Cross-cultural training activities by Joseba Arregi, Dmitrii Enygin, Venera Midova (book club books .TXT) 📕

towards what is, and what is not, considered 'virtuous'. Long-term cultures focuses on the distant future and emphasize the importance of saving, persistence and achieving goals that may only come to fruition after several generations. Short-term cultures emphasize the past and the present, and there is respect for fulfilling social obligations and a consistent understanding of morality.

Hofstede claimed that Chinese people have a relatively high Confucian dynamism index value, while American people have a relatively low Confucian dynamism index value. He suggested that this distinction is reflected in business. In China top management emphasizes thrift and perseverance and respect for tradition, and also maintains a long-term orientation (that is, the company is regarded as a family). In contrast, in the USA, top management is said to focus on current needs, creativity and adopting a short-term orientation.

Read the four short incidents described below. Underline any sentences that suggest cultural differences were at work and answer the following questions:

How would you explain these differences in terms of Hofstede's cultural dimensions?

What hints or tips would you give to each of the people below to overcome cultural barriers?

Sarah

Sarah Marshall is head of the business development group at a US-based law firm. Recently she was assigned the task of winning a contract for a new project with the Colombian government. She was competing with teams from Spain and France.

Sarah had quite a lot of background information on the proposed project and on the packages her competitors were offering. On the basis of this information and her organization's extensive resources she felt confident that the company would win the contract.

Sarah drew up a proposal that was time and cost-effective and designed a presentation based on convincing numbers and a persuasive argument. Arriving in Bogota the day before, Sarah personally made the sales pitch in which she detailed all the relevant facts, highlighted the various ways forward and made a clear recommendation of the best solution. She eventually lost the project to the Spanish team, even though her Columbian counterparts acknowledged the quality of her proposals.

Richard

Richard, an Australian, is part of a team of lawyers based in Paris. Claude, 48, is the team's PA. Claude works from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with an hour and a half for lunch.

Richard is very pleased with the quality of Claude's, work and her commitment to the team. Unfortunately because of his extensive travel commitments abroad he has never had the opportunity to have lunch with her or spend any time with her and the team outside the work environment. After a while Richard asks to be addressed by his first name and the informal 712. Several months later, however, Claude is still calling him `Monsieur Lafleur' and addressing him with Voulez-vous bien...' although Richard calls her 'Claude' and addresses her with Veux-tu

Richard is puzzled and decides to talk to Claude about this matter in order to clarify the situation.. To his amazement Claude replies that she prefers to call him by his surname and refer to him with the formal vous.

Karl

Karl, a Dutch lawyer, felt that his first business trip to Japan was going fairly well. He was determined to get to know his colleagues better and was particularly pleased to be invited out for drinks after work with most of the team, including the senior managers.

At the bar, everyone was expected to entertain; even the senior staff got to sing karaoke songs or tell jokes. Everything seemed fairly informal and cooperative, with Karl's karaoke version of 'Imagine' winning rapturous applause from the group. One of the senior managers even asked Karl for a repeat rendition later in the evening.

Keeping this informality in mind, Karl used a team meeting early the next morning to present a proposal for resolving a minor logistics problem he had noticed. He was surprised to be met with a wall of embarrassed silence and was noticeably excluded from informal exchanges as people left the meeting.

Rebecca

Rebecca, a recently recruited British executive in an international law firm, was asked to chair a meeting with her French and British colleagues.

From Rebecca's point of view, the meeting went well. She did her utmost to make sure that everyone was heard and the relevant issues discussed and summarized in a diplomatic way. She even changed the agenda and extended the meeting to accommodate new issues that some British delegates had brought up.

At the end of the meeting Rebecca was shocked to hear one French colleague whisper to another `... typical British, just typical. No proper preparation...'. She was even more surprised to hear the reply: 'Yes, and they never say what they mean, do they?'

Training Exercise 10 – Observing body language

Key objectives

To develop learners' ability to attend to the body language of others.

To enable learners to speculate on the meaning of some important elements of nonverbal communication.

Time

1 hour

Materials

'Observing Body Language' handout

Background rationale

Developing observation skills is an important part of enhancing cross-cultural effectiveness. This activity provides an opportunity for learners to pay active attention to the body language of people they see, and to speculate on what people may be trying to communicate in non-verbal ways, either consciously or unconsciously.

Procedure

Preselect a video showing some element of interaction or communication between people in another country or culture of interest. Three or four minutes of material are usually sufficient. Documentaries or news reports are often useful in this respect.

Give a copy of the 'Observing Body Language' handout to the learner and explain that the objective of the activity is to develop and practise observation skills.

Provide some basic background information about the context in which the video is set: describe who the participants are and what situation they are in.

Ask the learners to complete the handout as they watch the video. They may need to see the clip twice.

Observations and suggestions for discussion

Learners will have their own ideas about what the non-verbal behaviours they observe signify, and these can form the basis of a useful and productive discussion. It is also useful to ask the learners to speculate on how their own body language is similar (or dissimilar) to that of the individuals they observe.

Observing Body Language handout

Watch the video.

Closely observe how people dress, greet and interact with each other. While watching, please tick the boxes that match your observations and reflect on what the individuals concerned are trying to communicate.

Dress code

Casual

Uniformed

Colourful

Formal

Eccentric

Neutral

What are the individuals concerned trying to communicate through their dress code?

Greetings

Collective greeting

Hugging

No touching

Neutral face

No greeting

Handshaking

Smiling

Individual greeting

Kissing

Touching

Emotion

What are the individuals concerned trying to communicate through their greetings?

Gestures and personal space

Stand close

Keep their distance

Avoid physical contact

Good eye contact

Avoid eye contact

What are the individuals concerned trying to communicate through their gestures and personal space?

General impression of the interaction

Formal

Hierarchical

Laid-back

Informal

Organized

What are your overall impressions of the communication?

Training Exercise 11 – Recognising culture shock

Key objectives

To provide clear examples of the various stages associated with culture shock.

To provide learners with practice in identifying stages of culture shock.

Time

30 mins

Materials

Recognising culture shock handout

Background rationale

An important element in dealing with culture shock is recognizing that it is a natural process with a beginning point and a relatively clear set of stages progressing to a point at which it is no longer a problem for the person concerned.

Understanding the nature of these stages, and developing the skills to recognize which stage you have reached, is a useful strategy for managing individual reactions to culture shock.

This exercise provides a handy checklist of stages and useful practice in recognizing what comments or perceptions may indicate about the stage of cross-cultural adjustment individuals are in.

Procedure

Give a copy of the 'Recognizing culture shock' handout to the learner.

Compare these learner’s answers with those suggested below and discuss and differences.

Observations and suggestions for discussion

There may be some debate about exactly which stage is likely to be reflected in each comment. This is a positive point, as it enables learners to discuss the nature of each stage and reflect on how others may understand the phenomenon of culture shock somewhat differently. Recommended answers are as follows:

Adaptation

Disorientation or shock

Honeymoon

Adjustment

Honeymoon

Shock

Shock

Honeymoon or adaptation or adjustment

Adjustment or adaptation

Disorientation or shock

Shock

Adaptation

Recognizing culture shock handout

Culture shock is the process of adjustment to an unfamiliar culture. It is a more or less sudden immersion into a state of uncertainty - in which you become unsure about what is expected of you and what you can expect from other people. Culture shock can occur in any situation where you are forced to adjust to an unfamiliar system in which many of your previous ways of doing or understanding things no longer apply.

The five stages

Five stages of culture shock can be identified:

Honeymoon

This is where the newly arrived individual experiences the curiosity and excitement of a tourist, but where the person's basic identity is rooted back at home.

Disorientation

This stage involves the disintegration of almost everything familiar. The individual is overwhelmed by the requirements of the new culture and bombarded by stimuli in the new environment.

Shock

This stage is associated with the experience of anger and resentment towards the new culture. Stress, anxiety, irritation and hostility are common.

Adaptation

This involves the integration of new cues and an increased ability to function in the new culture. The individual increasingly sees the bad and the good elements in both the new culture and the home culture.

Adjustment

In this stage, the individual has become comfortable in both the old and the new culture. There is some controversy about whether anyone can really attain this stage.

Exercise

Below you will see a number of comments likely to be made by individuals in one of the five stages of culture shock. Read each comment and write down what stage of culture shock you think the individual concerned is most likely to be in.

Comment

'We do that too, only in a different way.'

'Why can't they just ...?'

'I can't wait to tell ... about this.'

'You don't understand them like I do.'

'Isn't this exciting?'

'These people are so damn ...'

'Only ...more months before I can go home'

'Aren't they interesting?'

'Actually, I am beginning to like this'

'Everything here is so difficult!'

'We would never do that where I come from'

'On the other hand, why shouldn't they do that?'

Training Exercise 12 – Culture shock checklist

Key objectives

To summarize useful strategies for managing culture shock and enhancing the process of cross-cultural adjustment.

To provide an opportunity to explore specific behaviours that describe how each strategy can be put into practice.

Time

30 to 40 minutes.

Materials

'Culture-shock Checklist' handout

Background rationale

Culture shock is a challenging problem for learners moving overseas on long-term assignments. This activity provides a handy checklist of useful strategies to help learners handle the symptoms of culture shock and speed adaptation to the new environment. It also enables learners to identify useful ways of putting these strategies into practice.

Procedure

Give the learner a copy of the 'Culture-shock Checklist' handout

Work through the list of skills and behaviours with the learner, identifying any specific skills for dealing with culture shock that might be particularly applicable in another country or culture of interest.

Observations and suggestions for discussions

Some learners may find it difficult to identify specific ways of putting the checklist points into practice, given that they are already in the form of behavioural hints. Emphasize that what is required is specific ideas of how