Experience of Interacting with a Cross-Section of Culturally-Rich Group - Assignment Example

Global Experience: Reflective Journal My Global Experience has been one of its kind; primarily because I have had the privilege of interacting with a cross-section of culturally-rich group and two because of the contents it envisaged to explore. It aimed to develop students’ ability to network effectively with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and helped them get equipped with tools to strategically manage their careers beyond the borders of a single organisation. It was a sort of borderless activity and that is what was so special about it. The first week has been a recap of the previous knowledge gained with basic emphasis on components as intercultural communication, networking and career development. Theoretical frameworks were discussed with respect to each component and learning how to apply these concepts networking, career management and intercultural communication has been a very enriching experience, in as much as critically reflecting upon the practical experiences in these applications. Another facet of undertaking self-directed activities while independently planning the same has gone a great deal in creating a self-confident and self-reliant individual out of me. In this week I have understood how to take responsibility for my own learning, while taking up participation in different types of activities scheduled on and off campus. This helped in refining my networking skills to a great extent. Most of the self-directed activities outlined for our course have been carefully designed such that most of them inculcate certain values of importance to the student who takes them up. Of great interest to me have been volunteering as a student mentor, as a student helper at a UniSA conference, as assistant at a sports event, as a helper at a charity event, and as a homework buddy at the Australian Refugee Association. Others activities that have been equally rewarding were attending relevant UniSA seminars, organising a language and cultural support group for international students (gave me a strange sense of belonging to the whole world rather than a particular part of it to which I belong), attending relevant seminars at the University of Adelaide and Flinders University, attending Business Chicks seminars, and my attendance at World Food Crisis Symposium (found this to be as burning a topic as global warming). In the very first week of Global Experience course I have had this feeling that this was going to be one of the best experiences with much-needed emphasis on student-directed learning, and how interactions with industry experts could actually turn into viable opportunities. It was a very good emotional state that I seemed to be swaying in; and while it was that this emotional intelligence lecture tuned me further to the benefits of the experience. I could never ever earlier realise how emotional intelligence could be a different way of being smart; well, that was until this lecture. This helped me understand the reasons for my sense of wellbeing, and as I had guessed, good feelings can also lead to good decisions. So much learned! And more importantly how distressing moods can be managed and negative impulses controlled to give way to optimistic thoughts followed by positive occurrences. I feel networking was making this thing possible since when you network, you come across different situations as faced and solved by other people. The idea of gelling well with other people, having control over emotions as you social-network worked wonders in terms of creating a stronger inner self (Dwyer, 2002). Goleman's five aspects of emotional intelligence, namely emotional self-awareness, emotional self-regulation, emotional self-motivation, empathy, and managing relationships were a befitting explanation of whatever was left on this discussion (Online, Google.com). It almost came as a revelation to know how emotional intelligence was linked to ones success in future since future professional life is characterised by personal and contextual changes triggered by emotional intelligence in circumstances that keep changing as new influences get generated by technology, people, technology and global factors. Cherniss (200) has stated that a person’s ability to perceive, identify and manage emotion provides the basis for the kinds of social and emotional competencies that are important for success in almost any job (Boyatzis, 2000). Week 2 was all about networking. I must admit even though I was eagerly awaiting to be part of the Global Experience, but networking is something that it seemed to me couldn’t be my cup of tea – take plate, cup of water, fork and ‘business cards’ from table set up in foyer and go introduce yourself to someone within 90 seconds; good God, nope… I am not an actor, I am not sure I can do it, and what has a fork got to do with an introduction (we are having dinner anyway after this.. blah, blah, blah…). But, dinner or not, this had to be done anyway, and when I went introducing myself 90 seconds seemed too long a time to do so… I felt, boy!, you can tell about yourself with 30 seconds if you have anything worthwhile to say about yourself and know how actually do so. It seemed so easy and there was no looking back… networking followed. As I went introducing I realised the cup, the fork and other items had a purpose in my hand… they wanted to be managed while I was supposed to introduced myself. It was a good experience, and intercultural communication issues like hand shake, proximity, and speed of speaking flowed smoothly as a matter of fact. De Janasz et al (2006) have rightly remarked that networking is the building and nurturing of personal and professional relationships to create a system or chain of information, contacts and support. One thing that impressed me the most was presentation on an effective networker – one who has an attitude of giving (rather than taking), aims to build rapport with others by finding common interests, and is interested in balanced, two-way communication. When I was listening to this, and later re-reading on the power point presentation, a proverb by anonymous immediately crossed my mind, which says, “One who takes only and never gives, lives long, but never lives.” I shared it with those whom I had networked with and they jumped up with exhilaration and they made a note of it. I am still trying to figure out who has said that! Effective networking, I learned, creates good people who in turn create good organisations , and if you are an effective networker, you adjust to organisational changes quickly, and gain a more holistic view of the business as a whole rather than confining you to a specific functional area assigned to you. However, what was really an eye-opener in week 2 was the statistical part of networking, which made the whole concept mathematically easier. I came to know that 70-80% of the best jobs come as a result of personal and effective networking, good mangers 70% of their time networking )De Janasz et al, 2006) than their less effective counterparts and one of the great benefits of networking is that it lead to ‘career sponsorship’. Siebert et al (2001) has remarked that people with whom one has a strong relationship are likely to provide one with more information and assistance, and people with whom one has a strong relationship are likely to provide one with more information and assistance, and it may be best for people to invest in the development of weak ties [‘acquaintance’ vs ‘friend’] to increase the level of social resources embedded in his or her network, but then to invest (perhaps selectively) in strengthening those ties to increase the benefits (Seibert et al, 2001). This was followed by week 3, which focused on career planning. It felt it interesting to note that career cannot and must not be only measured in terms of money and is, in reality a combination of money, satisfaction, and status. Furthermore, it is not possible to make a great career alone, even though ones personal grit, determination and hard work cannot be discounted; since, as according to Orpen (1994) career is a sequence of related work experiences and activities, directed at personal and organisational goals, through which a person passes during his or her lifetime, that are partly under their control and partly under that of others. He further states that the responsibility for career management lies both with individuals and with the organisation which employs them (Orpen, 1994). Week 4 concluded the Global Experience with the cultural activity which stressed about the participants to be very much and deeply ingrained in their own cultures and understand the difference between their own and others’ cultures so that the ethos on which others’ cultures are based are correctly understood and respected. I must say this week was powered with statistically-driven explanations and when Copeland and Griggs (1985 cited in Chaney & Martin 2004, were cited, “Australians have the shortest working hours of any country in the world, and they enjoy taking frequent breaks throughout the day”, I deduced that to reach the pinnacle of success and influence it is not mandatory to log it out 18 hours a day. Overall the experience has been very rewarding, sometimes challenging and above all interesting and full of learning. Everything was packaged as if meant to deliver benefit to each participant and personally I had a lot to carry home from the experience. References Boyatzis, R.E. (2000). Developing emotional intelligence. In C. Cherniss, R.E. Boyatzis & M. Elias (Eds), Developments in emotional intelligence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Dwyer, B.M. (2002). Training strategies for the twenty-first century: Using recent research on learning to enhance training. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 39(4), 265-270 De Janasz, S., Wood, G., Gottschalk, L., Dowd, K., & Schneider, B., (2006).Interpersonal skills in organisations. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin) Orpen, C. (1994). The effects of organizational and individual career management on career success. International Journal of Manpower, 15, 27-37. Seibert, S. E., Kraimer, M. L., & Liden, R. C. (2001). A social capital theory of career success. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 219-237. http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.beyondtraining.com.au/images/ML%2520EQhead.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.beyondtraining.com.au/Emotional_IQ.html&usg=__ILqvD7ZuqnIwrtYnZWQaKkKAklE=&h=265&w=235&sz=15&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=5uTXSL6_rbgjqM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DEmotional%2Bintelligence%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1 Read More