Singapore has always been a mixing pot of people from diverse cultural backgrounds since its formation. It is thus pertinent for everyone to equip themselves with intercultural awareness and skills to interact tactfully with people they meet.
Given the inherent conflict-prone nature of intercultural interaction, I have observed numerous intercultural conflicts before, and one particular incident still strikes me til this day. It was during my second year of university, when I was doing a group project with peers whom I did not know before the project. The 3 group members consisted of 2 local students and an exchange student from Finland. I was appointed as the leader and we got off to group discussions before long. Soon we were at the stage of compiling everyone's work after we split roles, and while we have previously laid down details which everyone agreed upon, the exchange student made some changes to the online document without informing us. When the other local student saw the changes, he was furious at how the original plan was not adhered to, and confronted the exchange student during the next meeting.
The main crux of the conflict was that the local student, coming from a high power distance culture, felt that the exchange student should at least have informed me, as I was the compiler of the individual parts. He did not like how the exchange student had bypassed the hierarchy and took matters into his own hands. The exchange student, coming from a low power distance culture, felt that his actions were too minor and wanted to only discuss it at the next meeting. This is where one important point of intercultural communication comes into play: awareness. Both parties were not aware of the other person's culture and values, and thus acted according to what they themselves deemed fit. Awareness is more than knowledge; it is the the respect and accommodation you are willing to undertake for the person from a different cultural background. In this case, both parties could have exercised more awareness for each other, and seek to reach middle ground in a communication mode more fitting of other party's culture.
Interesting encounter. I think it would have been a tricky issue to handle as the project leader. I suppose you were not aware of the differences in intercultural communication back in Year 2 of university, so how did you handle the issue back then?
ReplyDeleteGood question Jerry. Actually, I would say that this is a lesson for the Finnish student as much as it is for the local student. As long as there's a leader in a work situation, all decisions to do with the project at hand, should go through that person unless the leader makes it clear that for certain things, members need not keep him/ her informed.
ReplyDeleteI reminded the exchange student that he should at least keep me informed when he made changes or had other ideas. Back in Year 2 I did not know of intercultural communication in such an organized structure like we do now, but I had some ideas from past experiences and thus knew that there might be a different mindset or culture that the exchange student had with him. Sometimes all it takes is a simple reminder or educating, and a lot of unnecessary intercultural conflicts can be avoided or minimized.
ReplyDelete