... Assignment 1: Cultural Sensitivity in Business. What is cultural sensitivity? Are you culturally sensitive? Health Corps defines cultural sensitivity as having the capacity and sensitivity to function effectively with people from different cultures. It means valuing and respecting differences and diversity and being sensitive to cultural differences. It helps us become more culturally sensitive to the community we are in, making us more culturally competent and aware, understanding that cultural sensitivity is a finite achievement. Cultural sensitivity is a set of skills that helps us learn about various kinds of people, cultures that are different from ours thus teaching us how to serve better in a community. Cultural Sensitivity enables us to treat people of different classes, genders, race, religion in an appropriate manner and respect and judge them on their personality, value their worth and what they bring to the table. It is a great concept and it enables us to be closer to different kinds of people from all over the globe. Belonging from one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, I have seen how the littlest thing can offend a person. Thus, being sensitive is crucial- be it in the corporate world or in your daily life. Something as simple as shaking hands with a lady in a country where it is considered a taboo can lose you an enormous contract. Cultural Sensitivity does not only imply having the knowledge...
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...Difference Culture In International Business Report between Saudi Arabia & U.S.A Culture in International Business Culture Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religions, nation of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. Culture is a fuzzy set of basic assumption and value, orientations to life, beliefs, policies, procedures and behavior and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s behavior. (Spencer- Oatey 2008:3) ‘Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may. On the other hand, be considered as products of action, on the other. As conditional elements of future action.’ (Kroeber and Kluckhohn 1952: 181; cited by Adler 1997: 14) Culture differences in International Business Doing business with others countries, the difference culture is a point that a business man should aware of. A key to being successful in business internationally is to understand the role of culture in international...
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...I took the general cultural awareness quiz. I received at 4 out of 7. I was not really surprised by my score. I think most of my strengths consists of understanding that everyone is different and you must be aware of different values, morals and beliefs of others inside and outside of your own culture. I know that generally each culture is different so you need to be aware of that. Inter-cultural awareness is something that has had a great impact and place in my work career. I work in the supply chain/logistics field so a lot of my internal/external business communications are with international people outside of the US. I think in many ways this makes me more globally minded. My intercultural awareness in business matters can really make the difference in establishing better communication with those that I work with. I think a lot of my strengths come from understanding everyone is different. Also I think it is important to have awareness of different cultures, tones or speech in email or verbal communication because you can be perceived many different ways. I believe most of my weakness comes from not being someone who has traveled or spent time abroad. I simply cannot relate to some of the issues in regards to cultural differences because I have not experienced it long enough. I feel a great plan to build on cultural awareness that I already have as well as learn and grow in my weakness would be to continue to learn. Some of the most important areas I have already stressed...
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...Where Growing Minds Go Global… What is Cultural Awareness, anyway? How do I build it? “A fish only discovers its need for water when it is no longer in it. Our own culture is like water for the fish. It sustains us. We live and breathe through it.” Becoming aware of our cultural dynamics is a difficult task because culture is not conscious to us. Since we are born we have learned to see and do things at an unconscious level. Our experiences, our values and our cultural background lead us to see and do things in a certain way. Sometimes we have to step outside of our cultural boundaries in order to realize the impact that our culture has on our behavior. It is very helpful to gather feedback from foreign colleagues on our behavior to get more clarity on our cultural traits. by Stephanie Quappe and Giovanna Cantatore Cultural Awareness is the foundation of communication and it involves the ability of standing back from ourselves and becoming aware of our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions. Why do we do things in that way? How do we see the world? Why do we react in that particular way? Cultural awareness becomes central when we have to interact with people from other cultures. People see, interpret and evaluate things in a different ways. What is considered an appropriate behavior in one culture is frequently inappropriate in another one. Misunderstandings arise when I use my meanings to make sense of your reality. Projected similarities...
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...04/02/2015 04/02/2015 REFLECTIVE DIARY Cultural Differences and People Management – BLDE606.2 REFLECTIVE DIARY Cultural Differences and People Management – BLDE606.2 Module leader: Dr Dawn Williams Seminar teacher: Fiona O’Connor Student name: Charlotte Marcenac Student ID: W151350741 Module leader: Dr Dawn Williams Seminar teacher: Fiona O’Connor Student name: Charlotte Marcenac Student ID: W151350741 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Table of contents II. Introduction III. A module providing a greater understanding of culture self-awareness, through the process of cultural pluralism IV. Reflecting on the political rights of women in France and Saudi Arabia across the concept of masculine societies V. Cultural Shock: a concept perceived as a disease, or a learning process of cultural differences? VI. Difficulties to demonstrate high and low context from you culture, but a strong relation with other cultural patterns to help. VII. The importance of rituals, symbols, beliefs when negotiating with the Chinese culture, as example: the meaning of a gift VIII. Cross cultural management: the relationship between managers and employees in France compare to Australia. IX. Conclusion X. References INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION According to Schön (1983), reflective practice enables people to involve in a process of continuous learning, by learning from experiences. This reflective...
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...Ban to visit LaJolla. While Yakura will leave in a few days, the team of eight managers will remain in the United States until we have reached an agreement. We have limited information regarding our visitors; age, education, prior work experience, and job titles is all we know. We do not know how long the transition team will be in the United States, because we do not know how long it will take to reach an agreement. We do not know how much English, if any, they know, or if they will have a translator. Since we don't have access to this information our ability to maintain cultural sensitivity (O'Rourke, 2010) will be imperative to our success. There are two key issues in this case study I feel are important for La Jolla software to consider in order to achieve their objective. First, we must be conscientious of Japanese culture and customs. "Research has shown that failures in an overseas business setting most frequently result from an inability to understand and adapt...
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...Discussed in previous chapters was how excellent communication is essential to successful business communication. Anytime we communicate it is influenced by our culture, this chapter focuses on developing cultural competency, recognizing variation in a diverse world and adapting and improving communication across cultures. The term Intercultural communication refers to exchanging information between people from different cultures. With the ever-changing business environment, businesses are adapting a more diverse workforce. With a diverse workforce, there are advantages of different national, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. Cultural competency is essential for working in or with a diverse group of individuals. Cultural competency requires a blend of attitude, knowledge and skills. The book recommends some steps to help ensure your success with intercultural communication. Starting first with understanding diversity and culture. A broad definition of diversity: the entire characteristic that define people as individuals. Diversity is closely related to people’s culture. The book defines culture as a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior. Your cultural background defines your attitude about what is appropriate in a situation and establishes norms of behavior. Culture shapes the way we communicate, view work, interpret conflict, define and solve problems, and resolve dilemmas. There are challenges of communicating with...
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...Managing cross cultural communication Introduction Globalization is a phenomenon that is in vogue nowadays. In this rapidly changing world to succeed it’s imperative for an organization to adopt the phenomenon of globalization. On one hand globalization cultivates scores of benefits for the organization. On the other hand, it also generates various dilemmas for management. One of these dilemmas is of effective communication management. This phenomenon of globalization presents challenges of understanding and managing cross-cultural communications. According to Stephen Roberts: “Culture is the framework in which we communicate” This suggests that various factors give rise to the problem of cross-cultural communication. These factors include: language, environment, technology, social organization, the perception of authority and non-verbal communications. Having the ability to assess these variables is vital in ensuring for managers to convey messages and conduct business across a wide range of cultures. This paper addresses communication within multicultural project teams and the significance of leadership style in managing cross-cultural communications. The aim of this paper is to reveal different ways or skills that managers need to adopt to make the process of communication effective. Furthermore, this paper sheds lights on variegated barriers that may exist in effective communication process in a cross-culture environment. Literature review Zapf...
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...(DuBrin, 2013) As a team lead in my company, I have been tasked with coaching a multicultural employee into a leadership position. I feel that as a leader, my job is to motivate and influence anyone who wants to take the task on as being a leader. As a leader, I do recommend that anyone taking on the task of showing others how to become a successful leader should be aware as DuBrin stated “of overt and subtle cultural differences”. Conflicts with Work on Days of Religious Significance There are many conflicts with having employees work on days where they have religious obligations. As a leader, you have to be aware of these conflicts and how to handle them. One conflict that can arise is how the employee dress or groom themselves. There are some religions that require women to wear head dressings or prohibit men from cutting their hair. Another conflict that an employee may have is needing time off for religious holidays or breaks during the day for prayer with a schedule that will allow the employee to take the Sabbath day off. Many employers make sure that their leadership team are well aware of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1964 which “prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals due to their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment” (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). In order to resolve...
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...Communication barriers becomes more common problem within nowadays organisations as there is getting more and more international chains such as hotels, companies around the world, international trade always occurs between different countries, and many organisations’ work environment becomes more multicultural. Eubanks et al. (Samovar & Porter, 2010, p.137) illustrated that ‘cross-cultural or intercultural communication is between individuals and groups whose perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter communication event’. This assignment discusses what the potential communication barriers across cultures could be and what the solutions are to overcome these cultural challenges. Robbins et al. (2011) indicated that language could be the most common problem in cross-cultural communication, even people use same language could have communication problem because of different age and context groups could use words differently. Except language differences, problems relates to language difficulties, could be semantics, word connotations and tone differences. Semantics could cause communication barrier as there could be some uncommon words within different languages that might be difficult to translate, for instance, there is no direct Russian equivalents for the English terms – efficiency, free market and regulation. Connotations could be another reason to result in language difficulties. Individuals from various nations could imply words differently that incur misunderstanding...
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...Suggestions for overcoming barriers When you deal with different cultures you are bound to come across certain barriers. This can make it difficult to conduct business or even communicate with the people from the other culture. But the trick to succeeding in life is learning how to overcome those barriers. There are a few things to be aware of to help get you through barriers, the first is to follow the prescription. This mean when you make a plan to do something a certain way you should stick to it and follow thru. Many times what ends up happening is that a plan will be drawn up but will not really be followed. Another important thing to be aware of in order to overcome barriers is to learn about other cultures. One of the main reason why many business deals don’t go thru with other countries is because we are ignorant of their culture and their methods of doing things. Each culture is different so we must learn how to deal with the type of culture that we are doing business with. Four key concepts to know in learning about other cultures are first Acquire multicultural capabilities and skills including foreign languages. This is crucial because if you have no way of communicating with the other person how will you or they know what the other is saying. People always like to interact, speak and do business in their own language so if you can provide that for them you have a better chance of gaining them as customer instead of losing them to the competition (Smeu). The second...
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...To be able to define the concept ’’culture’’ you have to be aware of the basic norms which you take for granted in your own behavior. You express culture in symbolic forms, whether you have a cross around your neck or a headscarf on your head. It is the result of a learning process through life, and it forms your values, behavior, ideas, ways of communicating (verbal and non-verbal) and simply the rules you are living by – all your do’s and don’ts . Take a look at the article ‘’given all we know of whales, why resume the slaughter?’’ from The Guardian Online, April 6, 2010 by Paola Calalieri, it suggests that ‘’we now live in globalized times’’ but even though we have made it more easy to communicate (Internet etc.) & to travel across borders, the borders are still there, meaning the culture is still different within each border. Many international organizations have tried, and some succeeded, to introduce international laws, like the WTO (World Trade Organization), NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) and the Human Right Organization; also there is an International Whaling Commission which is trying to prevent different cetaceans from becoming extinct. If they succeeded, and the species are now again flourishing, why can the hunters not hunt them again like they used to? Human kind strives for knowledge, and now that we now that whales are intelligent and sensitive beings, we suddenly have a certain compassion for them, and that makes...
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...Managing cross-cultural staff." ABSTRACT Cross-cultural communication in business is a feature of study that looks at how people from dissimilar backgrounds converse, in comparable and different ways among themselves, and how they handle to communicate crosswise with cultures. In this investigation we will try to find which are the problems and what ways can we find in order to manage better employees from around the world. The plan of the essay is to expand a better understanding of the key points that control cross-cultural communication and international staff managing . 1. INTRODUCTION Anthropology includes all aspects of human behaviors and ideas. Anthropologists study diverse cultures to be more compliant and accommodating, more appreciative and to improve our own culture. Culture influences the business setting and management practices of a country and helps appreciate the differences between countries, it is difficult to determine and shows significant dissimilarity inside a country .A cultural approach does not accommodate transform and tends towards stereotypes. Besides every country has its own position of competitive improvement in its politico-economic ,industrial relations ,training and other requirements for firms and workers in their dealings with the state and culture. The resultant 'varieties of capitalism in different countries mediate the influences of global economy and multinational practices (Armit and Shoemaker ,1993).There is a challenge...
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...understanding the meaning of the message that you are trying to communicate with the other person. Teams and groups need to effectively communicate with each other in order for an organization to run efficiently. What does this mean? Well whether you work in the health care field or in the restaurant business , the lines of communication are equally important. In the following paper I will discuss how team and group communication processes are utilized in my own organization, and how gender and cultural differences will affect communications at my organization among co-workers, managers and patrons. Included in this paper I will identify any improvements that could be made to make the line of communication more effective. I work in the restaurant industry where often times you deal with many different types of people, whether it is the guests that enter the restaurant or the staff that I work with. When dealing with any type of organization communication is key. A restaurant is run on the first impression on which the customers decide whether or not to return to the restaurant. The first line of communication is the way that they are greeted at the door to the body language that represent , if I bring a smile to the table, the better the service will be. There are so many types of communication in the restaurant business. To ensure that the business runs effectively each employee needs to work together as a team. In the restaurant business the staff is usually separated in to...
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...Within the module there were tests and before receiving 100% I had to take them a few times. My thought wasn’t the correct answer with what the computer was saying but I understand the point they were trying to make, after reviewing the information. Effective communication begins with the understanding that the sender of the message and the receiver of the message. This can be a challenge with different cultures and backgrounds, this introduces a certain amount of uncertainty, making communications even more difficult. Learning the basics about cultures and something about the language of communication in different countries is important. This is necessary even for the basic level of understanding the culture in order to engage in appropriate greetings and physical contact, which can be a tricky. For example, kissing a business associate is not considered an appropriate business practice in the U.S., but in Paris, one peck on each cheek is an acceptable greeting. And, the handshake that is widely accepted in the U.S. is not recognized in all other cultures. Another example is from the company I work for. We hired a pharmacist that is not able to shake any man’s hand due to her cultural beliefs. At first, some employees didn’t understand but then after talking and learning from her they understood. Some companies are now offering training in the different cultures where the company conducts business, it is important that employees communicating across cultures practice patience...
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