Chapter 2 Summary
Noticing Culture in the Workplace
- People from other countries play a huge part in the workplace
- Culture can be associated with nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion.
- What is 'Normal' depends on the person, our own culture tends to be the 'normal' one.
- Because our own culture seems to be normal, we tend to not pay attention to similar situations in other culture
- Part of becoming culturally aware is looking at what we do through someone else's experiences
- What is culture?
- Sometimes a system of shared beliefs and values that influence attitudes and actions.
- These actions and attitudes are our culture
- Often more easily identified in other people than in ourselves
- Necessarily about collectives-could mean race, nationality, disability or other defining feature, not individuals
- Cultural Awareness
- Increased knowledge and sensitivity to other cultures can improve performance by:
- Better Response-documents, presentations, and visuals are likely to get more attention and response
- Increased Productivity-Meetings and other interactions are often more productive and pleasant
- Explanations-alternative points of view may help explain attitudes, tools, and artifacts that aren't immediately or obviously compatible with our own perspectives
- Compliance-likely to increase compliance with organization policies and procedures
- Global and local aspects
- Approximately four fifths of our trading is global, which means that culture and diversity are all apart of the workplace
- Globalization is the unrestricted movement of ideas and people, services and systems, goods and money across national borders around the world.
- The opposite of Globalization is Localization which is using familiar goods and services
- National Cultures are very interesting but can cause problems when working internationally
- "67% of international managers blame cultural differences for the difficulties they are confronted with working internationally" says Pricewaterhouse Coopers
- Languages are some of the biggest aspects defining cultures
- There are different words for almost anything in different cultures
- ex:what we call a 'trunk' of a car in the United States is called a 'boot' in the UK, Australia, and South Africa
- Discourse Community
- a group of people who share a number of common cultural characteristics
- same gender, race, nationality, or profession
- same political party, religion, athletic team, residential community, or corporation
- the most important shared characteristic is their common use of a specific language to accomplish something and to get the work done
- Proxemics are also different per culture, that is the physical distance between people
- Time means different things in culture like what is their thinking of "right away"
- We all need to be culturally aware in the work place
- Some things that can help are approaching someone, learning some common customs, expect the unexpected
- More information on the best companies to work for regarding culture at Fortune's 100 Best Companies
- Organizational Cultures
- the shared beliefs and behaviors of people in an organization
- expressed in formal and informal ways
- formal-policy statements, organizational charts, performance criteria
- informal-common practices, lore, gossip, e-mail
- personal factors can also make individuals part of one or more subcultures
- ex:age, income, marital status, education, roles in the community
13 comments:
I think this chapter is very informational. Right after I saw the chapter title my mind went directly to thinking about Americans. Sterotypically most Americans are culturally uneducated. I have observed numerous times that some American people tend to magnify their "normalcy" of American culture. The ones that do do this seem to think that the U.S. is the only country doing things "right". A lot of these thoughts spawn from politics or gestures and practices of other countries. To me it is upsetting to see so many people culturally uneducated. I think that culture and the workplace are very important to understand.
Good job. Please write your summary in paragraph form next time around.
Please also put your names at the top of the summary next time.
This summary was very good. I found it both an accurate and comprehensive synthesis of chapter 2. I thought that this was an especially poignant chapter because with the highspeed internet age underway, and globalization becoming a more and more important factor in terms of thinking about business in the global marketplace it is extremely important to use tools like wireless internet, blackberries, and software like skype and adobe connect it's important to start thinking about international or macroscale communication.
Corey Place Chap. 2 summary comment
This chapter summary is entirely informative and accurate. This particular is needed somewhere along the lines I feel in possibly every class that can be taught. With the United States becoming more culturally diverse in the work place everyday, communication is the only way that businesses can be successful and for people to be civil with each other. It is an issue that should have more emphasis on it.
Even though Lee Tesdell told you to write it in paragraph form, I like how it is in bullet points. America is a completely different nation than the rest of the world. You really nailed the point of how cultures are different.
Culture is a very significant factor in how information is distributed and understood and i think that you explained well how culture is an important feature of communication.
I actually found this chapter very interesting. I studied abroad in Spain this past summer and have actually experienced some of these cultural differences. One of the main differences I experienced was proximities. The physical distance that the Spaniards have for each other is extremely different than the United States. I found the subject of a “discourse community” pretty interesting. If you even notice in classrooms today, the student will gather up according to their comfort zone, whether that is sex or race. As stated in the chapter, there are different words used for a particular group of people. Some people in Wisconsin call what we know as a “drinking fountain” a “bubbler”. There are so many cultural differences that people should experience and be aware of.
This summary was completed by myself (wendy sandstrom) and Devin Doyle. My apologies for not adding that when it was initially posted.
Excellent job explaining the cultural differences among many countries. Technical Communication can be very troublesome unless the communicator has knowledge of the culture he/she is speaking to. I like how the chapter pointed out that each culture has a different definition of "normal". In America its easy to get rapped up in "normal" American life, not to mention its a common thing for many Americans to label other cultures in negative ways. As technical communicators, we must break through that ignorant way of thinking. Awesome summary...I also like the bullet points.
Very well said. Culture is very important in the work place. After we understand the importance of cultural diversity then we can finally appreciate its benefits.
Culture blindness is an important point that is discussed in this chapter. People tend to think that their cultural events are important and normal to them but other people’ events aren’t important. By learning and understanding other cultures and their important events for example, a person can be respectful and reduce this culture blindness.
It is a must to understand different cultures and norms to communicate effectively. I found the stated items of defined improvement regarding performance based on effective technical communication with others as personally “eye-opening.” Having similar norms and familiar cultures within your workplace is not always the best for the company, it is smart to learn and understand. Great link!
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