The Process of Cultural Adjustment - Essay Example

? Culture shock is when one experiences hardships in trying to blend in a new environment and culture. The processof trying to blend in is called culture adjustment. It may take some time to adjust into a new environment. Once one has adjusted, the way of life become simpler and one may begin to feel comfortable. The aim of this essay is to explain the process of cultural adjustment as well as the effects of cultural shock. Cultural shock is a term normally used in describing the feelings and anxiety such as disorientation, surprise or confusion which are felt when one operates a totally different social environment or culture. It involves the difficulties in trying to assimilate into the new culture or the new environment which leads to difficulty in understanding what is proper and what is considered as not being correct. Mostly it is combined with a lot of disgust about some aspects of the different or new culture. In most cases, culture shock may not occur suddenly. It may take some time to begin affecting the moods of the person involved. The duration of time an individual may experience culture shock is based on the period they have to stay in that environment, their self awareness level and the period they take to adjust and blend into the new surrounding. If the person is able to adjust at a faster rate, the better for him or her since the shock may not be as severe as when they did not know anything about the new culture or environment. One may note that he or she is experiencing culture shock when they experience some symptoms such as self doubts and being hostile more than usual (Taylor, 1990). An example of culture shock is in the case of a university student from a different culture attending school in a totally different environment, for example, an African student attending university in the United States. Such a student will meet a totally different type of culture from the one he or she is used to. He may get hard timed trying to adjust and blend in. These hardships are part of culture shock. Culture adjustment is trying to change according to the shock associated with the change of environment. Living in a different culture that is dissimilar from the one someone is used to may be an adventure that is exiting as well as a challenging one. No matter what country one comes from, once they move from their country to another, they will have to go through cultural adjustment due to the difference in cultures (Vivian, 1999). Understanding the process of adjustment may involve getting some support from other people who are familiar with the culture and may be an exiting experience, both professionally and personally. Culture may be defined in a number of ways that may bring out different meanings. In some cases, it may be used to refer to the act of appreciating good literature, food, art and music. For biologists, it may be used to refer to a colony of different types of bacteria or some other organisms. However, for the behavioral science, it is a range of patterns of human behavior. It may be otherwise defined as a complex whole that includes belief, knowledge, art, customs, law and any habits and capabilities that is acquired by people as a part of a given society. Culture is a very powerful tool for the survival of human, but it is also a fragile phenomenon. Culture is consistently changing and may be lost easily since it usually exists in the human mind (Rogers, 1996). Culture is comprised of different layers. The national level deals with the awareness of the dynamics of culture and their patterns by nationality. The national level is relevant for certain areas such as getting into new markets, cross border division and relationships based on international outsourcing. Another level is the organizational level which focuses on culture dynamics experiences in different organizations (Rogers, 1996). The other levels include the regional or ethnic level that involves the difference in culture between different ethnical groups, generation level that is based on the cultural differences between different cultures, social cultures which is based on difference in culture between people of different social classes and the functional level based on differences according to different functions. Culture differences may be defined as the variations in the different ways of life, laws, beliefs and traditions between unlike countries, people, religion and societies. Some differences between cultures may be enforced by the internal rules for example the age one should get married or marry whereas others may happen through change of time and development towards some way of living, for instance using forks and knives to eat (Kings, 1990). The theory of Edward T. Hall on low and high context culture is used in understanding the effect on communication caused by culture. The major factor in this theory is context. The contexts relates to the background, surrounding circumstances and framework in which an event or communication takes place. The high context cultures are contemplative, intuitive, collectivist and relational. This means that the individuals in these cultures usually put emphasis on interpersonal relationships. In any business transaction that is important, it is vital to develop trust (Talor, 1990). These cultures prefer group harmony, consensus to different individuals and are collectivists. These people are governed more by feelings or intuition than reason. On the other hand, low context cultures are action oriented, individualistic, linear and logical. People from these cultures usually value directness, facts and logic. For them to solve problems, they line up facts and evaluate each at a time. The decisions are usually based on facts not intuition. Monochromic cultures on the other hand like doing things one at a time. The people in these cultures value sense and order and they have an appropriate place and time for everything. They dislike interruptions and like concentrating on what they are doing and are always committed. They as well show a lot of respect to private property (Ian, 2001). They do not like borrowing or lending anything. The polychromic are different from the monochromic cultures. People from these cultures like doing different things at once. An example of this culture is the office of a manger. It usually has a door that is open, a meeting and ringing phones at one time. Even though they may be interrupted, they have the ability to manage the different types of destructions. They tend to build a lot of relationships since their main concerns are usually other people and building of relationships. Cultural adjustment is the act of trying to adapt to the new surrounding. When people move from one place to another, they tend to carry the behaviors they are used to as well as their culture. These cultures may not be the same as the culture on the new environment. Such people will have to adjust so as to fit into the new environment to keep away from getting a lot of difficulties in coexisting. Cultural adjustment takes place in a numbers of phases that are distinct. Each phase has different characteristics as compared to the others. The process follows a curve that is u-shaped which begins from a high which is followed by a sink into shock then it recovers into understanding the new culture. An example of cultural adjustment may be in the case of a manager being transferred to a totally unfamiliar environment. The manager would have to learn the culture and ways of the new environment so as to blend in. It may take a process for him or her to adjust. He or she will go through the four phases of adjustment before they are settled and are able to function properly in the new environment or culture. The first phase is the honeymoon phase. An individual experiences months of anticipation, excitement and preparation and at this point they finally get to the destination. This is where the honeymoon phase begins which is a phase that has initial euphoria. In this phase, all the things are new, exhilarating and fascinating. At the early stages, the similarities that the cultures may be having are clearer and one may find the differences as being exotic and interesting. When reality finally sets in, the persons move into a crisis phase. The second phase is the crisis phase. During this phase, one experiences the impact of the different symptoms related to culture shock (Angela, 1995). The difference in culture become more salient which may lead to frustration related to communication and the performance of some basic tasks. This leads to depression, irritability and different forms of culture shock. This may lead to one getting the feelings or rejection and being an outsider and may lead to getting a desire of withdrawing. The third phase is the recovery stage. When one begins to develop some routine and starts feeling more comfortable with the surrounding, one moves into this stage (Kelvin, 2001). Mostly, this transition is not easily noticed. It is comprised of gradual shift into the new surrounding. One begins orienting their self, regain self esteem and begging interpreting subtle cues more easily as well as having a better and positive outlook. In this stage, one is able to integrate into the new community. The last phase is the adjustment stage. In this stage, one gets the ability of functioning in the new environment and culture. There is a significant reduction of the sense of foreignness. One also becomes comfortable in the new culture and begins to feel as part of it. The conversations and tasks become effortless and one develops ease and flexibility in navigating the new surrounding. One’s sense of humor, self confidence and motivation shifts from the low phases which is the crisis phase to the balance between holding to the original culture at the same time living abroad and this becomes a second nature. Behavioral adaptation is a way in which one may familiarize him or herself with a new culture or surrounding. There are three types of behavioral adaptation. Escapsulator is a way in which a person may adapt to an environment due to anxiety. A person may choose to either have a fight or flight response. In the first instance of flight, it involves retreat and rejection. Fight involves anger, retreat and disapproval. Encapsulators may have very little contact with the people in the new surrounding and they may choose only to associate with persons similar to them. The absconder may end up falling in love with the new culture through adapting to their customs, lifestyle and food completely. Such people adjust in great ways so as to fit into the new culture and may minimize the contact they have with the surroundings of their own culture. They may as well reject their original culture. Cosmopolitans are usually more optimistic and positive. They are usually interested and curious in the new culture. They accept and identify with the new culture and surrounding and still retain their culture. They retain their contact with the two cultures (Rogers, 2004). International mobility may have a number of negative consequences in an organization. If a manager is not able to adapt to the new environment or a new culture, it may have a negative impact to the organization as well as the person him or herself. It may cause the organization a lot of loss since the manager may have wasted a lot of time trying to adjust to the new culture and may lead to the company making a lot of losses. On the other hand, the manger may be affected negatively since he or she may be forced to switch their career so as to avoid changing of cultures. When the persons are able to adapt well, they would be of great advantage to the organization. This is because they may be able to share more ideas on how to run a successful organization. They may as well bring new ideas from different culture which may be combined with the existing strategies to run a successful business. If such people are not able to adapt to their new cultures, companies and organizations should avoid transferring people to different cultures. If they have to make the movements, they should prepare the persons being moved in advance. They should go through a training process that may help them adapt easily to their new cultures. This would help reduce the time spent in trying to adapt to the new surroundings. Cultural differences are the variation of the way of living of different people from their laws, way of life and beliefs. Culture shock is the difficulties that one may experience while trying to adjust to a new surrounding or a new culture. This may happen through one moving from one place to settle in another. People move due to many reasons such as traveling or job transfers. Most people face cultural shock since they may not be used to the new environment. It takes a process to be able to adjust. This process may take some time. One has to learn the way of life of the new surrounding and culture. Once the person has adjusted, their way of life become easier and is able to blend into the culture easily. International mobility may have negative effects on people as well as the organizations associated. This is because the persons may be unable to adjust and blend in the new culture. One should be prepared before the change of surrounding so as to avoid culture shock. References ABERNETHY, V. (1999). Population pressure and cultural adjustment. New York, Human Sciences Press. BOCK, P. K. (1990). Culture shock; a reader in modern cultural anthropology. New York, Knopf. DE VOS, G. A., & ROMANUCCI-ROSS, L. (1995). Ethnic identity: cultural continuities and change. Palo Alto, Calif, Mayfield Pub. Co. EELLS, K., & DAVIS, A. (2001). Intelligence and cultural differences; a study of cultural learning and problem-solving. [Chicago], University of Chicago Press. HALL, E. T., & HALL, M. R. (1990). Understanding cultural differences. Yarmouth, Me, Intercultural Press. HARRIS, P. R., MORAN, R. T., & MORAN, S. V. (2004). Managing cultural differences. Global leadership strategies for the 21st century. Amsterdam, Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann. HARRIS, P. R., & MORAN, R. T. (1996). Managing cultural differences. Houston, Gulf Pub. Co. JAMO, C. I. (2001). Cultural Shock. 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