Running Head: BUS 360 FINAL ASSIGNMENT 1

BUS 360 Reflection Paper

Final Assignment
Anshdeep Gill (n0169819)
North Island College
BUS 360 FINAL ASSIGNMENT 2

Reflect what you have learned about Intercultural Communication from the course. Give one
example of something that you personally learned from taking Intercultural Communication?
My journey through this course has been commendable as I am living in the country where most
of the cultures are living together. I’m working as a senior sales associate at 7 eleven. Over there
I have seen multiculturalism where people from all kinds of culture are working under the same
roof. I have learnt so much about cross cultural management there such as what is the behavior
of my colleagues and how to deal with them in different situations.
I came from India to Canada in 2018, initially I analysed how Canada is different in terms
of work ethics as compared to India. So, what I have noticed is in India businesspeople who meet
for the first time would not start working with each other till the time they come to know about
each other. Suppose, I’m the owner of firm named A, planning to start some business with firm
named x in India, we will firstly try to know each other’s personalities, morals, values and ethics
the owner has towards the work and society. On the opposite side what I noticed people in
Canada respect time and consider time as a money and are so much punctual. If in the future I
will be starting business with a Canadian company I know that I am not going to waste their time
while knowing them and what I have to do is straight talk about business and on the other hand if
I am going to start some business with china, it is same as India.
The most integral thing which I learnt from this course is Hofstede model where he showed
onion metaphor by using layers of rituals, heroes, values and customs which shows means values
they do not change with time but the other three can be learner and they change with time. This
course has helped me a lot in my working life and I am confident that when I am going to
complete my studies this course is going to help me a lot in my professional life. As whenever I
am working at 7 eleven, I am a shift manager over there I’m responsible for everything.
The thing that confuses me most is dilemma of motivation as everyone working at 7 eleven
have different motivations according to their culture and it is so integral to learn how they can be
motivated in order to take 100% from them. I learnt in this course about Japanese concept which
was explained by Ouchi in his Z theory that workers are disciplined, have strong zeal and morale
to work, and they wanted to maintain harmony and peace at work through cooperating and
coordinating with each other. This is a two-way process as they will be working hard as soon as
management is concerned about them.
I have also learnt from here is that there are two types of leaders, task oriented and
relationship oriented. Task oriented leaders are the leaders who give directions in an autocratic
way and relationship oriented leaders are the leaders who try to build positive environment at the
business by communicating more in a democratic way and what I believe is both are important in
the life as they can be applied according to the situation a manager is tackling.
In the conclusion I would say that I have learnt so many new things in this course that are going
to help me in this globalized work economy.
BUS 360 FINAL ASSIGNMENT 3
To understand the influence of culture on Intercultural Communication businesses must look
at various components of human behavior. What do you feel is the most important component
of human behaviour when it comes to intercultural communication?
An individual is always influenced with the culture he or she is living in. Each society is defined
by there own rules, norms and values made for the benefit of their people which further forms
behavior. Behaviour of the person purely comprises of the culture they are brought up by which
they come to know what is good for them and what is wrong for them and what is acceptable in
our society. As world is becoming more modern day by day, our ancestors have set foundation
pillar on which our ethics, morals and values stand but with changing time westernisation has a
great influence in our culture.
Each culture has 3 layers. The first layer and the outermost layer is behavioral level which
consists of what an individual immediately notices when he comes abroad like food, language,
clothes, houses and buildings. The second layer is known as norms and values. Every culture has
their own set of beliefs on which behavior of a person runs and through these norms and values a
person comes to know what is right or what is wrong for him. Norms are the rules set by the
society and which do not change for anybody and on the other hand values are what a person
thinks and speaks with his inner voice about something seen and this changes with person to
person. The third layer and the innermost layer which lies at the bottom recesses at the core of
culture is assumptions and beliefs. These are the most difficult to understand as they put a person
in dilemma like if someone asks a person why you did this and our answer is, I don’t know. For
example, why cricket is more popular in India rather than the national game of India that is
hockey and we do not have a specific answer for this. It is loved by our culture and families sit
down together and enjoy the cricket match.
After that comes cultural assumptions in management by which it means a person’s nature to
what extent can be controlled by the system they are working. Development of a culture happens
where a group of people have same thinking of interpreting messages like members of a family,
they undergo some change in behavior by understanding each other because they live under the
same roof. One important thing which I have noticed is national culture the first one is family
which acts a foundation pillar in a human. Second, one is religion which has its own set of
beliefs which all the people in that religion obeys. The third one is education where a teacher
affects the student’s way of learning which changes the quality of human resources in the labor
market. The fourth one is mass communication media which helps in spreading values, tastes,
attitude of a person and at last is the multinational company which makes a strong influence on
people’s living and increases standard of living of people for example by using Apple products
makes a benchmark set of a person’s status in the society. At the end what I feel is everything
depends on an individual that how that person perceives the message. Working in an
organisation or sitting in the society totally depends upon the positive attitude and in today’s
world everyone is more fond of self respect, dignity and runs towards self actualization needs so
whether a worker belongs to any culture respect and dignity should be provided at every level to
maintain harmony and peace in the society as well as work place which can totally change the
behavior of the person.