The Differences and Similarities across Cultures - Case Study Example

Cross-Cultural Communication Name Course Lecturer Date Globalization trends have brought new phenomena in communication and transportation due to fast technological development. People are experiencing culture shock in multi-cultural communication and thus it is a matter of concern. There is therefore, a growing need for people to understand cultural diversity due to cross-cultural communications. The differences and similarities are manifest across cultures, resulting to various ways of thinking, behaviors, custom, traditions and values. Dissimilar circumstances to ones former cultural contexts cause culture shock. Emotional discomfort and psychological confusion manifests in anxiety, depression, helplessness which affect learning or become a barrier to interpersonal relationship. This has negative effects, thus attention is given on individual adjustment ability in a new culture (Xia, 2009). The case study interviewed two respondents; an Indian and Australian descent to analyze the influences of culture on their experiences and interactions. Background information on each interviewee Nazir is an Indian businessman, and a chairman of a Pharmaceutical company. He is 43 years old and has worked for ten years with a family owned pharmaceutical firm in Africa for ten year after he completed his studies in India. Currently he has been in Australia for the last five years as a General Manager of a major Pharmaceutical company. Frank is an employee working in a telecommunication company as a network solution and administrator support staff in Australia. He has for the past five years participated in the company’s international mission, opening new market locations in Indonesia, Japan and Europe. He is 35 and has been working for the last eight years, the first 3 years in Australia and in the last five in the global team that manages customer services, development of IT and sales of Internet products. A description of each interviewee’s perspective on culture Nazir, perspective reveals a high integration and connection to Indian culture. His ideologies and beliefs are based on culture. Some prominent Indian ideologies like religiosity, social hierarchy and family mutual support are core in his day to day life activities. Taboos and rituals are the way the culture regulate him, his work and way of life. A social restriction embodies important limits in interactions with other people. Family values, and multigenerational joint family networks norms are held dear to him even in absence of other members of his society. Cultural language, festivals and foods are familiarity of life. Social collectiveness and complement is a goal in life for close relatives creating a long lasting statuses and individual roles. Much of life activities, places of work and residence are determined by cultural forces and members. Main values held include honest, fairness, compassion and charity. Education to him must reflect cultural aspects, faith, family, religion and Indian traditions. Frank, on the other hand is completely different compared with Nazir. Though there is little about cultural determinism. He finds culture as the general norm of the whole society regulating interrelations and interactions. To him, culture from whichever point create norms and values that are common sense way of life. It is a way of self-discipline, hard work and success. He values religion but more importantly capitalism and individualism are manifest in his pursuit. He believes in personal independence which is general way of his culture. Open lifestyle and learning is core to his culture. Having been brought up in a community that did not have strong social boundaries, he interacts with people freely without accounting on status lines. Generally, his culture has impacted on value for democracy, justice, freedom, individual rights and autonomy. His belief is based on a culture that is human created and reproduced on the demands. Though there are collective social agreements that are produced during interactions, they can also be refined over time. His though on culture is the one which is dynamic and does not interfere with personal preferences and choices. A description of how culture impacts on the life experience and belief system of each interviewee Nazir has internalized the norms of his childhood socialization which acts as internal social control. The pervasiveness of values, beliefs and ideologies are discernable in his way of communication, attitude to strangers and physical reactions. The cultures of avoidance regulate most of life activities. This has influenced the way he has spend much of his time in workplace and at home. There are informal sanctions employed by the closest members of the community and thus strong regulations are enforced by norms. The places of visit are regulated by norms and therefore there is limitation to public events, places more so where it is less likely to find other significant Indians. He works on strict time planning, delivery and response in work and life. Frank beliefs have changed in the modern industrial interactions particularly in his life. He has acquired much learning about Japanese language specifically sign language. To him there is no absolute knowledge, and therefore any knowledge compliments the human truth. Frank has been quite successful in his role as of administrator in team effectiveness. His multiple perspectives and acceptance of heterogeneity in culture, tasks, and circumstances has impacted in his functional outcomes. His believe in multiple shared realities have dominated learning and working across his operation. Through inclusiveness he comments on how he has build trust, as a global administrator which is critical for his role in the company. His subordinates have communicated freely, and he has done minimal coaching and monitoring with effectiveness. Little cultural constraints have allowed him to get a wide network of resourceful people. This according to him is critical for outsourcing and information and knowledge sharing in his dynamic technological field. Through cultural tolerance, acceptance and forgiveness he has learnt other people values that are held dear to work with a heterogeneous groups. To make other members fit in organization philosophy, he believes that values can be changed since they are human creations. As an administrator he has communicated and mediated changes from both the company and subjects where applicable for effective function. A description of how culture impacts on each interviewee’s interactions with others For Nazir, little is revealed of any knowledge of other cultures way of life. He is relatively introverted even with members the company, holding formal meetings and interactions when necessary. He is less likely to get in deeper social interactions and therefore he prefers artificial relations with other workers, customers and colleagues. A cultural value of respecting diversity however encompasses accommodation of diverse groups at the workplaces (Fullan, 2001). His personality has the cultural elements of dominance representing a mainstream Indian culture. Social activities take a back place with other people of different cultures. Other significant known ethnic and community members are based on needs and specific reasons. Nazir maintains that there are mutually exclusive issues like work and social life between workers and management. His work however has been effective in the company and he has been able to meet the organizational goals. Frank, commenting on his interactions with others acknowledges that efficiency in communication is core in dealing with humanity. As a worker in multilingual environment, who know different languages, he has been effective multinational corporation’s environments. However, it has been a hard thing to become competent managers in this. Interestingly, he comments of the use of non-verbal and extra-lingual features which develop easily in new areas to promote effective functioning in such cross-cultural contexts. In Japan, common sign language, including hand and body movement and facial expressions have been important to his relating with different people of various languages. His company has provided orientation programs to new audience, working colleagues and thus, he has critically acquired cultural values for improving his communication styles, interrelations and motivational needs (Weech, 2001). This has identified willingness in acquiring diverse patterns of behavior and attitudes. Training has altered his attitudes and behavior increasing his probability of attaining common company’s goals. Through an increased social support he has been encouraged, motivated to seek social network and bear new cultural stressors. Many uncertainties which come with new places are solved by continuous training. Frank has possessed dynamic and adaptive skills in face of his global roles, career and company’s economy. He has therefore, continuously adapted to such factors of competent interactions including tolerance for ambiguity, non-judgmental, and behavioral flexibility. He has also been dynamic in interpersonal skills, low ethnocentrism, and cultural empathy and developed his role in the multinational organizations (Matveev & Nelson, 2004). A summary of each interviewee’s suggestions for lessening the impact of cultural divides that may occur There is however ways in which psychological discomfort across multi-cultural interactions can be minimized when people are entering and working in other new cultural patterns (Xia, 2009). Nazir, is an individual who is successful in dealing with cross cultural determined behavior. He does not expect others people to behave the way he would according to his own cultural backgrounds. This is complemented to acculturation process. As a culturally experienced person he consciously analyzes the situation, and subsequently he chooses an appropriate behavior that can bring the best out of the resulting interaction. He comments on his initial situation and how at the beginning he got very irritated when people were late. In his applied approach he says that now he is used to that and no more worry. The influencing factors are that over time, he has become more and more critical towards himself. He concluded that most of experienced difficulties are as a result of unfulfilled expectations (Harzing, 2008 ). His previous experience in culturally determined behavior fostered him to establish norms to support interaction among people and manage individuals’ behavior. Norms shape perception, interaction of individuals, the way problems are solved and decision making approaches. This reduces potential sources of conflicts as individual participate to enable behavior and develop mutual considerateness. Thus initially he and other people used to occasionally treat other roughly. The applied approach included but not to levels of leaving long lasting scars. This was influenced by the factors such as not getting personal, even in the instance when he totally disagreed with the how people approached a task. According to Frank good preparation decreases cultural differences and their influences. Previous experiences with people with culturally determined behavior and experience in working with different people where he efficiently employ a foreign language significantly reduce the influences of cultural differences in his interactions. Previous experience in the domestic workplaces of the company applying culturally determined behavior fosters and develops norms which reduce conflict brought about by cultural differences (Macnamara, 2004). The most important thing is mutual considerations. Experience from working with the foreign languages help him identify suitable culturally-determined behavior, thus it is possible to adapt specific characteristics of another foreign culture. However, time pressure is another condition that increases the likelihood and influence of culture to interactions. In condition of time pressure, some communication related behavior and culturally determined work-style matters in interactions. Among them are the relational-versus task-oriented work style and style of criticizing (Harzing, 2008 ). High self-efficacy, confidence and optimism increase people abilities to perform (Xia, 2009). Frank argues that he is a very structured person in every initial situation and thus, to him it is easier to work with other people who always follow a clear structure. However, in the applied approach structured work is not really a great problem if he works together with people or person who prefers the style of unstructured work. His influencing factors are learning that in such cases he simply needs to identify where the differences are to make the best from the different approaches. A discussion of the similarities and differences between the cultural experiences of the interviewees Nazir and Frank fit in their roles since Nazir is proficient in transactional environment and Frank in transformational. They have also been able to regulate their cultural orientations to dominate in the workplaces. Nazir have been creating the right condition at work to integrate cultural diversity and Frank have been integrated into people values to develop them work in the company (Zhu, Nel & Bhat, 2006). However they have clear differences in that while Nazir is dormant transaction leader, Frank get along to know other peoples values to develop empathy and bridge the gap between culture and company roles. Nazir is strongly held by cultural orientations which limit the degree of interactions and probably experiences across cultures. This limitation is seen is his inefficiency to adopt new languages and communication style which the main medium of cultural learning and acculturation. On the other hand, Frank efficiently does. Culture is therefore a determinant of a person experiences and interactions and therefore the degree of culturalation is significant determinant on how individual changes across different cultures. References Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass. Harzing, A.-K. N.-W. (2008 ). The Impact of Culture on Interactions: Five Lessons Learned from the European Commission. European Management Journal , 5-28. Macnamara, J. R. (2004). The crucial role of research in multicultural and cross-cultural communication. Journal of Communication Management, 8(3), 322-334. SAGE Publications. Matveev, A. V., & Nelson, P. E. (2004). Cross Cultural Communication Competence and Multicultural Team Performance : ... International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 47(2), 95-104. Weech, W.A. (2001). Training across cultures. Training and Development, 55(1), 62. Xia, J. (2009). Analysis of Impact of Culture Shock on Individual Psychology. International Journal of Psychological , 97-101. Zhu, Y., Nel, P., & Bhat, R. (2006). A Cross Cultural Study of Communication Strategies for Building Business Relationships. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 6(3), 319-341. Read More

A description of how culture impacts on the life experience and belief system of each interviewee Nazir has internalized the norms of his childhood socialization which acts as internal social control. The pervasiveness of values, beliefs and ideologies are discernable in his way of communication, attitude to strangers and physical reactions. The cultures of avoidance regulate most of life activities. This has influenced the way he has spend much of his time in workplace and at home. There are informal sanctions employed by the closest members of the community and thus strong regulations are enforced by norms.

The places of visit are regulated by norms and therefore there is limitation to public events, places more so where it is less likely to find other significant Indians. He works on strict time planning, delivery and response in work and life. Frank beliefs have changed in the modern industrial interactions particularly in his life. He has acquired much learning about Japanese language specifically sign language. To him there is no absolute knowledge, and therefore any knowledge compliments the human truth.

Frank has been quite successful in his role as of administrator in team effectiveness. His multiple perspectives and acceptance of heterogeneity in culture, tasks, and circumstances has impacted in his functional outcomes. His believe in multiple shared realities have dominated learning and working across his operation. Through inclusiveness he comments on how he has build trust, as a global administrator which is critical for his role in the company. His subordinates have communicated freely, and he has done minimal coaching and monitoring with effectiveness.

Little cultural constraints have allowed him to get a wide network of resourceful people. This according to him is critical for outsourcing and information and knowledge sharing in his dynamic technological field. Through cultural tolerance, acceptance and forgiveness he has learnt other people values that are held dear to work with a heterogeneous groups. To make other members fit in organization philosophy, he believes that values can be changed since they are human creations. As an administrator he has communicated and mediated changes from both the company and subjects where applicable for effective function.

A description of how culture impacts on each interviewee’s interactions with others For Nazir, little is revealed of any knowledge of other cultures way of life. He is relatively introverted even with members the company, holding formal meetings and interactions when necessary. He is less likely to get in deeper social interactions and therefore he prefers artificial relations with other workers, customers and colleagues. A cultural value of respecting diversity however encompasses accommodation of diverse groups at the workplaces (Fullan, 2001).

His personality has the cultural elements of dominance representing a mainstream Indian culture. Social activities take a back place with other people of different cultures. Other significant known ethnic and community members are based on needs and specific reasons. Nazir maintains that there are mutually exclusive issues like work and social life between workers and management. His work however has been effective in the company and he has been able to meet the organizational goals. Frank, commenting on his interactions with others acknowledges that efficiency in communication is core in dealing with humanity.

As a worker in multilingual environment, who know different languages, he has been effective multinational corporation’s environments. However, it has been a hard thing to become competent managers in this. Interestingly, he comments of the use of non-verbal and extra-lingual features which develop easily in new areas to promote effective functioning in such cross-cultural contexts. In Japan, common sign language, including hand and body movement and facial expressions have been important to his relating with different people of various languages.

Read More