Structure of Culture Shock - Essay Example

?Table of Contents Concept of ‘Culture Shock’ 2 Before Travel 2 The Disintegration Stage 3 Reintegration 4 Adjustment 5 Reverse Culture Shock 6 Best Coping Mechanisms 6 Part 2 8 Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context 8 Self Analysis: The implications of national culture 10 David Kolb Learning Styles Inventory 12 Cultural Differences 14 References 16 Adrian, F.F. & Stephen, Bochner. 1986. Culture shock: Psychological reactions to unfamiliar environments, New York: Methuen. 16 Colleen, A, Ward, S.B and Adrian, F.F., 2001. The Psychology of Culture Shock, Philadelphia: Routledge. 16 Kraft, M, 2003 Frontline women: Negotiating crosscultural issues in ministry, Pasadena: Carey. 16 Reisinger, Y. &, Turner, L. 2003. Cross cultural behaviour in tourism. London: British Library 16 Concept of ‘Culture Shock’ Culture shock is the feeling of dissociation that one feels upon travelling to a foreign country and experiencing a sudden change in their way of life. It is experienced due to a sudden change in food, clothing, manner of communication and even the roles of men and women in the community as. It results from one being unable to read the cultural cues as they differ from the ones, which an individual was familiar with at home. Culture shock has been identified to occur in five different phases Euphoria, disintegration, reintegration, adjustment and re-entry, each one has its own challenges and should be handled in a different manner from the other. Before Travel Before preparing to travel to a new destination, the individual should read as much as they can about their new location. Background knowledge will result in the traveller being prepared to see some of the things that differ from their culture, which will mean lower shock, and less confrontation between the traveller and the indigenous people (Greensboro, n.d). Upon arrival, the traveller should also talk to his embassy about the local culture there, this is imperative to add on the learning in order to get a first-hand detailed description of the differences they will experience from those from their own country. While China is trying to improve its international image, its public toilets have been of very low hygiene standards (Bailie and Jeff, 2013) and most foreigners are generally advised by their own fellow citizens to not use the public ones but rather wait to use the ones at their hotel. This is information that can only be got from first-hand experience and not from any average travel website. Initial Euphoria Upon arrival, the newcomer to the society is usually excited by the experience of going to a new culture. The new way of life seems extremely appealing and is usually experienced by those who have stayed there for at most a month. Many tourists on holiday experience this and travel back home without progressing to the other stages. People in the euphoric stage use words such as enchanting, magical, mystical, beautiful and exotic to describe the places they have travelled to as they are experiencing the new country for the first time even when the new country has high levels of poverty and a low development level (Pedersen, 1995). The reason for this is that the locals of the destination country recognize that you are a foreigner and therefore exempt you from the social expectations and cultural norms that the rest of the country is governed by. The locals therefore dismiss the foreigner as just been ignorant instead of confronting them as they would a local (Pedersen, 1995). Police also realize that the national image is at stake when a foreigner lodges a complaint and will do their best to ensure that their problems are resolved quickly in order to avoid complaints being lodged by the embassy resulting in their supervisors coming to scrutinise their work. Locals also try their best to ensure that foreigners will leave with a good report of the country and therefore see to it they explain to them the dangers of doing certain things that would be criticised in the destination country. It is important for the traveller to communicate with locals and ensure that they do not put themselves in situations that are harmful to them. In the Bahamas at night, some areas are very insecure and it is dangerous for girls to walk at night by themselves. By discussing with the respective travel agents, the tourist could learn which places are risky and ensure that they travel in a group or preferably, not at all when the sun sets (Pedersen, 1995). The Disintegration Stage If the traveller stays any longer in the country of choice then they will begin to see the problems been faced by the communities they have travelled to and will begin to feel despair as they are faced with reality. Tourists who visit for only a month will stay at premium locations and therefore, are not confronted with problems facing the society. If the traveller decides to stay for over a month then the high cost of staying there will force them to move to a lower cost neighbourhood where they will face problems such as insecurity, discrimination, poor health services, lack of social amenities and language barrier. Depending on the level of cultural and economic differences between the new country and the motherland of the immigrant, coping mechanisms will differ. The extreme cases of cultural shock have been observed to cause feelings of frustration, inadequacy, sleeplessness, ulcers and even depression (Pedersen, 1995). These extreme cases need professional counselling and medical attention to allow a successful integration of the immigrant into the society. If not, the person will have to travel back home due to the difficulty in readjusting. If the immigrant stays, they must ensure that they do not begin trying to change their environment to be like their own country. They also need other expatriates to show them how to adjust to the new environment and to protect them from exploitation and harassment by the local residents. The disintegration stage of culture shock is a very delicate transitional stage for the individual as it determines whether they can continue to stay in his new residence or have to go back to their native country before completion of business. Such an example is seen when European visitors immigrate to oriental countries they find it harder to adjust to the culture of these places as compared to oriental visitors going to these foreign countries who do not speak the native languages (Colleen et al, 2001) This cultural change is what causes the compounds disintegration difficulty. Reintegration After facing these rapid social and economic changes, the immigrant who wishes to stay has to be re-educated on a new way of life that will be in harmony with the surrounding community and integration begins between the third and sixth month and could take over a year. This is the most volatile stage of phasing out the cultural shock, as the immigrant will not want to leave their old way of life for a new one irrespective of the benefits of the new way of life (Pedersen, 1995). If significant care is not made then the individual might even withdraw their residence. During the integration stage, the immigrant will display a lot of hostility towards the new culture and could even condemn it as being retrogressive, unsanitary or unintelligent. The individual will also perceive himself or herself to being under attack and will therefore defend themselves, and their way of life. Any attempts at use of dialogue to reach a middle ground could prove counterproductive as they rely on stereotypes to support their reasons for argument. Although marked by a lot of hostility, at this stage, the immigrant has begun to acknowledge that there is actually a difference in culture unlike in the first and second stage where he was merely absorbing he has now began to respond to the environment and this demonstrates a step forward in integrating them to the new environment. At this stage, the individual will began to learn the local language and customs but this will be a very slow phase. The progress will seem very insignificant but it is crucial that they form a cultural foundation as they begin their new way of life (Adrian and Stephen, 1986). Adjustment After living in one environment for a significant amount of time the immigrant will have adapted sufficient local practices to survive and conduct their business without offending people or being offended. This period is marked with significant behavioural changes and picking up words of the local language in a very fast manner. The immigrant will also begin to see the culture once more in a positive light and can begin to partake in some of the practices they had criticized (Adrian and Bochner, 1986). The new community of the individual will also begin to recognize the immigrant as one of their own and will respond with treatment of them as a local and not a resident. This is perhaps the most positive stage of all as it is marked with a sense of humour, as jokes are now understood and so is the language. The staple food of the country also begins to appeal to the immigrant and so a healthier appetite is seen. Adjustment is also seen with conformity to way of dressing such as dressing moderately if going to a modest country such as Qatar after living in Britain, or dressing a bit nor risque if now living in a more liberal country such as if adjusting from life Kuwait to living in France. Reverse Culture Shock Reverse culture shock is what an individual experiences when they have lived in a foreign country for a long time and now travel back to their indigenous country. The immigrant does not realize that while they stayed there they adapted to the practices of their new country and no longer behave strictly like the nationals of where they come from (Reisinger and Turner, 2003). The individual will feel like a foreigner in their motherland, as they will no longer be able to associate culturally with the people of the area. The sense of identity with the nation has been gradually eroded and the individual is once again in a country where they are partially strangers. The individual will find difficulty in readjusting to the social unit due to social expectations of locals who have never travelled away from home expecting them to maintain their social habits. The locals just like in the other nation, will not want to adopt their members foreign habits and the returnees will be looked upon with disdain for having lost their practices and for adoption of new ones (Reisinger and Turner, 2003). Best Coping Mechanisms Support groups are still the optimal option for entrants into new culture as it has been observed isolation especially in the disintegration and reintegration stage will be extremely detrimental to the individual (Reisinger and Turner, 2003). They assist in re-educating the individual as they settle in their new country as well as to offering a sanctuary where the newcomer can feel understood as they struggle to fit in. Decreased travel is another solution; frequent travel has been identified as a source of culture shock. It is not always that a traveller will experience all five states or that they will take over a year to recover some people will go through all in two months while others especially those who did not grow up in one environment will barely experience any culture shock as they move about from country to country. Some tourists are in perpetual culture shock as they travel to more than six different countries of extremely differing culture in a period of one year (Reisinger and Turner, 2003). The tourist’s identity and sense of culture is being perpetually disintegrated and reintegrated to the point it is not clear where they stand regarding cultural norms. Men usually have an easier time adjusting from culture due to the little variation in their roles (Kraft, 2003). Women in some countries are viewed equal to men and in some; they are viewed as their subordinates. It is therefore imperative that women get extra coaching and support to avoid tension and hostility with their host nation. The more the difference in culture between two nations the higher the probability that people will not adjust well to their relocation. Diplomatic services should ensure that they forewarn their citizens appropriately on what to expect to lessen the impact of travelling to countries with very different or conflicting cultures. Culture shock affects people in many ways depending on their personality and past way of life some will quickly adjust to their new locations while some will refuse to let go of their traditions and struggle to settle in. Support groups must keep it in check lest it leads to depression and other illnesses in people. It does not have a cure only adaptation to it and as international trade and globalization increase, more cases of it will be seen; hence, more reason to find solution to it. Part 2 Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context It is my opinion that the Hofstede model considers the activities of people from all over the world to be its central focus, and it assumes people act by relating to a specific collective cultural activity and not as a response to internal elements or environmental stimuli. I believe that this model integrates an individual’s emotion, motivation and agency to the cultural activity in which the said individual is involved. Cultural activities are important in this model for framing human thinking and social activities, and to inquire on how the person will be able to develop the model in practice, especially in a business environment (Rapp, Bernardi and Bosco, 2011). To be precise, the model has as its focus how the history present in a person is able to take shape and the various practices that are interpreted on cultural activities. It is my opinion that the personal history of an individual develops when the said individual, in behavior of life, forms personal identities in relation to what he or she perceives as the important roles and positions. The individual’s historical formation on the various environmental activities makes environmental identity become a construct of the person, which is developed and used in organizing the person emotionally, and they help in the determination of the actions that they take. Personal identities are conceptualized based on the complexities of memory, sentiments, the individual’s knowledge and ideas of the environment, which the person can evoke by the use of cultural identity symbols for organizing oneself to take an environmental action. Once the person’s identity is entrenched in the history that is inside them, it will provide a ground for guiding the individual’s behavior towards cultural activities and the person will avoid behaviors that are not harmonious with the person’s assigned identity. I suggest that the Hofstede model, therefore, integrates a person’s emotions, agency and motivation to the various cultural and historical activities which work together to determine what their actions are and how they handle these actions (Shi and Wang, 2011). The history of an individual, according to my understanding of this model, incorporates cautious attention to conflict, the difference present during the participation of a person in a specific cultural activity and tension. This model calls for a close study on relations present between cultural activities of local and trans-local institutions and practices. The environment in which an individual was brought up plays an important role in the determination of their performance in the economic world. One of the lessons that I have come to learn, and this in relation to the Hofstede model is the fact that those individuals who have been raised in a tough economic environment are most likely to perform better in their activities than those from a superior economic environment. This is because of the fact that they are motivated to work harder in order to achieve their goals since this is the only way through which they can be able to succeed in their lives. The fact that many multinational corporations have chosen to invest heavily in those environments which are economically inferior is because of the belief that they can not only get cheap labor, but will also be able to extract more work time from their employees. In my opinion, the fact that many multinationals have chosen to move their operations to those countries with less developed economies has done so to increase their productivity. It is my belief that the subsidiaries of these companies are probably more productive than their parent companies, and this is because they have working for them individuals who have no reservations concerning their earnings as well as the working hours. An added advantage is the fact that the labor unions in these countries are not as strong as in the developed countries and this creates an environment where there is little interference in the labor activities of the company. Self Analysis: The implications of national culture The national culture of individuals tends to determine the way they will behave in the workplace and because of this, it is essential for the management of an organization to ensure that they have an understanding of this culture. The development of such an understanding will ensure that the management knows how to manage the employees in a manner which will make them more productive. This understanding of the national culture of individual workers will be able to help decentralize the attitudes, conversations and texts written, and will simultaneously shift motion, practical knowledge and the employees’ routines in order for them to be more productive. it is my belief that the understanding of the national culture of individuals ensures that the management gets to learn the way they think so that he or she is not viewed as a stranger, but as an intentional and integral part of the organization’s need to attain its goals. The national culture can be regarded as a chain of discourse, communication and variety of symbols, and the social world of the employees that their employers need to understand (Gopalan and Stahl, 1998). The upbringing of individuals by their parents is what determines the national culture of a nation and this encourages a shift of self-understanding by encouraging us to consider these individuals as carriers of routine, as well as subjective complexes of movements of the body, forms of interpretation, knowledge and use of things. Through the understanding of the individual’s upbringing, we are able to stipulate shifts taken by a self-understanding individual and get an ethical meaning of what factors motivate them to function as they do. It does not seem to be out of place that the understanding of the national culture of employees encourages the consideration of ethical problems as questions used in creating social routines. The day-to-day ethical problems that are encountered by many companies are considered a way through which they can adjust themselves so that they are able to form a strong corporate culture. Ethics, therefore, relates to environment and individual’s motivation, feelings, and these tend to be determined by their upbringing according to the national culture. One of the factors which help in the determination of the national culture of individuals who work for a company, I believe, is that related to their economic lives. This is because of the fact that in many societies, the national culture is often based on a set of behaviors that are developed from the distinctive economic status of the individuals within them. It is often a combination of the behavior displayed by the upper, middle and lower classes of society which when brought together create a reflection of the national character. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of the management of a company to ensure that it makes a close study of the diverse nature of the national culture, specifically the origins of its various aspects, so that it can be able to better gauge the needs of its employees and work towards helping them achieve these needs. In addition, an understanding of their various motivations will ensure that the management is better able to make a study of the strengths and weaknesses displayed by their employees and this will enable it to device means through which it is able to make the said employees more productive. The diverse backgrounds of its employees, especially their upbringing, is an added advantage to those companies which work in an environment where there is a strong national culture because the companies will be able to tap into the vast experience of their employees for the sake of ensuring that they reach a diverse market. The different experiences of the employees, which one way or the other form a part of the national culture, is what makes a multinational corporation working in a different country have a localized look and to attract individuals from the domestic market. Since the national culture of a company is an unconscious phenomenon, there is a possibility that a close study of the said culture will ensure that the company is able to localize itself to such an extent that it will be able to take full advantage of the domestic market. It will not only be able to increase its sales, but it will also be able to access the pool of potential employees that it desires and this will contribute to its eventual success. It is my belief that the best way for a company to make a study of and determine the national culture of its employees is based on comparisons of intellectual versions of cultural theories. This study should focus on four main themes; first theme will deal with teaching and learning in the upbringing of individuals and this will address issues on how teaching and learning works towards the development of national culture. The differences present with the individuals; ability to access higher education and its influence on the individuals, alternative means of education and how assessment and evaluation is done in the national education system. The formation of knowledge is also an aspect, which needs to be studied, and it will help to explain the essential character of the national culture, social capital, changing balance of the economy, the public domain among others. David Kolb Learning Styles Inventory I suggest that the learning styles inventory is a way through which the various educational phenomena of an individual can be analyzed, thus there develops the ability to mould and change our self-understanding. It offers us with various ways of defining our place as individuals in the societal world, and these points toward both political and ethical dimensions. In my opinion, the main effect of the learning styles inventory in implementation of teaching and learning standard is that is brings into light symbolic and cognitive spheres and assists in finding reasons as to how structures are able to give significance to the world in a dependent way (Carson, 2006). While I consider other learning theories to have a focus on intellectualizing culture by acting as a point of departure for entities such as consciousness, mind, actions of communication and texts, the learning styles inventory does not invite mental phenomena analysis and in place, it explores the development of mental activities required in the understanding and knowing complex actions. I find that the analysis done is on the connectivity present between body routine behaviors, routine of the mind in understanding and knowing, and use of various objects. I find that the learning styles inventory does not favor use of complexities as a sole sphere of discourse or passing and receiving of information, but considers body routines and patterns which are discursive. I believe that the learning styles inventory therefore revises pictures of human agency that are rational and intellectualized while offering an explanation for the way learning is done in a modern way. This thought works towards the decentralization of the mind, conversations and texts. I find that at the same time, it works towards the development of the movements of the body, procedures and practical understanding to the center of terminology. I believe that when rationality is applied to change process at the educational level, the theory also tries to address the technical curriculum development approach. Since education is practical, resolutions present regarding education can take place when a course of action is adopted and this action fails to exist when there is no history, values and beliefs of the practitioners (Santo, 2006). It is my belief, therefore, that learning styles inventory helps the various individuals involved in understanding favorable course of action to take, and the application of this theory helps to eliminate personal complexities present in the situation and a clear reflection of a rational research will help in doing so. Cultural Differences I find that it is important for culture to work together with child rearing in order to attain desirable results such as a child having good morals, have the ability to know right or wrong and be able to make right choices. I believe that there are permissive cultures that create a child who is not able to respect authority, besides this, child rearing that is too strict may bring a child to become rebellious in activities the child will be involved. I have found that there are behavioral expectations for parents regarding their children and these are similar in many countries, some of the areas of consensus include the demand of parents for the child to be respectful, honest, have the ability to share with others and obedient. I have also found that there are cultures that have additional expectations from a child apart from those qualities mentioned above, for instance, the Asian parents together with the white parents expect their children to exert self-control. The Latino and American Indians on the other hand feel their children should have foundations built on religious and spiritual beliefs; on the contrary, Latino fathers also want assertive children who are independent and can take responsibilities for actions taken (Sarala and Vaara, 2010). In my opinion, cultures also differ when it comes to affection towards the child, and parents display affection to their children in different ways. In West Africa, for example, the communities stop varies affectionate practices such as kissing and fondling of an infant when it becomes a toddler. On the other hand, I have found that some cultures consider physical attention given to a child such as bathing, braiding a child’s hair as an appropriate way of expressing affection. Other forms of expressing affection to a child are through giving monetary rewards and praises in other cultures. In my studies, I have found that according to parents, the achievement of education is something desirable for the children. I give the instance where, in the Chinese family, the use of physical punishment can be used for inducing children to learn and be able to get good grades. Moreover, families of the Asians and Indians also exert pressure on their children in order to achieve scholastically, and parents’ involvement in activities such as checking the child’s homework in varied depending on the culture. In my assessment, a majority of white parents check their children’s homework, and the same applies to Hispanic and black parents. Parents from various cultures act differently when it comes to physical punishment of a child, and majority of parents view spanking as the last resort when giving punishment to a child. Black parents, on the other hand, are willing to spank their children, even in public places because of the need to respond immediately to misbehavior. I have found that American Indians and the whites are less comfortable in using spanking as a form of physical punishment, some black Latino and few white parents view spanking acceptable, especially with the use of a belt when the mistake is serious; Asian Americans parents feel it is acceptable to use the hand to spank a child. In my opinion, there are considerable differences present among parents and their career with respect to goals of parenting, discipline beliefs and the child’s development expectations. I find that the nature of cultural differences makes it not logical to make conclusions that childcare demands are always unexpected; hence, the parents should raise the children not having high expectations. References Adrian, F.F. & Stephen, Bochner. 1986. Culture shock: Psychological reactions to unfamiliar environments, New York: Methuen. Bailie, B. & Jeff, M.C. 2013. Prepare Yourself for China: The Visitor's Survival Guide to China. Second Edition, Ebookit. 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