Cultural Capabilities: Analysis of a Scene from Friends

The report discusses a scenario where the theory of cultural capability was applied. Various topics such as cultural awareness, cultural shocks, safe situation and other concepts covered in the course were discussed. The report covers scene from the classic television show Friends. The scene has been analyzed and cultural capability application has been done. Certain recommendations for the same have also been provided.

Running head: CULTURAL CAPABILITIES
CULTURAL CAPABILITIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The report discusses a scenario where the theory of cultural capability was applied. Various
topics such as cultural awareness, cultural shocks, safe situation and other concepts covered in
the course were discussed. The report covers scene from the classic television show Friends. The
scene has been analyzed and cultural capability application has been done. The report follows a
structured format whereby the introduction is touched upon followed by the analysis of the clip
scene and recognizing the relevant areas in relation to cultural intelligence. Certain
recommendations for the same have also been provided.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background.......................................................................................................................3
1.2 Aim....................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Scope.................................................................................................................................3
2. Summary and Observations......................................................................................................4
2.1 Summary of the Video Clip..............................................................................................4
2.2 Observations......................................................................................................................4
3. Analysis....................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Communication.................................................................................................................5
3.2 Cultural Shock...................................................................................................................5
3.3 Change in Dynamics.........................................................................................................5
3.4 Body Language.................................................................................................................6
3.5 Cultural awareness............................................................................................................6
4. Recommendations....................................................................................................................6
5. Summary and Conclusion........................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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1. Introduction
1.1 Background
The world is a global village after the phenomenon of globalization and this has given
rise to several interactions and business relationships among the different cultured people. The
primary scenario in the given case is the different expatriates going to different countries to
earn their livelihood or students adopting higher studies. For this reason, the understanding
another countries culture is crucial. In this aspect it can be stated the cultural capability of an
individual has a key role to play in his survival. The report will be discussing the cultural
capability applications in different scenarios (Bruhn, 2005). The cultural capabilities of an
individual can be defined as his capability to adjust in different scenarios of life and how is he
able to adjust with changing cultural aspects. Furthermore a safe place is an environment where
an individual feels safe emotionally and harmless.
1.2 Aim
The primary objective of the given report is to elaborate upon the concept of cultural
capability using the example of a Television series. The report will be analyzing a conversation
in a video, thereby discussing the different possibilities and procedures of cultural awareness.
The report shall analyze the scenario in the given video and provide certain statements (Holley
& Steiner, 2005). It shall also relate these statements with theories as discussed in the
coursework.
1.3 Scope
The focus of the given report will remain focused on the video which has been selected
from the Television Series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The scene belongs to Season 4 where the female
leading character is undergoing an interview for a higher job role. The given example can said
to be an example of the unsafe place in which Rachel, the character was as the interviewer was
exposed to emotional harm.

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2. Summary and Observations
2.1 Summary of the Video Clip
The video clip which was chosen for the report belongs to the classic Television show
F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The show reflected the life of six young adults living in New York City and
dealing with various problems in life but always have one another`s back. The clip belongs to the
fourth season of the show. The episode number is 9. The title of the episode is `The one they`re
going to a party` (Bonerz, 1997). In the clip, Rachel has got an opportunity related to a
promotion and is thereby undertaking an interview for the same. However her boss, Joanna is not
happy with this as she fears losing Rachel who is indeed a good employee.
This is the reason, why Joanna makes the interview procedure an unsafe place for Rachel
and tries to sabotage her image in front of the panel chosen for the interview. The season was
released back in 1997. The second half of the chosen clip shows how Rachel is visibly hurt and
upset with her Boss and Joanna in return tries to deal with her by offering her a new post thereby
creating a new designation in the firm for her.
The main characters in the given scene are Rachel, the leading character, Joanna the
female boss, the two panelists and the assistant of Joanna named Sophie.
2.2 Observations
It could be observed from the given scene that Rachel wants to prospect in her career and
for that she gave an interview, the chosen environment for it was the conference room. She was
bound to be a bit emotional as well as nervous. Her perception about her boss was that she
would be supporting her in the long run but this was not the case. Joanna tried to act in a selfish
manner and had planned to damage Rachel`s character in the panelist interview. This gave rise
to a stressful environment for Rachel and it was due to this that the environment of the
conference room turned out to be unsafe for her (Erez et al., 2013).
Another reason why the environment got stressful for Rachel was because she was the
only in a lower post and the others belonged to higher posts. She had hoped that Joanna would
be on her side and hence when she observed that it was not so, she became nervous and was
unable to respond well to the difference in the behavior. Rachel was excluded from the
conversation which was taking place (Brislin, Worthley & Macnab, 2006). Later on, she

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seemed to express this to her boss who made up to her later by offering her a better post. It can
be stated that Rachel failed to reflect cultural intelligence and could not respond well to her
Boss`s false allegations.
3. Analysis
For the ease of analysis, the scene needs to be divided into two parts. In the first part, it was
observed that Rachel was in a dominated position and the boss`s betrayal took a toll on her
interview (Flanja, 2009). She was disappointed by this and this gave rise to the second scene
where she overtook the dominating position and took advantage of the fact that her boss wanted
to keep her (Russell, 2011). This portrays cultural intelligence as Rachel played well. It helped
Rachel to remain calm and achieve whatever she had desired.
3.1 Communication
The scene begins and Rachel starts on a good note with respect to the interview she is
giving however, things start going downhill when the boss`s intentions changed and Rachel`s
image was being sabotaged. She started complaining about Rachel`s inefficiency and put
Rachel in an unsafe environment along with shock. According to Van Dyne, Ang and Tan
(2017), it could be said that in such a situation she was unable to adjust to her surroundings and
was tortured emotionally.
3.2 Cultural Shock
According to Quappe and Cantatore (2005), cultural shock is when one expects a
different outcome. In the given scene, Rachel was expecting a different behavior from her Boss
and was expecting to be encouraged. The boss`s behavior reflected a change in the culture and
this caused a surprise to Rachel. As Mor, Morris and Joh (2013), state a cultural shock occurs
when a person becomes overwhelmed in a scenario and is experiencing a behaviour which he
may not be used to.
3.3 Change in Dynamics
The later half of the scene showed how Rachel got in a dominating position and
confronted her boss. She threatened her boss that she would resign, listening to which made
Joanna feel scared and she understood that as Rachel was in a weak state of mind, she could
have actually done so. This led to her behavior of persuasion where she started agreeing with

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Rachel and thereby maintained an eye contact and made an offer. The boss portrayed a high
level of cultural intelligence and reflected that she understood the fact that this was new to
Rachel. The behavior by her Boss serves as an excellent example of the theory stated by
Appadurai (2013), which stated that a person who is culturally intelligent adjusts to his
surroundings well and use it to their advantage.
3.4 Body Language
The body language as reflected by Joanna was quite confident and defensive. She
undertook the dominating position and began her job of tarnishing the image of Rachel. On the
other hand, Rachel portrayed a weak body image and was considerably nervous. In the second
scene, this changed and when Rachel figured out the intentions, the body image reflected by
her changed considerably and she portrayed coincidence. In this scenario, Joanna became the
weaker entity. In his paper, Bruhn (2005), mentioned that Body language has a key role to play
in determining the emotional state of an individual.
3.5 Cultural awareness
Joanna represented cultural awareness and understood that if she sabotages her image in the
panelist interview, she will be able to retain her. She told them all false information about her
which would work against the work ethics. According to Spencer-Oatey and Franklin (2012),
Joanna`s case is similar to that of an acute cultural awareness who knew what would be the
consequence of her actions and took a step to apply this awareness of different cultures to
twist the situation in her favor.
4. Recommendations
After analyzing, the given scenario, it could be observed that the scene was that of an
unsafe place. The leading actor, Rachel was exposed to mental as well as emotional distress. The
scene showed an interview set up, where although it was expected that she would not have been
comfortable but she was not required to make feel in this manner (Ang & Van Dyne, 2015). The
behavior of Joanna was disrespectful and blamed Rachel`s abilities which hurt her.
Had Rachel applied cultural intelligence and understood Joanna`s changed intentions then
she could have performed well in the interview and changed her intentions. Therefore, it can be
suggested that it is very important to understand when the scenarios change and when to apply

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cultural intelligence (Chen & Lin, 2013). Hence, it is recommended that in such a scenario, it is
important to understand the scenario and place the current cultural capability to turn the situation
in one`s favor.
5. Summary and Conclusion
Hence, it can be stated that the concept of safe spacing needs to be employed
considerably and it has a key role to play in maintaining the mental balance of an individual. The
safe space formula helps the individual in feeling valued in the environment and fosters a
positive outlook. The given clip reflected that there was an absence of a Safe space and Rachel
was made uncomfortable. The second half of the scene showed the change in the cultural
positioning where Joanna showed cultural intelligence and made Rachel stay.

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References
Ang, S., & Van Dyne, L. (2015). Handbook of cultural intelligence. Routledge.
Appadurai, A. (2013). The future as cultural fact. Essays on the Global Condition. London and
New York: Verso.
Bonerz, P. (Director). (1997, Dec 11). Friends, The One They’re Going to a Party (Rachel’s
Boss Doesn’t want to lose her), Season 4 Episode 9. (Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions in
association with Warner Bros. Television). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=LuyGLDvve-A
Brislin, R., Worthley, R., & Macnab, B. (2006). Cultural intelligence: Understanding behaviors
that serve people’s goals. Group & Organization Management, 31(1), 40-55.
Bruhn, J. G. (2005). Culture-brain interactions. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral
Science, 40(4), 243-254.
Chen, M. L., & Lin, C. P. (2013). Assessing the Effects of Cultural Intelligence on Team
Knowledge Sharing From a Socio‐Cognitive Perspective. Human Resource
Management, 52(5), 675-695.
Erez, M., Lisak, A., Harush, R., Glikson, E., Nouri, R., & Shokef, E. (2013). Going global:
Developing management students' cultural intelligence and global identity in culturally
diverse virtual teams. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(3), 330-355.
Flanja, D. (2009). Culture shock in intercultural communication. Studia Universitatis Babes-
Bolyai. Studia Europaea, 54(4), 107.
Holley, L. C., & Steiner, S. (2005). Safe space: Student perspectives on classroom
environment. Journal of Social Work Education, 41(1), 49-64.
Mor, S., Morris, M. W., & Joh, J. (2013). Identifying and training adaptive cross-cultural
management skills: The crucial role of cultural metacognition. Academy of Management
Learning & Education, 12(3), 453-475.
Quappe, S., & Cantatore, G. (2005). What is cultural awareness, anyway? How do I build
it. Retrieved July, 17, 2008.

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Russell, K. M. (2011). Growing up a third culture kid: A sociological self-exploration. Human
Architecture, 9(1), 29.
Spencer-Oatey, H., & Franklin, P. (2012). What is culture. A compilation of quotations.
GlobalPAD Core Concepts.
Van Dyne, L., Ang, S., & Tan, M. L. (2017). Cultural intelligence. Oxford University Press.