Research Topics: Sample Reflective Essay

Sociological Reading Response Paper on Beauty Up

Response Paper (Beauty Up)               The article tells the readers how the aspect of beauty is being explored at the same time manifested in men as the author persuades the imperative assumptions relating to Japanese body Aesthetics thus, giving valuable and precise arguments to direct factors of ‘Beauty Up’, emphasizing crucial discussions such as changing beauty ideology, male beauty work and other factors comprising the overall stance of the article. The author argued that there is more essence of true beauty as to what artificial beauty can offer, for one is the evolution of body aesthetics that have inspired many Japanese people particularly, Japanese men. The strength of the author incurs the logical interaction of how the situation works into the whole context providing strength to ideas and concepts in similar and different perspectives. Indeed, the author explains well on the male beauty work upon using concrete examples of how body aesthetics work in organized manner but at some point, the author was weak as she initially miss out on the notion that is can’t be just for men but for women as well.               There was inclusion of interviews upon investigating of new trend, the method used for supporting arguments deemed relevant as to why the author is somehow emphasizing too broad terms but not found any parallelism of such when it comes to informative approach.  There were also visits made into salons to acquire reliable evidence and there outcomes to cultural bias against women.               Arguments imposed by the author provide relevance to readers since, there is effort to obtain clear idea of beautiful objects, people judgments upon them and the motives underlying the acts which create them in order to raise the aesthetic life, allowing full scope to the disinterested feelings of curiosity and wonder to create emotional participation. Agreeing that, the objective method implied will not suffice to give readers an adequate idea of beauty among men. For beautiful things are created by men, not passively discovered which men made to realize something.       Citation:   Miller, Laura. (1953), ‘Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics’. University of California Press (in, 2006) by The Regents of the University of California pp. 1-341. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Sociological Reading Response Paper on Beauty Up

Response Paper (Beauty Up) The article tells the readers how the aspect of beauty is being explored at the same time ma...

Reflection on Readings

Reflection on Readings Today, the academic world is witnessing the creation of new learning environments. One thing is clear: technology will continue to be a single most important determinant of delivering teaching and learning processes and activities. These processes and activities make important both the roles of teachers and students but the weight is given for the teachers to integrate technological know-how in curriculum and instructions. WebQuest is one among such activities which aimed at tapping both short term and long term learning benefits for teachers. In this reflection teachers are considered as the learner. WebQuest is basically inquiry-driven where informations are readily available on the Internet and which is optionally supplemented by videoconferencing. Although WebQuest was designed for learners to acquire knowledge, integrate and apply this knowledge on real life situations and analyze the wealth of information through sense-making, WebQuest, from a personal standpoint, has a weak foundation. I say this because the information sources are already there hence it is like a spoon-feeding whereby teachers as learners are not given the opportunity to broaden their horizon. As such, WebQuest makes student teachers analyze but it does not pushing them toward critical thinking. With this, I say that it is really important to utilize questions that requires critical thinking such as why, how and which to complement the basic questions of what, where, when and who. It is also commendable that WebQuest presented both the critical and non-critical attributes. Personally, I believed that it should be the other way around. Group activities, motivational elements and interdisciplinary approach should be the critical attributes due to the fact that it develops all learning domains such as acquisition, transmission, accretion and emergence. Brown (2005) the emphasis must be on aligning the teaching profession in the way it will stick with the real goals of education. To wit, what teachers will be learning from this site will be trickled down onto their students. Learning evident in WebQuest is continual, an embedded process, self-selected and needs-based. Learning is also obviously learner constructed, personal and subjective. However, reflection is not much considered thus deeper learning is not achieved that much. As learner-driven as it is, should WebQuest treat the part/part as critical attribute because it tends to be procedural rather than contributing to effective e-learning. Using Ertmer’s (2005) work it is possible to show that curriculum-based technological integration follows a transformative, processual path wherein teachers could be technologically empowered through small-scale applications. Paradoxically, thinking skills that WebQuest claimed to be developing may include that of comparing, classifying, inducing, deducing, analyzing errors, constructing support, abstraction and analyzing perspectives. With this point, I opined that there are at least three skills that should be included and these are reflection, problem solving and critical thinking. Reflection provides a structured opportunity for learners to consider ramifications of their WebQuest experiences and better understand their roles prior, during and after activities. Problem-solving aims to develop logical thinking of learners as well as creative thinking. Such skills also develop their capability to arrive at corrective actions when something went wrong. Critical thinking skills provide learners the ability to build upon knowledge minus incremental guidance. Teachers are well aware that knowledge is fluid and builds upon itself. Brown (2005) echoed this idea by stating that the blind faith on the potential of technology should be abandoned and profession should be engaged in the technology debate from a critical context. There will be the perennial question whether technology-based teaching and learning is helping to create students whom are critically informed. In simpler terms, dependence on technology by either teachers or students should cultivate critical, functional citizens in the long run. WebQuest is navigate-difficult considering its design steps but the other reading suggest that a better way to do is through adhering into the research cycle. Such a cycle could guide teachers in properly navigating in WebQuest specifically for first-time users. Ertmer (2005) stressed that the pedagogical beliefs of academic professionals were viewed to be one of the barriers in the successful integration of computers into the educational system. It is important for the teachers to be expert and competent on the field of technological learning integration to support their aims inside the classroom. Nevertheless, there is yet another praiseworthy feature of WebQuest is that it is feedback-oriented. Although there is limitations on the style of interface as comments are generated from distant audience, critiquing is an important endeavor for teachers because they could also learn deeper from this process. Through this, teachers are enabled to focus on intended meanings and discussing alternative views while also further developing new ideas. As opposed to Ertmer’s (2005) suppositions, WebQuest is an example where teachers are not resisting the change instead they are supporting it. Further, WebQuest and The Question is the Answer supports the ideals of connectivism learning. Connectivism learning includes meaningful insights such as learning and knowledge is embedded on diversity of opinions as well as a process of connection which is apparent in WebQuest through videoconferencing and feedbacking. It would be also important to note that connections should be important in facilitator of continual learning. For connectivism to be effective capacity to know more should be treated critical rather than what is already known should be the aim. Although there are not much enabler to develop creativity among learners in the WebQuest other than the creativity of designing, for me, The Question is the Answer has more powerful ways of developing creative skills. This is because these questions and the research cycle require patience and in-depth thinking compared to the critical attributes of WebQuest. In making both as effective cognitive tools, various simulations that involve all the eight thinking skills as well as reflection, problem solving and critical thinking skills should be all integrated. Other cognitive skills that could be integrated are reasoning, perceptions and concentration. Such skills are so powerful that they will impact performance and success within and outside classrooms or on-line or off. References Ertmer, P. A. (2005). Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs: The Final Frontier in Our Quest for Technology Integration. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(4): 25-39.   Brown, M. (2005). The Growth of Enterprise Pedagogy: How ICT Policy is Infected by Neo-Liberalism. Australian Educational Computing, 20(2): 16-22. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Reflection on Readings

Reflection on Readings Today, the academic world is witnessing the creation of new learning environments. One thing is clear: technolog...

A Reflective Paper on Learning Experience in a Cross Cultural Environment Context

Reflective Paper Introduction Culture is learned. Man is not born with culture, but with the ability to learn, acquire, and develop culture through experience. For example, a child is born not knowing what culture is or how things are done in the eyes of society. But he learns through imitating, how thing are properly done. He then develops the necessary tools to go about his daily activities. Also, through the help of language, this is the primary tool for communication; the elder generation can pass to the younger generation the knowledge and skills they had acquired through experience. Therefore, because of these things, you could say that culture is learned.             All people have varied culture. There are differently groups of people around the world, and we call these groups different societies. A society may be a group of people banding together and living in a stable union, and pooling together their efforts to attain a common objective by collective action. Knowing this, people should not judge a custom of one society using his own since they both have different societies and culture. With this consideration, this paper gives a short overview of my observed behavioral pattern of the French and Chinese business culture. Understanding this behavioral pattern is important for doing effective communication with people and people groups from these countries. Effective communication is vital in establishing business and personal relationship in these countries. This paper is intended to be a reflection of my learning experience in a cross cultural environment context. The first part of the paper gives a short overview of my observed behavioral pattern of the French and Chinese business culture.  My Background I was born in Hong Kong but I finished my last 5 year of formal education in Australia. I have a Bachelor degree with a major in accounting from an Australian university. Prior to my undergraduate studies I had studied my year 11 and year 12 in a Catholic High school in Australia. I am a qualified accountant and have worked in the finance and accounting field for somewhat twenty years now. After I graduated, I worked in an Australian CPA firm for 3 years. These 8 years of oversea experiences have rooted my thinking pattern and communication style.   Cross Culture Environment             Culture is a group product. Culture was not designed by man to become what it has become. It is simply the accumulation of certain practices acquired by man through his interaction with other people. For example, I with my group may start out on a research. I may find a good method in doing this research with the help of another group mate. Other members may find a better way of improving the method I used in doing the research. And in due time, other groups may seem interested in my way of doing research and may try to imitate it. Just one person in the group may not be a Man just adapted whatever practice was most useful to him at the time and then went on to keep that practice as time went further on. Therefore, culture is not only learned but is also transmitted through human interaction and experience. A generation may put an imprint upon the one before it, thus, making an accumulation and selective result of group life.             I do believe that culture is transmitted from generation to generation or from another to one another. This may happen through oral traditions or in writing. It may be transmitted through everyday conversation, through interaction between the older and the younger, and even through reward and punishment. Culture is accumulated and whatever the past has learned, the present and future generation may build on it to produce something better which may aid them more as they go along the roads of everyday life. For example, when people in the early days wanted to preserve food to keep them from rotting, they put them in barrels filled with salt or put in seasoning or exposed them under the sun to dry. By doing that, they are still ensured of having meat which wasn’t rotten but lost the flavor of fresh meat. So, the future generation invented a better way of preserving the meat and its flavor, by freezing it, and they accomplished that with the aid of the refrigerator.             Another means of transporting knowledge from generation to generation is through books and spoken language. The accumulated knowledge and learning of the bygone scholars and great thinkers of the past are imparted to us through the books and other written materials in which they have so tediously spent their lives writing. And also, through the spoken medium; oral traditions may not have been successfully passed to the younger generations if not through the use of songs, tales, stories, and other such things. That is why communication arts is a very important part of the school curriculum.             With my experience in Coface, I would agree to say that culture is adaptive. Culture continually renews itself. It is even said that nothing is much more predictable than death, change, and culture change. Humans have a way of inventing things when he is in very much need of it. If he finds that the method he uses is no longer obtaining his desired results, he then turns to a new strategy which may give to him the results he so desires. For example, a teacher may find her class very rowdy, noisy and out of control. So she tries to shout on the top of her voice just to get the class’s attention. But it would only cause more of the riot, so, she tries another method. She keeps quiet and waits for the class to settle down. And settle they did. You see, this discovery of hers may result in a new behavior pattern which satisfies the characteristic mentioned above. Having works in Coface for the past 9 years has exposed me with tremendous multicultural interpersonal experiences. Coface is French insurance company operating as a Branch office in Hong Kong.  The Hong Kong office is managed by an expatriate from Head office to oversee the strategic development in the Greater China Region. We have three other French expatriates who are in charge of the underwriting, IT and operation department of the company. In my current position as head of finance department, I am further expose to PRC working culture environment.   My Learning Style Based on the learning style questionnaire given in the leadership and motivation course from MGSM last year, l realize that I am a kinesthetic learner I tend to spend a lot of time think through the problem. This can be a good way to work out a problem but I sometime may have waste a lot of energy analyzing and over analyzing the problem and not enough time actually solving the problem.  This assessment also revealed my learning style is more sensing meaning I tend to learn easier by memorizing facts. I am also a visual learner. I learn best by using pictures, diagrams and flowchart which I always think that my educational background and my profession of being an Accountant lead me to a sequential learner. I must admit that I do not always understand the big pictures, but can process the different elements of problem logically. Actually, this experience enables me to believe that intercultural competence does not only mean the ability of an individual to express his or her views and opinions intellectually. It also means that I must be developed wholistically to be able to understand and respect the culture, religion, beliefs, and practices of other individuals in the society. This concept means that I as intercultural competent person should be intelligent and at the same time respectful and open-minded regarding the issues and changes happening in my community. Without open-mindedness and ethno-relativism, knowledge regarding other cultures will not be applied effectively, and opens opportunities for racial discrimination and injustice in the society.   My Communication Style During my primary and junior high school education, the system of teaching in Hong Kong was much concentrated was pushing the knowledge to students and assess them only through written examinations. There was little or no opportunity for interactions where students could openly ask any questions. Asking too many questions will seems to be badly behaved students and lack of respect to the teacher. As a result, my communication skills and self confident was unconscious underdeveloped. However, I would say that under this kind of education environment, I was a good listener and I had my strength in understanding, viewing information from different perspectives and interpreting of information correctly. In my later years of senior high school which I was educated in Australia, there was a lot of focus and emphasis on communication and interaction during class. Students was encourage to ask as many questions as they wish and even the “native and stupid” questions was throw out which made whole class laughed, the Australian students was never shy about their behavior and the teacher treated all questions politely and professionally. I realize that my previous educational environment in Hong Kong has hindered my ability to communicate freely and effectively in the Australian society. As times goes by, I realized that every time I had to face the crowd, my confident built up until I finally overcame the challenge of not being able to understand the subject or topic well; I am able to communicate effectively and confidently than before.   Actually, I do several language studies and acquisitions in order to communicate effectively and confidently. My innate motivation affects the time I spent in learning a language. As my learning attitudes affect motivation, if I expect to succeed—I will be more likely to succeed, if I have  unreasonable expectations I may get discouraged, certain kinds of anxiety can interfere with my language learning, fear of making mistakes can inhibit your learning, too much correction or criticism can inhibit my learning, the more positive I feel about the speakers of a language, the more motivation I will have to learn it, if I want to communicate with speakers of a language, I will be more motivated to learn it, and if I need to use a language, I will be more motivated to learn it. People learn better if their learning is encouraged by speakers of the language, People need to experience language used in context, if speakers of two languages really want to communicate, they can do a lot with a little, people have expectations about who speaks which language, communication tends to take the easiest path, people may resist speaking their language because they want to learn your language, people often modify their speech when speaking to foreigners, in traditional cultures there may be only one right way to do something, it may be culturally inappropriate to be too direct in what you say, and every culture has taboo topics. Basically, language acquisition is a developmental process.  I understand that learning a language build up own systems, we need lots of comprehensible input, we can improve the sound discrimination, memory, and grammatical sensitivity skills, we can compensate for deficiencies in some skills. From my experience, I discover that the sooner we can acquire the grammatical system of a language, the sooner we can use the language creatively, we need chances to negotiate meaning with native speakers, native speakers often highly value good pronunciation, repetition helps things stick, producing language that sounds too good can be misleading, the more meaningful exposure, the more we learn, we cannot rely on memorization alone, memorized material can give a false impression of your proficiency, our brain analyzes language whether we know it or not, knowing a language is different from knowing about a language, knowing about a language may help us learn it, body language, gestures, and we communicate as much as words, learners build up an auditory image of what the language sounds like, language learners need to learn to understand and produce well-formed discourses, predictable scripts aid comprehension, language learners seem to hit plateaus, we need exposure to language in a variety of social settings, one language may interfere with another, the mind tends to filter out redundant material, productive skills are harder than receptive skills, comprehensible output can become comprehensible input, knowing the topic helps us interpret what we hear or read, linguistic context helps us understand the meaning of words, knowledge of a language may lie dormant, but be reactivated, multilingual people may associate languages with a particular setting or audience.       Team Work Skill Although I like structure, I can be pretty flexible. I am flexible with plans and changes. I think flexible is a good skill as long as I am not being taken advantages of. I listen to understand requirement of the other person’s position. I like to observe people, especially if I do not really know them. This helps to refine my judgment of the person personality, prepared myself better for future interpersonal relationship and negotiation. Due to my professional background, high respect to deadline is the fundamental value of an Accountant. Occasionally, I might seem to be insensitive to my team and other colleagues in delivering projects and work on time.  Having known the downside of the Accountant role, I always try to accommodate requests and allow flexibility so long it will not affect the timeliness of the project. From this wonderful experience, I discovered that the key task and process strategies of creating and working within the context of a multicultural team are: team building; communication and its process; participation; conflict management; and performance evaluation. In building multicultural teams, the manager must be able to develop a shared strategy on how the team will work together. The utilization of team building programmes and activities is deemed uncomplicated yet effective through simple socialization exercises that results to cultural learning opportunities. The concept of teamwork is also credited to the affirmative effects on the psychological health and interests of organisation’s member. Communication, on the other hand, serves a number of fundamental functions such as control, motivation, emotional expression, and information. It maintains values and relationships necessary to keep the system of the united organisation. Similarly, participation should be directed towards team dynamics and extends beyond organization’s success. Managers must be able to promote participation among employees through motivation and the likes. The case of conflict management is also inherent. Multicultural work settings are often challenged by conflict, thus managers should be able to implement the appropriate conflict resolutions strategies (e.g. effective communication). Lastly, performance evaluation must be rooted not only on individual basis but also on collective contributions of the members of multicultural team towards the achievement of organization’s objectives and overall success, productivity and competitive advantage.   Action plan: <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> 	 	Understand linguistic ability, allow for limitation to express one’s 	</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> 	patience 	and respect</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> 	show 	cultural empathy to understand and appreciate cultural differences 	</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> 	 	understand the interpersonal skills</li>   First, considering that I am doing business in a multicultural environment that has its own trade-related culture and as a part of acculturation, I will set on with the “Coface corporate system”. In the business world, acculturation serves as the common denominator for host and foreign culture to avoid conflict and miscommunication. At this situation, I need not to compare the culture of France with the Hong Kong’s culture. Instead, the least but could be the best thing to do is to “co-exist” with the existing policy present in the host culture. Acculturation is a” term originally applied only to the process concerning a foreign culture, from the acculturing or accultured recipient point of view, having this foreign culture added and mixed with that of his or her already existing one”. In the process of acculturation, I must try to accustom my self to the “mother culture”. However, cultural differences may come along. But it is still important to consider that every culture has its own characteristic and views on things. Culture is relative and that it does not mean that what is “right” in Hong Kong is “wrong” in France when it comes to work environment. Second, as a part of cultural integration, I will adapt to the international policies of the host country.  I should be familiar with the host culture. Believing that the cultural incorporation will solve all of the cross-cultural problems, it is essential that the expatriate need not to be only technically proficient but to have an overly simplistic view of the cultural integration of the firm’s activities and existing culture on the host culture. Using an integrator can help. It will give an idea on how will a foreign culture will mix up with a host culture. An example of integrator is the manager or inhabitant workers to the host culture. Their presence will be used in communicating with people involve in some business circumstances. I do believe that cross-cultural communication plays a vital role in any business world. The awareness and knowledge that they hold will provide needed information that could lessen up the problem of cultural resistance and differences. By doing it so, problems in communication could be minimized if not alleviated.   Final Assessment             It was already mentioned that education and learning, influences the ability of an individual to become intercultural competent. Not only does it depend on one’s knowledge of language, but also on one’s ability to empathize and respect another’s cultures and beliefs. In countries where ethnic diversity is on the rise, whether due to political upheavals, economic conditions, climactic catastrophes, shifting populations, or simply increased contact among people of different backgrounds, successful relationships with friends, neighbors and intercultural partners depend on the ability to deal with differences in a positive manner. From the arena of international business to family life, there is an increasing need to be able to deal effectively and appropriately with diversity, whether ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural. With this, international and intercultural organizations play an important role, and this is to provide not only pleasant and productive educational experiences form their participants, but also to indirectly affect their families, neighbors, and communities. Furthermore, in order for one to truly become intercultural competent, it is important to learn about an individual’s own culture and about other cultures. One way is to cultivate relationships with individual who can serve as cultural informants, or people whom a person can question about the culture and verify perceptions. Another way is to attend cultural events in communities to learn about rituals and values, and demonstrate interest to members of that culture’s community. Finally, one can be flexible in his or her intercultural interactions by reserving judgments about behaviors and intentions until he or she understands the cultural context in which they were generated.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

A Reflective Paper on Learning Experience in a Cross Cultural Environment Context

Reflective Paper Introduction Culture is learned. Man is not born with culture, but with the ability to learn, acquire, and develop cu...

Evidence Based Practice of Nursing_An exploration of an aspect of evidence based practice that is relevant to my own professional practice

Evidence Based Practice of Nursing An exploration of an aspect of evidence based practice that is relevant to my own professional practice   Introduction             As people grow older, they increasingly experience age-related changes, diseases and disorders. Such conditions have profound impact on older people’s ability to balance. They become more prone and at risk of falling. The rate of falling in Hong Kong had an immense growth over the years particularly within hospitals. In fact, patient fall is the third of main ward incidents in the hospital I currently worked for as reported from the risk management team of the cluster. As such fall is one of the most significant risks for old patient in the emergency department. Terrell et al (2009) also noted that are the most common adverse events reported in the hospitals and ED is increasingly becoming common. Knowing this, observation room staff may complete a fall assessment to see whether an old patient is at risk of falling. Discussing strategies with ward staff and risk management committees would be then plausible especially that the main goal here is to reduce the chances of the old patients toward having a fall in the observation room. This paper will focus on the situation regarding falls and falls prevention in A&E in light of my practice. Clinical decision             Falls among elderly inpatients represent a major care concern for hospital institutions. In my area of practice I have learned that there is a prevalence of falls among inpatient older people. Various accounts that I have encountered include walking in the aisle with this old male patient who is refusing the guidance of a nursing assistant, getting pissed off with the assistant, walking way to the comfort rooms even inside their respective rooms and the worst are always inside the A&E wherein old patients are being outbalanced then falling right on the ground. At times, these things happen both in and without the presence of nursing assistants, nurses and doctors. It would be tolerable if these people are around when older patients had near misses and slips who could immediately offer help but it would not be acceptable if older patients are not given the proper venue to determine their levels of risk. As falls are generally resultant from interactions of various risk factors (Tweedy, 2005), I therefore decided the need to discuss with ward staff and risk management committees the necessity of a falls prevention programme that could effectively reduce the rate of fall among the elderlies admitted in A&E. Identifying those who are at high risk of falling would be a significant step in providing older patients the quality of health life that is being jeopardized by mere falling. Revised cognitive continuum             Given the prevalence of falls, the long-term consequences and the costs of fall-related injuries had become a burden not just to the hospital and the medical professional staff but also to the patients’ families, friends and relatives and also to the other inpatients who are afraid and threatened to experience the same. There are risks that could be addressed and hence corrected. The main objective of this clinical decision is to minimize the risks of failing by means of implementing a risk assessment specifically since a broader evidence base is necessary for sound nursing judgments and decision-making (Standing, 2008). Such a strategy of risk reduction leading to falls prevention puts emphasis multidisciplinary working, reflecting the multi-factorial and complex nature of falls (The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, 2001, p. 4). A UK report submitted by Health Evidence Network (HEN) discerns that a fall may be a first indication of an undetected illness. To wit, through risk assessment co-morbidities of patients could be determined not to mention that the outcomes of falling would be prevented. It would be necessary to take note inhere that falls can result in different unfavorable outcomes such as minor bruises, fractures, disability, dependence and even death. Further, the main reason why older adults are hospitalized is due to fall-related injuries, five times more often compared to other causes for hospitalization as well. Falls had been the leading cause of injury deaths among people of 65 and over years of age and half occur in their own homes while others in various places such as parks, train stations and movie houses. Because the hospital administration is evidently taking an initiative to promote and improve the beneficial health outcomes of patients including the inpatient older people, the hospital is attempting to tap its ethical responsibility not just to the patients and their respective families but also to the public in general, a ethical dimension of revised cognitive continuum (Standing, 2008). Furthermore, this clinical decision involves not just a single discipline but is taken from a holistic view to include whole hospital community with ward staff and risk management personnel as the key players. In this way, evaluative competence (Standing, 2008) of the hospital community will get to participate and put their inputs hence build up their experiences. Standing (2008) concluded that “revised cognitive continuum promotes awareness of the nature and the variety of patient-centered judgment tasks and decisions in nursing, how to select the most suitable intervention tactic from available options, and the fallibility of all forms of human judgment from intuitive or experiential to analytic or rational.” In broader context, this clinical decision would be a relevant input towards effective hazard surveillance for physical hazards that could be inexistence in the hospitals, specifically in the observation room of the accident and emergency department. Apart from putting special emphasis on high risk areas, the incidents of fall could be analyzed to determine trends wherein future strategies of prevention would be built. Fall incident investigation could be established and the documentation procedures could be highlighted. Risk of falling would be well-understood in a fashion that it will be collective and a proactive effort as opposed to being reactive which is what is currently happening within the hospital, leading to effective, long-term intervention.        The question now is – Is fall risk assessment useful to minimize the fall risk in the observation room of emergency department? It is necessary then to reduce older people’s risk of falling and the consequent injuries of such fall occurrences for community-dwelling older people. The complex interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors led to the occurrence of most falls, as suggested by different literatures. There are over 400 risk factors for falling that have been reported (The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, 2001, p. 6). The intrinsic risks factors that are identified by HEN include history of falls, age, gender, ethnicity, medicines, medical conditions, impaired mobility and gait, sedentary behavior, psychological status, nutritional deficiencies, impaired cognition, visual impairments and foot problems. The extrinsic risk factors are the environmental hazards like poor lighting, slippery floors and uneven surfaces among several others; footwear and clothing and inappropriate walking aids or assistive devices. HEN maintained the third risk factor which is exposure to the elements of risk (Todd and Skelton, 2004). We should understand that falling among older adults is associated with common risk factors that include muscle weakness, history of falls, gait deficit, balance deficit, use of assistive device, visual deficit, arthritis, impaired activities of daily living, depression, cognitive impairment and age, all of which are exacerbated by the quality of the environment they are in, whether environment is conducive for the elderly and that physical hazards are consistently removed when there are such.   The first journal article that supports the necessity of implementing a falls risk assessment in A&E is that of Davison et al (2005). This research aims to determine the effectiveness of a multifactorial intervention to prevent falls in cognitively intact older persons with recurrent falls. Through a randomized controlled trial of multifactorial post-fall assessment and intervention compared with conventional care, the authors was able to come up with the primary outcome which was the number of falls and fallers and the secondary outcomes included injury rates, fall-related hospital admissions, mortality and fear of falling. There are at least two themes that emerged in the research paper: falling among community-dwelling people is a significant cause for admission in the hospitals and when they are admitted, recurrent falling would be experienced. As such, one would easily understand that risks involved in falling could be innate with that individual who suffers from episodic falling. According to the authors, fall prevention could be effectively implemented through a multifactorial risk assessment and management programme, or individualized, home-based exercise. Nevertheless, in the case of falls occurrences in A&E department, this requires a new intervention because the focus of the authors is preventing falls especially when patients are released from the hospitals.      Suggestions for falls preventions first appeared in remedial literatures in 1980s. Since then there had been numerous effort to gather evidences to support falls prevention initiatives in medical, rehabilitation and public health. The evidences purport a possible prevention of fall in some populations but for injurious falls, it is yet to be proven. The general effectiveness of fall prevention strategies is connected to the functional status of older people. The first identified group is the healthy older people, though researches showed that reducing falls in healthy older people are ineffective (Gillespie, et al, 2001). Frail older people are identified as the high risk groups including the significantly disabled and patients with acute and neurological illness (The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, p. 11). It is noteworthy to say that reducing risks factors does not necessarily mean reduction in falls and falls-related injuries. Though it is logical to assume this way, most intervention programmes regarding falls prevention provide only but limited success. The most practical fall prevention programmes for these identified risk groups include multi-factorial fall prevention programmes and exercise only. The diversity in older people involves distinctions in the level and nature of ageing, their attitude and behavior concerning aging, their willingness and struggle to adapt to the process of aging and their outlook about care are some of this. This condition points to another premise which is there are specific needs for specific sets of people (Miller, 2006). This also implicates the role played by the staff nurses and risk management team and the probable role of education as a two-way process in essence. Since treatments and processes are highly-individualistic, doctors, nurses and carers must posses an array of educational and behavioral interferences. It is necessary then to educate them fully so that they can educate their patients. All staff must be involved in the process; hence, working as a health care team. Educating them must not focus on providing them awareness of who are at risk at falling or the very nature of falling but instead on how they can build personal knowledge based on what they observe in their practice. These could be an effective way to put ‘effective’ in different falls prevention educations. Gray-Miceli (2007) makes use of the Hendrich II Fall Risk Model in assessing ‘why’ a fall would be experienced in the A&E, as coupled with the post-fall assessment. The author confirmed that the rate of falling increases proportionally with the increased number of pre-existing conditions and risk factors. As such, falls assessment is a useful guideline for practitioners, stating that fall risk-assessment and post-fall assessment are two interrelated but distinct approaches to fall evaluation. In A&E, a best practice approach could be the use of the Hendrich II Fall Risk Model that provides a determination of risk for falling based on gender, mental and emotional status, symptoms of dizziness and known categories of medications increasing risk. This is the strength of the model which includes its brevity, inclusion of “risky” medication categories and focus on interventions for specific areas of risk rather than on a single, summed general risk score. Indeed, another strength of the model is the inherence of informations leading to interventions. With the targeted interventions, the model could also tap into the role of caregivers specifically in modifying and/or reducing specific risk factors present.    Therefore, staff nurses, interns and other medical practitioners should be given basic skills on how to monitor, review, implement, document, report and discuss falls incidents aside from checking the patient, taking his vital signs and assisting the patients to get up on the floor (Pyrek, 2006, p. 276). This is more important on acquiring the whys and the hows of a specific incident or to always consider “Why did this happen?” Through this, they may possibly serve as emblem of a structured evaluation and subsequent implementation of falls strategies. The role of nurses is extended to collaborating with the families and promoting health, nutrition management, establishing supportive environments, collaborate with peers and provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations on falls prevention. But the greater emphasis on the role of nurses and other medical associates are placed on improving processes. Put simply, staff nurses are effective sources of informations on identifying and acting on modifiable risk factors, improving care of vulnerable patients, providing synopsis of research evidence, detect and treat eyesight and hearing problems, suggesting ways to improve medication associated with falls and many others (Windsor, 2007). Another study is conducted by Russell et al (2006) who contend that there is currently no standard approach to falls risk assessment and management for older fallers presenting to the emergency department who are discharged directly home. There is the necessity then to conduct such a study for the purpose of describing the prevalence of falls risk factors associated with older fallers presenting to the ED and identifying the factors associated with post-discharge decline function in this group. Hence, in achieving a holistic falls risk assessment could also mean delimiting such assessment with A&E to include the prevalence of falls risk factors at the time of discharge and onwards perhaps within a designated period of time. Other things that should be assessed are functional decline and objective measurements of balance, gait, depression and falls efficacy. There is a critical theme emerging from this which is the necessity of environmental audits. To wit, risk assessment and environmental audit tools are both needed in falls prevention as primary measures.  Environmental audit tools are comprehensive checklist of environmental risks factors. It could be applied to basically every place where the concentration of older people and risks are apparent.      To further minimize the risks, it is also important to consider the risk assessment tools to be used. However, there are no screening tools that had been used or validated in a Hong Kong-wide practice to assess risk of falling among the elderly either in community or in residential care facilities. The available risk assessment tools that have been used in a number of trials and clinical settings are as follows: stratify risk assessment tool, FRAT, fall-risk screening test, Tinetti balance and gait scale, Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA), “Get Up and Go Test”, Mobility Interaction Fall Chart and classification tree of prediction (Todd and Skelton, 2004, p. 10). More than devoting the effort to design a Hong Kong-wide accepted risks assessment tool, I suppose attention must be given to addressing the independent risks factors independently. Should the fall evaluation suggest that assessment is inherent to the risks factors, then, I argue that there are no reasons to use a country-wide accepted assessment tool. Rather, medical practitioners should focus on a more ‘customised’ risk assessment devices, more especially in terms of appropriateness/specificity, applicability and sensitivity. Implications for future practice Besides educating the patients/residents in general regarding the nature and consequences of the falls, falls prevention education must also take into account identifying the factors that influences client compliance and non-compliance in falls prevention programmes. Fallers are always tended to defy the seriousness of a fall and/or dispose blame to others. These are implications of a later resistance to participate in falls prevention programmes (Lord, Sherrington and Menz, 2007, p. 209). Refusals are also considered opting to a level of acceptable level of risk factors. Though this can be tolerated at a certain degree, it is very dangerous to rely on circumstances. For people who have fallen, there is an evident overall lack of concern. Some perceived a fall to be natural part of aging process and others view different incidences as an opportunity to learn. These are all wrong. These may all lead to serious consequences in the long run. Taking this into consideration, preventing further falls and minimizing risks for these individuals are a challenge especially for interventionists.  There is a need to determine the patient’s interpretation of risks and interpretation of the incident as this critically affect the readiness to comply and participate with prevention programs. As a way to prevent falls, there is a need to communicate with first-time fallers the concept of prevention that should stem from individual willingness. In particular, this falls risk assessment could be carried-out through cultivating to all staff on how they can act and serve as instruments to minimize risks among inpatient older people. The staff nurses have got to initiate best practices. Also, they could address the limitations of different strategies and probably address the aftermath solutions to falls. In this manner, they could do something to address the situation and give attention to several recommendations about falls prevention. Ward staff and risk management committee must be given the opportunity to do first level assessments, implement ‘customised’ risk screen and intervention tool in addition. This process could hone and enhance the research and development regarding falls prevention in older people. Prior to pursuing this initiative towards a more effective falls prevention program, there are issues to address. One is the availability of environmental audit tools. As already mentioned, there are ongoing debates on the subject of risk assessment tools. Literatures reveal that practitioners are more focused on this issue making them to overlook the necessity for environmental audit tools. Results could be documented and may serve as points of follow-ups for staff nurses and carers. The attempt to document and report points to the second issue. There are no specific and accepted documentation and reporting processes. Documentations and reporting are very crucial as it can address the root causes and later avoidance of recurrence of falls. HEN claimed that “there is a complex causal interaction between risks factors and falls occurrence” (Todd and Skelton, 2004). Indeed, but there is also a complex causality between risks factors, falls occurrence and, I maintain, falls reoccurrence.  Conclusions Falls could affect us directly or indirectly. Therefore, medical practitioners must do their part to prevent falls among elderly admitted within the hospitals and in A&E department mainly through assessing risks that jeopardize older people’s capability to function. Notably, falls prevention is not a single effort, it is a proactive, responsive and closed-loop initiative at least within the hospital setting, involving ward staff and risk management committee. Providing them a quality of life can be achieved through systematic enhancements outlined above. Minimizing the risks for the inpatient older people purports a close collaboration between these areas.   References Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, The, 2001, Effectiveness of fall prevention and rehabilitation strategies in older people: implication for physiotherapy, Bedford Row, London Davison, J, Bond, J, Dawson, P, Steen, I N and Kenny, R A 2005, ‘Patients with recurrent falls attending Accident & Emergency benefit from multifactorial intervention – a randomized controlled trial,’ Age and Ageing, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 162-168. Gillespie L D et al, 2003, Interventions to reduce the incidence of falling in the elderly. Musculoskeletal injuries module of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 3. Gray-Miceli, D 2007, ‘Fall Risk Assessment for Older Adults: The Hendrich II Fall Risk Model,’ Geriatric Nursing, vol. 8. Lord, S R, Sherrington, C & Menz, H B 2007, Falls in Older People: Risk Factors and Strategies for Prevention, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press. Miller, C A 2006, Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults: Theory and Practices, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Pyrek, K 2006, Forensic Nursing, CRC Press. Russell, M A, Hill, K D, Blackberry, I, Day, L L and Dharmage, S C 2006, ‘Falls Risk and Functional Decline in Older Fallers Discharged Directly From Emergency Departments,’ The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol. 61, pp. 109-1095.  Standing, M 2008, ‘Clinical judgment and decision-making in nursing – nine modes of practice in a revised cognitive continuum,’ Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 124-134. Terrell, K, Weaver, B and Ross, M 2009, ‘ED Patient Falls and Resulting Injuries,’ Journal of Emergency Nursing, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 89-92. Todd, C & Skelton, D 2004, What are the main risk factors for falls among older people and what are the most effective interventions to prevent these falls? Copenhagen, WHO Regional Office for Europe (Health Evidence Network (HEN) report). Tweedy, J T 2005, Healthcare hazard control and safety management, 2nd edn, CRC Press.   Windsor, J 2007, Bite Size Best Practice: Falls Awareness, Portsmouth Hospitals (PHT), NHS Library Service: NHS Trust, no. 10.   Appendix A number of methods and strategies regarding falls data collection will be employed. This will include a search and review of existing literature, patient observation and in-depth analysis of the literatures. A comprehensive review of the contributing literatures was done. Articles from medical institutions publication were scrutinized as well. This was undertaken to ensure the inclusion of several relevant published material and information. Various electronic databases were also visited including Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and World Health Organization (WHO). Different nursing books were also reviewed so that the researcher could acquire insights. The materials that have been used are comprised of published informations in the last ten years. The key terms used are: falls, falls prevention, inpatient older people, older people, risks factors, reducing risks, staff nurses and risk assessment. Aside from using PICOT and CASP tools for assessing the journal research articles used, annotation was also used. In this way, I can relate to the readers the major questions posed in the study, method of investigation, major variables of interest and their operational definitions, study population, the findings, author’s or authors’ conclusion and the actual evaluation of their respective research. Three articles are chosen and these articles are original research. The key criterion is that the research should have the accident and emergency department as its setting. This would be appropriate especially that my practice in mainly within such department. Critical appraisal skills learned from the lectures are applied as much as possible. I regard that one of the limitations of my search strategy is own subjectivities. PICOT stands for population/age group/gender, intervention/issue, context or comparison, outcomes and time while CASP is Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Evidence Based Practice of Nursing_An exploration of an aspect of evidence based practice that is relevant to my own professional practice

Evidence Based Practice of Nursing An exploration of an aspect of evidence based practice that is relevant to my own professional prac...

Reflective Paper on Cross Cultural Management

Reflective Paper Introduction Culture is learned. Man is not born with culture, but with the ability to learn, acquire, and develop culture through experience. For example, a child is born not knowing what culture is or how things are done in the eyes of society. But he learns through imitating, how thing are properly done. He then develops the necessary tools to go about his daily activities. Also, through the help of language, this is the primary tool for communication; the elder generation can pass to the younger generation the knowledge and skills they had acquired through experience. Therefore, because of these things, you could say that culture is learned.             All people have varied culture. There are differently groups of people around the world, and we call these groups different societies. A society may be a group of people banding together and living in a stable union, and pooling together their efforts to attain a common objective by collective action. Knowing this, people should not judge a custom of one society using his own since they both have different societies and culture. With this consideration, this paper gives a short overview of my observed behavioral pattern of the French and Chinese business culture. Understanding this behavioral pattern is important for doing effective communication with people and people groups from these countries. Effective communication is vital in establishing business and personal relationship in these countries. This paper is intended to be a reflection of my learning experience in a cross cultural environment context. The first part of the paper gives a short overview of my observed behavioral pattern of the French and Chinese business culture.  My Background I was born in Hong Kong but I finished my last 5 year of formal education in Australia. I have a Bachelor degree with a major in accounting from an Australian university. Prior to my undergraduate studies I had studied my year 11 and year 12 in a Catholic High school in Australia. I am a qualified accountant and have worked in the finance and accounting field for somewhat twenty years now. After I graduated, I worked in an Australian CPA firm for 3 years. These 8 years of oversea experiences have rooted my thinking pattern and communication style.   Cross Culture Environment             Culture is a group product. Culture was not designed by man to become what it has become. It is simply the accumulation of certain practices acquired by man through his interaction with other people. For example, I with my group may start out on a research. I may find a good method in doing this research with the help of another group mate. Other members may find a better way of improving the method I used in doing the research. And in due time, other groups may seem interested in my way of doing research and may try to imitate it. Just one person in the group may not be a Man just adapted whatever practice was most useful to him at the time and then went on to keep that practice as time went further on. Therefore, culture is not only learned but is also transmitted through human interaction and experience. A generation may put an imprint upon the one before it, thus, making an accumulation and selective result of group life.             I do believe that culture is transmitted from generation to generation or from another to one another. This may happen through oral traditions or in writing. It may be transmitted through everyday conversation, through interaction between the older and the younger, and even through reward and punishment. Culture is accumulated and whatever the past has learned, the present and future generation may build on it to produce something better which may aid them more as they go along the roads of everyday life. For example, when people in the early days wanted to preserve food to keep them from rotting, they put them in barrels filled with salt or put in seasoning or exposed them under the sun to dry. By doing that, they are still ensured of having meat which wasn’t rotten but lost the flavor of fresh meat. So, the future generation invented a better way of preserving the meat and its flavor, by freezing it, and they accomplished that with the aid of the refrigerator.             Another means of transporting knowledge from generation to generation is through books and spoken language. The accumulated knowledge and learning of the bygone scholars and great thinkers of the past are imparted to us through the books and other written materials in which they have so tediously spent their lives writing. And also, through the spoken medium; oral traditions may not have been successfully passed to the younger generations if not through the use of songs, tales, stories, and other such things. That is why communication arts is a very important part of the school curriculum.             With my experience in Coface, I would agree to say that culture is adaptive. Culture continually renews itself. It is even said that nothing is much more predictable than death, change, and culture change. Humans have a way of inventing things when he is in very much need of it. If he finds that the method he uses is no longer obtaining his desired results, he then turns to a new strategy which may give to him the results he so desires. For example, a teacher may find her class very rowdy, noisy and out of control. So she tries to shout on the top of her voice just to get the class’s attention. But it would only cause more of the riot, so, she tries another method. She keeps quiet and waits for the class to settle down. And settle they did. You see, this discovery of hers may result in a new behavior pattern which satisfies the characteristic mentioned above. Having works in Coface for the past 9 years has exposed me with tremendous multicultural interpersonal experiences. Coface is French insurance company operating as a Branch office in Hong Kong.  The Hong Kong office is managed by an expatriate from Head office to oversee the strategic development in the Greater China Region. We have three other French expatriates who are in charge of the underwriting, IT and operation department of the company. In my current position as head of finance department, I am further expose to PRC working culture environment.   My Learning Style Based on the learning style questionnaire given in the leadership and motivation course from MGSM last year, l realize that I am a kinesthetic learner I tend to spend a lot of time think through the problem. This can be a good way to work out a problem but I sometime may have waste a lot of energy analyzing and over analyzing the problem and not enough time actually solving the problem.  This assessment also revealed my learning style is more sensing meaning I tend to learn easier by memorizing facts. I am also a visual learner. I learn best by using pictures, diagrams and flowchart which I always think that my educational background and my profession of being an Accountant lead me to a sequential learner. I must admit that I do not always understand the big pictures, but can process the different elements of problem logically. Actually, this experience enables me to believe that intercultural competence does not only mean the ability of an individual to express his or her views and opinions intellectually. It also means that I must be developed wholistically to be able to understand and respect the culture, religion, beliefs, and practices of other individuals in the society. This concept means that I as intercultural competent person should be intelligent and at the same time respectful and open-minded regarding the issues and changes happening in my community. Without open-mindedness and ethno-relativism, knowledge regarding other cultures will not be applied effectively, and opens opportunities for racial discrimination and injustice in the society.   My Communication Style During my primary and junior high school education, the system of teaching in Hong Kong was much concentrated was pushing the knowledge to students and assess them only through written examinations. There was little or no opportunity for interactions where students could openly ask any questions. Asking too many questions will seems to be badly behaved students and lack of respect to the teacher. As a result, my communication skills and self confident was unconscious underdeveloped. However, I would say that under this kind of education environment, I was a good listener and I had my strength in understanding, viewing information from different perspectives and interpreting of information correctly. In my later years of senior high school which I was educated in Australia, there was a lot of focus and emphasis on communication and interaction during class. Students was encourage to ask as many questions as they wish and even the “native and stupid” questions was throw out which made whole class laughed, the Australian students was never shy about their behavior and the teacher treated all questions politely and professionally. I realize that my previous educational environment in Hong Kong has hindered my ability to communicate freely and effectively in the Australian society. As times goes by, I realized that every time I had to face the crowd, my confident built up until I finally overcame the challenge of not being able to understand the subject or topic well; I am able to communicate effectively and confidently than before.   Actually, I do several language studies and acquisitions in order to communicate effectively and confidently. My innate motivation affects the time I spent in learning a language. As my learning attitudes affect motivation, if I expect to succeed—I will be more likely to succeed, if I have  unreasonable expectations you may get discouraged, certain kinds of anxiety can interfere with my language learning, fear of making mistakes can inhibit your learning, too much correction or criticism can inhibit my learning, the more positive I feel about the speakers of a language, the more motivation I will have to learn it, if I want to communicate with speakers of a language, I will be more motivated to learn it, and if I need to use a language, I will be more motivated to learn it. People learn better if their learning is encouraged by speakers of the language, People need to experience language used in context, if speakers of two languages really want to communicate, they can do a lot with a little, people have expectations about who speaks which language, communication tends to take the easiest path, people may resist speaking their language because they want to learn your language, people often modify their speech when speaking to foreigners, in traditional cultures there may be only one right way to do something, it may be culturally inappropriate to be too direct in what you say, and every culture has taboo topics. Basically, language acquisition is a developmental process.  I understand that learning a language build up own systems, we need lots of comprehensible input, we can improve the sound discrimination, memory, and grammatical sensitivity skills, we can compensate for deficiencies in some skills. From my experience, I discover that the sooner we can acquire the grammatical system of a language, the sooner we can use the language creatively, we need chances to negotiate meaning with native speakers, native speakers often highly value good pronunciation, repetition helps things stick, producing language that sounds too good can be misleading, the more meaningful exposure, the more we learn, we cannot rely on memorization alone, memorized material can give a false impression of your proficiency, our brain analyzes language whether we know it or not, knowing a language is different from knowing about a language, knowing about a language may help us learn it, body language, gestures, and we communicate as much as words, learners build up an auditory image of what the language sounds like, language learners need to learn to understand and produce well-formed discourses, predictable scripts aid comprehension, language learners seem to hit plateaus, we need exposure to language in a variety of social settings, one language may interfere with another, the mind tends to filter out redundant material, productive skills are harder than receptive skills, comprehensible output can become comprehensible input, knowing the topic helps us interpret what we hear or read, linguistic context helps us understand the meaning of words, knowledge of a language may lie dormant, but be reactivated, multilingual people may associate languages with a particular setting or audience.       Team Work Skill Although I like structure, I can be pretty flexible. I am flexible with plans and changes. I think flexible is a good skill as long as I am not being taken advantages of. I listen to understand requirement of the other person’s position. I like to observe people, especially if I do not really know them. This helps to refine my judgment of the person personality, prepared myself better for future interpersonal relationship and negotiation. Due to my professional background, high respect to deadline is the fundamental value of an Accountant. Occasionally, I might seem to be insensitive to my team and other colleagues in delivering projects and work on time.  Having known the downside of the Accountant role, I always try to accommodate requests and allow flexibility so long it will not affect the timeliness of the project. From this wonderful experience, I discovered that the key task and process strategies of creating and working within the context of a multicultural team are: team building; communication and its process; participation; conflict management; and performance evaluation. In building multicultural teams, the manager must be able to develop a shared strategy on how the team will work together. The utilization of team building programmes and activities is deemed uncomplicated yet effective through simple socialization exercises that results to cultural learning opportunities. The concept of teamwork is also credited to the affirmative effects on the psychological health and interests of organisation’s member. Communication, on the other hand, serves a number of fundamental functions such as control, motivation, emotional expression, and information. It maintains values and relationships necessary to keep the system of the united organisation. Similarly, participation should be directed towards team dynamics and extends beyond organization’s success. Managers must be able to promote participation among employees through motivation and the likes. The case of conflict management is also inherent. Multicultural work settings are often challenged by conflict, thus managers should be able to implement the appropriate conflict resolutions strategies (e.g. effective communication). Lastly, performance evaluation must be rooted not only on individual basis but also on collective contributions of the members of multicultural team towards the achievement of organization’s objectives and overall success, productivity and competitive advantage.   Action plan: <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> 	 	Understand linguistic ability, allow for limitation to express one’s 	</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> 	patience 	and respect</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> 	show 	cultural empathy to understand and appreciate cultural differences 	</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> 	 	understand the interpersonal skills</li>   First, considering that I am doing business in a multicultural environment that has its own trade-related culture and as a part of acculturation, I will set on with the “Coface corporate system”. In the business world, acculturation serves as the common denominator for host and foreign culture to avoid conflict and miscommunication. At this situation, I need not to compare the culture of France with the Hong Kong’s culture. Instead, the least but could be the best thing to do is to “co-exist” with the existing policy present in the host culture. Acculturation is a” term originally applied only to the process concerning a foreign culture, from the acculturing or accultured recipient point of view, having this foreign culture added and mixed with that of his or her already existing one”. In the process of acculturation, I must try to accustom my self to the “mother culture”. However, cultural differences may come along. But it is still important to consider that every culture has its own characteristic and views on things. Culture is relative and that it does not mean that what is “right” in Hong Kong is “wrong” in France when it comes to work environment. Second, as a part of cultural integration, I will adapt to the international policies of the host country.  I should be familiar with the host culture. Believing that the cultural incorporation will solve all of the cross-cultural problems, it is essential that the expatriate need not to be only technically proficient but to have an overly simplistic view of the cultural integration of the firm’s activities and existing culture on the host culture. Using an integrator can help. It will give an idea on how will a foreign culture will mix up with a host culture. An example of integrator is the manager or inhabitant workers to the host culture. Their presence will be used in communicating with people involve in some business circumstances. I do believe that cross-cultural communication plays a vital role in any business world. The awareness and knowledge that they hold will provide needed information that could lessen up the problem of cultural resistance and differences. By doing it so, problems in communication could be minimized if not alleviated.   Final Assessment             It was already mentioned that education and learning, influences the ability of an individual to become intercultural competent. Not only does it depend on one’s knowledge of language, but also on one’s ability to empathize and respect another’s cultures and beliefs. In countries where ethnic diversity is on the rise, whether due to political upheavals, economic conditions, climactic catastrophes, shifting populations, or simply increased contact among people of different backgrounds, successful relationships with friends, neighbors and intercultural partners depend on the ability to deal with differences in a positive manner. From the arena of international business to family life, there is an increasing need to be able to deal effectively and appropriately with diversity, whether ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural. With this, international and intercultural organizations play an important role, and this is to provide not only pleasant and productive educational experiences form their participants, but also to indirectly affect their families, neighbors, and communities. Furthermore, in order for one to truly become intercultural competent, it is important to learn about an individual’s own culture and about other cultures. One way is to cultivate relationships with individual who can serve as cultural informants, or people whom a person can question about the culture and verify perceptions. Another way is to attend cultural events in communities to learn about rituals and values, and demonstrate interest to members of that culture’s community. Finally, one can be flexible in his or her intercultural interactions by reserving judgments about behaviors and intentions until he or she understands the cultural context in which they were generated.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Reflective Paper on Cross Cultural Management

Reflective Paper Introduction Culture is learned. Man is not born with culture, but with the ability to learn, acquire, and develop cu...