The Global Professional: Reflection on Intercultural Awareness and Employability Skills

This report reflects on the development of intercultural awareness and employability skills of a global professional. It covers modules on emotional reflexivity, DMIS, Emic and Etic of culture, and employability skills. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural behaviors and patterns to be effective and efficient in tasks. It also highlights the need for intercultural awareness and sensitivity in a global professional.

The Global
Professional

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAINBODY...............................................................................................................................................3
CONLCUSION...........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................7
APPENDIX – 1...........................................................................................................................................8
APPENDIX – 2...........................................................................................................................................8
APPENDIX – 3...........................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Global professionals refer to individuals who possess the ability to easily transition from
location to location through their effective skills that can straddle job description. These
individuals have various skills that allow them to be optimal in their task and have high level of
productivity as well .The following report will contain my reflection upon the development of
my intercultural awareness and effectiveness during the time at the university. The report will
contain material from modules along with reflexive piece that would elaborate my professional
development along with how my future career will be enhanced through understanding of skills
and strategies developed in the module.
MAINBODY
Emotional Reflexivity:
This particular module allowed me to effectively understand the importance and vitality
of self-reflectivity along with my cultural self which I have effectively further elaborated in
Appendix 1 of this report. I was able to understand that in order to gain wisdom it is vital to have
self-reflection as it will enable me to strengthen my capacity to retain and learn. In addition to
this, I was able to understand that the experience that I have gained its meaningful as it provide
me insight into practical strategies which are essential for personal growth. Moreover, through
the module I was able to effective reflect upon my internal conversations and pay attention to my
thoughts. This helped me to reflect on myself and understand how I think and the though I have
in order to better understand myself (Bennett & Castiglioni., (2003)).
I was also able to understand the concept of culture’s thoughts and how my own through
can be influenced by specific action in my surrounding. In addition to this, I was able to
effectively understand that what I think is based on various aspects such as my overall
experience in life and the knowledge I have gained. It also included other aspects such as my
memory, actions as well as thoughts that influence on how I think and take actions upon. The
module allowed me to understand emotions as means of motivation and how I can put emotions
into the context of social interaction and relationships (Burkitt., (2002)). I was able to gain the

understanding that emptions are not just something I can reflect upon but rather it is a central
path to people in social relations and how they are related to one another. Moreover, I was able
to gain the understanding that reflexivity allows in alerting one’s life through the responsive of
valuable knowledge and experience relative to one’s circumstances.
DMIS:
This model provides me crucial information related to intercultural communication,
engagement along with equity. I was able to effective perceive and understand standards ways
through which people experience, interpret as well as interact across cultural differences I have
further elaborated my experience in Appendix 2 of the report. In addition to this I was able to
gain valuable knowledge relative to the six developmental stages of the intercultural sensitivity
and communication .It was important for me to note that the stages or not only applicable to an
individual but rather to groups and organizations as well. The Denial stage allowed me to
effectively understand how people recognize failure among cultures or all together consider them
to be irrelevant. Moreover, the stage of Defense was able to provide information relative to how
cultural difference occurs when people perceiver other culture in polarizes and competitive
manner. Furthermore, the stage of Minimization allowed understand how people assume that
their distinct cultural worldview is shared by others when they perceive their cultural values and
fundamentals (Shaules., (2010)).
I was also able to gain vital information form the stage of Acceptance which helps me to
perceive how people recognize that different beliefs and values are shaped by culture. In addition
to this, that different pattern of behavior exit among cultures and that other cultures have
worthwhile perspectives that should be respected and valued. The stage of Adaptation allowed
me to understand that people are able to adopt their perspective of other culture when they are
able to empathize intellectually as well as emotionally through experience of others. At last the
stage of Integration help me in understanding that cultural difference occurs when someone’s
identity or sense of self evolves in order to incorporate the vales, beliefs, perspectives along with
behavior of other cultures in an appropriate and authentic manner (Bennett., (2004)).
Emic and Etic of culture:

Through this module I was able to gain the knowledge aspect of inter culture and how it
functions. The module was effective in allows me to understand the cultural aspect consisting of
elements such as particular cuisine, festivals along with rites of passage within a culture which I
have further paid emphasis on in Appendix 3 of the report. In addition to this I was able to gain
the understanding of other aspects of culture that included elements based on a particular society
and their relations with power and response time along with the senses of what is right and
wrong .Moreover, I was able to learn about the Emic aspect of culture which is essential as it
contains vital information related to greetings, public behavior along with infrastructure of a
culture. This allowed me to understand the various differences amongst culture and how it
influenced their behavior as well as through process. I was able to understand the specific of
behaviors along with communication patters and localized belief can easily become stereotyped
into a particular nationality. I was also able to understand that culture is often underpins
intercultural training relative to the corporate world. I was able to understand that it is a complex
process to fully understand a culture and requires time along with extensive contact with other
cultures in order to gain (Shapiro & et. al. (2008)).
I was able to gain valuable insight on the aspect of Etic that include frameworks in order to
compare cultural development across difference disciplines. In addition to this I was able to
understand that these are the conscious as well as often unconscious factors that are underlying
relative to any action or interaction that is based on the cultural development I have perceived
during my socialization at an early age. This helped me to expand my knowledge on how
cultures function and how valuable knowledge can be collected in an effective manner
knowledge (Buckley & et. al., (2014)).
Employability (Course skills & Competencies):
The module allows me to effective gain various skills that will allow me to achieve goals
and objective relative to my future career path. I was able to gain valuable understanding and
skills related to cross-culture communication skills which I have further elaborated in the
Appendix 4 of the following report. I was able to understand how various cultures interactive in

a different manner and how I can interact with them in order to achieve high level of
performance in task. In addition to this, I was able to develop excellent networking abilities that
are crucial for me in my career path. It will allow me to understand how I can allocate resource
through networking abilities in order to be effective as well as efficient in my task. Moreover, I
was able to understand the overall importance of an optimal networking channels and how it can
help me to improve my ability to be more effective in my work.
I was also able to develop and gain interpersonal skills through effective evaluation of my
though and interpersonal thinking behavior. This will allow me to take optimal decision in my
career path which is necessary to overcome complex situations. In addition to this, it will allow
me to understand other individuals as well which will allows me to better guide and direct tasks.
The module enabled me to gain the skills of adaptive thinking which will allow me to adaptive in
an effective manner to complete situation in my career path. This particular skill will help me to
understand situations and take necessary steps in order to negate any adverse effects.
Furthermore, it will help me to be optimal in encountering task as I will be able to overcome
various situations in an efficient manner.
I gained the valuable skill of emotional intelligence through the module. This skills will
allows me to understand other cultures in an effective manner in my career path. I will be able to
instill empathy in myself in order to understand there perspective of other culture and how they
function. In addition to this, I was also able to gain the skill of collaboration which is necessary
for me as I can utilize this skill in my professional career path as I will possess the ability to
work with other cultures in an effective manner.
CONLCUSION
From the above reflection it can be concluded that, I was able to gain valuable skills from
the various module that allows me to effective understand the concept on culture and how it
functions. In addition to this, I was able to gain skills that will provide me essential support in
my career path. Moreover, I was able to understand that various cultures have various cultural
behaviors and patterns that make them unique and require appropriate strategy in order to be
effective and efficient in tasks. Furthermore, I was able to gain knowledge related to my won
through and how they can be influenced through external factors.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Beelen, J. (2019). Employability skills as guiding principles for internationalising home
curricula. In Internationalization and employability in higher education (pp. 200-212).
Routledge.
Bennett, M. J. (2004) Becoming Interculturally Competent. In J. S. Wurzel (Ed), Toward
Multiculturalism: A Reader in Multicultural Education. Intercultural Resource
Corporation.
Bennett, M., Castiglioni, I. (2003) Embodied Ethnocentrism and the Feeling of Culture. A Key to
Training for Intercultural Competence. In D. Landis, J.M. Bennett, M.
Bennett, Handbook of Intercultural Training (pp. 249 - 265). Sage Publications
Buckley and et. al. (2014). A Linguistic and Philosophical Analysis of Emic and Etic and their
Use in International Business Research. MIR: Management International Review, 54(3).
307-324.
Burkitt I. (2002). Complex emotions: Relations, feelings and images in emotional experience. In:
Barbalet J (ed.) Emotions and Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell, 151–67.
Hjøllund, N. P. O and Jørgensen, T. H. (2017, December). From 21st century skills to 21st
century human being. In OEB-2017: Learning Uncertainty. ICWE II GmbH.
Shapiro and et. al. (2008). An Interpretive Examination of the Development of Cultural
Sensitivity in International Business
Shaules, J. (2010). Beneath the surface: A beginner's guide to the deep culture experience.
Boston, MA: Intercultural Press.
Steers, R. M and Osland, J. S. (2019). Management across cultures: Challenges, strategies, and
skills. Cambridge University Press.
Todericiu, R., and Boantă, A. (2018). The Challenge of Managing Knowledge Workers and
Their Skills. In Emerging Issues in the Global Economy (pp. 363-370). Springer, Cham.

APPENDIX 1
Journal entry:
Through emotional reflection I was able to understand the concept of empathy and its overall
importance as well. It will be crucial for me and my profession path as I will be able to
understand other individuals in a better manner. It will also provide me better opportunity to
engage with others in a positive manner.
APPENDIX 2
Journal entry:
The DMIS module allowed me to gain such a valuable opportunity to understand and perceive
other cultures in an optimal manner. I was able to understand how other culture are influenced
why has increased my interest in understanding how they function and behavior relative to
various situations.
APPENDIX 3
Journal entry:
Emic and Etic module was of great help to me in understanding other cultures behavior and
function. It allows me to reflect and understand how I can improve my various skills such as
communication in order to better understand other cultures and develop positive relation which
can help me improve productivity.
APPENDIX 4
Journal entry:
Through various modules and frameworks I was able to understand that it is crucial for me to
gain various skills that will allows me to understand and communicate with other cultures in an
effective manner. I was also able to gain knowledge relative to various models and strategies that
have helped be grasp the concept of culture in an optimal manner. I have effectively learned

about the importance of intercultural awareness and its sensitive nature relative to a global
professional.