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Sinclair Community College

Interviewing a Professional

Sarah.E.Howard

Anthropology 1145.106

Karen Korn

May 5, 2019
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The interview was on 4/24/19 from 11 to 11:25 and was located in his office at

sinclair. Rocky Belcher went to school for finance and accounting. His first job was

being an analyst at a bank after that he became a management information systems

director. He was then an entrepreneur then a professor. Rocky has been working since

1979 started professionally in 1985. He chose to be a banker because he was told

finance majors make the most money. Then he became an mis director because he

became well known in the dayton area for his computer skills, which lead him to

become an entrepreneur because he hated mis.

Finally he became a professor after selling his last business because he wanted

to give back to the community. He did not take anthropology class because it was not

required an took psychology for being an honors student. His family comes from the

south his dad’s side were coal miners. His mom’s side were farmer merchants. He and

his brother were the first ever to go to college in their family. They were the 1st people

on his dads side to go to high school. Rocky has been in the u.s since 1654.

He’s married to a jew and they both have hosted 6 exchange students from

Colombia, Spain, Korea, Thailand, Australia, France, Sweden. They have family from

different countries so they travel all over. Both him and his wife have Been to Mexico,

Jamaica, Bahama, Spain, South Korea, and Thailand. Their kids are adopted from

overseas from Korea. He would love to learn about more cultures so he is able to travel

more when he is retired. Culture comes into play everyday in his job. In a current job a

long time ago, how americans perceived cheating and how people from asia perceived

cheating are both entirely different. The best way to deal with cultural differences is to
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not assign ur perceptions to someone else’s intentions. The insights I picked up on was

how important culture comes into play in business.

The first source I used was https://smallbusiness.chron.com/top-10-diversity-

issues-work-24939.html. They show ten different issues of diversity at work. The list

they have is respect in the workplace, conflict among employees, alternative lifestyle

acceptance, ethnic and cultural differences, gender diversity, preventing harassment

and eliminating discrimination, communication among employees, age ranges and

generation gaps, disabilities and worker needs, and consistency in training and

practices. In the business world there is a lot of diversity between cultures. The reason

for this being is because of the different places that people come from and how things

work in their culture. It is also because if u want to get another country to work with you

then you have to know what their culture is so you are respectful without doing

something wrong to disrespect them.

The second source I used was https://www.diversityinc.com/the-top-issues-

regarding-diversity-in-organizations/. On this source they show a list of six issues. A

lack of understanding, ignorance, lack of measurement, lack of leadership commitment,

lack of bidirectional communications, and finally lack of nurturing. The overall issue i see

here is not caring and putting everything aside so as not to have to deal with it. Culture

in some jobs and businesses should be dealt with instead of being uncared for.

The third source is https://www.slideshare.net/ivawalton/culture-and-diversity-in-

business. Culture is defined by the way people eat, dress, and speak. It is basically a
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groups history and beliefs. To be able to market abroad, for workers to be abroad, and

to have business etiquette the main thing that must be prioritized is being cautious of

the difference in the cultures and how to be respectful. One benefit of diversity is the

reduction of conflict at work.

The fourth source is https://www.thebalance.com/cultural-diversity-3306201.

Diversity includes race, ethnicity, age, ability, language, nationality, socioeconomic

status, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. Culture diversity majorly impacts

benefits in the workplace. It helps gives more insight to different problems and solutions

because not every individual person knows about every single culture. If you can get

more solutions to the business the business is able to profit more from the ideas that the

employees come up with or solutions.

In diversity there is a stronger buying power to be able to get more connections

across the world. There is also a benefit to this so you are able to sell your product to

other consumers around the world. It usually takes longer for diverse teams to work

together because of their differences but definitely gives great results in the end. The

results end up being higher in numbers which is a huge advantage in the business

world. If the group stays committed to one goal in the end they were able to overcome

any obstacles that stood in their way.

The fifth and final source I ended up using was https://aboutleaders.com/10-traditional-

organizational-culture-problems/#gs.9gf54a. There are five of these from the list that

really stood out to me. 1.Problems take too long to solve and keep recurring, wasting

time and resources. 2.The structures and systems create problems by dividing and

boxing people. 3.Most people are excluded from the decision-making and thinking
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processes thereby limiting potential to change and adapt quickly. 4.People are not

involved or included in the purpose of the organization and feel apart from it rather than

a part of it. 5.Failure is a greater focus than success.

What I have learned from all of this research is that cultural diversity really

is an important factor in the business world. Without it business would be failing

and would be shut down because of lack of materials and consumers. This is

why it is very important to learn about other cultures so you are able to make a

deal without be disrespectful. If you disrespected someone you are trying to

make a deal with they will most likely not want to. The reason being is that they

wouldn’t be able to trust you. Who wants to work with someone that they can’t

trust, especially when they aren’t able to monitor you because you live thousands

of miles away.