Session Long Project Paper Guide

Developing the Session Long Project Paper:  The SLP paper is a unique opportunity to directly use the course materials to improve your understanding of the OB-related issues within your immediate work organization (or another organization you know very well).  This should help to make the course more personally relevant.

Please note that they ARE NOT simply ‘personal opinion’ papers.  Rather, they ask you to conduct a series of brief personal assessments, relating insights you have gained from reviewing the assigned academic materials, to your specific career.  Spend some time thinking about how to apply these assessments and coming up with a substantive career development plan to build on your skills and shore up your weaknesses.

Your analysis should be approximately two double spaced pages, plus include both title and academic reference pages (the same as requested for each case paper).  Also, as with the case paper, please use contiguous citations (at the point in the paper where they are most relevant…again, see the TUI Style Sheet on this).  These will assist help your professor to better understand how you have used the applicable academic material to support your analysis.

The SLP for this class involves constructing a personal inventory of your management skills, and a plan for improving those skills. In each module, you will complete an assessment of a relevant set of skills, focusing on your strengths and identifying any weaknesses that may have been revealed through the assessment an/or your personal experience. You will then be asked to create a plan by which you can `grow` your strengths and shore up your weaknesses.

By the end of the project, you will have a personal management profile and action plan.
In this module, you will be assessing your cultural awareness. Click on this link to Kwintessential Language and Culture Specialists. ((http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/culture-tests.html))
You will find a selection of 20 or so cultural awareness quizzes. Choose one or two that looks interesting to you. (Hint: You will learn the most if you choose a general quiz, or one that concerns a country with which you are not familiar, as well as test your knowledge of a culture with which you think you are highly familiar.) After completing the quiz(s), address the following questions in a 1-page essay:

Which quiz(s) did you take?

As I am from Asia and I do know a bit of Spanish, I took the Cross-Cultural quiz on Islam and on Mexico.

Were you surprised at your score?

Yes, I was a bit surprised about the results.  In the Islam quiz, I got an 80 %, and in the Mexican quiz, I got 60 %.

What strengths do you think that you have in the area of inter-cultural awareness?

Some of the strengths I have in the area of cross-cultural awareness includes: –

Knowing a bit of the local languages, such as Arabic, Urdu, and Spanish
Knowing the customs and traditions belonging of these groups
Belonging to the same religion or staying with people of the same religion as these groups.

Having an idea of the attitudes, beliefs and practices followed by these groups.
Having respect for one another, irrespective of the caste, creed, race, etc.
Having more of cultural encounters and interactions
Having an idea of interacting and developing a relationship with people from other cultures
Staying in a cosmopolitan environment
I have met people from these countries
I have read about these groups in books and in web sites.

· What weaknesses are you able to identify?

I have not traveled to these regions of the world
I do not know to read and right the languages spoken in these regions
Taking a bit longer time to learn local languages
Taking longer time to get accomplished with local traditions

– Create a plan of specific steps can you take to build on your strengths and decrease areas of weakness.

During cross-cultural interactions, the individual should not be bias and have a faulty attitude towards people belonging to certain cultural background.  These attitudes develop when others provide inappropriate information of these groups.  Hence, we tend to develop negative behaviors with individuals of these groups leading to negative interactions and bad experiences.  It would be more important for us to be unbiased and have an open mind.

1. As I stay in a cosmopolitan environment, I would be open for discussion, interactions and ability to accept people belonging to foreign cultures.

2. Before interacting with any individual belonging to another cultural group, a thorough cultural assessment similar to this needs to be conducted.

3. Once the cross-cultural skills have been developed, individuals belonging to other groups would begin to trust us and have a stronger relationship with us.

4. During interactions, eye-to-eye contact is necessary.

5. It is important to respect the beliefs, attitudes and practices of these groups during interactions, as many of them follow strong traditions and customs.

6. During intercultural interactions, it is necessary to keep in mind whatever ideas exist of the attitudes, behaviors, traditions and practices.  Even a little bit of these put into practice would be identified by the other individual and would be appreciated.  In this way, slowly but surely relationships can be developed.

7. If the individual expresses a belief, which is superstitious in nature, it may be better to be nonjudgmental about it.  I would respect such superstitious as it would mean giving credit to the other individual’s culture.

8.It may be difficult for me sometimes to mix with people from other cultures, as I have not traveled to other regions of the world.  However, reading more about these individuals, their countries and their cultures through books, videos and the Internet can reduce the problem.

9.As I take longer time to learn languages, I would have to make an extra effort to do so.  It may be easy for a child to learn and accept a new language as they have good learning capacities.  However, once an individual crosses the age of 8 to 9, the ability to learn a new language may decrease.  Adults having good motivational capacity would also be able to learn a new language.  Hence, I would have to motivate myself further to learn the new language.

10.  In order to get accomplished with new traditions, an open mind and greater amount of intercultural interactions is required.

Why is it important for managers to increase their levels of cultural awareness?

Managers have to increase their level of cultural awareness so that they can develop a strong relationship with individuals belonging to other cultures.  Once these relationships develop, both parties would begin to trust and have confidence in one another.  The Managers could now motivate the staff and also be able to understand and solve their problems better.  This would be positive not only for the manager and the staff member, but also for the organization as a whole.

References:

Campinha-Bacote, J. (2001), A model of practice to address cultural competence in rehabilitation nursing, Rehabilitation Nursing, 26(1).