Zhubaigaliyeva Zhanar Group 226 22nd January 201 Seminar 1 Assignment #1

Zhubaigaliyeva Zhanar

                                                                                  Group 226

                                                                                               22nd January 2019

                                                                                  Seminar 1

                                                                                         Assignment #1

                                                                              wc 1009  

The critical incident describes the situation, which was held at the office. The communication took place between foreigner Peter and the receptionist. Peter needed help with his documents. The receptionist was very helpful and seemed to go out of his way to make sure Peter would not have any trouble getting what he needed. Peter was very happy with the service and thought about how different it was from the service in his country. Despite the fact that initially Peter liked the attitude of the receptionist to him, but later Peter was disappointed by the receptionist’s response, when instead of helping him, the man told him that he was on break and will not help him at that moment and Peter would have to wait until he got back.

The receptionist has shown such qualities of his behavior as kindness, responsiveness, diligence, usefulness, responsibility, attentiveness, politeness and later there was a manifestation of rudeness, unwillingness to help. For his part, Peter being a client who asked for help with his documents in a foreign country manifested politeness, patience, sociability and forgetfulness.

The unwillingness to help being so helpful before from the receptionist’s side which was expressed in the rough form of refusal and request to wait surprised and disappoint Peter. Such situation is a form of misunderstanding in cultural communication. Each of the participants in the communication process has certain values. Peter wanted help with the question he had. The receptionist appreciates his break time, during which he can eat and relax. From the point of Peter’s view, the receptionist could help him, because he had an unanswered question, moreover that receptionist was so useful before, and in general, it is his job. At the same time from the receptionist’s perspective, he has a specific work schedule, during which he has a break time, when he may not work. In General, the receptionist could ask him to wait in a more polite form and specify what time he finishes lunchtime to avoid such misunderstanding. The receptionist could be patient and understanding to the foreigner who needs help. He might have thought that the foreigner was unaware of his work schedule, that his country had a different culture, and that the foreigner would not have approached him if he did not need his urgent help.

But Peter needs to practice his tolerance for ambiguity here. He should practice being able to accept why he does not understand that the receptionist will not help him. He should also practice his respect for otherness by respecting that it might be very important in the receptionist’s culture to take a break. Peter might not understand this importance, but he must accept that something different than his own values are okay.

Cross-cultural misunderstanding happens when people from different cultures communicate or interact with one another. People from one culture act according to their norms and values, but the other does not understand the message the way it was conveyed and might interpret differently due to the cultural differences. Cultural misunderstanding also occurs when a word, gestures or social context have different meanings in different cultures. While Americans for example in a negotiation process want to get straight to the point and reach a decision as fast as possible, other groups such as Asians and Brazilians stall. These cultures believe in relationship building for mutual trust and an American negotiator who did not do his research might not want to partake in the activities and might see the nontask sounding as a waste of time which would be an insult to the host country. According to Francis Tapton, eastern European countries are much better at  balancing work and play than in America, and they value their time not working. According to Kawar. a couple cultural orientations that can be associated with this particular critical incident can be identified as space: private/public and communication: formal/informal. In today’s society, the workplace is starting to feel more like a global village with all the cross-cultural differences and the people who are brought together. People from all over the world are now working together within the same organization and communicating amongst each other. This can become a challenge when it comes to recognizing and dealing with these cultural diversities. How we communicate with each other and how we accept each other for being different is becoming more and more important because of the fact that the world is starting to become a more culturally diverse universe. Cultures have different expectations of their perception of space, what one culture views as private, the other might view that as public.