Yesterday, we had our first official SES lesson. During the lesson, what I think was an important aspect of the lesson was the importance of cultural intelligence when interacting with others. Ms. Yeo raised the example of the HSBC advertisment. If one does not possess the cultural intelligence to understand others, there will often be misunderstandings when he interacts with other people from different cultural backgrounds. At the time, I thought that if a person who is working with people from different cultural backgrounds does not possess cultural intelligence, he will often make misunderstandings, which will leave a very bad impression for his superiors. This situation will definitely be more common in the future if China does develop into the economic powerhouse the world expects it to be as more Western people head towards China in search of a new economic hinterland. Subsequently, I also realised that to first be able to possess a high cultural intelligence, the most important factor is to have the drive to do so. If a person is not interested in the different cultures, he will not willingly learn the differences between cultures. A person with the passion to learn about other cultures will regard the differences very importantly, and so he will subconciously act differently in front of people from different cultures to avoid offending them unknowingly. Such people will be noticed easily by companies as a talent and will succeed in his career. This demonstrates the importance of our motivation to learn about different cultures. Having analysed the different aspects of cultural intelligence, I have learned that what will ultimately affect the way we interact with others is the strategic aspect of cultural intelligence. It is important sometimes for us to know clearly what to do, whether be it to be able to gain the attention of other companies or to draw the line clearly to other people. Strategic planning is important as it will affect the message we intend to convey to others. The desired outcome will be affected greatly if the message is not conveyed correctly, and sometimes a single mishap is the difference between having a job or none. It is therefore of crucial importance that we ensure through our knowledge of other cultures and strategic planning that the message that we intend to convey to others will be able to be understood very clearly.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Reflective Journal 1
Last Friday, we had out very first SES lesson. We were briefed about the syllabus, the motive behind setting up such a lesson and also the mode of assessment, which is not by pen and pencil, but in the form of oral presentation. I believe this is because our school wants us to be able to communicate with others well so that we can share our knowledge and opinions with others. The lesson was set up because our school thinks that China and America will become the two major economic powerhouses in the future and therefore it is important for us to be able to work under the cultural scenes of both countries. Under the SES syllabus, we will be able to learn more about the different ways people from different cultures function and behave. There will be case studies that will enable us to explore how the society affects the economy and vice versa. Although I am not a person who often speaks up in class, I believe that this lesson will make(or rather force) me to speak up more as it is important for us to be able to voice out and also defend our opinions in the assessment.
Yesterday, we had our first official SES lesson. During the lesson, what I think was an important aspect of the lesson was the importance of cultural intelligence when interacting with others. Ms. Yeo raised the example of the HSBC advertisment. If one does not possess the cultural intelligence to understand others, there will often be misunderstandings when he interacts with other people from different cultural backgrounds. At the time, I thought that if a person who is working with people from different cultural backgrounds does not possess cultural intelligence, he will often make misunderstandings, which will leave a very bad impression for his superiors. This situation will definitely be more common in the future if China does develop into the economic powerhouse the world expects it to be as more Western people head towards China in search of a new economic hinterland. Subsequently, I also realised that to first be able to possess a high cultural intelligence, the most important factor is to have the drive to do so. If a person is not interested in the different cultures, he will not willingly learn the differences between cultures. A person with the passion to learn about other cultures will regard the differences very importantly, and so he will subconciously act differently in front of people from different cultures to avoid offending them unknowingly. Such people will be noticed easily by companies as a talent and will succeed in his career. This demonstrates the importance of our motivation to learn about different cultures. Having analysed the different aspects of cultural intelligence, I have learned that what will ultimately affect the way we interact with others is the strategic aspect of cultural intelligence. It is important sometimes for us to know clearly what to do, whether be it to be able to gain the attention of other companies or to draw the line clearly to other people. Strategic planning is important as it will affect the message we intend to convey to others. The desired outcome will be affected greatly if the message is not conveyed correctly, and sometimes a single mishap is the difference between having a job or none. It is therefore of crucial importance that we ensure through our knowledge of other cultures and strategic planning that the message that we intend to convey to others will be able to be understood very clearly.
Yesterday, we had our first official SES lesson. During the lesson, what I think was an important aspect of the lesson was the importance of cultural intelligence when interacting with others. Ms. Yeo raised the example of the HSBC advertisment. If one does not possess the cultural intelligence to understand others, there will often be misunderstandings when he interacts with other people from different cultural backgrounds. At the time, I thought that if a person who is working with people from different cultural backgrounds does not possess cultural intelligence, he will often make misunderstandings, which will leave a very bad impression for his superiors. This situation will definitely be more common in the future if China does develop into the economic powerhouse the world expects it to be as more Western people head towards China in search of a new economic hinterland. Subsequently, I also realised that to first be able to possess a high cultural intelligence, the most important factor is to have the drive to do so. If a person is not interested in the different cultures, he will not willingly learn the differences between cultures. A person with the passion to learn about other cultures will regard the differences very importantly, and so he will subconciously act differently in front of people from different cultures to avoid offending them unknowingly. Such people will be noticed easily by companies as a talent and will succeed in his career. This demonstrates the importance of our motivation to learn about different cultures. Having analysed the different aspects of cultural intelligence, I have learned that what will ultimately affect the way we interact with others is the strategic aspect of cultural intelligence. It is important sometimes for us to know clearly what to do, whether be it to be able to gain the attention of other companies or to draw the line clearly to other people. Strategic planning is important as it will affect the message we intend to convey to others. The desired outcome will be affected greatly if the message is not conveyed correctly, and sometimes a single mishap is the difference between having a job or none. It is therefore of crucial importance that we ensure through our knowledge of other cultures and strategic planning that the message that we intend to convey to others will be able to be understood very clearly.
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Hi Guan Hong,
ReplyDeleteI think that you have done a good job in terms of relating the management styles of both Lenovo and Google to the societies that they are based in. You were also able to come up with a more holistic approach to managing a company after identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the respective ways of management which I think is relevant and will be very applicable in the near future.
However, I hope to highlight the fact that despite putting in so much effort to weigh the pros and cons of both ways of management, you failed to state the company which you prefer to work in the future and support your stance by quoting appropriate evidence and explaining how you managed to arrive at that conclusion. That is often the hardest and most important part of a reflective journal entry: to state your preference and justify your selection such that your readers will be convinced by your choice, so please try to be more careful next time.
Another thing to take note of is that you should not quote too much factual evidence from articles when substantiating your points. I believe that the examples which you quoted when analysing Lenovo's management style can be found in the notes that Ms Yeo has provided for us and I think it is of paramount importance that you elaborate on your points using your own words based on your understanding instead of paraphrasing information extracted from Internet sources. That will only seek to attenuate the main focus.
I also do not agree with the fact that those who survived Google's stringent interviewing process will definitely do a good job in Google. This is not true because even if one were to be selected as Google's employee and his/her credentials recognised, it will not be easy for him/her to ward off all the distractions in Google, namely the wonderful facilities and the autonomy granted to every Googler. He/she will either be distracted and consequently deviate from what he/she is supposed to do or attempt to resist the temptations around him/her. Hence, Google’s way of management may have failed because its employees actually need to restrain themselves in such a way with the autonomy that they have in the workplace in order to be productive.
To conclude, I have learnt a lot more about the holistic approach that can be adopted by companies in the future, so overall I think it is a good read and I enjoyed it very much.