Developing Intercultural Competence in the Workplace

Developing Intercultural
Competence in the
Workplace

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Intercultural experiences..............................................................................................................1
Evaluation of experience using cultural dimension approach.....................................................2
Analysis of scenario from an anti essentialist perspective...........................................................4
Impact of Globalisation................................................................................................................5
Elements to understand to effectively develop cultural competence...........................................6
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION............................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The power to function across various cultures effectively and to think as well as act
according to personnels with diverse cultural backgrounds is termed as international competence.
It is an act of making communication smooth and to work with people from various cultural
without any conflicts. It is vital set of skills required in modern workplace as by understanding
how to engage better with individuals from different backgrounds, people can learn important
communication skills, impelling time and conflict management and how to work as team. It is
crucial for enterprises to have detailed knowledge of cultural characteristics of host nation as it
can help them to maximise their brand goodwill. Knowledge of intercultural relationship is one
the major variable of cultural complexities which comprises of learning and relearning of various
cultures dimensions (Ai, Wang and Zhang, 2018). Globalisation has helped organisations to
embrace difference of cultures without bring biased. Adopting cultural diversity in organisations
has resulted in expansion of interconnection globally by scattering products, exchange of ideas,
human resource and capital. Cultural variedness has generated creative products and innovative
thinking which resulted in bringing positive changes in organisations. Organisations can
emphasis on recruiting local people for providing transparent concept to other employees about
cultural characteristics. This report aims at understanding experiences of intercultural
competence in modern workplace and developing a reflective analysis as well as theory of
intercultural experiences. This report covers cultural differences of various beliefs, behaviours
and languages which are considered unique specific ethnicity. The selected movie is “Fear and
Trembling” where the protagonist of movie deals with issues of cultural differences in Japan firm
where she work. This report highlights various challenges the protagonist face due to cultural
difference and recommend ways to overcome them.
Intercultural experiences
The film “Fear and Trembling” explored various aspect of cultural differences and
complexities to adopt it. The protagonist of movie, Amelie, spent most of her childhood in Japan
so decided to make a life there only and embedded in Japanese society. She determined to
became a real Japanese thus she got a position as translator at export/import company. But her
inability to understand Japanese cultural and norms of organisation leads to maximising
demeaning demotions (Baranova, 2019). intercultural issues showed in movie are different
Adrian Holliday1

approaches to complete task and varied attitudes towards other members. Moreover, Japan
follows culture of individualism and Amelie believes in collectivism thus it created intercultural
issues. Her supervisors and colleagues takes great pride in humiliating her. Supervisor of
company makes her bathroom attendant which breaks her will to work and learn. Amelie decided
to not renew her contract. But she soon realised that she has adopted Japanese cultural when she
enters organisation's president office with fear and trembling. It is said that Japanese people must
feel fear and trembling when they address their emperor. Thus, it has been messaged in film that
integrating into a different culture may lead to facing humiliation and unnecessary criticism from
locals. Even when Amelie can speak perfect Japanese, she found it difficult to embed with other
employee of company. Sometimes she even goes against practices of Japanese corporate politics
and etiquettes. She serves tea and coffee to member, complete tedious work at photocopy room,
complete accounting where she makes many errors and finally placed to clean bathrooms. She
reached her lowest and most humiliating phase in organisation but ended up enduring those
hardships. Amelie managed to have a rich intercultural experience, even though she had to face
humiliations throughout her journey.
Evaluation of experience using cultural dimension approach
Hofstede's cultural dimension theory is a framework utilise to accurately understand
differences in culture across nations and to recognise measures adopted by organisations to
effectively handle those. Concept of this theory is given by Greet Hofstede, it outlines proper
structure for apprehending communication between cross cultures. It is used to differentiate
between various national cultures, their aspects and evaluating their impact on business practices.
Primary basis of this model is on differences in beliefs and values associated with business
objectives (Chen, 2021). It further outlines impact of society's culture on values of its citizens
and how these beliefs impact their behaviour. This theory describes six dimensions of national
cultures which are explained below:
Power Distance Index- This index views the degree to which less powerful people
tolerate inequality and power. Here, members of society accept that power and authority can be
scattered in unequal ways. It is crucial to understand how certain communities manages
inequalities between people. High extent of power distance index outline that culture perceive
power and inequality deviations, influences bureaucracy and displays high respect for order and
authority. Whereas, low power distance index highlights that culture emphasis on organisational
Adrian Holliday2