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.