How Cultural Understanding Might Help You Develop as a Professional in a Globalised World - Assignment Example

Student: ID: Tutor: Course title: Course code: Institutional affiliation: Date of submission: The first reflective piece requires you to reflect on what ethics means to you as an individual. What is ethical can sometimes be viewed from a relativist point of view. What is ethical to an individual might be what the individual considers as right and just for his case (MacKinnon, 2011). Ethics may also take two distinct forms according to Cohen (2004); descriptive and prescriptive forms. Descriptive ethics just describe what is, in the sense that what the situation demands of an individual. Prescriptive ethics which seem to be derived from descriptive ethics state what ought to be done. It means therefore that ethics is what the society considers right and expects one to do in particular situations (Himma, 2008). What I understand from this argument then is that ethics are unspoken codes of moral conduct that the society considers as right. Every individual is expected to adhere by such behavior to uphold ethical conduct. I find the argument interesting in the sense that ethics seem to be a force that is so powerful yet has no real political or legal power to enforce it but rather consent by people over what is wrong and what is right. The question of what is wrong and what is right seems to be a bit confusing depending on what perspective you are looking to approach ethical matters. I have come to learn that there are various sources of determining what is good and what is wrong in the society to shape the ethics debate. Each society sources its norms from various places. According to Preston (2007) some of the common sources are; religion, parenthood, law, human nature, culture. Religion seems to be the single strongest source of elements that constitute ethical and unethical behavior. I particularly have come to base my ethical conduct from religious teachings. To me I believe people are guided by what their religion teaches. Apart from that, I strongly believe that parenting has a huge impact on somebody’s life. Parents take time to explain to kids why some behavior is not good and why another behavior is good. The child takes this knowledge with it to adulthood and it defines his. Her behavior in as far as ethics is concerned. I therefore believe that ethics are greatly determined by the kind of upbringing one goes through. I also agree with Preston (2007) views that the law simply enforces ethical behavior in most civil law doctrines. The law defines what is acceptable and what is unacceptable and punishes accordingly. I think then that the law plays an important role in defining ethical conduct in the society. I am of the opinion that ethics can be used to define the characters of people because ethics is a virtue that should be cherished. Having good morals as defined by the society such as honesty, respect for other human beings, respect for environment and respect for the law should be regarded highly in almost all social and business circles (MacKinnon, 2011). I believe ethics define my character as an individual and it through this character that I should relate well with people near me. They should be confident that I will always tell the truth and not play dishonest games in my engagements with them. Many businesses are sometimes accused of unethical conduct especially when it comes to competition. As a business student I used to think that sometimes the society and more so lobby groups unfairly target businesses for selfish interests. I have overtime changed this position after I came to realize that several retailers have been involved in price fixing scandals. They do this to retain their profitability and thus market share. The down side of this is that the consumer ends up paying more that the product would actually cost. It is greed on the side of the retailers that costs the society as White (2009) puts it. What I learnt is that even though businesses need to stay in the high profit margin zone, it is unethical to engage in such unfair practices and to add salt to injury make it hard for government agencies to collect evidence to prove such accusations. Businesses employ clever tactics such that they can’t be caught. My overall understanding of ethics then is that it is a voluntary call to behave in ways that respect norms and expectations of the society. They go a long way into helping an individual or business achieve success sine nobody exists in isolation; you will need the society at some point. 2. The second reflective piece requires you to reflect on how social and environmental sustainability would (or would not) apply in your chosen profession. My preferred profession is banking. Banking is an important profession for businesses today with so many deals going through banks, so much financing and support for businesses coming from banks. A lot of business owners would actually tell you that their success can be attributed to a mutually beneficial relationship that they adopted with their bank. As a professional banker, I am expected to adhere to the banking code of ethics which among other things require me to be honest, conduct my activities with integrity and behave in a manner that will not ruin the reputation of the profession. Banking is a profession where I expect to be regularly interacting with people in my work place. in a world where diversity is an accepted reality, I expect to work in environments with a mixture of people from different ages, culture, religion and background all of who we must achieve synergy to ensure the business achieves its objectives. Banks play an important role in any society of financing businesses and individuals to achieve their individual or businesses goals. As a result banks make good profits from interests derived from loans and also from their other investments. It is only prudent then for banks to realize that they don’t exist in an isolated environment where the needs of the society should not bother the business apart from financing needs. I believe, social and environmental sustainability is a phenomenon that has great impact on businesses including banks as stated by Haanaes, Jurgens, & Rangan (2013). For example a bank that engages in financing businesses that have no regards to environment is considered as highly unethical and a brand that is promoting destruction of the environment and in extension the society. Businesses including banks are therefore expected to finance projects that are mindful of social and environmental sustainability in their activities (Galea, 2004). as a professional banker then social and environmental sustainability will be an issue that not only emerges in social forums but in my everyday work since I will have to carefully monitor who we finance and how are they helping the society in the areas they operate or make profits to be sustainable and sustain their environment. If I don’t do this then, I will bring my profession into sharp focus by the society and lobby groups as a profession that is aiding in destruction of environment and unfair exploitation of community resources in a manner that does not help the society to be self sustaining. As a professional banker, I believe innovation and entrepreneurship too are critical elements of achieving economic progress and sustainable societies. It will be therefore wise or noble to fund innovative ideas that have the capability of transforming the lives of the society in which we operate. I think apart from gaining profits from businesses operations, helping the society solve its problems and sustain itself through innovation is one way of being socially responsible and encouraging sustainable activities that will go a long way into helping society solve its problems (Jacobsen, 2011; Hawkins, 2006). It will also be important to actively engage in social and environmental sustainability activities through corporate social responsibility as suggested by Sandhu (2010). It is a way of the profession giving back to the society and ensuring an equitable society where the needs of the disadvantaged in the society are looked into and environment sustainability is achieved. I am of the opinion that helping society live in harmony is an important endeavor which banking as a profession can help the society achieve by promoting diversity in the banking sector where workers from different backgrounds work together towards a common goal. Different people will be exposed to different cultures and thus tolerance and understanding will be achieved. As a person intending to build a career in the banking profession, I was taken aback by the 2008 financial crisis that started in the US and spread to the rest of the global economy. Mortgage brokers lured unsuspecting investors into buying highly risky securities created from mortgages from financially constrained home buyers. Once defaults on the mortgages started, the whole scheme collapsed and in process many investors lost money and the credit crunch hit the financial sector as investors held their money (Jacobsen, 2011). I believe this scandal casted the banking professions in very bad light as a dishonest people who cannot help the society maintain economies with sustainable debts. Instead they misled the unsuspecting investors. I think bankers should in the forefront to expose fraud and dishonesty in any economy to make the society sustainable. Reflect on how cultural understanding might (or might not) help you develop as a professional in a globalised world. The fact that we are now living in a world that is more opened up than more before, means that there is increased interaction of people and their cultures (Friedman, 2007). The modern work place also has not been spared by the globalization effect; the workplace today is mostly made up of people from different ethnicities, nationalities religious backgrounds and even ages (Weisbord, 2012). What this mean then is that people have to understand the culture of different people that they are working with if at all cohesion and organizational effectiveness is to be achieved (Hawkes, 2008). My profession is one where interaction with colleagues and clients alike is not a choice but a mandatory affair. As a banker I have to interact regularly with my colleagues to work on issues that kneed interdepartmental focus. Many issues in the banking sector have to be addressed using knowledge and information from different people for efficiency as well as to meet the requirements. I also believe that I will interact a lot with clients in my quest to solve their problems and deliver services to them. As such I need to have a high degree of cultural understanding in order to relate well with the clients as well as some of my colleagues who might not necessarily be from the same cultural or national background. I need to understand which actions are interpreted as rude in some cultures and which ones are interpreted as polite. The American culture for example values individual success and respects people who are aggressive in pursuing excellence at individual level. Asian culture on the other hand treats individualistic behavior as rude. In these societies, the community comes before the individual and as such collective benefits are preferred before individual benefits (Shou-hua & Shouhua, 2000). I need to understand how these two cultures can be integrated in a system to achieve cohesion and progress. There are different national cultures too that I need to understand because I believe I will be dealing with people from different cultures who may happen to be my clients or even bosses at the work place. I have also realized that banking means different things to different people, for example Muslims have a different form of Sharia banking which is largely anchored on Islamic religion and culture (Gudykunst, 2003). It will be important then for me to expose myself to such concepts in banking which is basically an effort of understanding different cultures. I personally didn’t appreciate the need for cultural understanding to achieve better results in groups until I worked in a group which we were from completely different cultures. We didn’t conflict a lot but I honestly believe we didn’t form close working relations since everybody felt comfortable working with a person from the same background as his. This meant that our performance as a team was below par since we didn’t work as single team focused towards a common goal. References Cohen, S. 2004. The nature of moral reasoning : International management ethics and values. South Melbourne : Oxford University Press. Friedman, T. L. 2007. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. D&M Publishers Incorporated. Galea, C. 2004. Teaching Business Sustainability: From theory to practice. Greenleaf Publishing. Gudykunst, W. 2003. Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication . SAGE. Haanaes, K., Jurgens, J., & Rangan, S. 2013. Making Sustainability profitable. Harvard Business Review , 91 (3), pp.110-114. Hawkes, A. 2008. Culture Clash: A Book, a Trainer's Manual and a Student Manual on the Subject of Culture for Continuous Professional Development. iUniverse. Hawkins, D. 2006. Corporate Social Responsibility: Balancing Tomorrow's Sustainability and Today's Profitability. Palgrave Macmillan. Himma, K. E. 2008. The intercultural ethics agenda from the point of view of a moral objectivist. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society , 6 (2), pp.101-115. Jacobsen, J. 2011. Sustainable Business and Industry: Designing and Operating for Social and Environmental Responsibility. ASQ Quality Press. MacKinnon, B. 2011. Ethics: Theory & Contemporary Issues - Concise Edition, 2nd ed.: Theory and Contemporary Issues, Concise Edition. Cengage Learning. Preston, N. 2007. Understanding Ethics. Federation Press. Sandhu, S. 2010. Shifting Paradigms in Corporate Environmentalism: From Poachers to Gamekeepers. Business and Society Review , pp.285-310. Shou-hua, C., & Shouhua, Q. 2000. Bridging the Pacific: Searching for Cross-cultural Understanding Between the United States and China. China Books. Weisbord, M. 2012. Productive Workplaces: Dignity, Meaning, and Community in the 21st Century. Wiley. White, P. 2009. Building a Sustainability strategy into the business. Corprate Governance , 9 (4), pp.386-394. Read More