Global Workplace and College Spheres

Leadership The author of this report has been asked to look at the Kwintessential website and take some of the quizzes that exist on the page. Upon taking the quizzes, the author of this report will explain whether there was surprise as to the score garnered, what strengths the author has relative to culture, what weaknesses the author may have, a plan of steps to take to improve cultural awareness and why it is important for leaders and managers to have strong cultural awareness.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with the way that Americans do business, any good American leaders has to and must understand that other countries things somewhat or very differently depending on the social and business context. Analysis The author of this report took two of the cross-cultural quizzes. The questions were about theoretical situations in which people of different cultures interact.

For each situation, the reactions of the people involved are catalogued and the author of this report was to have interpreted why the people reacted the way they did. For example, one question asked about a meeting between American and Japanese businesspeople. The Americans offered the Japanese men a drink and then took off their coats and rolled up their sleeves, among other things.

The meeting did not go well and the author was asked to explain why in the form of a single answer from a larger group of answers. In the case of that question, the answer turned out to be that the taking off of coats was deemed unprofessional. The author of this report guessed it was the offering of the drinks and that this should only happen after the meeting.

The author only got about a third of the questions right overall and a lot of the correct answers were just good guesses rather than being from real and recalled knowledge. An obvious strength that the author of this report has is that a lot of cultural awareness and sensitivity is about common sense and the like. For example, there was a question about a woman who met a French person in the lobby as she waited for a meeting.

She asked personal questions for this person she had just met. In just about any culture, that is fairly forward and improper as many people tend to be private. However, this pattern is apparently much more entrenched in French culture. In terms of weaknesses, the author of this report has to admit that there are a lot of gaps in the author's knowledge about other cultures and their trends. The author knows things here and there but nothing extensive.

In terms of a plan to address this lack of cultural awareness, the author will begin to explore and read up on the cultural trends of certain countries. The author will focus first on the countries and regions of the world that are most likely to be encountered as part of a job or school endeavor.

Obviously, western Europe would be a popular area of the world to hit but even eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and even the Middle East are countries where a lot of people are either interacting with the United States via business deals and meetings or they are actually coming here to go to college or engage in commerce directly with the inhabitants of this country. The author will make use of things like flash cards and reading material repeatedly to help absorb it over time.

The author will continue to refresh memories about the knowledge over time as it will fade over time if it is not reviewed and consulted without at least some regularity. As for why it is important for managers to have cultural awareness, the answer to this question is quite simple. The world is getting smaller by the day and this is true as it pertains to who we communicate with and who is coming to the United States to work and learn.

To be sure, the people coming to the United States need to understand that they are not in their home country and thus cannot (and should not) expect Americans to automatically and always act in a way that is normal and customary for them. That would be like going to France and expecting everyone there to know and speak English. However, to turn a blind eye to what those people coming to America are used to or even expect would also be a bad idea.

For example, inviting a devout Muslim woman to a pool party would be less than wise as Muslim standards regarding modesty and the like (with women in particular) are fairly well-known (CAIR, 2015). As another example, inviting an Indian man to a barbeque where cow meat is being served would also be a potential black eye from a relations standpoint as many Indians are Hindus and thus revere the cow as a sacred animal. Fortunately, most social and business interactions are fairly straightforward and are not problematic.

Even so, it helps to know the context that surrounds a person that comes to this country. For example, if a leader finds out.