the non-Keralites are facing different personal, job related or psychological issues at work place because of the cultural differences. The effect of culture shock and the factors influencing culture shock were identified and also various measures to manage the culture shock were assumed.近数十年来，全球各群体因交通与通信领域的快速技术进步，彼此间的联系愈发紧密。在多元文化团队中开展工作，往往会遭遇诸多挑战、分歧与冲突。本研究聚焦喀拉拉邦各IT园区内非喀拉拉籍IT从业人员所遭遇的文化冲击(Cultural Shock)问题，选取的调研机构为科钦信息园区（Info Park Kochi）与特里凡得琅科技园区（Techno Park Trivandrum）。本研究的研究意义源于如下现实：若组织能够打造适宜的工作环境，妥善利用并整合员工间的文化差异，通常可助力员工充分发挥自身潜能、提升工作效率并优化整体生产力。本研究兼具探索性与描述性属性：作为探索性研究，其旨在识别文化冲击的影响因素，以及喀拉拉邦IT园区现行的管理实践或提供的跨文化培训方案，以缓解文化冲击的负面影响；作为描述性研究，其采用百分比、均值、标准差及平均百分得分等描述性统计工具对采集到的数据进行阐释，并借助SPSS软件，通过独立样本t检验与方差分析(ANOVA)对研究假设进行验证。研究结果表明，因文化差异，非喀拉拉籍从业者在工作场所面临各类个人层面、工作相关层面及心理层面的问题。本研究明确了文化冲击的影响效应与相关影响因素，并提出了多项应对文化冲击的管理策略。