MAN6006: Cultural Competency in Retail - Theory vs. Real-World Impact

This report explores the impact of cultural competency on the retail business, comparing theoretical frameworks with real-world experiences. It examines the theoretical framework of cultural competencies, focusing on cultural awareness and its implications for business operations, alongside real-world retail experiences involving business culture, national culture, and people culture. The report discusses various levels of cultural competency, from individual to social levels, and highlights elements such as awareness of human diversity and non-judgmental attitudes. It delves into real-world issues like dress code and language, market penetration strategies, and service provision in culturally diverse environments. The report also compares the theoretical perspectives with the lived experiences of retail practitioners, noting both similarities and differences, particularly regarding cultural neutrality and the role of research in developing cultural competencies. Ultimately, the report emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and research for managers in navigating the complexities of cultural competency in the retail sector.

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INTRODUCTION
Cultural competency has a high impact on
the operation and management of the retail
business in the current society. There are
some theoretical perspective and framework
that attempts to explain the cultural
competency and its implication in today's
business. The theoretical framework of
cultural competencies focuses on cultural
awareness and its implication the business
operation. Cultural competency can also be
viewed based on the real world retail
experience that include various cultural
issues that affect business in the current.
Some of the cultural issues include business
culture, national culture, people culture.
Cultural competency can be based on some
developmental levels that range from
individual to social level.
In a comparison between real work
experience and theoretical perspective shows
some similarities and differences. The research
skills play an important role in the development
of cultural competency skills that are necessary
for business operation. In addition, various
theories have portrayed managers as research
finding solution to cultural issues affecting
business. The following paper explores the
extent to which cultural competency has an
impact on the retail business sector.
THEORY
Cultural competency
Cultural competency has a huge impact
on the operation of the retail business in
contemporary society. The cultural competency
and its impact on the retail sector requires an
understanding of the cultural competency theory,
real-world retail impact and remarkable
comments from theorist.
THE THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK OF
CULTURAL
COMPETENCIES

Elements of cultural
competencies
Theory of cultural competency in
retail sector composes of various elements
that foster cultural competency in the retail
sector. The theoretical framework of the
cultural competency composes of various
elements. Some of these elements include
awareness of human diversity, individual
ability, nonjudgemental of individual, and
enhancing cultural competencies. Firstly,
Secondly, personal cultural competence skills
that enable the retail operator to provide quality
services in a cultural neutral environment.
Cultural competence kill includes personal view
and development of positive attitude towards
cultural differences in society is another
important element of cultural competency
(Maali & Al-Attar 2017).
Thirdly, development of the cultural
knowledge and understanding the is necessary
for continuous service provision in a culturally
diverse environment. This encompases mental
understanding of various societal differences
that brign about cultural diversity. This is a
process that needs continuous development as
knowledge of different cultures are developed
with time (Luomala, Kumar, Singh & Jaakkola
2015).
Fourthly, nonjudgemental of the
Levels of cultural competencies
Cultural competence occurs in three different
levels and these include individual, service and
community level. Firstly, at the individual
cultural competence considers the attitude,
culture, and behaviors that an individual person
has towards people from other cultural
backgrouds in the retail sector. Secondly, the
service level of cultural competency refers to the
operational and management framework that
aims at providing retail services in a more
culturally diverse way. Thirdly, a broader system
or community level is the provision of retail
services in respect to community, society and

Real World evidence/data
Cultural issues in the real world retail
business
There are many different cultural
issues that affect real-world retail business.
Some of these issues include business
culture, people culture, and national culture.
Firstly, the business includes all
organizational management approach to
culture that has high influence the way
business interact with customers in the
market. Dress code and language are some of
the cultural issues that currently affect the
business operation in society. Many retail
businesses have a cultural framework that
dictates the dress code and the language that
is used. A cultural incompetence retail
organization tend to be judgmental on the
way customers dress and their culture.
Cultural competent business uses the
language that recognizes the diversity in
society.
Secondly, people culture is another
cultural issue that affects the business
especially those retail businesses that operate
in a culturally diverse environment as
evident in Appendix III. In addition, some
ethnic groups have cultural diversity that
only allows a business that conform to the
local culture to operate in that society. In
Asian and Arab culture, for instance,
consider dress, car as symbol of status and
this determines the number of staff that serve
such customers. For a product to penetrate a
new market, cultural consideration plays an
important role.
Thirdly, national culture and cultural
framework is another important issue that
affects business operating in culturally
diverse countries. The national culture also
considers dress and language as cultural
issues that determine interaction. The
cultural competency framework and the
ability of nationals of a country to recognize
the diversity determines the ease of business
operation within that country.The UK for
instance, recognize the cultural differences
and this affects the interaction between
business staffs and customer. This also
enables the Western perspective that

compares countries with others (Halim, Bakar & Mohamad 2014).
Limitations of the cultural competency
theory in a real-world context
Firstly, the theory focuses much on
the cultural diversity, biases and theoretical
view of inequality in the retail sector without
considering the political, and structural
process that has an impact on the cultural
competency of the retail businesses. There
are many other factors that determine
cultural competence is society. Secondly, the
theory brings awareness to cultural diversity
while sometimes the theory does not provide
the application of the knowledge to real-
world experience. Being cultural sensitive is
important while adopting cultural
competence practice behaviors is different
(Pedersen & Pope 2010 ).
Strength of the cultural competency
theory
The cultural competency theory has
some strength that has enabled the theory to
take a significant role in the retail business
sector. Firstly, the theory highlights various
aspects of cultural diversity and issues that
affect cultural competency in the business
environment. Secondly, the cultural
competency theory shows the role that
culture play in retail business operation that
is important for ensuring the business
operates in a culturally safe environment as
shown in Appendix I (Barry 2012).
Impact of cultural competencies in the
real-world retail business
Cultural competency has a great
impact on the operation and management of
the retail business in the real world. In the
real world retail, there are many different
ways in which cultural competence has an
impact on the retail operation.

Market penetration
Cultural competency has a significant
impact on the real world retail operation both
at the national and international level.
Firstly, cultural competency help in market
penetration especially the international
business where there is cultural diversity.
The knowledge of the culture within a new
market is important for interaction with
people in that culture and this play a
significant role in market penetration.
Selecting the target market follows the
conventional way of evaluating the cultural
impact on the product before introducing the
product to that market.
Introduction of a new product into the
market
Secondly, cultural competence is key
for introducing a new product into the
market there is a cultural difference. Skill
and knowledge for cultural awareness and
cultural neutrality are important for
introducing a new product in areas that
require cultural diversity. New products that
are introduced into the new market first
consider the cultural diversity of that is as
show in figure 2. For instance, countries that
are primarily considered Muslim does not
buy some type of food and this should be
considered when introducing such food
products. Moreover, being culturally neutral
has both advantage and disadvantage when
introducing a new product into the market.
Some market considers culture first before
the product while another market prefers
cultural neutral business dealings.
Service provision
Cultural competencies determine the
quality of service provision in the retail
business operation and management.Cultural
awareness and responsive cultural
considerations are recipes for determining
customer service provisions. Some countries
such as Asian countries shows limited
cultural competence through being
judgemental in service provision. These
people view the personal appearance of
customers as factors to consider while
attending to a customer. This is different
from Western countries such as the UK that
make a comparison between people from
different cultures as a way to offer services.
Comparison between theoretical
framework and Live experience of the
practitioner
The potential dissonance between the
lived experience of retail practitioners and
theoretical frameworkThere are some
differences and similarities between live
retail practices within organizationa and the
theoretical framework.
Similarities

There are some similarities between
the theoretical framework of cultural
competency and live practices include both
the theoretical framework and real-world
retail perspective recognize the impact of
cultural competency on the retail operation.
The theoretical framework gives the
perspective of cultural diversity that exists in
the society and the ability of a business to
remain cultural neutral within the business
environment. This is true with the real world
experience where cultural competencies such
as language play a role in the growth of the
retail business.
Differences
There are some differences that exist
between live practice experience within the
organization and theoretical framework. The
theoretical framework of cultural
competency recognize the biases and cultural
diversity that exist in the society while live
experience recognizes the cultural
determinant factors such as political and
structural processes. The theoretical
perspective of cultural competency is
organized based on the general knowledge of
cultural competency. This is not the case in
real word experience where there is another
social issue that influences cultural
competencies.For instance, political issues
determine the cultural framework within an
area as oppose to diversity within that area
(Stringer 2013).
Secondly, the theoretical perspective
cultural competencies of cultural
competencies require cultural neutrality
when operating a business while real-world
experience indicates that it is difficult to
remain cultural neutral. Retail operation
requires recognition of cultural diversity of
people leaving around the business and this
makes a retail business to conform to local
culture. One area that potentially brings the
dissonance between current retail
practitioners and the theoretical framework
of cultural competence is the cultural
neutrality of retail services. Operating
international retail business limits the
capability of the business to remain
culturally neutral since each environment has
its own cultural issues that should be
considered in order to operate the retail
business as swhon in Appendix II (Kemmis,
McTaggart & Nixon 2014).
COMMENTARY
Learning and development of
professional skills in the cultural competency
concept requires continuous learning and
research. The theoretical perspective is based

on the theories that explain the cultural
diversity phenomenon in business. This is
different from the real world perspective
where there is a need for continuous learning
and skill development through research
(McNiff 2013).
Role of research in cultural competencies
development
Managers play a vital role as
researchers in the development of cultural
competence as this enables managers to
understand various cultural determinants.
Research skill, especially on the cultural
phenomenon, leads to the development of
knowledge that is vital for solving
incompetencies. In addition, cultural
competence is a process that requires an
increase in knowledge and cognitive
development. Retail business managers that
are faced with cultural competence issues
can solve these issues through research in the
issues. For instance, understanding the
cultural orientation of the market before
introducing a product into that market
requires intensive cultural research. Action
research plays a role in the continuous
development of professional skills as shown
in the figure below (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight
2011).
Figure 1: Research in Action
The topology of professional
landscape theory advanced by Schon in
McNiff, Dunford, and Aikin (2006) explains
the professional topological difference
arising due to the problem in the real world
experience. Cultural incompetencies is
viewed as swampy lowlands that are
confusing yet bear a high impact on the retail
business operation as compared to some high
ground problems that are easy to solve but
with minimal impact on business. For
instance, the discrimination and racial issues
is a cultural issue that is difficult to solve but
with great human concern as it determines
the market penetration in some continents
(Crowther & Lancaster 2009).
Dominant of images of organization
According to Palmer, Dunford, and
Aikin (2009), the dominant images of the
organization as a machine and as the
organization shows the organizational
behavior with respect to cultural
responsiveness. As an organism, an

organization has some cultural relationships
that determine the level of interaction giving
the rise to a life of that organization. As a
machine, the organization has systems that
give rise to cultural behaviors that influence
organizational operations (Denscombe
2010).
The two dominant images of the
organization as a machine and organism has
many implications of managers as
researchers. Firstly, managers need to
research on the organizational behaviors that
give rise to cultural relationships within the
organization as this the foundation for
organization operation. These cultural
relationships give rise to systems that enable
the organization to remain culturally
competence (Atkins & Wallace 2012).
Storytelling
Figure 2: Storytelling
Storytelling as an aspect of research
enables managers to collect cultural stories
and issues that affect business operation
within an environment. Storytelling methods
serve to bring together people view and
opinion about the certain culture that affects
the society especially within a culturally
diverse environment (Grey 2005). Stories
serve to advance a certain culture that has
significance in the business operation and
management. Storytelling concept enables
the gathering of information that affects the
work life of the business. The storytelling
method of data collection plays a
significance in the development of cultural
competency than the theoretical framework
that largely focuses on theory rather than
practices as shown figure 4 (Costello 2011).
How to collect stories
Stories can be collected through
various means that are available through
research into cultural issues. Firstly,
interviews of various people within a
specific culture serve to help in collecting
stories that have significance in the cultural
diversity of people living within an area.
Secondly, conducting research into cultural
difference and stories that related to a certain
culture is another area that helps in

collecting cultural data. Conducting
qualitative research into various secondary
data is the core for storytelling research
method. The research for cultural
competency follow research method and
activities as listed in the table below. The
storytelling method follows the progressive
cycle research that involves various steps as
shown in the figure below (Bondy, Peguero
& Brent 2017).
Figure 3: Progressive cycle Research
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, cultural
competency remains an important
factor that has an impact on the
real-world retail business
operation. Various cultural issues
affect the operation of the business
in the market and require cultural
awareness skills that reduce the
negative impact of culture in the
retail operation. The ability of a
business to respond to cultural
diversity in society enables the
retail business to adapt to the
various cultural environments.
Cultural diversity issues require
managers to develop some cultural
skills through intensive research
and analysis. Cultural competency
theory has both limitation and
strength that enable the theory to
have significance in business
operation. There is some
commentary view on the cultural
issues that affect the operation of
the business in the market.

Research activities
TASK Days since start Days left for completion
Creating a plan 0
Conduct
interviews
2
Literature review 7
Data analysis 16
Reporting 23
Grant Chart
Figure 4: Grant Chart

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