Podcast Project Reflective Writing: Cross-Cultural Management Module

This reflective writing piece analyzes a group podcast project completed for a Cross-Cultural Management module. The student reflects on the team's process, challenges, and successes while addressing a case study on Brett Jones in Tanzania, focusing on leadership, management, ethics, and cultural diversity. The assignment involved researching and applying relevant theories like contingency theory and the GLOBE project. The student discusses the use of various sources, team dynamics, communication issues, and the importance of understanding cultural differences. The reflection also highlights the use of Hofstede's Insights, the application of different leadership styles, and the evolution of team collaboration. Finally, the student identifies areas for improvement, such as writing quality and communication, while expressing a positive experience with the group project. The assignment was part of a Level 5 module, and the group produced a podcast and a script addressing cross-cultural management issues.

Running head: REFLECTIVE WRITING
REFLECTIVE WRITING
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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REFLECTIVE WRITING
In the first task that was assigned to my group where we had to prepare, a podcast after
analyzing the case study of Brett Jones based in Tanzania, Australia. In this paper, I want to
reflect on the processes that we went through as a team while completing the first task, the
sources that we used, and the things that went well and did not go well in the group task.
The case study provided to us for doing the first assignment included numerous issues
related to management, leadership, ethics, organizational culture and diversity. In the
assignment, the first important source that we used was the case study on Brett Jones. While
describing the Tanzanian national culture, Svetlana used the Bahtijarevic-Siber and Sikavica
(2001) source. Then, she used the Hofstede (1980) source as well, which in think is a crucial
source whenever there is a discussion on culture and national culture. While describing the Brett
Jones approach in terms of culture, she used the Hofstede Insights that provided us with a clear
comparison of cultures of Brett Jones and Tanzania. While discussing diversity, Laura used the
Lieberman, Berado and Simons (2004) source because it had nicely explained the meaning of
diversity. To explain the different approach to problem solving adopted by Brett Jones, she used
the work of Trompenaars and Woolliams (2009) where they have explained the need for
respecting other cultures while communicating and collaborating. Anika completed the
recommendations part where she made use of Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell (2000) source to
authenticate her recommendation that every company must have set of rules that distinguish
between the right and the wrong. Magdalena analyzed the affects of Brett Jones’ organizational
culture on his business and doing so, she used two sources namely Martins and Martins (2003)
and Schein (2011). While the former helped explain the distinction between every organization
based on the shared system in organizational culture, the latter helped identify the need for the
leader to deal successfully with the principles of the culture to achieve the organizational goals.

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Laura also analyzed the leadership style of Brett Jones and its impact on his business in Tanzania
where she used two sources – Fielder (1967) and Traindis (1993). Anika again handled the
recommendations part where she analyzed the ethical implications by using one source that is
Crawford (2010). In the conclusion part, we used the Browaeys and Price (2015) source to
explain that organizational culture effects the existing beliefs and values of and within an
organization. All the team members were given instructions to cite the sources in Harvard
referencing style.
When it came to using relevant theories for analyzing the case study and providing
recommendations, we decided that we would use the contingency theory proposed by Fielder
(1967) and Traindis (1993) theory of cultural syndrome. Apart from these theories, we also took
help from the GLOBE project that extends to mean Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior Effectiveness. While Fielder’s contingency theory helped us explain that no singular
leadership style is there that as leader could use, Traindis’ theory provided us insights into the
cultural syndrome and the need for a leader to understand the shared beliefs and norms within a
culture. With the help of the GLOBE project, we could analyze Jones’ unique leadership style.
We found that Jones tried to adapt to the culture of Tanzania rather than imposing his own style.
He lived with the local Tanzanian people that helped him understand the needs of his local
employees. We used these theories after analyzing the case study thoroughly and understanding
the leadership style of Brett Jones.
While working for the group project, there were several instances where we felt we could
not pull it off but in the end we did exceedingly well, I feel. In the beginning of the project, we
first had the task of forming the group and deciding the group leader. Prior to that, we had to
introduce ourselves to others. After that was done, it became easier for us to work together. As a

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group we then decided to prepare a time schedule for the completion of our project after which,
the roles were decided. Svetlana, Magdalena, Laura and Anika were given the task to gather
information and prepare the majority of the podcast content. Julia was the one who played the
role of the podcast creator and I became the podcast presenter. Working on the case study where
we had to analyze the leadership style and its impact on the business run by Brett Jones helped us
realize the importance of having strong knowledge about different cultures. The group itself I
feel was a great helper in learning about different cultures. The reason I say this is that our group
comprised of people from different cultures. Therefore, while we worked for the project, we
were able to understand the issues that could come up when we work with culturally different
people. Initially, we had difficulties communicating with each other because our cultures were
different and our languages were different as well. However, I must say that we dealt with the
issue efficiently and were able to put aside our differences.
Apart from the project, we made use of Hofstede’s Insights to understand the differences
and similarities in our cultures. I must say that it did help us a lot. Concerning the preparation of
the podcast, we had to search for the ways to prepare podcast on the internet and our course
sessions helped greatly as well. We realized that technology is a great boon for us because it
provides us a platform to demonstrate our creativity. Podcast being a digital platform, we were
very excited to use this platform for our project. Other than the project helping us understand the
different cultures, it also helped us understand the importance of having a good leadership style.
We learned about the various leadership styles and even applied it practically as well. Although
we had one leader for our group, it was not always the leader’s decision but the decisions were
discussed with all the team members. I am glad to say that the team members also complied and
helped the leader make decisions easily.

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In the end, I must add that I had a great time working in the group project. However, I
must also state that we could improve our quality of writing in the future if we are given similar
task. After the ending of the podcast, I felt that our writing was not up to the mark with several
grammar and sentence structure mistakes. In addition, I found that citing in the conclusion part
was not academically correct because conclusion is about summarizing and not adding new
information. In the future, if we are given a similar task, I would like to improve my writing first
and then help my team members understand the importance of good writing. Apart from that, we
also need to work on our communication from the beginning so that we could save time and
provide a better solution in the future. For the first task, we had consumed a lot of time
understanding each other due to communication and cultural gap. In the future, I hope that such
issues would not pop up since we are well acquainted with each other now. Nonetheless, I must
state that I would definitely want to be a part of this group in the future as well because I had a
great time working with the team members.