Abstract and Emotional Levels of Dilemmas in Motivation and Values
Culture has often been regarded as a people’s way of life. Different people across the globe have totally different ways of life. Cross-culture management is, therefore, a scenario where a certain manager from an organization is tasked with overseeing employees and staff from totally different backgrounds. From the term ‘Onion model’ Trompenaar meant that culture itself is just like an onion. It is made up of quite a number of different and distinct layers. These layers are so diverse and some of the layers that Trompenaar mentions are expression and norms.
He argued that people from this diverse culture are so different in terms of their way of life and the way they look at things. Each and every one of them look at things in quite a different way. Trompennar, however, believes that this difference and diversity among these people from different cultures are unique and special and it can be predicted in some kind of way. He also goes ahead into mentioning that it is this diversity and difference among these people that actually make them have different preferences over certain things against others (Quoniam, 2013).
Application of Onion model to my own culture
a). Universalism and particularism-A universalism type of culture is one that strictly believes in following the set rules in regard to certain things. In relation to the Onion mode, it is often characterized by some set standards that need to be adhered to. A particularism kind of culture, on the other hand, cares less about the rules, although they exist. Much often, you would find an individual going around the set rules to do something totally different. My culture is a universalism kind of culture; we do follow and adhere strictly to the set rules
b). Individualism and Communitarianism-As the name suggest, individualism kind of culture is one that believes in personal achievements and accomplishment, they are considered to be a strength. Communitarianism, on the other hand, focuses on group achievements. As it is illustrated in the Onion mode, the success of a group of people with common interests is considered to be very important. My culture is that of individualism kind. People are careless about the well-being of a group and more about themselves.
c). Specific and diffuse-In a specific kind of culture, it is a normal thing for people to separate between work and other personal relationships. It is believed that personal relationships can negatively affect work. In regard to the Onion model, diffuse kind of culture, however, there is no line of difference between work and personal relationships, it’s just one and the same thing. Well, my culture is more of specific since you’d rarely find people mixing work and personal relationships (Lewis, 2011).
Integration of Values through Synergy
d). Neutral and Emotional-For neutral kinds of culture, individuals try as much as possible not to let their temporary emotions and feelings influence their actions and decisions they make. For an emotional kind of culture, on the other hand, individuals are driven by their feelings and emotions. In my culture, people’s action and decision are strictly driven and made by considering facts and logistics (Butrime & Zuzeviciute, 2013).
e). Achievement and Ascription-For achievement type of culture, people do believe that a person is defined by what they accomplish in life while an ascription type of culture is one that people are defined and are valued by who they really are. My culture is more of an achievement one than it is on ascription; people are defined by titles such as Captain, Bishop among others.
f). Sequential time and Synchronous time- From the word sequential, this is a type of culture that puts more emphasis on things happening in order and in the right manner as they should. Synchronous, on the other hand, the order of happenings is not mandatory, different projects can happen at the same time. Onion model is more sequential; we do believe that the border should be followed when doing something (Bartlett & Beamish, 2018).
g). Internal direction and outer direction-This dimension bring the environment into play. In application of the Onion model, internal direction kind of culture is believed that individuals can manipulate the environment and nature to their advantage while for outer direction, people believe that environment and nature has total control over them.
International managers always have the task of overseeing a number of employees from totally distinct/different cultures and backgrounds. These people put preference totally different things depending on their cultures. Statistics and other relevant data on population demographics, therefore, assists international managers in managing and handling these people in a much professional way by understanding their cultural backgrounds.
Cultural intelligence according to the theory
Cultural intelligence according to theory can be defined as an individual’s ability to understand different cultures and their implications and being in a position to survive in them (Schwarz, 2012). Cultural intelligence is often defined as the capability that lies deep down an individual of crossing borders and also boundaries between different cultures and being in a position to comfortably survive in the process of doing so
In my own opinion, I can term cultural intelligence as that unique capability within an individual that helps and guides him to understand people from different cultures and be in a position to guide them and lead them. It is more of being identified with all these cultures in a manner that you feel like part of them (Schwarz, 2012). Cultural intelligence is something that can be natured and developed over time. Personally, I can define cultural intelligence as that ability or that spark within an individual that makes one not only relates well but also work associate with others from different diverse cultures. Well, my level of cultural intelligence is not well developed; as a matter of fact, I am not quite sure if it even exists. I am not quite sure if I can manage to tolerate and work with people who are from a different culture. I am determined to change this situation though since I do believe that cultural intelligence is something very crucial in the modern world
List of 6 corporate values of Wesfarmers as mentioned by the Chairman in the video
- Customer focus
- Observing stipulated laws and regulations
- Operating honestly and ethically
- Respecting suppliers
- Taking care of customers
- Contributing positively to the society one operates in.
Being indispensable means you are considered to be a very crucial and an important part of the task force. In this modern world, the only surest way of being indispensable is by mastering and understanding the art of cultural intelligence. Statistics have shown that various people have different levels of cultural intelligence, the good part, however, is that cultural intelligence can be developed. It is always important to understand different cultures, understand different people and having an interest in other human beings and not being in a position of judging themselves with oneself as the benchmark. Cultural intolerance is uncalled for and it should not get in our way. Basically, we should be in a position to work with different people from different culture, in so doing we become indispensable at work. It just needs the right attitude and motivation. With cultural intelligence, one would be in a position to work with people from different backgrounds without any problem (Neal, 2016).
References
Bartlett, C. A., & Beamish, P. W. (2018). Transnational Management: Text and Cases in Cross- border Management. (10th ed.) Cambridge University Press.
Butrime, E., & Zuzeviciute, V. (2013). E-learning as a socio-cultural system (elements to be influenced and influencing elements). In Proceedings of the 7th International Multi- Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics. July (Vol. 15, p. 2013). Retrieved from https://mruni.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/e-learning-as-a-socio-cultural- system-elements-to-be-influenced-a
Fletcher, R., Baulcomb, C., Hall, C., &Hussain, S. (2014). Revealing marine cultural ecosystem services in the Black Sea. Marine Policy, 50, 151-161.
Javed Azam, M. B. A., & PME, P. (2015). Cultural Metacognition and Intelligence in Development Projects.
Lewis, R. (2011). When Cultures Collide: LEADING ACROSS CULTURES Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Neal, M. (2016). The culture factor: Cross-national management and the foreign venture. Springer.
Quoniam, L. (Ed.). (2013). Competitive Inteligence 2.0: Organization, Innovation and Territory. John Wiley & Sons.
Schwarz, M. (2012). Soilless culture management (Vol. 24).Springer Science & Business Media.
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