Scenario on intercultural behavior

Scenario on intercultural behavior
This is a scenario that Kalene ‘s group acted out. It is about her outing experience with her friends from Spain. She had arranged to meet them at 3pm one day to catch a movie. When she arrived punctually at 3pm that day, she waited almost one hour before her female Spanish friend arrived. When she arrived, she was immaculately dressed but didn’t apologize for her lateness. If that was not shocking, her female friend casually told her that their common friend, Bernard also from Spain will be ‘late’ as he was still combing his hair. In the end, Kalene had to wait two hours for both of her friends before they went out.
It turns out that it was normal for Spanish to be late without giving any prior notice. Being a “on the ball” Singaporean, this was something that Kalene had to get used to. In order to minimise waiting time on future outings, she would smartly fixed a meeting time and then come one hour later.


As a Singaporean living in Singapore, I share common cultural traits such as the 3Ks, Kiasu, Kiasi, and Kia whatever. However besides these very important survival characteristics, we actually have other desirable traits as well. For example, it is a social norm for Singaporeans not to be late for more than 30 minutes and if we are really going to be terribly late, we would give the other party a call to inform. (I thought this is culture universal)
I can only imagine how Kaylene felt in that agonizing two hours wait, the equivalence of finishing a past year exam paper, rushing out a lab report, writing a weekly blog, or catching a precious sleep for the late night earlier. There was so much that one can accomplish in that “gone forever “two hours.
However it is also our cultural trait not to express our opinions openly. I bet Kaylene must be seething with anger inside her, but since she is a Singaporean, it would be unwise to shout at her newfound Spanish friends openly in public.
I wonder if she ever spoke to her Spanish friends about punctuality. Because if she had, she would not have to use another of our cultural trait, which is pragmatism, that is to arrive one hour later than the arranged time. I would have done the same. (High five).
In fairness, I thought we should give her Spanish friends the benefit of doubt as they are new to our country and might not know how to get around well. In order to effectively communicate with them, perhaps Kalene can find a quiet setting, and share opinions with them. We are after all living in a society, it is important for us to interact and communicate with each other

Letter of Warning

Dear Lay Ting,

We pride ourselves on being a “Customer Based Business” and do not look highly on personnel who are reported in regards to poor customer service.
We have had several reports of your disinterest in assisting our customers. Over the last few weeks, we have had many customers specifically stating that you had engaged in disrespectful conversations towards them. There have also been reports that you totally ignored some customers
This type of conduct will not be tolerated at Topmart. If these actions are not rectified immediately, disciplinary action will be taken up to and including termination. I am confident that this situation will be resolved without further action or conduct from the company.

Sincerely,
Mr Timothy Tan
Manager of Topmart

The above is a letter of warning given to Lay Ting regarding her poor attitude towards her customers. Firstly, the letter needs a letterhead, date and a subject heading to improve its correctness. The tone used in the letter was strict without losing its courtesy. In terms of conciseness, the passive sentence “do not look highly……poor customer service” can be changed to an active one. Instead, “we require our personnel to provide good service to our valued customers” not only stated the expectation required of the personnel but also highlighted the importance of customers’ satisfaction to the company.

Instead of merely mentioning several reports were received on her disinterest towards customers, the letter would be more concrete by stating the number of complaints received and elaborating on a particular incident that caught her in the act. The letter was clear to point out the company’s expectation of their personnel and the consequence if it is not followed. In general, the warning letter can be considered to be complete as the reader understands why she had received it, the remedial action required, as well as the consequences if she did not adhere to the action.

An interpersonal conflict Case Study

Role A-Incredible Sulk
You are a third year student doing an engineering design project with four other members. Your project is to design and manufacture a wheelchair. After the design has been finalized, you have been tasked to come up with the steps involved in the manufacturing process. After brainstorming for days and being bothered by the task for weeks, you have meticulously drawn up the required steps for manufacture. Being in charge of the manufacturing process, you assigned the other members to cut the raw materials to size before assembly. During the assembly, you realized that one of your members have not followed your instructions and cut the part wrongly. To make things worse, there is no spare material left for a re-cut and the project is due in two weeks time. You kicked up a big fuss and shouted at him. In the process, you scolded him “STUPID Idiot.”

Role B- Stupid Idiot
You are one of the members in the group. You know that Incredible Sulk is a very difficult person to work with. He is not receptive to ideas and is someone difficult to communicate with. In addition, he has quite a temper when things are not done his way. You have been tasked to cut a part to size according to a piece of shabby scratch drawn by him. You made a mistake as a result and were insulted.

Question1: If you are role B, how would you react to the rant and insult by Incredible Sulk? What could you do to prevent the incident from happening?
Question2: If you are the leader of the group, what would you do to mediate the situation?

Why developing effective communication skills is important for me?

The problem of ineffective communication happens at all levels. In the workplace, what the manager speaks and what the employee perceives can be very different. Using the announcement of the job offer in the Saudi Arabia, perhaps the idea the manager wanted to convey was that the opportunity to work in Saudi Arabia is great and he has chosen the employee among others as the best candidate with a great chance of promotion when he returns. But if he had communicated in a dull and solemn manner, the employee might perceive the same message as something otherwise. In school, when we work in groups, there are times when we feel that we have a good idea to put across, but if we convey the idea ineffectively, the good idea will most likely be rejected due to poor clarity and things like that. At a personal level, ineffective communication may lead to shouting matches with your friends or loved ones making everyone angry with each other. Therefore developing our communication skills can help us convey our ideas effectively in many situations.
In my opinion, talking is different from speaking and hearing is different from listening. Engaging in effective communication is not just talking about your ideas and hearing what the other party has to say. Speaking involves a process to clarify the idea in your mind before conveying it to the concerned party while listening involves an effort to register in your mind what the speaker has to say. For example in lectures, I can hear 100% of what lecturer has to say but only listened up to 10% . How then can we speak effectively and listened attentively? Maybe the answer is in “The Science of Effective Communication in the Workplace”. J