Cross-cultural training activities - Joseba Arregi, Dmitrii Enygin, Venera Midova (book recommendations for teens .TXT) 📗
- Author: Joseba Arregi, Dmitrii Enygin, Venera Midova
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Hofstede claimed that Chinese people have a relatively high Confucian dynamism index value, while American people have a relatively low Confucian dynamism index value. He suggested that this distinction is reflected in business. In China top management emphasizes thrift and perseverance and respect for tradition, and also maintains a long-term orientation (that is, the company is regarded as a family). In contrast, in the USA, top management is said to focus on current needs, creativity and adopting a short-term orientation.
Read the four short incidents described below. Underline any sentences that suggest cultural differences were at work and answer the following questions:
How would you explain these differences in terms of Hofstede's cultural dimensions?
What hints or tips would you give to each of the people below to overcome cultural barriers?
Sarah
Sarah Marshall is head of the business development group at a US-based law firm. Recently she was assigned the task of winning a contract for a new project with the Colombian government. She was competing with teams from Spain and France.
Sarah had quite a lot of background information on the proposed project and on the packages her competitors were offering. On the basis of this information and her organization's extensive resources she felt confident that the company would win the contract.
Sarah drew up a proposal that was time and cost-effective and designed a presentation based on convincing numbers and a persuasive argument. Arriving in Bogota the day before, Sarah personally made the sales pitch in which she detailed all the relevant facts, highlighted the various ways forward and made a clear recommendation of the best solution. She eventually lost the project to the Spanish team, even though her Columbian counterparts acknowledged the quality of her proposals.
Richard
Richard, an Australian, is part of a team of lawyers based in Paris. Claude, 48, is the team's PA. Claude works from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with an hour and a half for lunch.
Richard is very pleased with the quality of Claude's, work and her commitment to the team. Unfortunately because of his extensive travel commitments abroad he has never had the opportunity to have lunch with her or spend any time with her and the team outside the work environment. After a while Richard asks to be addressed by his first name and the informal 712. Several months later, however, Claude is still calling him `Monsieur Lafleur' and addressing him with Voulez-vous bien...' although Richard calls her 'Claude' and addresses her with Veux-tu
Richard is puzzled and decides to talk to Claude about this matter in order to clarify the situation.. To his amazement Claude replies that she prefers to call him by his surname and refer to him with the formal vous.
Karl
Karl, a Dutch lawyer, felt that his first business trip to Japan was going fairly well. He was determined to get to know his colleagues better and was particularly pleased to be invited out for drinks after work with most of the team, including the senior managers.
At the bar, everyone was expected to entertain; even the senior staff got to sing karaoke songs or tell jokes. Everything seemed fairly informal and cooperative, with Karl's karaoke version of 'Imagine' winning rapturous applause from the group. One of the senior managers even asked Karl for a repeat rendition later in the evening.
Keeping this informality in mind, Karl used a team meeting early the next morning to present a proposal for resolving a minor logistics problem he had noticed. He was surprised to be met with a wall of embarrassed silence and was noticeably excluded from informal exchanges as people left the meeting.
Rebecca
Rebecca, a recently recruited British executive in an international law firm, was asked to chair a meeting with her French and British colleagues.
From Rebecca's point of view, the meeting went well. She did her utmost to make sure that everyone was heard and the relevant issues discussed and summarized in a diplomatic way. She even changed the agenda and extended the meeting to accommodate new issues that some British delegates had brought up.
At the end of the meeting Rebecca was shocked to hear one French colleague whisper to another `... typical British, just typical. No proper preparation...'. She was even more surprised to hear the reply: 'Yes, and they never say what they mean, do they?'
Key objectives
To develop learners' ability to attend to the body language of others.
To enable learners to speculate on the meaning of some important elements of nonverbal communication.
Time
1 hour
Materials
'Observing Body Language' handout
Background rationale
Developing observation skills is an important part of enhancing cross-cultural effectiveness. This activity provides an opportunity for learners to pay active attention to the body language of people they see, and to speculate on what people may be trying to communicate in non-verbal ways, either consciously or unconsciously.
Procedure
Preselect a video showing some element of interaction or communication between people in another country or culture of interest. Three or four minutes of material are usually sufficient. Documentaries or news reports are often useful in this respect.
Give a copy of the 'Observing Body Language' handout to the learner and explain that the objective of the activity is to develop and practise observation skills.
Provide some basic background information about the context in which the video is set: describe who the participants are and what situation they are in.
Ask the learners to complete the handout as they watch the video. They may need to see the clip twice.
Observations and suggestions for discussion
Learners will have their own ideas about what the non-verbal behaviours they observe signify, and these can form the basis of a useful and productive discussion. It is also useful to ask the learners to speculate on how their own body language is similar (or dissimilar) to that of the individuals they observe.
Observing Body Language handout
Watch the video.
Closely observe how people dress, greet and interact with each other. While watching, please tick the boxes that match your observations and reflect on what the individuals concerned are trying to communicate.
Dress code
Casual
Uniformed
Colourful
Formal
Eccentric
Neutral
What are the individuals concerned trying to communicate through their dress code?
Greetings
Collective greeting
Hugging
No touching
Neutral face
No greeting
Handshaking
Smiling
Individual greeting
Kissing
Touching
Emotion
What are the individuals concerned trying to communicate through their greetings?
Gestures and personal space
Stand close
Keep their distance
Avoid physical contact
Good eye contact
Avoid eye contact
What are the individuals concerned trying to communicate through their gestures and personal space?
General impression of the interaction
Formal
Hierarchical
Laid-back
Informal
Organized
What are your overall impressions of the communication?
Key objectives
To provide clear examples of the various stages associated with culture shock.
To provide learners with practice in identifying stages of culture shock.
Time
30 mins
Materials
Recognising culture shock handout
Background rationale
An important element in dealing with culture shock is recognizing that it is a natural process with a beginning point and a relatively clear set of stages progressing to a point at which it is no longer a problem for the person concerned.
Understanding the nature of these stages, and developing the skills to recognize which stage you have reached, is a useful strategy for managing individual reactions to culture shock.
This exercise provides a handy checklist of stages and useful practice in recognizing what comments or perceptions may indicate about the stage of cross-cultural adjustment individuals are in.
Procedure
Give a copy of the 'Recognizing culture shock' handout to the learner.
Compare these learner’s answers with those suggested below and discuss and differences.
Observations and suggestions for discussion
There may be some debate about exactly which stage is likely to be reflected in each comment. This is a positive point, as it enables learners to discuss the nature of each stage and reflect on how others may understand the phenomenon of culture shock somewhat differently. Recommended answers are as follows:
Adaptation
Disorientation or shock
Honeymoon
Adjustment
Honeymoon
Shock
Shock
Honeymoon or adaptation or adjustment
Adjustment or adaptation
Disorientation or shock
Shock
Adaptation
Recognizing culture shock handout
Culture shock is the process of adjustment to an unfamiliar culture. It is a more or less sudden immersion into a state of uncertainty - in which you become unsure about what is expected of you and what you can expect from other people. Culture shock can occur in any situation where you are forced to adjust to an unfamiliar system in which many of your previous ways of doing or understanding things no longer apply.
The five stages
Five stages of culture shock can be identified:
Honeymoon
This is where the newly arrived individual experiences the curiosity and excitement of a tourist, but where the person's basic identity is rooted back at home.
Disorientation
This stage involves the disintegration of almost everything familiar. The individual is overwhelmed by the requirements of the new culture and bombarded by stimuli in the new environment.
Shock
This stage is associated with the experience of anger and resentment towards the new culture. Stress, anxiety, irritation and hostility are common.
Adaptation
This involves the integration of new cues and an increased ability to function in the new culture. The individual increasingly sees the bad and the good elements in both the new culture and the home culture.
Adjustment
In this stage, the individual has become comfortable in both the old and the new culture. There is some controversy about whether anyone can really attain this stage.
Exercise
Below you will see a number of comments likely to be made by individuals in one of the five stages of culture shock. Read each comment and write down what stage of culture shock you think the individual concerned is most likely to be in.
Comment
'We do that too, only in a different way.'
'Why can't they just ...?'
'I can't wait to tell ... about this.'
'You don't understand them like I do.'
'Isn't this exciting?'
'These people are so damn ...'
'Only ...more months before I can go home'
'Aren't they interesting?'
'Actually, I am beginning to like this'
'Everything here is so difficult!'
'We would never do that where I come from'
'On the other hand, why shouldn't they do that?'
Key objectives
To summarize useful strategies for managing culture shock and enhancing the process of cross-cultural adjustment.
To provide an opportunity to explore specific behaviours that describe how each strategy can be put into practice.
Time
30 to 40 minutes.
Materials
'Culture-shock Checklist' handout
Background rationale
Culture shock is a challenging problem for learners moving overseas on long-term assignments. This activity provides a handy checklist of useful strategies to help learners handle the symptoms of culture shock and speed adaptation to the new environment. It also enables learners to identify useful ways of putting these strategies into practice.
Procedure
Give the learner a copy of the 'Culture-shock Checklist' handout
Work through the list of skills and behaviours with the learner, identifying any specific skills for dealing with culture shock that might be particularly applicable in another country or culture of interest.
Observations and suggestions for discussions
Some learners may find it difficult to identify specific ways of putting the checklist points into practice, given that they are already in the form of behavioural hints. Emphasize that what is required is specific ideas of how
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