Monthly Archives: January 2017

Is Cross-Cultural Communication easy to tackle upon in Business ?

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In today’s global business marketplace, the ability to communicate effectively and multi-culturally cannot be underestimated. There is an interesting incident I encountered on my birthday when I went out with my friends to the Italian Kitchen restaurant in Vancouver.

I was overhearing two friends who were Italian and Chinese, talking about their cultures.They had some serious discussion/argument between them. This incident interested me because I noticed the way they were trying to prove their own point of view and each of them had a different body language. I was wondering about how different nationalities can communicate and understand each other in a busy workplace such as the office or during any business meetings. I wanted to know more about cross-cultural communication as I thought that this incident can be related to organisational behaviour, “communication”.

There was a speech given by Pellegrino Riccardi in TEDx. His ideas and observation clarified how communication can be done effectively among nationalities in this global national world .”Perception” is a key element that helps individual see the world differently as it entirely lies in the individual approach.”People see what they want to see and they don’t see what you see” is an interesting phrase that describes how people perceive their views and it is described as ” Accepted and Familiar “.When working across borders, it is important to know their culture and their ‘accepted and familiar’ assumptions as they are very crucial for a successful business environment. For instance, in Singapore Airlines, if the air-hostess bow towards you as a sign of warm welcome it will impress you but at the same time if an air hostess of Emirates bows towards you, it might look different. This change in perception is due to the accepted and familiar pre-assumption based on cultures and tradition.

Another interesting element that is significant while communicating or while working with other nationalities is ” Curiosity “, as it is a key to progress in strengthening cultural relationship across borders that can help people to know about each other. To be a high-profile employee, we need to extend our boundaries by taking the best of all cultures/ nationalities and merge them to create a new culture. When we accept other cultures, rules, feelings and expressions across various nationality, we can create a global mindset. Thus, this is what is needed in today’s world to bring a positive progressive change.

WC : 405

Reference :

1). My Personal Experience in ” Italian Kitchen “.

2). Pellegrino Riccardi | TEDxBergen: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=YMyofREc5Jk

S.G.Krishna’s Individual Traits !

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I always wanted to test my individual personality abilities; finally, COMM 292 has provided me with an opportunity to rate myself and this helps me to understand my abilities on a scale. Scores I received on the 3 test based on 3 individual traits were more or less similar to my assumption about myself on a given scale.These were my personality scores and my views on the scores’:

1).Machiavellian: This trait states that people with the high score are basically the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct. I received a score of (28/50), based on the score scale it is said that it is a low score and it suggests that I am a person who is less cunning and scheming in nature, which is true in real life.

2).Self-Monitor: This trait states that people with the high score have the ability to regulate behaviour to accommodate social situations. I received a score of (44/65), based on the score scale it is said that I tend to use inner beliefs and values in deciding how to behave. I would like to say that to some extent it is true, but not in all cases.

3).Emotional Intelligence ( EL ): This trait states that people with a high score have a good sense to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. I received a score of (75/100), based on the score scale it is said that I have particular difficulty in reacting to others’ negative emotions, but I personally feel that I can understand others positive and negative attitude towards others on their behaviour.I know how to respond to a negative attitude person but I always like to be positive and spread positive energy to others at the same want the opposite party to respond appropriately.

S.G.Krishna’s Worst Job – Teaching Kids !

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Life becomes interesting when we come across challenges but my teaching kids job experience can prove that my idea was wrong to some extent.I am from Dubai and was raised throughout my life in that multicultural city. I am a hardworking person and I love facing challenges at the same time to overcome it. At the age of 16, I applied for a job in a non-governmental organisation that helps orphans children and I was told to teach them mathematics.All the children were aged between 5 – 10. I got inspired about the availability of this job.I applied for this job from my school and I was told that I will be paid AED 1500 (approx. CAD 535 ) on a monthly basis.

On my first day, I was packed with enthusiasm and moved to the class to teach the children. Since these children knew that I will be teaching mathematics, they became too playful and some were crying, I wasted my first day calming them. Myself, being a teenager could not tolerate the naughty stuff, they were doing continuously. After 3 weeks, I managed to teach them few mathematical concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. After 1 week of starting my teaching, I tried resigning the job but could not do as I signed a contract with the NGO on a monthly basis.

At last, I managed to complete one month and I purposely retired from the job. I was very happy due to the fact that I escaped from those naughty children as they did not show any interest on the subject at the same time were incredibly naughty. I did not want to be strict on them as I was not looking myself as a teacher, I wanted to be one of them and teach them but it did not work. I tried to be different from the normal teachers’ and educate them in a fun way. Moreover, I did not join the job for cash, I purposely applied to gain new experience at the same time interact with kids. However, I now realise the importance and greatness of primary teachers as they need too much patience to move along with the kids as well as teach them. Teaching primary children was my worst job experience in my life.

Is Organizational Culture a base for motivation ?

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I came across an informative article published by Harvard Business Review. It talks about organizational culture and its role. The author, Lindsay McGregor, came up with a statement saying “Why we work determines how well we work.” This statement caused me to read the article in detail to understand it.

She starts off the article with three questions that transform’s culture from mystery to science:1). How does culture drive performance? 2). What is the culture worth? 3). What processes in an organization affect culture? After a study in 2013, research showed that there are 6 main reasons why people work: play, purpose, potential, emotional pressure, economic pressure, and inertia. The first three are the positive and competitive forces that act directly on the workforce. The other three are the indirect forces that reduce’ the overall performance culture in an organization.

The 3 P’s (play, purpose, potential) are important for a healthy organization because they make work enjoyable, help you to value your work and enhance your work identity respectively. A highly-performing culture will have more influence on these three characteristics and minimal influence of the indirect forces namely the emotional pressure, economic and finally inertia. The latter three forces contribute to the reduction of performance level in the organization by inducing thoughts such as thinking about the disappointment, or the reward, or why you’re bothering to do the work at all. An experiment conducted by Teresa Amiable, Harvard student says that these factors affect individual in their work as well as their progress. These observations and conclusions creating a theory called Total Motivation (ToMo).

Organizational Culture was a mystery to people and they did not understand what is meant by healthy culture and how it could be developed?Here is the solution. Due to intensive research studies, we have proven that healthy motivation has been the base for a high-profile culture in an organisation. It is proven that highest performing portfolio managers have a higher total motivation (ToMo), so if these 6 forces are directed into proper channels, a great culture is easy to build. Organizational Culture is a set of processes that is influenced by mission and behaviour codes regulated by the motivation of the organisation.

To sum up, motivation is closely related to the shaping of organizational culture and behaviour.It maintains the identity and career ladder of the employees as well as the organization.

Reference :

https://hbr.org/2015/11/how-company-culture-shapes-employee-motivation