“When in Rome, do as
the Romans do”
‘But how do we know
what the Romans do?’
I still remember browsing through
the list of electives for the last two quarters during vacation in January 2014
when I came across the subject ‘Cross Cultural Management’ and it was then and
there that I decided to take up this course. Though there were many reasons which
motivated me to just go for this course, the primary reason was my experience
which I had in the fifth quarter when I went on an exchange programme to
Vancouver, Canada.
Having lived in six absolutely
diverse states in India and visited five different countries in three different
continents, I knew why one should understand various cultures and why it was
absolutely necessary to know the cultural differences.
I would like to share a very
interesting incident while I was on my exchange programme in Vancouver. While
one of my Canadian friends and I was travelling by the local bus towards our
university. The bus reached the destination and while we were getting down from
the bus, my friend said in a loud voice ‘Thank you’ and got down. I didn’t
understand what just happened. I asked him and he pointed out towards the bus
driver whom he thanked before getting down, a practice or something very
inherent in Canadian culture, that is very uncommon in India and one may be
laughed upon on doing that.
This incident helped me understand
that it is not only about living in a different cultural setup and experiencing
it, it is also about what you learn from a culture. And yes, I had just got a
lesson on humility from the Canadian culture which I took as a lesson for life.
My curiosity and inquisitiveness
to learn and experience different culture was one of the most important factors
to take up this course. And at the end of it, if I would ask myself, have I
added value not only towards my managerial skills and business acumen but on a
whole, as a person, the answer would be a definite YES!!!
This course not only helped me in
understanding the business aspects in various cultures and how one should go
about expanding business across geographies but also helped in understanding
how to act and how to talk when surrounded by people of different ethnicities
and different groups.
I would rate this course as quite
different to others I have credited during my MBA as this was the only course
where instead of just sitting and watching on the board as things happen and
noting them down on the copy people used to interact inside the class, where
talking with others was actually allowed and a class where you made friends
with students on exchange who usually formed their groups of own. Who wouldn’t
like to be the part of such a course?
As Roger Axtell has mentioned in
his book ‘Taboos of Humor around the world’
“Every culture enjoys some form of humor. But, humor has difficulty
crossing cultural boundaries because what is humorous in one country is often
not humorous in another.”
Similarly, I got the shock of my life
when in one of the lectures I came to know through one of the case studies that
gifting red or yellow flowers to a lady in France was considered as an offence.
My friend and I discussed over this for an hour even after the class got over
and just couldn’t accept the fact as it was. Also, knowing how the word ‘Mother’
bought in the same feelings of love and care across cultures whereas the word ‘Cop’
bought the feelings as different as ‘honest and hardworking’ to ‘a person of no
use’ and ‘corrupt’. This is how similar and different can cultures be at the
same time.
Interacting and sharing stories
while understanding how things are done in different cultural setup and telling
others about our culture, our heritage and our habits was the best part of this
course. And yeah, how could I forget “The Dakshin Chitra” trip. Reading about the
art and cultures of various ethnic groups used to bore me, but this trip proved
to be an eye opener for me. It was an amazing experience to see how
enthusiastically people shared their culture, their art and their way of living
and others fondly listening to them with their eyes open in amusement. I came
to know that understanding culture is not only about seeing things, but about
experiencing it, living it and seeing it through others’ eyes.
As I am pursuing a course in
Management, how can I miss writing what this course particularly taught me as a
management student. It started with helping me understand my stereotypes and
how to overcome them. This was one of the courses where experience came before
learning, identifying and understanding the strengths and abilities of working
and managing teams from different cultures was an experience of a lifetime. Through
various case studies and caselets, it also helped in understanding how
behaviour, attitude and way of thinking impacted the success of a business and
a manager. The most important learning from this course was to understand the hierarchical
culture of various countries, their way of working, cultural awareness and to
build mutual beneficial relations that can help a business do wonders.
Though, there are a few things
which were in my list of expectations from this course, having only 14 classes
to finish off this vast concept proved just a little less. I would have loved
listening to stories and experiences of people who have worked in a
cross-cultural setup, the difficulties they faced, how they cope up with it and
how diverse views one gets from a group which is coming from diversified
backgrounds. Would have loved to listen to the views of exchange students on
India, especially after they visited Dakshin Chitra would have worked as icing
on the cake.
At times, there were instances
when many of our friends who opted not to credit this course asked us how it
was going, envied us, and regretted their decision of not taking this course. I
believe this course would bring in more value if it is offered earlier in the
MBA curriculum rather than at the very end of it, in the last quarter. It could
have helped students like us who went for exchange programme and came back and
others who were on exchange when this course was offered. It would be of
immense help to everybody if it could have been offered earlier or as a matter
of fact, would have been made as a core course in the first year. Why should
any of us miss being part of one the most interesting courses that have been
offered
Cross Cultural Management was one
of the courses where you long to have classes and attend all of them
irrespective of it being an 8AM class or a 1PM class because where else do you
get an opportunity to dress-up, taste cuisines from various parts of the world
at the same time (read ethnic day), travel, visit places, watch movies, enjoy,
understand, talk, laugh, learn, make new friends, sometimes open up your eyes
in amusement, sometimes give a feel of ‘I know it all’ when someone talks about
your culture, know about yourself and feel as if you have been to 14 different
countries in 14 classes. Yes, I credited CCM and I have lived it all.
