On a personal level, I have hardly experienced any intercultural conflict. Therefore, for this blogpost, I have chosen to borrow one of my father’s experiences.
My father’s job requires him to travel rather frequently and these trips enable him to meet with various groups of people from distinct cultural backgrounds. On one such occasion, he was involved in a meeting consisting of individuals from two different countries. The clientele comprised of people who were generally mild mannered and soft spoken as this was what was expected in their culture. The presenters on the other hand were from a culture where people spoke in loud and firm voices accompanied by big gestures.
During this particular meeting, the latter were supposed to give a presentation on the products that were to be purchased by the customers. However, after the meeting was completed, my father was approached by the customers. Apparently, they were not entirely comfortable in the manner in which the presentation was conducted. They were not used to the way the presenters spoke or the way they articulated themselves through their hand movements. As a result, they were not able to elicit much information from the presentation itself. They ended up requesting for someone else to conduct presentations in future.
In my understanding, culture refers to a shared set of beliefs, attitudes and values of the people involved. Although both parties mentioned above were from Asian backgrounds, I feel that the countries they belonged to led to them having significant differences in their practices and mannerisms. The history of their nations and the interactions they experience would have influenced them in many ways. However, if one pursues a career that requires him to interact with people of different cultures, it would be advantageous if he is able to modify certain mannerisms accordingly to suit the needs of the people he meets. It would also be good if he is able to adapt to the way others conduct themselves. In the above situation, each party could have been unaware of each other’s cultural nuances thereby disallowing any form of adaptation.
I felt that this was a good example to highlight differences in cultural behaviour as it is set in a typical workplace scenario. Hope my sharing was useful (:
Hi Mufeedha,
ReplyDeleteThe experience shared above is quite common, especially for those transnational companies (TNCs) where there will be lots of cultural interactions.
I agree with you that one needs to modify certain mannerisms accordingly to suit the others he meets. Because this can prevent some form of uncertainty or misunderstanding from arising. Uncertainty and misunderstanding can then result in discrimination and intercultural conflict.
Another way is that one can learn to understand people from other cultures. This also helps prevent uncertainty and misunderstanding to arise towards other cultures.
Hey Mufeedha,
ReplyDeleteI guess that in such a global society it is inevitable that we will encounter people with cultures very different from our own. What will make all the difference is how we go about trying to get along with people who think differently from us. Understanding them and moderating our own behavior around them will help them feel more comfortable and at home.
I like that the buyer's in your anecdote were not very discrete and non-confrontational (I suppose this is their culture as well) and tried to work through the situation with minimal conflict.
Dear Mufeedha,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have faced several instances where the mannerisms of people from different countries have been juxtaposed, I still feel a twinge of surprise that people of the same race can be so different just due to the countries they are from. It is amazing to me, the amount of change culture and upbringing can have on your personality.
It would thus be expected that there are so many occasions where messages are ‘lost in translation’. It might be daunting to think about how just the mannerism and way of communicating of one can be misinterpreted greatly by someone of a different culture. This can lead to drastic misunderstandings sometimes. However, I have noticed that rather than the language barrier, it is the non-verbal cues such as expression, tone and body language that seem to carry more weight. I feel that if one makes an effort to be friendly and genuine it does come across through their body language and expressions. Of course, we still need to keep in mind certain things that could be considered rude in other cultures and try to avoid them. Nevertheless, a sincere effort to learn more about another culture is usually not rebutted.
Cheers,
Jigna