Question

Describe the process of developing cross-cultural interaction skills.?

Answer 1

The process of developing cross cultural interaction skills include the below steps.

1.Increase personal awareness: Increasing personal awareness helps to understand how far each of us is influenced by our own cultures. Our culture may affect our attitude towards many factors including education, work, family, self sufficiency, money and expression of emotions.

2. Learning about other cultures: After increasing awareness on own culture the individual need to learn about other cultures. It helps to understand the people from other cultures as well as to be understood by others. We should study the aspects of other cultures including verbal and nonverbal language differences, values, customs, work habits and attitudes towards work. We should treat and respect every person as a unique personality. We can learn about other cultures through books and magazines, attending cultural fairs and also through interacting with people from other cultures.

3. Recognize and practice cross cultural interaction skills: In order to reduce the problems in communicating with other cultural people, we should avoid the tendency not to listen carefully or pay attention to what others are saying. If we do not pay attention we would not be able to understand the other cultural practices and the reason behind specific behaviors. We should also avoid speaking or addressing others in ways that make them feel uncomfortable. We should learn their practices and communicate accordingly to avoid conflicts. Also we should not use or fall back on inappropriate stereotypes to communicate with people from other cultures. People should understand each other to communicate effectively.

4. Maintain awareness, knowledge and skills: The individuals who are trained on practicing cross cultural interaction should be able to utilize those skills and cultural awareness effectively. The policies and programs in workplace should encourage the employees to utilize cultural diversity skills.