Comments on: Virtual Worlds: A Potential Tool for Cross-Cultural Training http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224 Leadership in the Digital Age Thu, 09 Sep 2010 02:22:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Rebecca Jestice http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224#comment-983 Rebecca Jestice Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:19:16 +0000 http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224#comment-983 Kwame, Thanks very much for your comment. This is a topic near and dear to me, and you have raised an excellent point. It is not always possible to know the initial intentions behind companies' uses of cross-cultural training or the trainees themselves. However, I believe that regardless of initial attitudes there are two positive outcomes that can result from such training. One is the well-being of the person that is being put into a culturally different situation. Black and Mendenhall mention this in their paper, and I have experienced it personally, that some basic knowledge (even if a deep understanding is lacking) about the host culture helps relieve personal stress and discomfort. One small example is visiting my partner's family in Germany for a meal; I laid the fork and knife on my plate after the meal in a way signifying that I wanted to be served more food and wondered why I kept having to say "No, thank you." When I was informed afterward what had happened, I felt embarrassed. It's a small thing, for sure, but one can imagine more stress inducing situations that could be avoided. Another positive outcome is that, over time, a deeper understanding of the host culture will result, with adequate training and/or immersion. Bennett's model of the development of intercultural sensitivity contains 6 stages, the first 3 being ethnocentric and the last 3 being gradually more ethnorelative. Progression through these stages can only occur with time and experience with a culture. For example, when I arrived in Japan I could speak Japanese, say appropriate phrases, and bow when appropriate, but it was only after some time living there that I could speak the local dialect and understand,appreciate, and use nuances of meaning in language and body language. It is these reasons that I think makes virtual worlds an excellent method for cross-cultural training. The virtual immersion and opportunities for multiple experiences can help lessen one's personal stress in new situations and may help one advance to a deeper understanding of another culture more quickly. If that can happen, perhaps the focus can shift from "doing business" to "working with people." Kwame, Thanks very much for your comment. This is a topic near and dear to me, and you have raised an excellent point.
It is not always possible to know the initial intentions behind companies’ uses of cross-cultural training or the trainees themselves. However, I believe that regardless of initial attitudes there are two positive outcomes that can result from such training.
One is the well-being of the person that is being put into a culturally different situation. Black and Mendenhall mention this in their paper, and I have experienced it personally, that some basic knowledge (even if a deep understanding is lacking) about the host culture helps relieve personal stress and discomfort. One small example is visiting my partner’s family in Germany for a meal; I laid the fork and knife on my plate after the meal in a way signifying that I wanted to be served more food and wondered why I kept having to say “No, thank you.” When I was informed afterward what had happened, I felt embarrassed. It’s a small thing, for sure, but one can imagine more stress inducing situations that could be avoided.
Another positive outcome is that, over time, a deeper understanding of the host culture will result, with adequate training and/or immersion. Bennett’s model of the development of intercultural sensitivity contains 6 stages, the first 3 being ethnocentric and the last 3 being gradually more ethnorelative. Progression through these stages can only occur with time and experience with a culture. For example, when I arrived in Japan I could speak Japanese, say appropriate phrases, and bow when appropriate, but it was only after some time living there that I could speak the local dialect and understand,appreciate, and use nuances of meaning in language and body language.
It is these reasons that I think makes virtual worlds an excellent method for cross-cultural training. The virtual immersion and opportunities for multiple experiences can help lessen one’s personal stress in new situations and may help one advance to a deeper understanding of another culture more quickly. If that can happen, perhaps the focus can shift from “doing business” to “working with people.”

]]> By: Cultural « My Blog http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224#comment-973 Cultural « My Blog Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:11:21 +0000 http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224#comment-973 [...] Cultural By gd http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224 [...] […] Cultural By gd http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224 […]

]]> By: Kwame Oh http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224#comment-967 Kwame Oh Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:35:08 +0000 http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=224#comment-967 Very interesting topic in these times of a shift in the centre of gravity with regard the social/econimic dynamics of the world today. We all recall with humor the fabled words of the man from the foreign office, when asked by big business for introductions "we have a man on the ground" and this modi operandi served well for many decades. I would say that now yes the platform would be great for cost cutting vis a vis cultural training but would go further and say that the concept of learning a mode of behavior and as such "fit in" no longer applies in the word now full of sophisticated members of communities, across the world today. My point is not whether the outreach which I prefer to call it is possible, but the perception of what the outcomes should be from this outreach. to put it bluntly, you learn to bow at the right time/place because you understand my culture, or are doing it to do business with me. "grin" Julius Sowu Virtually-Linked London Very interesting topic in these times of a shift in the centre of gravity with regard the social/econimic dynamics of the world today.

We all recall with humor the fabled words of the man from the foreign office, when asked by big business for introductions “we have a man on the ground” and this modi operandi served well for many decades.

I would say that now yes the platform would be great for cost cutting vis a vis cultural training but would go further and say that the concept of learning a mode of behavior and as such “fit in” no longer applies in the word now full of sophisticated members of communities, across the world today.

My point is not whether the outreach which I prefer to call it is possible, but the perception of what the outcomes should be from this outreach. to put it bluntly, you learn to bow at the right time/place because you understand my culture, or are doing it to do business with me. “grin”

Julius Sowu Virtually-Linked London

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