Introduction to Multicultural Dimension

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From the course by National University of Singapore

Establishing a Professional ‘Self’ through Effective Intercultural Communication

51 оценки

National University of Singapore

Establishing a Professional ‘Self’ through Effective Intercultural Communication

51 оценки

Course 1 of 5 in the Specialization Effective Communication in the Globalised Workplace

In the course ‘Establishing a professional ‘self’ through effective intercultural communication’, you will learn how to communicate effectively to establish relationships with colleagues in a culturally and linguistically diverse community and workplace. As language reflects cultures, we begin the course by highlighting the need to take into considerations cultural values when we communicate in a multicultural community and workplace. We then move on to discuss some effective communication skills required to build relationships with colleagues in a globalised workplace. You will learn to adopt appropriate intrapersonal and interpersonal, verbal and nonverbal, communicative strategies to present information based on the 7 communication principles. Finally, you will learn to build your personal profile and appropriately align yourself in a globalised workplace.

From the lesson

Establish Work Relationships

In this module, you will learn that, in order to adopt appropriate communication strategies in a globalised workplace, it is very important to gain insights into what is valued in a culture and how language is used to reflect cultural values. We can then move on to discuss some effective intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills required to build relationships with colleagues and to inform others in a workplace.

Introduction to Multicultural Dimension6:56

Power Distance2:14

Individualist and Collectivist2:22

Masculinity and Femininity3:04

Long and Short Term Orientation3:28

How cultural values affect the way we communicate6:42

Meet the Instructors

Misty So-Sum Wai-Cook
Dr
Centre for English Language Communication

[SOUND]

In this week's lesson of establishing a professional self through effective

intercultural communication, I will be focussing on the multicultural

dimensions of communicating in a globalized workplace.

In particular, in this week's lessons, I will cover four aspects.

I will start by talking about the definitions of culture and

intercultural communication.

These are terms that you heard in the introduction video, but

I will go through and explain to you what it means and

what it entails to become an effective communicator in a globalized workplace.

I will then go to talk about the cultural dimensions to highlight to you why it is

important to consider culture when we communicate in a globalized workplace.

I will then end the lessons with intrapersonal and

interpersonal communicating strategies and of course

we will discuss what all these terms mean in terms of workplace communication.

By the end of this week's lesson, you should be able to, one,

understand what culture and in particular intercultural communication means

appreciate how cultural values are reflected in a workplace and

consider some of the intrapersonal and

interpersonal communicative strategies that you need to apply in your workplace.

Do you remember I mentioned terms such as, culture and

intercultural communication in the introduction from the course?

Well I'm going to explain to you what these terms mean.

In essence culture is defined by a set of norms that are valued,

that are regarded as important by people in a particular community or culture.

So for example it could be a set of common beliefs that people share,

traditions that people practice, or very importantly, language that people

have to communicate with each other in a particular community or culture.

So take a tradition, Chinese festival in or

as an example, one of the traditions that people have for

Chinese New Year is that people go to each other's house to wish each other well.

Whereas some cultures don't even practice this tradition.

So that is one intercultural difference.

Another example might be that in some

communities greeting people by kinship is very important.

So in such a culture greeting people by their first

names would be considered rude and would not be appropriate.

Whereas in some other communities it would be highly appropriate to

just address people by first name rather than using their titles.

So intercultural communication is very important

because we have to demonstrate that we are culturally and

linguistically sensitive to each other while we coexist in the same place.

So then, what does intercultural communication mean?

The intercultural part is where people from different cultures or

communities co-exist in the same place.

So then what about intercultural communication?

So intercultural communication is where people from different cultures and

communities co-existing in the same place have to find a common language

to communicate with each other while being culturally

an linguistically sensitive to each others background.

This is why we must look at what cultural aspects are important to consider in

the work place before we start talking about

effective communication in a globalized workplace.

In this lesson, I will describe how some cultural dimensions

influence communication in a culture and very importantly,

how such dimensions are valued in a globalized workplace.

In total, there are six dimensions.

They are firstly a uncertainty avoidance, so

this relates to how community views uncertainty and

how the community as a whole will view appropriate to

deal with an unknown future secondly, indulgence restraint.

This relates to the level to which a community desires to enjoy life.

In more practical terms the level to which people focus on the work life balance.

Certainly, power distance.

So this relates to how a culture or community values or accepts power use.

Fourthly, individualism and collectivism so this relates to the extent to

which people in a community appreciates our more individual base or

a close integration of individuals as groups.

Fifthly, masculinity and femininity, so

this relates to the division of roles between men and women.

And lastly, long/short term orientation.

So this relates to the choice of focus for people's efforts in a society as a whole.

So whether people view the past or present are important, or

the present and the future are more important, or the past,

present and future are equally important.

In this lesson, I will focus on describing only four dimensions that influence

communication in a multicultural, and multi-linguistic society, and workplace.

So firstly, power distance.

So we'll look at some common characteristics,

valued by small and large power distance cultures.

Secondly, we look at common characteristics amongst

the individualist & collectivist cultures.

We will also look at common characteristic value by masculine & feminine cultures.

And lastly we'll look at characteristics of values

in cultures with long term and short term orientation.

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