Blog 1: Culture
Kylie Smith
When I was in Dubai with my stepdad for his job (he was a Senior Executive Leadership Consultant) in 2011, he was teaching/training “Leadership For The Generations”, which was a multicultural environment. There were people from India, Dubai, Indonesia, Germany, France, and etc. 18-20 different countries.
He was teaching negotiations about cultural sensitivities.
One of the guys was talking about how he went into a car dealership in the US and negotiated the price of a car. Other countries don’t finagle with car prices. Their culture is “if it’s a dollar, it’s a dollar” you don’t ask for anything less.
“The art of haggling is something that dates back thousands of years; in many cultures it is still what the shopping experiences revolve around. From items of food to clothes, in many countries across the world prices can be dropped depending on the haggling ability of the customer.”
G. M. (2012, December 10). The Cultural Differences in Haggling. Retrieved May 28, 2017, from http://www.business2community.com/travel-leisure/the-cultural-differences-in-haggling-0352522#lzx30vYUohVMBcaR.97
One of our instructors from an Arab culture, Sat down, crossed his legs, they asked him not to do that because he was showing the soles of his feet and it is offensive.
“Culture is a distinctly human means of adapting to circumstances and transmitting this coping skill and knowledge to subsequent generations. Culture gives people a sense of who they are, of belonging, of how they should behave, and of what they should be doing. Culture impacts behavior, morale, and productivity at work, and includes values and patterns that influence company attitudes and actions.” Moran, R. T. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences, page 11. Routledge.
In order for my stepdad to lead this training, he had to go through certain training himself, in order to properly address his clients since they were all from different cultures. Because of that, certain words and gestures can be offensive or gross to them. He had to be sure of what he can and cannot say. He went on to teach those clients the same thing.
He also had to sit down with his partners, who was a 23-year-old white woman and go over what she should and should not be wearing in Dubai, especially alone. She could’ve put herself in a very bad situation.
This particular situation reminded me a lot of the video we were assigned to watch in this past lesson, where the lady narrating the video talks about how certain gestures and phrases have very different meanings than what our American culture is used to.
She has two actors demonstrate what is wrong and offensive to certain people and cultures. This instance specifically relates to this lesson.
