Exploring cultural differences

Reflective Practice workshop

2 videos

Peacock in the Land of Penguin 2 min 50 sec

Dogversity in the Workplace 3 min 19 sec

Identify at your colleague next to you (should be from a different

culture) one personal identity traits and one or more cultural traits.
Share with us one-two relevant cultural traits of your own culture

Critical incidents
 Objectives

To explore :

Cultural differences
Critical Incidents Theory

How culture shapes our perception?

Expectations Cultural misunderstandings

Multicultural Awareness Cultural competence

 Cultural differences
What does it mean for you a cultural difference?

What signals help you to identify one?

How we react when facing a cultural difference?

 Cultural Differences
Ways of socialising Haptics (touch)
Private/ public Proxemics (space)
Exposure emotions (Affective echange) Kinesics
Eye contact
Time ***
Being of time
Relate to authority
Superstitions
Parenting practices
School teaching methods (separation
boys/girls)
Gender roles
Attitudues to food and eating (Mc
Donnald Bolivia

CD = interesting, valuable, exotic

 The begining of
misunderstandings:

Cultural incidents

A critical incident is an event which made you stop and think, that
raised questions, that surprised you, confused you, that is
unexpected
 Politeness

Are you polite in the way of your culture or in the way of culture`s guest?

Is a special way of treating people, saying and doing things in such a

way as to take into account the other persons feelings.

Politeness reflects cultural values. Correctly identifying polite

behavior in a culture involves understanding the societys values.
 When values have different
culturally- shaped meanings
When a X person wants to refuse a request politely, he
HONESTY RESPECT may give a vague answer to not offend the other
person.
But A X person may expect that it is said clearly when
X culture highly value the other person wants to refuse the request and
honesty, interprets the value answer of the Y as dishonest.

while Y culture place more

Among the Semai of Central Malaya saying Thank you
value on showing respect. for the meat received from the hunter is very rude, for
it suggests that one has calculated the amount of a gift
and that one did not expect the donor to be generous.

THANK YOU! One thing that made me nervous was the custom
whereby the host kept asking what I prefer. Being a
guest in a Japanese home, one avoids expressions of
personal preferences with respect to what is being
served. Host are not discuss how they prepared the
TREATING GUESTS main dish. The guests are not supposed to be
interested in any of the details of this effort.
 WHEN THINGS HAVE
DIFFERENT MEANINGS .
WHEN THINGS HAVE DIFFERENT MEANINGS .

No Eye Contact
I am lying to you I respect you I ignore you (I do not respect you)

Smile
Friendliness, openness, invitation to approach, inclusion
Artificial, fake; suspicion; lack of trust; not taking me seriously

Yes - I agree with you I understand what you are saying

 CULTURAL
MISUNDERSTANDINGS

WHEN MAY
WHY MAY
HAPPEN?
HAPPEN?

When our expectations are not fulfilled

When our assumtions proved not to be the assumtions of others

Confusion, ambiguity, frustration

 Becoming multiculturally
competent individuals
How can we get accross cultural Intercultural Sensitivity/ Awareness
borders?

We can not learn all cultural codes, be Sociability and interest in other people
exposed or experience all cultural diversity
Develop tolerance for ambiguity

Open-mindedness empathy

Behavioral flexibility
But we can become more multiculturally
competent Critical thinking, curiosity and an overall
warmth in human relationships

Non-judgmental

Interest in cultural differences

Value cultural differences

 Becoming multiculturally
competent organisations
Monocultural Organizations
Assumptions:
We all are human beings and are the same
there is only one best way to manage,
administrate, or lead - exclusion
Assimilation
Culture is believed to have minimal impact;
Culture-specific ways of doing things are not
valued or recognized
Everyone should be treated exactly the same
Nondiscriminatory Organisations
Assumptions:
Inconsistent policies and practices
regarding multicultural issues
Some departments, leaders and workers
are becoming sensitive to multicultural
issues, it is not an organizational
priority;
Although leaders may recognize a need
for some action, they lack a systematic
program or policy that addresses the
issue of prejudice and bias;
The changes that are made to address
multicultural issues are often superficial
and ad-hoc
 Becoming multiculturally
competent organisations
Multicultural organisations toward cultural
competence

Assumptions:

Value diversity and attempt to accommodate continuing

Minimize structural
cultural change and cultural differences.
discrimination
Work with a vision that reflects multiculturalism; Including cultural diversity in
Reflect the contributions of diverse cultural groups in their decision making positions and
mission, operations, products, and services sharing power with them
Developing multicultural
Engage in visioning, planning, and problem-solving programs and practices
activities that provide for equal access and opportunities Integrate multilingualism
Integrate the development of
Work on diversifying the environment multicultural awareness,
knowledge, and skills with
training programs to provide the
tools necessary to develop their
own multicultural competence.
MULTICULTURAL MIND