Working Across Cultures As An An Important Aspect In Business World
With diversity and complexity of the concept of culture, there are wide range of interpretations of culture as going through the literatures. Hall (1959), defines culture as the way of life of a people’s way of life including their behavior patterns, attitudes and materials things. Culture is can be attributed as subconscious with an invisible control mechanism operating in our thoughts.
There has been much debate over the last decades about the major social transformations which are taking place in the world such as the increasing interconnectedness of different societies, the comparison of time and space, and an intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole. However, in an increasing multicultural workplace, I have learned that working across culture is as common as writing an email or making a phone call.
This topic provides us the knowledge and skills to work effectively and inclusively in a diverse setting. I have understood that working across culture is an important aspect in this high profile business world. If we take some time to understand our counterparts’ values, we will be able to make sense of the behavior and then adapt our own style to maximize effectiveness. I have learned that we can establish trust across cultural settings if we have desire to worl cross-culturally. According to Lovvorn and Chen (2011), arguments and coordination is mostly difficult if the headquarter culture is not similar to subsidiaries. Therefore I have assimilated that have the capacity to for appreciating different cultures and need to develop diversity management skills. So I have able to vividly understand that we need to be good in establishing trust across cultures and identifying emerging opportunities.
In a video why culture diversity matters by Dato Gogichaishvili, he talks about the culture diversity in the world and its advantages in this modern world. He also mentioned loss of culture diversity comparing to that of few decades. After coming to Australia from Bhutan, I feel culture diversity is more than just the languages. With now culture diversity at all back in my country, it was overwhelming to see and believe that Australia is vibrant country with cultural diversity. I have become more aware of its advantages as a person with diverse knowledge or who can speak multiple languages can translate one language to another and disseminate the right information at a right time. It has also evolved my perspective on determining the future of culture and policy of government around the world being cynical to the rights of indigenous people and their culture being ignored and undermined.
