This essay is a critical reflection exploring how cultural self-awareness is important, and how and why development of cultural self-awareness can improve cultural intelligence. Cultural self-awareness combined with cultural intelligence provides us with a foundation from which we meaningfully engage with others. Reflection of how important cultural self-awareness is, and how its development may lead to increased cultural intelligence. I will explore the concepts covered in the readings and compare them with my own personal experiences.
Understanding what cultural self-awareness and cultural intelligence means and their place in our interactions, is key to successfully employing them. Spencer-Oatey (2012) determines that culture is difficult to define. Despite this distinction,
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Interacting with cultures separate to our own presents unique challenges and rewards (Quappe & Cantatore, 2005; Russell, 2011). When I visited Finland at the start of the year, I discovered I had to be conscious of my use of humour in everyday conversation. In Australia, among friends, I would casually resort to facetious jocular remarks in a conversation. I found that among those I had come to visit, these remarks casual remarks were initially taken with slight offence. Quappe & Cantatore (2005) would consider this as a misinterpretation due to lack of awareness of localised behavioural rules. Many months after returning home I found that I had maintained the trait of being more selective of the words spoken and subsequently had inadvertently incorporated this behavioural pattern. Ferraro (1998), as stated in Spencer-Oatey (2012), describes this sharing and adoption of cultural traits as cultural diffusion. This cultural understanding of practices in varying cultures is described as cultural intelligence in Brislin, et al
In such a multicultural world, being knowledgeable and understanding of not only your cultural background, but that of others is essential. Building my awareness on cultures different from my own, and how it shapes an individual’s identity, will foster my personal and professional development. Subsequently, I conducted a cultural interview with an individual whose cultural background differed from my own. Several similarities and differences between our cultures were apparent in the interview, specifically in the areas of race, ethnicity, language, values, and worldview.
The Cultural Intelligence Difference was written by David Livermore, Ph.D. and published by AMACOM in 2011. After reading the book, I have found that the most important indicator of my ability to achieve success in today’s interconnected, globalized world is my cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence can give me the ability to understand different perspectives and adjust my behaviors accordingly. According to Dr. Livermore, cultural intelligence can be defined as the ability to function effectively in a variety of cultural contexts, including: national, ethnic, organizational, and generational. By reading this book I can improve my understanding of cultural intelligence (Livermore, 2011). This paper will discuss my understanding of CQ drive, CQ knowledge, CQ strategy, CQ action, how I can improve my scores in these categories, my cultural prejudices, and my cultural ignorance’s.
Most people experience dramatic events that demonstrate to them just how fragile life is. Whether these events are acts of gruesome violence, or deaths of a loved ones, the frailty of life is evident. However, for me, this was a different story. As a southern white-boy, my realization came in the most unexpected of places – the Hawaiian Islands. When I learned of a snorkeling trip mid-vacation, I was overcome with anticipation and couldn’t wait to embark on my “Pacific Pilgrimage.” This vacation would prove to be a dramatic turning point in my life.
I realize that understanding of the culture that the people I work with are the key to successful intervention and outcome. Being sensitive to individual’s culture and acquire adequate knowledge about their cultural background enhance the productivity of the interaction I may have with a client that could be family, individual, community or organization. Understanding of one’s cultural background could also prevent and minimize employing biases which potentially harm the clients I work with. In view of this, I have learned that before I engaged in any activities with individual or group I should take the time to understand the cultural backroad of the person to get insight on what is acceptable and not in that culture. Furthermore, I have learned to identify and utilize one’s strength as a tool to aid the change processes the client and I desire for. Due to the dynamic nature of people’s culture updating myself to the emerging changes in a different culture would be one of the area of continued learning I am focusing. For instance, in the contemporary US society, I can see how the immigration brought several people with diverse culture to the US general population structure. Considering this I have been convinced to be knowledgeable and culturally competent to effectively address the needs of people I will work with in different setting.
Cultural awareness is an individual’s ability to identify the differences in values, beliefs and norms, that may result from people’s diverse origins and backgrounds (Quappe & Cantatore, 2013). This is important since it allows an individual to build successful workplace and personal relationships with people from varied backgrounds (Quappe & Cantatore, 2013).
Becoming aware of a culture supersedes the individual emotions you may experience in trying to understand how a group of people have become, through their own experience, different from the identity that you have attained from your own culture. “Cultural awareness is one being aware of their personal attitudes, beliefs, biases, and behaviors that may influence the type of care they are able to render in an environment.” (Mopraize)
Cultural competence does not assume that knowledge of a culture will provide all of the information
Cultural awareness focuses on raising individuals knowledge about cultural experiences that are different from their own. Cultural awareness training maintains an ‘other’ rather than clear self-focus for participants. Cultural awareness also tends to have an individual rather than systemic focus.
Cultural intelligence is quickly becoming the focus for companies looking to diversify into the global market. When focusing on a business strategy, maintaining the conceptual mindset of business as a mission (BAM) is crucial, not only for increasing the company’s success, but individual leaders within the business (Tunehag, 2008). One of the strategies to focus on while improving an approach of BAM is the concept of cultural intelligence. Furthermore, individuals capable of self-study and improvement will begin to see an increase for their company, as well as, God’s kingdom when their focus is in alignment with the teaching of the Holy Bible.
With radical changes in business climate, globalisation and workforce diversity, the world has become more closely inter-weaved to another. At the same time, there is an awareness of the culture to comprehend our own cultural self, which is essential for the development of cultural intelligence. It is then only the beginning of establishing the insight towards to a variety cultures in contemporary society. This essay will examine my own cultural self by presenting the relationship between knowledge, experience and behaviour. To follow, we will define the term cultural self-awareness and cultural intelligence and then we will critically discuss how cultural self-awareness is associated with cultural intelligence and how knowledge, experience
Montgomery, J. (2011). Teaching Cultural Intelligence Could Provide Advantages in Job Market. Retrieved Mar 26, 2014 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/cultural-intelligence-education_n_840660.html
To conclude, cultures are a major part of our lives and they constitute the image we see the world in. cultures can sometimes influence us, even in ways we don’t expect. Sometimes we find ourselves forced in cultures with negative stereotypes but that does not mean we should be ashamed of those cultural groups but rather embrace our culture and stray from the negative characteristics of that
The Role of Culture in Shaping us as Individuals Culture has a big impact on how we all fit in as individuals in today’s society, and since this assignment is about that I decided to include some of my own experiences to illustrate my point of view and compare it with those of my classmates and some of the readings. My family and I moved to United States in 1998 from Albania. My parents believed that I and my sister would get a better education here and also it would be useful and interesting to learn another language and its culture.
Concerning my cultural awareness, I scored a 43 out of 50. This score seems accurate to me, as I have been working towards becoming a more culturally competent person since becoming a social work student. Being culturally competent is an ongoing process, and I believe it would be incredibly difficult to be fully competent as there are so many different and ever changing cultures. Although a perfect score may be attainable, I believe my score shows my cultural awareness to be satisfactory with room for improvement.
As each and every day goes by, diversity is becoming widespread throughout the world. As people are presented with culture, races, and different sexualities that differ from their own they may become uncomfortable. Cultural awareness is important because it can combat this unease. Cultural awareness is defined as the ability to recognize the different beliefs, values, and customs that someone has based on that person's origin. Being culturally aware allows a person to build successful and professional relationships in a diverse environment.