Culture and business
It is evident that in today's globalized world, it takes more than just being culturally aware to succeed in any business setting. For in addition, business professionals and leaders must also understand the importance of increasing their cultural intelligence as well. This is due to the fact that cultural awareness only implies that a person should remain aware and understand that others may act differently as a result of their respective cultural upbringing. Cultural intelligence, on the other hand, is a measure of one's own ability to adapt to different cultures.
For the past four and half years, I have worked as a foreign military analyst at Northrop Grumman. And through my work, I have had the privelege of traveling to various parts of Africa. At first, assimilating and adjusting to new cultures was quite difficult for me. Although I was aware of the cultural differences, my ability to adapt my own behavior was actually quite poor. I constantly had issues with how time was viewed by locals, and also in how locals communicated important information. These examples, of course, were a result of differences in context between American and African cultures. As previously mentioned, many areas throughout Africa can be defined as being high context cultures, whereas America is essentially a low context culture. It actually was not until a year after I started working in Africa that I actually learned how to adjust my own behaviors in order to properly assimilate.
I still remember the moment when I actually began to increase my cultural intelligence, as if it were yesterday. Having grown fed up with locals showing up late to meetings, I finally asked my interpreter why it was so difficult for many Africans to keep show up on time to meetings. He smiled and responded, "Kim, you must always remember--Americans may have fancy expensive watches, but here in Africa, we have nothing but time." And then it dawned on me--for the past year, I was not only arrogant in believing that my cultural awareness and intelligence was high, but I had been viewing the actions of locals from my own cultural perspective. And as a result, I was creating unnecessary stress from misunderstandings and miscommunications. Immediately after, I began to practice adjusting my own behaviors to that of locals. I learned to manage time and communicate important information effectively in a new way, and I ultimately was able to increase the quality of my job performance as result.
Through my own experiences and research, I have learned that cultural intelligence is an important trait for any business professional to have in today's globalized world. Whether dealing with international customers abroad or interacting with coworkers that come from different cultural backgrounds, cultural intelligence is a vital skill for any level employee to possess. Moreover, international customer relations and ventures will benefit greatly from one's own ability to adjust to a new culture. This, of course, can be done by either traveling overseas for an extended period of time, or by even simply going to the library and studying up on different cultural habits and practices. However one chooses to improve their cultural intelligence, is not the point though. What truly matters is that one understands its importance and the role cultural intelligence plays in today's marketplace, and makes a conscious effort to learn how to effectively assimilate into a new culture.
For the past four and half years, I have worked as a foreign military analyst at Northrop Grumman. And through my work, I have had the privelege of traveling to various parts of Africa. At first, assimilating and adjusting to new cultures was quite difficult for me. Although I was aware of the cultural differences, my ability to adapt my own behavior was actually quite poor. I constantly had issues with how time was viewed by locals, and also in how locals communicated important information. These examples, of course, were a result of differences in context between American and African cultures. As previously mentioned, many areas throughout Africa can be defined as being high context cultures, whereas America is essentially a low context culture. It actually was not until a year after I started working in Africa that I actually learned how to adjust my own behaviors in order to properly assimilate.
I still remember the moment when I actually began to increase my cultural intelligence, as if it were yesterday. Having grown fed up with locals showing up late to meetings, I finally asked my interpreter why it was so difficult for many Africans to keep show up on time to meetings. He smiled and responded, "Kim, you must always remember--Americans may have fancy expensive watches, but here in Africa, we have nothing but time." And then it dawned on me--for the past year, I was not only arrogant in believing that my cultural awareness and intelligence was high, but I had been viewing the actions of locals from my own cultural perspective. And as a result, I was creating unnecessary stress from misunderstandings and miscommunications. Immediately after, I began to practice adjusting my own behaviors to that of locals. I learned to manage time and communicate important information effectively in a new way, and I ultimately was able to increase the quality of my job performance as result.
Through my own experiences and research, I have learned that cultural intelligence is an important trait for any business professional to have in today's globalized world. Whether dealing with international customers abroad or interacting with coworkers that come from different cultural backgrounds, cultural intelligence is a vital skill for any level employee to possess. Moreover, international customer relations and ventures will benefit greatly from one's own ability to adjust to a new culture. This, of course, can be done by either traveling overseas for an extended period of time, or by even simply going to the library and studying up on different cultural habits and practices. However one chooses to improve their cultural intelligence, is not the point though. What truly matters is that one understands its importance and the role cultural intelligence plays in today's marketplace, and makes a conscious effort to learn how to effectively assimilate into a new culture.