Ashutosh Madhurajan

Cultural Competence
PCOM 0105 Intercultural Comm Skills – B180(2)
Deborah Lewiski
02-04-2022
Cultural Competence

Culture competence is the ability to serve people in an appropriate way. Whoever comes to our

door, we are able to treat them with the level of respect and dignity that they deserve and that

they perceive the service that they get, is done in a way that is comfortable and meets with their

standards.

While living and working in Canada, the employees of my organization would expect me to

embrace all the culture, read and learn about them, practice good manners, ask questions

whenever in doubt rather than assuming anything. It is so incredible to see how we all come

along to solve a problem creatively where we all have different perceptions about it, and this

helps us understand the problem holistically and make products and services which are accepted

by people from all the different cultures we sell to. Moreover, celebrating traditional holidays,

festivals, and sharing food with all the colleagues, pay attention to different cultures, listen to

songs and watch popular movies from different cultures, be compassionate and be aware of

different time zones would also help me to be more culture competent.

The greatest learning that I have had that makes me more of a culturally competent person is that

the values and norms of various cultures which are on the tip of the cultural iceberg are not

enough to define an individual. For better understanding of a person or a particular community, I

have to dig more and study what values are under the surface or the cultural iceberg.
Lastly to summarise, all the people should remember that "culture is not just one aspect of the

game, it is the game" as said by Loius Gerstner, IBM.