Reflecting on Intercultural and Professional Development

RUNNING HEAD: THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONAL THE GLOBAL P ROF ESSIONAL 2 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L Table of Conte nts Introd uc tio n ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 3 Module mode l: 8Fs ................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 3 Module mode l: DMIS ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 4 Module mod e l: S.N.I. E.D p rocess ................................ ................................ ............................. 5 Emp lo yab ility: Co urse Sk ills & co mpete nc ies ................................ ................................ .......... 7 Gro up wo rk co llabora tio n ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 9 Conc lusio n ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 10 Re fe re nce list ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 11 3 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L Introductio n Reflectio n on intercultura l and professiona l developme nt helps to match professiona l goals with the acquired skills and knowledge. This is a reflective and reflexive essay which is concerned with both intercultura l development and professiona l development. I understand that the term Reflexivity is different from the term reflectio n because it is more about the psychologica l experience of self in a broader social context. In this essay, I am going to discuss three models which I have learned in my course. I will explain h ow the applicatio n of these models has helped me in intercultura l developme nt from my personal intercultura l experience. Besides, I am also going to discuss how my understand ing, knowledge and skills developed from this course can affect my future professi ona l career and associated roles. This study also includ es a discussio n about my group work collaboratio n. It means that this essay contains both my reflectio n on the course learning and the experience I have gathered while learning. M odule mode l: 8Fs After gaining admissio n to this university, I have seen that there are cultura l differe nces between me and others. I was not able to establish a bond or collaborate with them due to my conservative values. I experienced that I prefer to be in a group with those students who belong to my culture. Thus, this was creating a gap between me and others. This is recognized as flock feelings in the 8F model. Hanel et al. (2018) mentioned that differe nces in values often create barriers to creating a cross -cultura l bond. During the initia l days on campus, I spent time finding people from my own culture. This is because I cannot match the attitudes or values. I felt irritable when communicating with them, which is considered a fight feeling in this model. Moreover, as they have differe nt langua ges, values and beliefs I feel comfortable when I am alone. However, sometimes I feel lonely and disgusted, which is identified as flight feelings in the 8F model. After a few months, I noticed 4 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L that I was not being noticed or u nderstood by others and felt that I did not belong here. I feel alienated from others, which is identified as a freeze in the model. However, I tried to step outside my cultura l comfort zone because I felt frustrated and confused due to less awareness of other cultures. I preferred to focus and observe others and their behaviour closely. This has helped me to gather knowledge about their attitudes and preferences. Gradually, I noticed that I prefer to have conversatio ns with them and am eager to know about their culture. This is described as a fathom in 8Fs model. Yu (2021) said that effective communicatio n helps a person to gather knowledge about cultura l differe nces that helps to reduce insensitivity. In a few weeks, I tried to get fit in this environme nt as I have started preferring to talk in their langua ge , adopted body gestures and started respecting their values. This has resulted in an increased friendship with them and I felt more comfortab le that impacted my studies, which is identified as a flex in the 8F model. This model has helped me to guide effective ly understand unconscio us and conscious responses effective ly. Moreover, this model has guided me effective ly to step outside my comfort zone along with other models such as DMIS, which has helped me to gain a deeper understand ing of cross - cultura l differe nces. M odule mode l: DM IS When I learned about the Developme nta l Model of Intercultura l Sensitivity (DMIS), I realised how my perspective toward cultura l differe nces has ch anged during the course of my learning. In the beginning days at my university, the majority of my classmates were from differe nt cultures. At that point, they were all foreigners to me. As per the DMIS model, it is the denial stage where a person generali se s the cultura l differe nces of people and ignores their existence (Bennett & Hammer, 2017). Gradually I started thinking that as they are more in number, they may gain more attention from the teachers which may reflect on their marks. In this phase, I wan ted to gain equal opportunity for excelling in my academic career. This 5 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L was the defence stage where people feel victimised and thought that people from other cultures are getting more benefits (Mellizo, 2018). After that, I started communica ting with them and realised that my professors are behaving equally to all. When I built a friendship with my classmate, I started focusing on the similarities between us, rather than our cultura l differe nces. As per the DMIS model, this is the stage of Minimisatio n. In this stage, people believe in humanism over all cultura l differenc es (Segura -Robles & Parra -González, 2019). In this stage, people understand that simila rities between human beings are more important than cultural differe nce s. My understand ing of this fac t has strengthened my bonding with my friends and I started developing feelings of empathy and compassion for them. As stated by Rodrígue z - Izquierdo (2021), this feeling helps further in the professiona l areas to work collaborative ly with others. It has he lped me to understand that the cultura l background of others has a legitima te influe nc e on their behaviour and this fact must be respected as well as valued. This phase was Acceptance as per the DMIS model. The adaptation phase came into my life just after it, when I was able to empathise emotiona lly and intellectua lly with the experience of my friends from differe nt cultures. I used to discuss my cultura l experiences with my friends and listen to their cultural experiences during this phase. Gradually I ha ve developed the ability to move in and out of differe nt cultura l worldvie ws. The learning experience of this course has helped me to experience myself as a multic ultura l human being. This was the integratio n phase. As stated by Bennett and Hammer (2017), in this phase, people become able to choose the most appropriate context of a culture that facilitates the most appropriate behaviour. M odule mode l: S.N.I.E.D proce ss This model helps to increase curiosity about culture. Mikhaylo v (2016) mentio ned tha t cultura l curiosity is a process of understand ing and learning about those people whose 6 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L cultura l background is differe nt. Using this model is effective for me as I am able to analyse other students’ cultura l attributes effective ly, which has helped me to eliminate cultura l insensitivity. Umaña -Taylor (2018) mentio ned that eliminating cultura l insensitivity is not possible through directly making conclusio ns or judgements without analysis or interpretatio n. On the campus, I have seen the students in the cam pus from other cultures with differe nt dresses discussing among themselves. This scene has helped me to analyse the attitudes and behaviour of students from other cultures. Students from other cultures were expressing differe nt behaviour and values. Furthe r, I noticed their dressing styles and preferences. I have noticed that their dressing style depends on weather and occasions and I found this similar to my culture. Additiona lly, they have frank behaviour and they have values such as friendship, kindness and achieving knowledge through learning. Moreover, I interpreted their values and attitudes effective ly. Their lifestyle is slow -paced and they follow fewer societal norms, which impacts their behaviour. In addition, their frank behaviour is often impacte d by different European values such as freedom, democracy and equality. This also helps them to accept anyone from a differe nt culture. They were having fun even with students of other cultures and this proves that they believe in equality. I have also ev aluated that their style of dressing, attitude and values are influe nced by their caregivers or parents. I found this similar to my culture as my values, cultura l beliefs and behaviour are influe nced by my parents. Thompson et al. (2021) said that basic va lues and behaviour such as religio us choices of a child are often influe nced by the parents. Their quality of equality and open -minded ness may have come due to their family culture. Some of them could be from mixed culture families which are an essential d riving factor for achieving these qualities. I think that in my culture, there is less scope for open -mindedness which often impacts my ability to accept other cultures. Song (2018) mentioned that open -minded ness in a culture often helps people to keep asi de cultura l differe nces and accept other individ ua ls. 7 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L This often impacts my ability to cooperate effective ly with other students on the campus, which is essential for collaborative learning. I decided to improve these qualitie s in me, which is essential fo r my cultura l development . Employability: Course Skills & compe te ncie s I wanted a job which concerned the role of generating creative ideas for the concerned organisatio n to satisfy the expectation of customers. I want a working environme nt wh ere I can share positive relationships with my colleagues. I would like to work with people from other cultures in a professiona l way. I will consider their logical interpretatio n of opinions, rather than judging them based on their culture and its impact on their behaviour. These were my initia l answers to the questions of employab ility goals. When I started attending workshops, I got the opportunity to grow professiona lly. I got the opportunity to understand gaps in my knowledge regarding professiona lism and have successfully identified the areas of development. As stated by Bush et al. (2018), the professiona l developme nt of people changes their desire over the passage of time. Learning from different workshop topics have helped me in my professiona l deve lopme nt. For example, topic 2 of workshop 1 workplace has demonstrated that a person must showcase interest to learn new things to ensure continuo us professiona l developme nt. I have learned that I need to keep asking the right questions to the right peop le. It can make people realise that I am open to learning from them and they will help me to gather more knowledge and develop skills to achieve my professiona l goals. On the other hand, topic 4 of the workshop of this same session taught me to ask seniors and colleagues for feedback on my actions. As stated by Yurtseven and Altun (2018), the collectio n of feedback is a simple process of understand ing gaps in skills and knowledge. It further helps to develop professiona l improve me nt strategies. These learni ng changed the way I think about the 8 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L workplace environme nt. I wanted a positive working environme nt. Now I know that I am also liable to contribute to developing that environme nt through continuo us learning. Initia lly, I thought about a workplace where I only need to complete the assigned tasks to help my organisatio n to achieve business goals. I never thought about potential challenge s that I may face. During the second workshop, I learned that a professiona l may face challenges while working and it may affect his or her overall well -being. I have learned that developing and imple me nting self -mana ge me nt strategies and asking for help at the right time to the right people can keep motivating me to excel and mainta in resilie nce while facing workplace challe nges. As opined by Michaels (2021), asking for help from colleague s does not show the inability of a person, rather it helps the person to mitigate challe nges and move on in the professiona l field. On the other hand, I wanted to work in a team where people from differe nt cultures work with each other. However, there I had limited knowledge about the approach of communicating with people from other cultures to mainta in a good relationship. I have learned about the way of starting and mainta ining conversatio n s with people from differe nt cultures in workshop 4. I have learned that I need to show my curiosity to listen to the point of view of people and I need to mainta in etiquette. According to Spadaro et al. (2019), a conversatio n between people from differe nt cultura l backgrounds becomes long when they respect the dignity of each other and do not judge the behaviour of the opposite side based on differe nt cultura l backgrounds. On the other hand, my learning from workshop 5 about developing the skill of empathy has helped me to understand that If I show empathy to my colleagues who are facing challenges, I can get the same behaviour from the same colleague in the future. It means that I need to be helpful to my colleague s to get their cooperation when I am in tr ouble. As stated by Widayati et al. (2022), team members who can empathise with the problems of each other develop more competencies to work collaborative ly. This learning 9 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L has helped me to understand that being open to assisting others helps to make them believe that I care for them. This feeling influe nces people to be there with the person in diffic ulties in the future. Besides, I have learned about ethical practice in workshop 6. I got introduced to differe nt workplace scenarios, where a person needs to make ethical decisions. I have learned about some behaviour which are considered unethic a l and I should not do any of them in my future workplace. Group work collaboration While working in a multic ultura l group during the workshop I experienced barri ers due to behavioura l and personality differe nces. I have focused on my performance in the groups rather than achieving group object ives. This can be described by E tic dimensio ns of culture. In order and power individ ua lism or prioritising one's own resp onsibilities often acts as a barrier to cultural sensitivity. Thus, in future, I need to adhere to collectivism that facilita tes prioritising responsibilities to the group (Fatehi et al., 2020). During the workshop, I have given focused on achieving person al learning objectives rather than cooperating with others in this group and conducted direct communica tio n when in need. However, in the etic dimensio ns of culture mentioned that value can also come from cooperation and mainta ining relationships. This is effective in making proper bonds in the groups and helps in cultura l development. In addition, in an independent study group, I was reserved and experienced isolatio n in the group. This was mainly due to my attitude of being emotiona lly restricted, which has impacted interpersona l relationships with others in the multic ultura l group. Adler et al. (2022) said that being emotiona lly restricted often impacts the cultura l development of a person. Hence, in future, I must be open -minded and let others know how I feel. This can help to increase their bond with me. In the future, I need to practise different activitie s such as open 10 THE GLOBAL PROFESSIONA L communicatio n and embrace cultura l differences to gain success in a diverse environme nt (Men & Yue, 2019). This can help me to value e veryone’s opinion effective ly. Conclusion From the discussio n, It can be concluded that my inability to embrace other cultures is a barrier to my cultura l development . My beliefs values and other cultura l factors are quite differe nt from others on the university campus. Due to this, I experienced isolatio n and felt lonely. However, different models such as 8Fs, S.N.I.E.D and D.M.I.S have helped me to achieve cultura l development through extensive analysis of my own and others’ cultures. Proper analysis of others’ cultura l beliefs has helped to build tolerance and improved my cultura l sensitivity. In the future, I need to develop different skills and competencies such as empathy and respect for other cultures. 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