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End of Week 3

Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th September

Saturday was a more relaxed day with me just discussing with my family and then my friends about what culture is to them . With some of my friends even realizing how different they are to each other but how it still works well in the relationship as a balance due to understanding as well as consideration. I then went out on the Saturday night to Newtown and saw how accepting diversity is now considered "Trendy" to an extent and shameful to be traditional minded and un-accepting of cultural differences. Sunday was the finishing up my last chapter of the textbook, talking to some more customers and noticing that communication is my biggest asset in terms of building cross cultural skills. Reflecting on my progress from the past weeks in comparison has shown me in fact just how complex Managing cultural differences can be.

Friday 23rd September

Even though I planned on talking to my co-workers before work today , I ran a little late and had minimal conversation with customers either as I was doing refill of stock. Although on my break I did get a chance to talk to my manager again and discussed the extremities of how managing cultural differences allows you to manage responses. That is getting passive responses rather than accidental aggressive ones. Following work I researched again into different cultural traditions and mannerisms to actually understand the why certain cultures do things differently and how that affects them integrating into such a multicultural society such as Australia. Making me think about how it must be difficult to share your values and beliefs in large companies with an array of cultures.Even though I planned on talking to my co-workers before work today , I ran a little late and had minimal conversation with customers either as I was doing refill of stock. Although on my break I did get a chance to talk to my manager again and discussed the extremities of how managing cultural differences allows you to manage responses. That is getting passive responses rather than accidental aggressive ones. Following work I researched again into different cultural traditions and mannerisms to actually understand the why certain cultures do things differently and how that affects them integrating into such a multicultural society such as Australia. Making me think about how it must be difficult to share your values and beliefs in large companies with an array of cultures.

Thursday 22nd September

I was sick today so I didn’t get to go to work but i did go university, therefore I didn’t get chance for a lot of communication but I did read a bit more of the textbook and thought of a way of effective cross cultural team -building skills. That being of actually talking to your members and getting to know a bit about them and see if there are any similarities or differences amongst you and amongst your team.

Wednesday 21st September

Back at work again , this time realizing more so the culture of the company itself. I knew that universal was quite different in comparison to other stores but even when I have worked in other areas the culture of the company is almost identical because the people that work for it are similar in values and beliefs . As well as with the same attitude and treatment of others . When asking my co-workers I got the same generalized answers as previously discussed. Today I also discussed with my family what culture means to them and they said it a sense of identity also , an identity that needs to be respected especially in the workplace and society. Giving me the thought of needing to be considerate as a future manager. Following my tutorial , I reflected on last week's progress and realized how culture is everywhere and the ability to see things objectively as well as subjectively is an asset.

Tuesday 20th September

The second day of the week started off with a short shift at work . Back to doing stock again but before work I asked some of my co-workers what they thought managing cultural differences means. Samantha mentioned the point that even within certain cultures there are different groups. Being of New Zealand and Samoan heritage she told me how even in those nations their a similarities and also differences depending on which side of the island you are from , whether that be from the environment ancestors lived in ,or the beliefs of how the world around them came to be. Supporting the previous concept of the complexity of cultures . I continued with the training resource manual and read more of managing cultural differences on the train home from university. Started research into different cultural traditions and mannerisms and found that certain basics when it comes to do's and dont’s can contradict the basic norms , well that is what I consider to be the basic norm. Such as that of shaking someone's hand or gesturing towards someone.

Monday 19th September

With the last and final week of the implementation, I thought it would be best to start it slow and gradually build up. The day started off with me making some light conversation with peers at university before my tutorial . Surrounding the question on what they think cultural differences means. A lot of the generic words such as understanding, communicating and learning were thrown around but also some people had no clue whatsoever. Following my tutorial I thought of ways to effectively build cross-cultural team building skills. I came up with the idea to have the team not work in just one in environment or to even meet in different environments. So that regardless of culture it is a new shared experience. And continuing on with the diversity training manual .

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th

The End of week 2 wasn’t overly filled on activities but mainly practicing communication , with customers on both Saturday and Sunday as well as talking to my manager again on my break ;and asking my co-workers what they think managing cultural differences means. As well as discussing with my family what cultural differences means. The different ideas that were said , were that of the association of cultural differences to segregation and isolation. An idea said by one of my co-workers and discussed by us ;that the downfall of incorrect management of cultural differences isn't just the straight miscommunication and offense , but also the potential to segregate a person from belonging. This weekend I didn’t get to read further in the textbook or continue the survey but I did get to go out and observe different cultures but this time in the town of Newtown where cultural diversity was boundless and limitless. Beyond the differences of nationality but sexuality, fashion, belief , etc. all accepted and welcomed.

End of Week 2

Friday 16th September

With work only beginning later I decided to go out yet again and just immerse myself in the culture Liverpool has to offer, this time just by sitting in the park and seeing the different activities on and the different people walking by. I then also continued reading a little bit of Managing Cultural Differences but not too much. Work at universal today was half and half in terms of communication, with me doing stock yet again for the first half of the shift , and then having a slow day with minimal customers. Following the gym that day I reflected on my progress and realized the deeper understanding of Managing culture rather than just cultural differences.

Thursday 15th September

Passed the mid-way mark of week 2, the day started off mainly with work at Universal. A lot of communication with customers and understanding their needs .Did some further reading on the train to university as well as doing some more further research before my tutorial but not finding anything overly different than Monday and Wednesday in terms of similarities. Following on after my university tutorial I continued filling out the Managing cultural diversity training program resource manual by the Australian Multicultural Foundation.

Wednesday 14th September

Woke up a bit earlier today so I could go out for a bit before work. Today I headed to the local library to see if there were different cultures . It was quite early so there wasn’t too many people but from what I observed it was mainly people either with their kids or people over the age of 40. Particularly from an Australian culture, Asian culture and Middle Eastern culture. Even though I planned on talking to more customers today I did not get a chance too as I was doing stock . I read further into Managing Cultural Differences and reflected on the textbook so far . Realizing the deeper understanding of Managing cultural differences that I have gained. I also continued my research from Tuesday on examples of correctly managed cultural differences.

Tuesday 13 September

Tuesday was a more relaxed day when it came to the plan, for today was not so much on practical but reflection. The day started off with me discussing with my friends what culture meant to them . Generally the answer was that of a person's values and beliefs but one of my friends mentioned that one person can have various cultures, that is, be a mixture of different cultures. Which makes sense particularly in a country like Australia that even though stereo typically portrays an Australian and American culture in media, in society various cultures are available to be submersed in. I also reflected on Week 1 in comparison to Week 2. There aren't any major differences but more developments of ideas. I also continued to fill out the Australian Multicultural Foundation training program resource manual.

Monday 12th September

Today was the beginning of the second week of the plan. Week 1 went well even though it was difficult to implement the plan and working around university tutorials, work and gym. My Monday began with me going for a walk and just observing the different cultures around Liverpool. I saw various diverse cultures with Liverpool being a very multicultural community. But mainly observing the elderly from a Balkan culture in the city centre, playing chess with the elderly from a middle eastern culture. Which was quite interesting considering the language barrier but, the similarity in culture when it comes to respect and demeanor resonates between the two. Unfortunately I did not get to read another chapter of Managing Cultural Differences due to time constraints but I did get to fill out more of the survey after my tutorial. Examples I found of correctly managed Cultural Differences shared similarities in terms of good communication, awareness, timing , team-building, attitude , knowledge and skills.

#19th #sepetember

Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th of September

The weekend consisted of work again as well as reading more of the 'Managing Cultural Differences' concentrating on chapter 4 'Global leaders learning from others and change' and chapter 5 'Women leaders in Global business'. Work this time though was much more busy so it lacked the one on one time with customers that I had earlier on in the week. Although on my break I continued my conversation with my manager about how she manages cultural differences . This time she referred to the work culture, more precisely everyone in the teams different approach , and how that relates to absenteeism at work and sometimes not even turning up . Her difficulties with managing everyone's different culture particularly when it comes to scheduling staff on for particular days where there a certain family, religious or cultural days.

End of Week 1

Friday 9th September

With a longer shift at work today , there was a lot more interaction . Particularly because the day was quite slow meaning a lot more one on one time with customers, just making general conversation. With me having the same conclusions from Wednesday and Thursday. Today though on my break , I spoke with my manager about managing cultural differences. It was a quite interesting conversation as she has been a manager of several areas ,of different stores and with herself being of a Persian-Muslim culture, she finds that it is not only the issue of managing cultures in terms of customers, but also understanding the response of people toyour own culture that you have to manage. She also enlightened me to the fact that while generally speaking , one may define culture as a term in regards to race, nationality and religion , it may also refer to a culture such as that of a trend . Such as those in fashion, that give people a different perspective and outlook in certain things. I also watched the 2014 ,Michael Gavin (Professor of human dimensions of natural resources) Ted Talk on why cultural diversity matters and found it useful. The main concept I took away from this video was that of when we are talking about cultural diversity we are talking about thousands of ways of seeing the world .

#friday #16th #september

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