Professional Cultural Groups
CS204-09
Brittany Mayfield
Kaplan University
December 2, 2014

Author Note
This assignment will describe in detail a cultural group in my desired field.

Abstract
In this report, I will include research on cultural groups in the Management field. As well as an interview with my current Human Resources Manager.

Professional Cultural Groups
CS204-09

Cultural Groups1 Employees everywhere have in some sort of way adopted several characteristics from their work colleagues. For example in most professions, the individuals that are employed are all wanting to excel in their profession. Unbeknownst, they adopt similar values and behavior patterns as their peers. It’s true that work places consist of many different professions, and roles. These differences also include diverse cultural groups, such as: Historical factors, social classes, beliefs, values, attitudes, and etc.
As a Sales Accounting Administrator, I am constantly working with different departments. These departments include: pricing, sales, accounting, customer service, and human resources. Although, I love the variety of my job. One day I would love to rise to other levels in my career.
However, I have learned that within these different departments you work with a variety of people. These individuals are from different backgrounds, have different goals, along with many other things. For example, the pricing department is small, and the individuals that work within that department are very family oriented and are extremely close with one another. The sales department is more male-dominated, professional, and can be extremely busy at times. With the accounting group, this is another professional group who can be defined as very poised and strict. They’re not very close knit as the pricing department but there is only a few of them in their department. Customer Service, is more female-dominated, it consists of many different attitudes and personalities. However, the ladies try to get along for the most part of it and because they are split into different regions and teams they are extremely close to teammates and treat one another as family. Last but certainly not least would be human resources, our corporate human resources team consist of nine individuals who all have different positions within their department. However, they are extremely close and work well together.
In each of these departments, you face a variety of individuals. They all come from different backgrounds, races, genders, beliefs, and etcetera.
I am apart in some sort of way of all of these departments. I have adapted the values, beliefs, and goals of the organization that I work for. All of these individuals are involved with one another and these situations and relationships evolve into professional cultural groups.

The Interview:
When I began this assignment, only one individual came to mind. Wesley Locust, he is our current Human Resources Manager. He has been with the company for more than 25 years and have had the pleasure of working with many individuals who have all come from different cultural backgrounds. If I were to describe Wesley, I would say that he is extremely poised, professional, but also has a humble and laid-back demeanor.

After interviewing with Wesley, I was able to obtain so much information.
An alumni of NC State, Wesley mentioned to me something that really stood out in his interview. He stated that the one thing he regrets about his entire career was that he never learned other languages. Of course this opened the floor for other questions and words of advice. He wanted me to understand that when it comes to wanting to succeed in any profession, you have to constantly be open for learning. There’s not an age-limit to which someone should stop pursuing knowledge. The word knowledge is unattainably limitless and to want to excel and know all that one would need to know about a profession it is very important to want to learn CONSTANTLY. What he pointed out to me about his regret, was that it’s not that he just wanted to learn other languages, which is awesome, but also the fact that he felt that he had put a tremendous amount of limitations on himself for not being to communicate with others.
When it comes to working with other professional cultural groups, as a manager of any profession you should never limit yourself to communicating with other professionals by any means. Another thing that stood out to me the most about our interview was that he brought up the Six Sigma Certification. There are several professional organizations that are associated with the Six Sigma Certification process. For those of you who may not know what Six Sigma is, it’s a professional certification that has become extremely crucial to all businesses that are looking to find employees who have proven that they are responsible enough to contribute to employee prioritization, this includes decreases in failures, increases in satisfaction, and profitability.
Among this certification there are many others that are extremely beneficial but also not as expensive as completing master programs. Appendix 1. What makes a person qualify for a management position?
A lot of things will make a person qualify for a management position, but one that stands out to me would be dedication. You have to be dedicated to yourself, your profession, and your organization’s goals. 2. What is one thing that you regret about your career?
I am not sure if I would necessarily call it a regret. But that would be learning different languages. You see when I graduated it wasn’t necessarily important to be bilingual so it wasn’t much pressure to learn other languages. However, in today’s society it is extremely important to be able to communicate with all individuals. 3. How would you describe professional cultural groups?
That’s a good one, professional cultural groups.
When I think of that term the only thing that comes to mind is the diversity of an organization. For example, the different races, backgrounds, and goals of each individual. 4. If you could name one thing about someone that could be an extreme flaw when it comes to managing other individuals, what would that be?
(Hmmm)….let’s see I would say a huge flaw for any manager would be the lack of respect for those that they manage. You have to make sure that everyone around you feel important. For example, I was at a luncheon one day and the speaker spoke about the head coach and how he would always give his assistant coaches the opportunity to speak and make decisions. He stated that people didn’t understand why he cared about their opinions and the thing that he said that stuck with me since was, “If no one can ever say you impacted their life, or that they learned from you then did you really serve your purpose. My purpose as the head basketball coach Is to not only lead my players and keep them on track but to also manage my team so that they can grow to do the same.” 5. Wow. Great story. I think this pretty much answer all of the major questions that I had for you today. Is there any advice that you would like to give me and others on what to look forward to when it comes to managing others?
Yeah the word love. If you do not come into work, not saying that every day will be sunny and you can never have a bad day, but if you do not come into work each day and love what it is that you do and all that comes with your position find something else. Because your hate for management will put the individuals that you work for in extreme risk in hating their jobs.
Notes
I wrote few notes down. The reason being was because Wesley was extremely straight forward and he explained what he meant in such detail that it didn’t call for me to write much down other than his answers to my questions.

References 1. Rose, P. (2013). Cultural competency for the health professional. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 2. Robbins, S., & Coulter, M. (2005). Management (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. 3. Result Filters. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16096155 4. Graziadio Business Review | Graziadio School of Business and Management | Pepperdine University. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2014, from http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/managing-in-an-era-of-multiple-cultures/

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