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Introduction to Culture and Diversity

MGP2278

Cross Cultural Management & CommunicationPeninsula Campus

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Introduction to MGP2278Welcome! Contact details: Dr Chan Cheah

– Chan.cheah@monash.eduDr Wendy Bell

– wendy.bell@monash.edu

Mutual expectations:– (Yours/Ours)– (Times, phones, classes, assignments)

ICEBREAKER: “The Naming Game”– 15 minutes

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What is Multiculturalism?Do we have it in Australia?

… variety of cultures co-exist harmoniously

… free to maintain distinctive religious, linguistic or social customs

… equal in access to resources and services, civil rights and political power

and … sharing with the rest of society particular concerns and values.(Commonwealth of Australia, Discussion Paper on Multicultural Education p.18 undated

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Why study culture & diversity?Australian Census 2011

75% + have an ancestry other than Australian About 2% Indigenous background 43% parent born overseas 30% were born in another country (UK, NZ, China) 200 birthplaces., Over 200 languages. (About 16% speak an

Indigenous language, or Chinese, Italian, Greek and Arabic. About 61% identify as Christian (Catholic; Anglican; Uniting

Church; Presbyterian and Reformed; and Eastern Orthodox. Buddhism (2.4% of the population), Islam (2.1%), Hinduism

(1.28%) and Judaism (0.45%). About 7,361 Australians practise Aboriginal traditional religions.

About 22% of Australians have no religion.http://www.racismnoway.com.au/about-racism/population/

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“Tell me what I need to do to communicate with them?”

Is it …?

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Brainstorming Team ExerciseWhat has been your experience with What has been your experience with

Problem Based Learning (PBL)Problem Based Learning (PBL)

Based on your current knowledge & experiences

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Revisit Problem Based LearningConnecting

Learning to Real World Uses

Discovery Learning

Problem Based

Learning

Challenge Based

Learning

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The PBL Approach

Define the Problem Statement

Analyse the Problem’s underlying concepts

Identify the concepts needed in problem

solving

Formulate learning goals for this problem solving

Collect more info conduct literature

research to address the problem solving

Synthesize/design, validate & share the

solution

Debrief – Reflect and evaluate whether learning goals were achieved &

improvement areas

Use various Use various techniques to techniques to execute each execute each

stepstep

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Lessons or problem solving may interlink

Lesson 1 Lesson 2

Meta Learning (hence be mindful) aboutHow concepts extend into or interrelate with other concepts

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Group Presentation Assessment Criteria

Evidence of Concepts

Discovery

Evidence of Problem Statement

Evidence of Problem Statement

Evidence of Problem Analysis

Concepts Used

Evidence of Problem Analysis

Concepts Used

Evidence of Meta Thinking -

Recognising Learning Goals

Evidence of Meta Thinking -

Recognising Learning Goals

Evidence of Literature Reference

Evidence of Literature Reference

Evidence of Solution Design &

Validation

Evidence of Solution Design &

Validation

(1) Presentations(1) Presentations (2) Supporting Reports(2) Supporting Reports

1. Summary Brief : 1-5 pages2. Body : Info organisation quality

(3) Learning Reflection Summary(3) Learning Reflection Summary

Debrief Notes Learning Development

Evidence of Problem SolvingConcepts Used

Evidence of Problem SolvingConcepts Used

11

22

33

44

88

55

66

77

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From Team Performance Evidence to Knowledge Repository

Learning Portfolio Media

Your choicePaper Based File

OrDigital Blog

Your Team’s Your Team’s Performance OutputsPerformance Outputs::

Group Presentations & Group Presentations & Supporting DocumentsSupporting Documents

Your Team’s Your Team’s Learning Product Outcome:Learning Product Outcome:

Team Knowledge BaseTeam Knowledge Base

Learning Learning ProcesssProcesss

Past cross units knowledge,

Class Discussions &Resources

Performance KPI 1.On-time (12 mins) Presentation 20%2.Presentation + Q&A Quality 50%3.Supporting Report 20%4.Self Reflection – abstract of task 10%

requirement; task execution strengths & weaknesses, improvement areas

Outcome KPI 1.Portfolio Quality %

• Appropriate structure• Effective design• Contents quality

2.Explicit team collaboration & contributions

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Problem Statement: What can we learn about culture from this movie?

Movie Trailer The true storywww.youtube.com/watch?v=U6m7WLmAUeY

Activity Plan1. Read the case and view the movie2. Present your analysis findings and

answers to the questions in the case3. Learning Debriefing4. Discussions

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Spotlight on Culture

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What is Culture??“... the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another. Culture, in this sense, includes systems of values; and values are among the building blocks of culture”

(Geert Hofstede, 1984)

“Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun”

Clifford Geert, quoting Max Weber in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, 1977, Basic Books Classics, USA

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Culture – an information gap We live … in an INFORMATION GAP.

Between what our body tells us and what we have to know to function, there is a vacuum and we must fill it ourselves. We fill it with information (or misinformation) provided by our culture … our ideas, our values, our acts, even our emotions, are … cultural products

Clifford Geertz, 1973, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, Basic Books, NY p.55)

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What is Orientalism?(It’s not about being Asian)

Described by Edward Said as seeing people from “other” cultures as “foreign”, even as exotic objects to be studied by the “West”

Said argued that this attitude promotes a fundamental Western “us” and Oriental “them” which hampers understanding across all cultures not simply oriental

Similar to “Ethnocentrism” Said, Edward W., 1995, Orientalism, Penguin, London (First published in 1978)

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Cultural Intelligence … seeing below the surface of the iceberg

•Understanding culture•Thinking drivers•Motivation drivers•Behavioural drivers

•Edward T Hall (1959)•Harvard Magazine, 2004: http://hbr.org/2004/10/cultural-intelligence/ar/1

Understanding cultural models as metaphor?

machine (cogs in the wheel, driving the project?) human body (circulate, finger on the pulse) family (the parent company, paternalistic) natural world (at coalface, grass roots, drought) sport (shifting goal posts, level playing field) a system (inputs, outputs, feedback) arts (the big picture, a well conducted meeting) (Kaye, 1996)

What is metaphor? What metaphors drive your cultural worldview?

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Mapping World Culturesthe ‘West and the Rest’

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v44/n9/full/jibs201342a.html

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Culture & Diversity - its Existence forms

Source: The Cultural Web - Aligning Your Organization's Culture with Strategy

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Important Elements of a Worldview

Shame vs guilt (can be individual vs collective)

Task vs people

Sacred vs secular (notion of cosmos filled with spiritual beings and forces vs natural causes)

Role of living vs dead in daily life

Good vs Evil

Humans vs Nature

Doing vs Being

Linear vs cyclical life cycle

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Sociocultural factors defining our cultural worldview

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Brainstorming Team ExerciseMore on sociocultural determinants of cultureMore on sociocultural determinants of culture

Based on your current knowledge & experiences

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Political Ideology of Group or Nation

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Measuring Worth

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Law

Natural justice

versus

“Rule of law”

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History

Pride and self-esteem from cultural historyAboriginal, Greek, Roman, Japanese

Whether people previously colonised and sense of autonomy– Thailand?– Indonesia?

Integration of historical and present realities Colonisation?

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Attitudes to Technology

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Religion

“Religion is a form of culture, as it accounts for much variation in norms, values, beliefs and behaviour (Cohen 2009)

… however, religion does not equal culture, and culture does not necessarily include religion.

Cultures also differ in what it means to be religious (McDaniel & Burnett, 1990).

Ronen, Simcha and Shenkar, Oded, “Mapping world cultures: Cluster formation, sources and implications, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol.44, No.9, December 2013, Palgrave Macmillan, UKSamuel P. Huntington (2011), The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon & Schuster, USA

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SNicJRcUqs

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/opinion/04brooks.html?_r=0

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Art and Customs

Intrinsic value of art and customs as an expression of cultural identity, belonging and

status within the society as a positive force for cultural maintenance and

survival

Commodification of art and customs extent to which cultural “goods’ are valued as

commercial products

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Geography and Population

Physical geography makes a difference easy or hard to survive in a landscape language - number of words for “snow”/”rice” Isolation vs integration

Population influences culture large population=big influence Numbers vs individuals

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Key Questions

1.1. What did you learn about culture? What did you learn about culture? 2.2. Did the movie demonstrate Did the movie demonstrate cultural differences cultural differences

between the samurai and othersbetween the samurai and others? How?? How?3.3. What examples can you cite to demonstrate What examples can you cite to demonstrate cultural cultural

intelligenceintelligence??4.4. Can you give examples to explain Can you give examples to explain OrientalismOrientalism or or

ethnocentrism ethnocentrism from the moviefrom the movie? ? 5.5. What did “The Last Samurai” reveal about the What did “The Last Samurai” reveal about the cultural cultural

worldview and determinants of the culture worldview and determinants of the culture of the of the Samurai at that time? What did it reveal about the Samurai at that time? What did it reveal about the United States at that time? United States at that time?

6.6. What additional learning do What additional learning do alternative interpretations alternative interpretations of the movie suggest? of the movie suggest?

We will debrief at (time) MGP2278 session.We will debrief at (time) MGP2278 session.

DebriefDebrief

Learning Goals Topics

1. Define the concept of culture & its major determinants

Topic 1: Intro to culture & diversity

2. Examine the link between culture economic processes & organisations

Topic 2: Cross culture mgt theories

3. Identify the impact of culture on organisational communication processes

Topic 3: Cross culture communications

4. Analyse the influence of culture in business management practices in different cultural settings

Topic 4: Negotiations across culturesTopic 5: Leadership & MotivationTopic 6: Decision MakingTopic 7: Conflict ManagementTopic 8 & 9 : Governance & Social ResponsibilityTopic 10: International HRMTopic 11: International Strategy Planning

5. Apply cross culture knowledge to improve management & team performance

Topic 12 : Global Issues