Culture Shock and Acculturation - Essay Example

? Independent Business Analysis Project Personal Development Plan Module Leader: Prepared By: Number: CONTENTS Introduction................................................................................................................... 2. Literature review – culture shock and acculturation................................................. 3. Teamwork and presentation skills................................................................................ 4. Report and academic journal comparison................................................................... 5. Personal development and action planning.................................................................. 6. Conclusions and reflections............................................................................................ 1. Introduction There is an inherent desire that is relatively universal, known as the similarity-attraction hypothesis, which states individuals tend to seek out others with similar characteristics. Such salient characteristics include personal interests, values, beliefs, skills and even age (Ward and Bochner 2001). Working professionally or even in the social environment, the similarity-attraction hypothesis dictates that it would be rather impractical that all individuals would have the adaptability and cognitive/psychological capacity to adjust within a team environment unless individuals shared the same salient characteristics. This demand for adaptability often creates culture shock, an inability to adjust to a differing culture within an institution (Allison et al. 2012). Symptoms of culture shock vary from person to person, however it is a legitimate phenomenon addressing the psycho-social outcomes when attempting to amend inherent cultural characteristics to meet and address the cultural tendencies of a new cultural dynamic. One of the most fundamental skills gaps that I maintain is a lack of confidence in businesses that do not maintain what I consider to be appropriate expertise especially when I have discovered that my opinions and sentiments about various issues or potential business solutions are legitimate and supersede actual business practice. Culture shock becomes, then, a legitimate phenomenon that impacts team functioning and presentational prowess. To address this and other recognised skills gaps, I will be examining the phenomenon of culture shock and the characteristics required for proper and productive team-working that will provide the template by which to develop a personal plan of action of self-improvement within a future business dynamic. 2. Literature review – culture shock and acculturation The concept of culture shock is a very well-recognised phenomenon occurring with students and even business professionals. Individuals, inherently, tend to seek out other associates, friends or colleagues that maintain similar characteristics in order to find their own personal comfort zone within the social condition (Ward and Bochner 2001). Culture shock occurs when an individual is forced to work within a diverse cultural group or function within a differing social environment where cultural dimensions vary from home country culture. It is a feeling of personal disorientation and lack of personal comfort that occurs when attempting to acclimate oneself to a new culture (Knell 2007). At the psychological level, the inborn desire to socialise and work with individuals that share similar values, languages, and beliefs has significant impact on establishment of social belonging, a universal motivational need that is necessary to achieve self-esteem and the pinnacle of one’s full talents and ambitions (Weiten and Lloyd 2005). However, culture shock often becomes an outcome of being coerced to work with diverse individuals hailing from unique cultures, which can lead to a variety of symptoms ranging from depression and anxiety to even overt hostility (Nebreda 2012). Culture shock is a by-product of the inherent needs related to the similarity-attraction hypothesis where an individual simply cannot adjust effectively to radically different host cultures. Having hailed from Saudi Arabia, a highly collectivist country, I found considerable adjustment problems when working with such a highly individualistic culture. Collectivists are considered we-conscious, meaning that social group cohesion and individual identity formation is strongly justified by the sentiment and opinion of group membership (Cheung et al. 2008). Symptoms of culture shock after making this transition to the UK environment included homesickness, depression and uneasiness, common moderate symptoms of an individual having difficulty adjusting to such a different culture (Pantelidou and Craig 2006; Pedersen 1995; Paige 1993). As such, communication became a very difficult problem both because English is not my primary language and because the conflicts that developed within an individualistic cultural group were radically different from the variety of social conflicts that occurred in a Saudi Arabian work group with similar salient characteristics to myself. There is also the phenomenon of power distance that impacted the level to which I experienced culture shock. Power distance is “the extent to which the less powerful person in a society accepts inequality in power and considers it as normal” (Leng and Botelho 2010, p.266). Saudi Arabian culture works and socialises within a very formal hierarchy, in business it is usually centralised, thus the Saudi culture has become accustomed to having very distinct levels of authority distance. Workers in this country are not given ample opportunities to express their opinion or provide potential business solutions. Culture shock can occur when an individual has been coerced to work within a centralised environment and suddenly must work with others that demand a great deal of autonomy and be provided a voice when working with a group. People who have become afflicted with the culture shock phenomenon often feel they have a mild form of mental illness so they tend to keep their emotions bottled up inside rather than discussing the problems with others (Nebreda 2012). Individuals can become self-conscious of their behaviours and begin experiencing guilt when they attempt to discuss the matter with others relevant to their lifestyle or profession (Nebreda 2012). This can lead to a type of asocial behaviour which is not healthy for mental adjustment in a new culture. Frustration with communication that occurred as a result of these feelings that I personally experienced reduced my ambition levels and powerful social ability that was identified in the SWOT Analysis. Realising that I needed to adjust and remove some of these self-defeating feelings, I drew on the work of Hart (2012) describing that goal-setting can restore lost ambitions created during culture shock. Hart (2012) asks the individual to assess their major life areas, including education, finance, family, intimate relationships, business and socialisation to determine how best to reposition one’s psychological state. Through a genuine assessment of my personal goals, I was able to identify maladjusted attitudes and also the value of social/family support to discuss the complexities I was experiencing in a culture shock context. Personalising my home with artefacts from the home country also assisted in developing tolerance and flexibility when working with a new culture, a recommended strategy for reducing culture shock symptoms (Mehta and Belk 1991). 3. Teamwork and presentation skills Accountability and mutual goal-setting is paramount to building an effective team. It is through these activities that a team is able to establish the social and professional norms that will drive productivity and efficiency. These norms include, but are not limited to, sensibility, social support for one another, or even enjoyment within the group dynamic (Wilson 1996). Goals are set by all members that ensure team direction and they should state the ends rather than the means to provide team members with the freedom to develop the steps needed to achieve the goal (Carr 1992). The main goal of these activities is to give team members and the self confidence in their role within the team dynamic (Carr 1992). Many times when working with UK-based team members, the established norms within the group are usually socially-based with many members seeking to become the group leader rather than working harmoniously and cohesively. This strongly conflicted with my work ethic and personal trust in my own ability to work independently. Carr (1992) offers that leaders within a team must be more like coaches than managers, assisting others with mutual and effective communication strategies and even consulting behaviours with group members. This is akin to the transformational leadership model that works to inspire others, mentor and coach, and open regular lines of communication with followers (Fairholm 2009). I, as both a student and a professional, was not used to this type of leadership model with many individuals struggling for leadership positions and where norms were socially-driven. Starnes, Truhon and McCarthy (2010) further illustrated that relationships, genuine ones, are only accomplishable through the passage of time in which a series of reciprocal acts between group members helps to justify trust. The key work is reciprocal and I found it difficult to understand how such intimate and formal relationships could be developed when norms within the group were socially-centric when it really takes time to establish trustworthiness, a common reality of the Saudi business and academic environments. Den Hartog et al. (1999) further illustrates that some cultures have varying views on what constitutes effective leadership. Some cultures want an aggressive and decisive leader whilst others demand a more passive and nurturing leader (Den Hartog et al. 1999). Past experiences working in teams had a personal inability to redirect and manage conflict that occurred with people having different values and beliefs. Sometimes decisive leadership was preferred whilst at other times more aggressive leadership was demanded by the group. I found considerable problems finding the appropriate blend of leadership styles that would gain attention and reduce conflict. Current experiences are supported by Belbin’s Inventory about team role preference. I am more strongly leaning toward implementer and team worker. This could be why past experiences had problems attempting to manage conflict and improve communications. Belbin’s Inventory indicates that implementers are inflexible and disciplined, whilst team worker is more cooperative. It could be the lack of congruency between authoritarian and co-operator that fuel some of the conflict and ineffective communications in groups, something that needs consideration for development. This ties in with presentation skills, which have been emphasised in this module as being critical to team functioning. Having effective communications skills are necessary to that all stakeholders in the team can be convinced about their value and practices in a group dynamic (Wilcox, Winn and Fyvie-Gauld 2005). Presentation skills is one of the main components in being able to convince others of your point of view and providing a convincing argument to other actors in the organisation or team. Fairholm (2009) reinforces that in order to gain followership and trust, an individual should be able to present their vision and mission clearly and utilise charismatic characteristics. Because there are so many factors involved in presentation skills, both relating to outward sociability and self-confidence, presentation skills can only be developed through practice with organisational stakeholders and growing accustomed to the team norms. Recognising my strengths and weaknesses associated with inherent cultural characteristics and self-view of competency in professionalism all ties together with presentation ability and the ability to function within a unique team dynamic. 4. Report and academic journal comparison Theory and practice are not always congruent with one another. Lees (2010) identifies that social cohesion is absolutely necessary for the student which is driven by one’s social class. The achievement of equity with other students is identified as a proper method of ensuring that a student’s needs for social belonging are considered, which requires instructors or the self to accumulate compensatory materials to achieve this equality. Personal practice, however, differs from Lees (2010) about equity. As illustrated previously in the report, personal experience working under a centralised structure in a collectivist environment (Saudi Arabia) made up much of my personal programming both academically and professionally. It was the demand for equality from others in the individualistic UK environment that conflicted with personal values of autonomy and self-managed ambition. I personally found that the barriers established through authority systems that demanded productivity was more productive and relevant than the social order. The teaching staff, though highly educated and competent, seemed focused on the social belongingness needs of students rather than understanding the diversity of individuals, like myself, that hail from collectivist countries. Compensatory materials, to me, were less important than ambition and productivity. This is where theory and tangible practice conflicted. I found that what works for most students did not work for me personally. In actual experience, the phenomenon of culture shock created by individuals that focused so strongly on the social condition superseded, at first, successful university study. Whilst students were (based on observation) struggling to achieve the research supported unity and cohesion, I sought more effective coping strategies to battle culture shock, however I knew this was necessary with the growing influence of globalisation in academics and business that require adaptability even when facing cross-cultural concerns. Language barriers also conflicted achievement of equality, though it was not considered a paramount concern. It was only when I could take on a leadership position where the mutual goal was productivity, motivation and ambition as group norms that I was able to advance my university learning and improve self-confidence in the learning process with less emphasis on social cohesion. Even though socialisation is a recognised strength as identified by the personal SWOT Analysis, the necessity to build trust first through competence and motivation drove practice which conflicted with the research on student learning and bridging the gap between student needs and the learning environment. 5. Personal development and action planning This personal development and action plan are founded on the personal skills audit and the learning styles questionnaire (see Appendix). One of my most significant weaknesses is over-confidence in my professional competencies that places mistrust in businesses I feel lack certain expertise to justify certain business decisions. However, today’s organisations require an individual working within the structure to be cohesive and team-focused in order to achieve strategic goals. Many organisations are multi-nationals maintaining very diverse employees hailing from different cultures that make independent work not always possible, which is actually my preferred methodology of professional practice. As illustrated by the skills audit, I am very self-motivated and will often take the initiative, which is based on drive and ambition that is learned through experiences with Saudi Arabian business and learning environments. To develop more tolerance for diverse cultures, necessary to be successful post-graduation in the professional environment, I will review primary and secondary literature on project management and human psychology, coupled with literature on cultural dimensions of particular national origins. Hollingshead (2009, p.33) warns against individuals in society believing that culture is homogeneous and that culture is not a “static phenomenon”. My experiences working with very diverse individuals in academics and professionalism indicated to me that I need to improve my leadership skills in order to connect with diverse individuals from different cultures. This will require conducting more research on leadership theory and reviewing research-supported studies on effectiveness of certain theories, models and strategies to build a better cross-cultural understanding. Time management is also a significant weakness, however I believe much of this was brought on by experiencing the traumas of culture shock. My asocial behaviours that were pre-existing as a result of this, including limited communications skills when working with individualistic colleagues and peers, contributed strongly to time management problems. I have decided that I will be more reliant on my family and important social networks to assist in better time management. During culture shock that occurred upon transition to another country, I was avoidant to describe my problems as was supported by Nebreda (2012) as being a common phenomenon. Avoiding social scenarios as a means of coping is not effective and in order to improve my ability to meet deadlines and stay motivated, I must be honest and forthright about concerns that are impacting the quality of my mental and emotional condition. I believe by structuring a more supportive system, which will also assist in improving communications skills and presentational skills (as well as team functioning), I need to be more dependent on others rather than being over-confidence in independency and self-ambition. This will greatly improve my ability to work with individuals in a team at the social and intimate level to better meet the psycho-social needs of diverse employees in the organisation. This is absolutely necessary in modern professional environments. So many of my identified weaknesses can be assisted by being more reliant on others to familiarise myself with a structure that allows for autonomy whilst also supporting cohesive group dynamics. My largest weaknesses are definitely related to the social environment, even though being social is a strength once trust has been established with others which was commonplace in Saudi Arabia. By abandoning some of these traditionalist values associated with the time factor in trust development, I will likely be considered more credible to followers in a team. 6. Conclusion and reflections Having a great grasp of my strengths and weaknesses, I have been able to develop an action plan to improve areas needing development. Working in Saudi Arabia as compared to the UK is radically different, but it has prepared me with the self-knowledge necessary to make improvements. From presentation skills development, to better team functioning, to even improving time management are all inter-dependent issues that are made cohesive by my ability (or lack thereof) to adjust and adapt to cultures that are different from my home country culture. By recognising that I need adjustment in these areas, I will be able to improve virtually all of my areas requiring development to be fully prepared to work within a multi-national with extremely diverse populations. I think recognising the inter-dependency of all of my personal weaknesses, and what serves as a catalyst for these problems, will help me build more confidence not only in myself, but in others as well which is important in communications and building an effective team environment. References Allison, P., Davis-Berman, J. and Berman, D. (2012). Changes in latitude, changes in attitude: analysis of the effects of reverse culture shock – a study of students returning from youth expeditions, Leisure Studies, 31(4), pp.487-503. Carr, C. (1992). Planning priorities for empowered teams, Journal of Business Strategy, 13(5), pp.43-47. Cheung, F., Cheung, S., Zhang, J., Leung, K., Leong, F. and Yeh, K. (2008). Relevance for openness as a personality dimension in Chinese culture, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39(1), pp.81-107. Fairholm, M. (2009). Leadership and organisational strategy, The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 14(1), pp.26-27. Hart, R. (2012). Preparing for your move Abroad: relocating, settling in and managing culture shock. Britain: Kuperard. Knell, M. (2007). Burn Up or Splash Down: surviving the culture shock of re-entry. United Kingdom: Authentic. Lees, M. (2010). Bridging the gap: supporting student transitions into higher education, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 34(2), pp.239-251. Leng, C. and Botelho, D. (2010). Does national culture impact on consumers’ decision-making styles? A cross cultural study in Brazil, the United States and Japan, Curitiba Brazilian Administration Review, 7(3), pp.260-275. Mehta, R. and Belk, R.W. (1991). Artefacts, identity and transition: favourite possessions of Indians and Indian immigrants to the United States, Journal of Consumer Research, 17(4), pp.398-411. Nebreda, E. (2012). How to Survive Reverse Culture Shock: understand it, feel better and get your life back!. Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Paige, R.M. (1993). Education for the Intercultural Experience. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press. Pantelidou, S. and Craig, T.K. (2006). Culture shock and social support, Social Psychiatry, 41(3), pp.777-780. Pedersen, P. (1995). The Five Stages of Culture Shock: critical incidents around the world. Westport: Greenwood Press. Starnes, B.J., Truhon, S.A. and McCarthy, V. (2010). A primer on organisational trust, ASQ Human Development and Leadership [online] Available at: http://rube.asq.org/hdl/2010/06/a-primer-on-organizational-trust.pdf (accessed 18 March 2013). Ward, C. and Bochner, S. (2001). The Psychology of Culture Shock, 2nd ed. East Sussex: Routledge. Weiten, W. and Lloyd, M. (2005). Psychology Applied to Modern Life: adjustment in the 21st Century, 7th ed. UK: Prentice Hall. Wilcox, P., Winn, S. and Fyvie-Gauld, M. (2005). It was nothing to do with the university, it was just the people: the role of social support in the first-year experience of higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 30(6), pp.707-722. Wilson, F. (1996). Great teams build themselves, Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 2(2), pp.27-31. EBSCO ABSTRACT ANALYSIS Autocratic Leadership Because my personal weaknesses were strongly surrounding adjustment to culture that impact time management, presentation and communication skills, I believed an analysis of autocratic leadership would be interesting. According to theorists, autocratic leaders have little relevancy in today’s organisation on the heels of such concepts as transformational leadership that deal with coaching, mentoring and trying to fulfil human needs. Autocratic leadership is a type of centralised business system where employees are given no opportunities to express their unique problem-solving skills and are often controlled through disciplinary systems to ensure compliance. This analysis is founded on an analysis of the volume of abstracts that appeared, over the decades, in the EBSCO database. Figure 1 illustrates the trends over 50 years to identify trends. Figure 1: Appearance of autocratic leadership As illustrated by Figure 1, the highest trend for recognising autocratic leadership occurred during the 1980s and began a rather steady disappearance to 2013. The 1980s were a period in which women were beginning to enter the job market, setting some of the stage for modern diversity practices and more soft human resources policies. It was common during the 1940s and 1950s when men were dominating the workforce to work under very powerful autocratic systems. This likely illustrates the climb in the model from 1973 to 1983 when companies were being forced by legislative changes and social changes to evolve into a more decentralised business structure. The most recent decade had very few occurrences of the topic of autocratic leadership, only to identify that it was becoming an outmoded model or one that is more effective for militaristic organisations (Goodnight 2004). This illustrates that society has changed dramatically from the control and conquer mentality of the 1960s and 1970s where business changes were shifting to more transformational or transactional (leading through incentives for performance) models. Literature supports that many people in the workplace, and socially, require a sense of belonging (Henslin 2005; Loevinger 1987). Autocratic leadership conflicts dramatically with this, likely leading to the demise of the model illustrated through EBSCO analysis. As workers become familiarised with more liberal human resources policies that have been the focus of intensive study between 1990 and 2013, the relevancy of such a controlling management/leadership model is replaced with a new business culture mentality that embraces meeting emotional needs of workers instead of trying to exploit these. Though this is only a subjective analysis of the findings, the prevalence of this particular model (autocratic leadership) shows how the business world has evolved over the years. Researchers do not seem to be taking an active interest in studying the autocratic model and its impact on the business world since it is losing relevancy in today’s job market. New and redesigned models of management continue to supersede traditional models which is quite good considering the impact of globalisation that was not as largely present during the 1970s. References: Goodnight, R. (2004). Laissez-Faire Leadership – Encyclopedia of Leadership. Sage Publications. Henslin, J.M. (2005). Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach, 7th ed. A&B Publishing Loevinger, J. (1987) Paradigms of Personality. New York: Freeman. Teamwork Project Teamwork is' a group of people linked to the goal of a particular, and integration efforts and expertise, who work together so that their overall performance is more common than the total of individual efforts to achieve the desired. According to a personal analysis of strengths and my own voice of hope, I recognize that I am a very social person. However, language barriers create conflicts that impact presentational prowess and the ability to function within a highly individualistic environment such as that in the United Kingdom. Deficiencies identified in the SWOT Analysis illustrate that communication can be a tremendous problem in team groups especially when culture shock is present. However, the contemporary professional and academic environments demand that a person be able to work inter-dependently in teams. I will have to find new methodologies of exerting my sociable characteristics in the unfamiliar individualistic team environment in order to develop more effectively. When I joined the University of Wolverhampton for the Master’s program in 2013, I was exposed to a graduate program that focused heavily on self-learning and learning how to work collectively and cooperate. I worked with an excellent team leader and other members that met often in the university library to work collectively and discuss academic issues. This gave me some practical experience working with individuals with widely-different values and beliefs that were quite different from my home country of Saudi Arabia. We learned to work cooperatively to establish goals and direction with each taking on the role of team leader/facilitator to give us experience working as an authoritarian whilst still working as a collective whole. The University provided an opportunity to take a trip to Cardiff for three days, which was designed to improve my total skill supply. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the residential team due to the fact that my family required significant attention during this period. However, self-learning lessons in the curriculum made it possible for me to develop my presentational and teamworking skills without the assistance of the residential program. The strong focus on self-management of learning made it possible for me to develop many of my team-working strengths necessary to work inter-professionally in a diverse multi-cultural environment. I learned that presentation skills can be improved through practice, as is the case in the voluntary sector, where improvements can be made to ensure that the various stakeholders are able to understand the message of the presentation (Tinto, 1975). And presentation skills can be improved with the passage of time through constant practice, which is one of the key factors in improving communications, and private stakeholders (Wilcox et al, 2005). I learned that through practice, I could communicate more effectively despite my language barriers once I understood the fundamentals of cross-cultural characteristics that drive many values and beliefs. The university has taught me how to assess my weaknesses, work on their development, and even gain self-confidence necessary for effective presentations. References: Tinto, V. (1975). Dropout from Higher Education - Theoretical Synthesis of Recent Research. Review of Educational Research, 45(1), pp. 89-125. Wilcox, P., Winn, S. and Fyvie-Gauld, M. (2005). It was nothing to do with the university, it was just the people: the role of social support in the first-year experience of higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 30(6), pp.707-722. Read More