Take a quick glance around you or at the newspaper and an interesting fact can be observed regarding 'teams'. By the term 'teams', I mean any types of team you can think of, from professional sports teams to even project groups in school. You may realise that most of the time, group members are rather mixed in terms of cultures and races. This is no doubt an increasingly common observation happening in this world. People of different cultural and racial backgrounds are working together in teams for a common purpose; an scenario quite impossible to imagine if you were living a few centuries ago, where humans are very bounded by restrictions to working with outsiders of their cultures.
My first impression that comes to mind, when mentioned about intercultural cooperation, would be the phenomenon that most hot-blooded Singaporean males (and presumably some females as well) would die for to watch, and that is the Barclays Premiership soccer from England. Increasingly, the governing body for the league has concerns about the amount of foreigners plying their trades for the clubs, as the percentage of home-grown players are reduced with each foreign arrival. However the fact remains that so many players of up to 30 different countries, and hence cultural backgrounds, are able to co-exist in peace and cooperating for a common aim speaks out the strength in intercultural communications within teams. The ability of the club managers to bond foreign players with the local boys is something worth noting, especially in a country where racial abuse is not uncommon.
Cultural tolerance and understanding are major parts we must learn in dealing with intercultural and interpersonal communication. Knowing the dos-and-don’ts for our teammates’ religious culture helps greatly in reducing the chances for possible conflicts, as it can be a very sensitive issue for certain religions. Also, our cultural beliefs, taught by the families that brought us up, directly shape our style of speaking and actions. Therefore, understanding your teammates’ cultures and interpreting their actions correctly is a key step towards achieving effective communication within the team, and hence forming a successful team.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
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Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI like the way you link the concepts, team and culture, in your introduction. The intercultural scenario you gave is relevant and has successfully explained what culture meant to you.
I agree with you that cultural tolerance and understanding are crucial in intercultural and interpersonal communication. Knowing the cultures of your teammates and being tolerant to their habits can help to reduce conflicts within a team.
An example would be the case of business cards in Germany. In Germany, the most important on business cards would be the qualifications of the individual. However, in other cultures, qualifications may not be the most important information on business cards.
However, there are some parts of the blog entry that I find it not concise. For example, you can say “racial abuse is common” instead of “racial abuse is not uncommon”.
You have made significant improvements for this blog post. Good job and keep it up!
Li Hua
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the teams that we are forming are becoming more mixed. When we were young, the teams we form are usually consist of only the main races in Singapore, namely Chinese, Malays and Indians. Now, we are forming teams that are getting more mixed, as we are interacting more with people from other countries. In my opinion, this in mainly due to the world getting more globalised, which means more interaction with people of other countries. Therefore, I am sure that we will continue to form teams that will be more mixed, which highlights the importance of intercultural communication.
I agree that tolerance and understanding is important when interacting with people from other cultures. However, I feel that understanding is needed first, before we can learn to tolerate another culture. Learning what we should do and things that we should not do is crucial in preventing conflicts as well. Therefore, learning about other cultures is something that we have to do to prevent conflicts which are harmful to a team.
Lastly, I liked the scenario that you used in your post. It shows that having a common goal where every member in the team wants to work towards can help the team to overcome challenges. Having a common aim to work towards allows the members to bond better, as they will then have something in common.
Leonard (C06)
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. It is true that teams nowadays are made up of people from different cultural and racial backgrounds, and therefore it is important that all of us must learn how to communicate effectively to different cultural groups, and ensure that we do not offend them due to cultural misunderstandings.
I like your example of using the Premier League teams to bring out the fact that every team is made up of people from different countries and hence, different culture. It really requires efforts to bond a team of player with cultural differences, and the manager in fact has done a great job keeping them together. However, I think that much of the efforts comes from the players themselves. To truly accept one another differences in culture takes quite a lot of effort, especially since racism is omnipresent even in today’s society.
Knowing the culture of others is really important. As I was ignorant when I was young, I have offended some of my friends from other culture. It a mistake on my part, and I gradually learned a few aspects of their culture which helped me greatly even till now. As we were all young, they were not able to understand that I am unfamiliar with their culture and hence the misunderstandings.
Your post have given me a lot to learn from, and reflect upon my own actions in the past. It is not easy to maintain a good relationship with people from other culture, and we need to put in effort to make sure that it does not get worst. This is why we need to learn about intercultural communication.
Regards,
Ryan
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that what’s happening now, could not possibly be imagined to happen few centuries ago. In this globalised world now, countries are interconnected in one way or another, and no doubt their people too. Teamwork which involved people from different culture groups is not uncommon now, regardless in the field of education or work. They cooperate and work despite of culture differences to achieve their common goal.
You have shown a great example on intercultural cooperation by mentioning the Barclays Premiership soccer from England. I feel that it is very relevant in this context of intercultural communications. It is amazing how so many people from so many different cultures are able to work together and cooperate, as long as they have a common goal to achieve. In most sports now, I believe the teams are mostly made up of athlete from different cultures and not of only one culture, and this shows that intercultural cooperation does work out in the field of sports.
Lastly, understanding of each other’s culture plays a huge role in successful intercultural communication because it allows people to think and react appropriately during certain situations, avoiding any assumptions to be made. Effective intercultural communication is hard, but definitely not impossible to achieve.
Jason
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI like how your starting paragraph provides a very pressing need for us to be able to communicate well in a inter cultural scenario. It draws the link between what we learn in class and the real life application to the skills.
I personally think using soccer as an example to illustrate inter cultural communication is great! Like what you said, it is simply amazing how so many people from all different cultural settings can set these differences all aside to share their passion in soccer.
Moreover, as a sport that requires a well communicated team, it further emphasizes how inter cultural differences can be set aside to achieve great things, so long as the team does not let prejudices and misunderstandings pull them apart.
Your concluding paragraph also shows me the things I need to take note in order to avoid inter cultural conflicts in a team.
On the whole, it is a great post!
Looking forward to your next post. Keep up the good work!
Cherlia
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI like how your blog entry emphasizes how interracial cooperation is important in today’s world. You spent the time to explain that with globalization reaching all corners of the world, everyone would eventually meet up with people of other cultures and it is very likely that we will have to work together with them as well, thus interacting well with them is crucial.
Your example of the Barclay’s being a place where many cultures can meet also made me realize how some things transcends cultural barriers. In sports just working together to win can build strong relationships, even though they may not be able to verbally communicate. This goes to show how sometimes, one does not need to understand what each other said in order to convey their messages. In a sense, music also has that same quality.
The final part on how tolerance is critical in intercultural relationships really sums up how the world views on how intercultural relations should be. However, I rather think that it is not tolerance but acceptance that will pave the way to effective communication. However, that is really an utopian ideal and looking at the mess that interracial conflicts has created all over the world(The church arsons in Malaysia comes to mind), perhaps, it still would be better to take small steps towards a more united world.
An amazing read, concise and conveys your point well. I am already anticipating the next post.
Regards,
Kimberly