For the module named “study and Research skills”, the entire class was divided into a number of groups. The professor had instructed all the groups to conduct a research on the topic of requirement of sleep in the student life and we needed to represent it within the deadline fixed by the professor. This topic was quite interesting to us as were also students and could relate with the importance of the topic entirely. Researchers have always stated that sleep pays an important role in the life of the student. As a student, people have their own different schedules as well as activities that they need to conduct throughout the days. This in turn affects their sleeping pattern. Sleep is indeed very important as it helps in the restoration of the energy of the body and thereby helps in improvement of the thinking procedures, reasoning and decision making in a swift manner helping individuals to think more clearly as well as creatively. Sleeps helps individuals feel less stressed and all these have positive impact on the studies of individuals in the class that help them to internalize the knowledge imparted in class. Therefore, I was assigned a classmate of Chinese background to work along as a group to find out the number of hours that are required by students for adequate sleep helping them to give their best performance in the class. For this topic, we had to conduct primary researches for understanding the viewpoints of the students in our campus only and thereby analyze the duration of sleep considered by most of the students to be important for studying properly in class. It was a quantitative research and the total word cunt was about 1000 words.
When the project was introduced, I was quite excited about the project. The main reason of my excitement was that I was able to research on a topic that was associated with the daily activities of our life and the result of the research would be helpful to us for developing our study skills, patience and releasing of stress. However, at the same time I was also concerned that as I have not conducted any primary researches beforehand, I might not be able to conduct the research successfully or might make mistakes in the research procedures that may result in failure of the assignment. However, I did not let my fear affect my courage and therefore I decided to move on without being concerned about the failure of the results. However, one thing that had totally let me down was thinking of the fact that I was allocated within a group where I was not comfortable with the members with whom I have to work. I had to work with a Chinese member with whom I had never communicated in class. I got no members in the group with whom I was very comfortable and therefore I was highly disappointed. I also grew quite concerned about how to develop rapport and work with an individual whom I know nothing about. I had become fearful about the outcome of the research project as I started doubting on the abilities of my Chinese group member. Therefore, I did not feel like attending meetings or developing interaction with my team members as I was feeling that all my attempts would be in vain as my members would not be able to work in a collaborative manner due to cultural differences. However, as time passed on, we started interacting with each, spent time with each either, went out on informal meetings and many others. My negative behavior was gradually being replaced with positive feelings about the Chinese member and I started developing hope for the assignment. We completed the stages like planning, conducting background research, devising if instrument, conducting for researches successfully, analyzing of the reports and writing the reports successfully in a collaborative manner. I was quite overwhelmed to see such achievement even after being unfamiliar to each other and completely unknown to each other. Although we could not get very high marks, but we managed to get descent marks. I was quite happy that this project gave me a scope of communicating with people of other cultures and allowed me to come out from my comfort zones and explore new areas of relationships.
The experience of working with members from different background and culture had different positive as well as negative aspects associated with it. In the beginning of the project, we were both shaky in our approach and could not interact successfully with each other’s. We were very concerned about how the interaction would be perceived by the other and therefore our pre-judgmental attitude was being the main barrier that was resulting in smooth workflow. Therefore, the main bad aspect of this scenario was that it took us a long time for breaking the ice between us and therefore led to delay of the work pace. Therefore, there was a rushing at the end as the deadlines have come closer and we had huge amount of work left. It become a pressure towards the end and we were concerned that whether we would be able to complete it. However, we were successful after struggling a lot. The good aspect of the incidents was that it helped me realize that I was culturally biased and did not have cultural competence in working with culturally diverse people. This was a very negative aspect for those who need to work in the business domains in the future and this experience helped me to realize the lack of cultural competence that I had. I had realized that I needed to overcome such biasness in my approach and have to develop a broader outlook to different culture and inculcate the concept of multi-culturism in my approach. I had been able to overcome such biasness to some extent and had tried my best to work in a collaborative manner with the other member. I had a positive experience at the end and therefore I look towards further such scopes to develop cultural awareness.
Analysis:
The project that we had conducted went through a number of issues. The first issue was that we had developed preconceptions about the other’s cultural background and therefore we were not being able to freely discuss our feelings and ideas. These second issue was that he was from a different domain of marketing business and therefore he had his own schedule and pattern of attending classes and own set of individual assignments. Therefore, we were both engaged in our own studies and were prioritizing our own studies and assignments that mainly resulted in development of negative outcomes like delaying of the work, incomplete work, no proper communication and lack of getting common time when we could sit with the assignment. The third issue was that we were not being able to develop an informal relationship with each other and therefore could not exchange ideas among each other. The idea that I provided was overridden by his own ideas and therefore such conflicts led to the delay of decision making. We were leading out actions based on ego and therefore no one was ready to compromise with their own suggestions. Therefore, such conflicts were affecting our project as the date was nearing and we could not understand how to resolve the issues. However, seeing that such actions might result us in failing the assignments, I compromised my ego and decided to work according to his actions. To this, he felt that his suggestions were respected and he put forward his best step by accepting my proposal as well. This resulted in development of good relationship between us and we gradually started overcoming the differences.
One of the most important aspects of the entire incident was my culturally biased approach to my member. In the present generation, globalization is one of the most important aspects that are bringing success to different organizations. Most of such organizations are trying their best to develop an organizational culture that are influencing and encouraging intercultural teams for their workplace. This is important as such, members give lots of information to the organization about the cultural preferences and inhibitions of other culture and at the same time provide innovative and creative ideas to the organization to overcome different issues. Therefore, in the future generation, I might have to work with such teams were being culturally biased would affect not only my productivity but would also affect the entire team if I fail to work comparatively with all members of different backgrounds. Moreover, another issue that was recognized was the lack of bonding and trust with the team members. Researchers are of the opinion that better, the relation among the team members, better will be bonding and hence trust will be higher. More the communication, lesser will be the ego issues and hence, better will be the productivity. As we could not develop bonding and trust in the initial stages, it resulted in delaying of work and hence stress among us. Therefore, when I will be working in the team I would focus on effective communication and relationship building so that proper teamwork is ensured.
Conclusion:
If such a situation occurs again, I would develop an entirely different approach when I have to work with team members of other cultural backgrounds. In such situation, I will never be judgmental about the cultures of other people and would try to communicate with them in ways by which I can show respect to their traditions and preferences. I would try to compromise my ego and will develop effective relationship with informal outings and get together. I will develop an emotional attachment with the other person so that we are comfortable in each other presence. This will automatically help all the team members to work collaboratively towards goal. I also have time management skills and self-regulation skills as I cannot mange time and become stressed and nervous easily. I will also work on these attributes effectively.
References:
Chang, W.W., 2017. Approaches for Developing Intercultural Competence: An Extended Learning Model With Implications From Cultural Neuroscience. Human Resource Development Review, 16(2), pp.158-175.
Chao, I.T. and Pardy, M.C., 2016. Your way or my way? Integrating cultural diversity into team-based learning at Royal Roads University. Royal Roads University.
Eley, D.S., McAllister, L., Chipchase, L., Strong, J., Allen, S. and Davidson, B., 2015. Health professions as distinct cultures in interprofessional, intercultural clinical placements: a pilot study exploring implications for interprofessional supervision. International Journal of Practice-based Learning in Health and Social Care, 3(1), pp.108-118.
Halskov, K. and Christensen, B.T., 2018. Designing across cultures.
Holmes, P., 2015. Intercultural encounters as socially constructed experiences. The Routledge Companion to Cross-Cultural Management, p.237.
Levitt, S. R. (2015). Cultural Factors Affecting International Teamwork Dynamics. International Journal Of Knowledge, Culture & Change In Organizations: Annual Review, 13.
Levitt, S.R., 2016. Cultural dialectics in international teamwork dynamics. International Journal of Business Communication, p.2329488416629094.
Liu, M., 2016. Intercultural sensitivity and teamwork: case study: students at Lahti UAS.
MacLeod, J. and Yang, H.H., 2018. Intercultural Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: Theory and Practice. In Digital Technologies and Instructional Design for Personalized Learning (pp. 80-97). IGI Global.
Meyer, U. and Schuch, E., 2017. Diary-Writing as a Tool for Monitoring and Assessing-Intercultural Learning and Cultural Intelligence. European Journal of Language and Literature, 7(1), pp.85-95.
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