Energize Interpersonal Relations

8/14/2019 Energize Interpersonal Relations

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Submitted to

Ms. Samra Javed

Energize

InterpersonalRelations

by understating cultural diversity

A concise term- paper that describes, How people can

energize their interpersonal relationships with others more

effectively by knowing their cultural and social practices.

By

Mr. Muhammad OwaisStudent ID: 2008-3-06-8530


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CONTENTS

THETOPICANDTHEREASONTOCHOOSE ........................................................................................... 2

1. PERSONAL IDENTITY AND CULTURAL-SELF ........................................................................................... 4

DIMENSIONS OF SELF ................................................................................................................................... 6

1. MATERIAL SELF ............................................................................................................................. 7

2. SOCIAL SELF ................................................................................................................................... 7

3. SPRITUAL SELF ............................................................................................................................... 7

2. DECISION MAKING IN DIVERSIFIED CULTURES AND SOCIETY................................................................. 9

DECISIONS INFLUENCED BY BELIEFS AND CULTURAL MYTHS ...................................................................... 9

1. ORACLE ANDISLAMIC ISTEKHARA ........................................................................................ 10

2. INFLUENCE OF MYTHS OVER DECISION MAKING ........................................................................... 10

3. POWER OF FORTUNE TELLER METHODS AND GADGETS ................................................................ 11

3. TIME MANAGEMENT IN CULTURAL CONTEXT ...................................................................................... 12

CULTURE AND TIME.................................................................................................................................. 13

1. FORMAL TIME MANGAMENT ....................................................................................................... 14

2. HISTORICAL TIME MANGAMENT.................................................................................................. 14

3. EVENT BASED TIME MANAGEMENT .............................................................................................. 15

4. MOTIVATION IN DIVERSIFIED CULTURE................................................................................................ 17

CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO MOTIVATION..................................................................................... 17

1. MOTIVATING UNIQUE GROUP OF WORKERS ................................................................................ 18

2. MOTIVATING A DIVERSE WORKFORCE: ........................................................................................ 19

5. STRESS MANAGEMENT IN DIFFERENT CULTURAL AND SOCIETY .......................................................... 21

CROSS-CULTURALSTRESSORS ........................................................................................................ 22

CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................................. 23

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 24


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several cultural practices. However, it is a very huge subject to discuss, and almost impossible to

cover in such a short paper, but I have tried my best to present my learning and perceptions very

concisely, what I have acquired while learning this course at IoBM, about how people can

Energize Interpersonal Relations more effectively by knowing diversified cultural believes and

practices.

The paper is divided into five parts. In first part I described how Self and culture affecting each

other in interpersonal relations. This part shows about the Self Awareness and strengthening

ones selfat personal level, interpersonal level and at organizational level.

In second part, I have tried to discuss, how decisions are taken by the people of different

religious beliefs, cultures and societies, and how a global manager can effectively understand the

cultural influential factors about decisions making.

In third part, I tried to describe different perspectives of Time Management in different

cultures and societies, and how an effective Time Management can be made possible indiversified-cultural norms and practices. In this part I also tried to convince that, there a number

of events and circumstances when traditional and conventional Time Management practices

cannot be effectively implemented.

In forth part, I tried to depict, how people give values to their achievements. I also described,

how a number of motivational factors can only be a hygiene factors in one society which are

considered as highly motivating factors in other society or culture.

Part five discuses about the stress management methodologies in different cultures and societies.

I also tried to discuss how one stressor can create a high level of stress in one society as people in

different society dont even bother about that stressor.


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1. Personal Identity and Cultural-Self

veryone in this world wants to be described as discrete, separate entity. In psychology, a

psychological identity relates to self-image (a person's mental model of him or herself), self-

esteem, and individuality. An important part of identity in psychology is gender identity, as this

dictates to a significant degree how an individual views him or herself both as a person and in

relation to other people. In cognitive psychology, the term "identity" refers to the capacity for

self-reflection and the awareness of self.

John Locke considered personal identity (or the self) to be founded on consciousness (viz.Memory), and not on the substance of either the soul or the body.

However, David Hume investigated a person's character, the relationship between human and

animal nature, and the nature of agency. Hume pointed out that we tend to think that we are the

same person we were five years ago. Though we've changed in many respects, the same person

appears present as was present then. We might start thinking about which features can be

changed without changing the underlying self. Hume, however, denies that there is a distinction

between the various features of a person and the mysterious self that supposedly bears those

features. When we start introspecting, "we are never intimately conscious of anything but a

particular perception; man is a bundle or collection of different perceptions which succeed oneanother with an inconceivable rapidity and are in perpetual flux and movement.

Furthermore, Bob Procter believes, Self is the soul or spirit or something inside us, which

holds us. He defines the personality as a substance that attracts all things, our ideas, behaviors,

and values. He says:

Attidudes Beliefes Values

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The law of attraction, is always working, you can never escape

everything that comes in your lifeyou are attracting into your life As we

understand the self let start thinking Who we are? .... What we are? .

You see I said . I am Bob Proctor truth is not. I am really not Bob

Proctor , Bob and Proctorare two words but its not me. , you neverheard I am hand .. But you say my hand, my job... I am a soul a spirit non

physical and I live in this physical body. I have ability to dedicate the

vibration that my mind and body will be in.

Bob Proctor (Philosopher) (2006)The Secret, USA

elf is broadly defined as the essential qualities that make a person distinct from all others.

The task in philosophy is defining what these qualities are, and there have been a number of

different approaches. The Self is the idea of a unified being which is the source of an

idiosyncratic consciousness. Moreover, this self is the agent responsible for the thoughts and

actions of an individual to which they are ascribed. It is a substance, which therefore endures

through time; thus, the thoughts and actions at different moments of time may pertain to the

same self.

The spiritual goal of many traditions involves the dissolving of the ego, allowing self-knowledge

of one's own true nature to become experienced and enacted in the world. This is variously

known as enlightenment, nirvana, presence, and the "here and now".

There are many theories that attempt to account for the social aspects of the SELF.Unfortunately, most, if not all, of these theories do not account for variation over time and across

space. Social psychological theories of the self also walk a thin line between social science and

theology. In this term paper, I will bracket questions relating to the necessity and/or usefulness of

this divide. There are many good reasons why theories of the self have this difficulty. Among

them is perhaps the most important, namely that our understanding of the self is necessarily

rooted deeply in our own cultural and social milieu. As numerous post-modern theorists have

pointed out, humans are creatures of our environment. Therefore, it is essentially impossible for

our theories to be anything but products of our environment.

Here we arrive at the point of departure for this term paper. Given that our consciousness ishistorically and socially specific, what are the mechanisms through which we come to be over-

determined by society and simultaneously individuals full of unique qualities, thoughts, and

emotions? Put another way, what is the interface of the individual and the collectivity? The

social is commonly understood as being made up of groups-both formal groups (institutions

ranging from government to the family) and informal groups (ranging from extended kinship

networks to the basic unit of the social, the dyad).

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I refer to self when using the words social, society, and the like. In contrast, I separate the

social and the cultural. By the cultural, I mean such phenomena as ideology, consumerism, mass

media, popular music, and art. Furthermore, the cultural also refers to mores, folkways, stigma,

paradigms, and other thought-defining phenomena. The cultural is always already changing as

one moves through space and time.

It is my proposition that the cultural constitutes the interface between the self and the social.

Through the culture, society shapes individuals in a continuous and changing process of

inculturation. The term inculturation is particularly well-suited to this phenomenon because it

precisely indicates the internalization of culture. What is does not do, however, is indicate the

feedback that individuals give to culture. Many social psychologists have indicated that the

social in incorporated into children as they are being reared. Few, if any, have shown that this is

an imperfect process and that individuals may not be inculturated properly. Fewer still have

shown how change takes place. To paraphrase an astute sociologist, cultural change is either

regarded as so commonsense as to be unworthy of mention or as so complex that nothing can besaid about it. In both cases, nothing gets said. My central intellectual enterprise is to attempt to

comprehend cultural change. An understanding of the self is critical to this endeavor.

DIMENSIONS OF SELF

hakespeares famous line, To thine own self be true. Suggests that you have a single

self to which you can be true. But does one have just one self or is there a more real you burredsomewhere within?

In addition, ones self-concepts are often different from the way others see him/her. We almost

behave differently in public than we do in private. One sociologist suggests that, like actors and

actresses, we have on stage behaviors when others are watchingand back-stage behaviors

when they are not.

Material Social Spritual

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William James, the philosopher, identified three dimensions of self i.e. the Martial-Self, Social-

Self and the Spiritual-Self.

1. MATERIAL SELF

Material Self is a total of all the tangible things one owns, your possessions, you home,

you body. As you can define yourself, by asking the question to yourself Who you are?

One element of material self gets considerable attention in different culture is body. In many

of the societies people would like the way they are looked. Most of them would like to

change something about their appearance. But in most of the societies the looks-feels does

mean to the people, in fact they dont even think about it.

2. SOCIAL SELF

Social Self can be defined as the self as reflected through your interaction with others,

actually a verity of selves that response to changes in situations and roles.

This dimension of Self varies in different culture and society. In Muslim community the

interactions with elders may differ at 180o

degree with the Western practices to deal the

elders.

3. SPRITUAL SELF

Spiritual Self consists on all of your internal thoughts and introspections but about your

values and moral standards. It is not dependent upon what you own or with whom you talk. It

is the essence of who you think you are, and of your feeling about yourself apart from

external evaluations. It is an amalgam of your religious balefires and your sense of who you

are in relationship to other forces in the universe. Your Spiritual Self is the part of you that

answers the questions, Why am I here.

The essence of this dimension of self can never be varied in different societies and culture,

because if telling lie, deceiving, theft and robbery are considered a sin in one society and so itis in other society and culture.


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What I indented to present here in this term-paper, is the necessity of knowledge about Human-

Self in the context of diversified cultures and societies, so that a manager can make a quantum

improvement in working paradigms of an organization which doing business with global

prospects. Such a quantum improvement can only be possible by knowing the dimensions of

selves of people in different cultures and society, and aligning them to natural laws for shifting

working paradigm in a global scenario. The negligence of such human behavioral knowledge

can never make a successful working environment for an organization in globalization.

Einstein once said, Significant problems you face cannot be solved at same level

of thinkingyou were at, when you created them.


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2. Decision Making in diversified Cultures and Society

Decision making can be

regarded as an outcome

of mental processes

(cognitive process)

leading to the selection of

a course of action among

several alternatives.

Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an

opinion of choice.

The history of decision-making strategies is not one of unalloyed progress toward perfect

rationalism. In fact, over the years we have steadily been coming to terms with constraintsboth

contextual and psychologicalon our ability to make optimal choices. Complex circumstances,

limited time, and inadequate mental computational power reduce decision makers to a state of

bounded rationality, argues Simon. While Simon suggests that people would make

economically rational decisions if only they could gather enough information, Daniel Kahneman

and Amos Tversky identify factors that cause people to decide against their economic interest

even when they know better. Antonio Damasio draws on work with braindamaged patients to

demonstrate that in the absence of emotion it is impossible to make any decisions at all.Erroneous framing, bounded awareness, excessive optimism: the debunking of Descartess

rational man threatens to swamp our confidence in our choices, with only improved technology

acting as a kind of empirical breakwater.

I would like to share, how people of different era and culture took the decisions and how people

myths and beliefs may affect the organizational and societal decisions, because the history of

such decision making is long, rich, and diverse.

DECISIONS INFLUENCED BY BELIEFS AND CULTURAL MYTHS

For millennia, human decisions are guided by interpretations of entrails, smoke, dreams, and the

like; hundreds of generations of Chinese rely on the poetic wisdom and divination instructions

compiled in the I Ching. The Greeks consult the Oracle of Delphi. Prophets and seers of all

kinds peer into the future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Decision-Tree-Elements.png


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1. ORACLE AND ISLAMIC ISTEKHARA

An oracle can be a person who prophesies in a temple, a shrine, or any place where such

person resides or a prophetic deity is worshipped or answers given by said people. In the

ancient world many sites gained a reputation for the dispensing of oracular wisdom: they too

became known as "oracles," and the oracular utterances, called khrsmoi in Greek, wereoften referred to under the same namea name derived from the Latin verb rre, to speak.

2. INFLUENCE OF MYTHS OVER DECISION MAKING

People from different society and cultures may often superstitious

about different myths, for example it is a known thinking in India

that, if black cat cross your way and if you step on and cross that

line your day would be too bad and all of your works would be

not be effective.

Similarly, some of the people in Europe consider the Crows as

portents or harbingers of doom or death, because of their dark

plumage, unnerving calls, and tendency to eat carrion. In modern

films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,

Damien: Omen II, The Crow and Exorcist: The Beginning, crows

are shown tearing out people's eyes while they are still alive. Crows have never been known

for this behavior due to their high preference for carrion. Due to these mythologies, some

people in especially Eastern-Europe change their certain decisions just because they saw a

Crow in morning.

However such superstitious thinking and behaviors are being reduced in society, but people

often believe in such faiths especially when they are going to do something new, or taking

some decision. A manager working with people from diversified cultures and society, can

However the last prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) taught the

Muslims to have an Istekhara with Allah (askingAllahs decision ) before starting

any legitimate work or taking any decision in your life. One of prophets

companion (R.A) said, Rasoolllah (Peace be upon him) used to teach about

Istekhara as he taught Holy Quran
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Blackcat-Lilith.jpg


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never ignore such behavior and beliefs, and can create a better way for ridding for such

hurdles in organizational and societal decisions, without disrespecting the believes and faiths

of others.

3. POWER OF FORTUNE TELLER METHODS AND GADGETS

The Magic 8-Ball, manufactured by Mattel, is a toy used for

fortune-telling or seeking advice. The device was invented in

1946 by Albert Carter, son of a clairvoyant, who marketed and

sold the device with Abe Bookman of the Alabe Crafts

Company. It is a hollow, plastic sphere resembling an

oversized, black and white 8-ball. Inside is a cylindrical

reservoir containing a white, plastic, icosahedral die floating

in alcohol with dissolved dark blue dye. The die is hollow,with openings in each face, allowing the dye to fill with fluid, giving the plastic die minimal

buoyancy. Each of the 20 faces of the die has an affirmative, negative, or non-committal

statement printed on it in raised letters. There is a transparent window on the bottom of the 8-

ball through which these messages can be read. It is frequently used by the people of Arizona

State in USA for finding their fortune.

Similarly in different societies and culture people more rely on different fortune teller

methods and gadgets e.g., Dice-Floating, Face Reading, Palm reading, Horoscopy and Bazi

(Chinese Fortune Telling method) rather than relying on facts and figure.

I am not anticipating all these myths and beliefs are 100% right and applicable in all

scenarios but convincing managers, who work with cross-cultural employment force, can

never ignore or oppose those myths and beliefs.


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3. Time Management in Cultural Context

ffective management often depends

on the effective use of time. Previous

research on time management reflects the

common perception that time is composed

of discrete, instrumental units. Acts that

occur in time are viewed as a succession of

decision-making events, advancing in a

liner progression. In their study, researchers

created a time-allocation study that dividedtwenty-four hour days into half-hour

periods. Within each period they coded

how people spent their time in terms of where they went, with whom they talked and a Friday-

together their data. In The Nature of Managerial Work Henry Mintzberg created a similar scale

to analyze what managers do and how they spend their time.

I have tried to offer an alternative view of effective time management in this term-paper. It

argues that concept of organizational and societal cultures provides a useful framework within

which to consider the use of time in global administrative settings. Proceeding from the notion

that organizations are socially constructed, the term-paper depicts time management as culturalconstruct, and differentiates between individual time and organizational time. I suggest that

professionals can improve time management not only by applying fixed guidelines but, equally

importantly, by diagnosing the regional and organizational cultural perspective where they have

been working.

Formal Historical Events

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CULTURE AND TIME

The researchers consider time monument form an individually-based orientation. Modern

technology and modern bureaucracy presuppose temporal structures that are precise, highly

quantifiable, (and) universally applicable. From this viewpoint modern organizations

commoditize time so that it can be spent, wasted, saved, shared, and used up. A

modern manager, for example, is likely to rely on formalized scheduled meetings that begin and

end at specified point in time.

Another way to think about time is to view an organization as social construction that dialectical,

based on a continues interaction between the organizational participants constructed reality and

impinging social forces.

Clifford Geerz writes, The close and immediate interdependency between conceptions of person,

time, and conduct is general phenomenon such interdependency is inherent in the way in

which human experiences is organized, a necessary effect of the conditions under which humanlife is led. Viewing time as an element of an organizations socially constructed reality, with its

own inherent rules, opens up an alternative way to think about both individual and organizational

time.

Elusive, abstract, and culturally relative as it may seem, organizational time undoubtedly

conditions the success of global administrators time management practices. The point of this

term paper is not to generalize the cultural practices of time managment, I also do not deny the

importance of administrative time management practices, however, I intend to demonstrate how

time management practices need to be understood within a cultural context. Global

organizational cultural often determines why a decision is successful in one region of the worldand fails in another. Similarly, the way an administrator of an organzation operated glaobally,

spends time effectively and efficiently because of knowing cultural context of time.

When we consider organization as socially created constructs we also can account for how

organizations mediate time. An global leader/administrator encounters three different dimensions

of time management practices in cultural context, that must be reckoned simultaneously. These

dimensions are:

Formal Time Management Practices

Historical Time Management PracticesEvent based (Seasonal/Ceremonial) Time Management Practices


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1. FORMAL TIME MANGAMENT

The Formal us of time refers to how individual structure their own time such as appointments

and meetings versus drooping for a visit, and how different socities have culture to spend

their time. The time could be also be unplanned that could be refred as Informal Time

Management. infomrally.

The Culturally Formal Time Management refers to a range of skills, tools, and techniques

used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals in a particular

society and culture. This set encompass a wide scope of activities, and these include planning,

allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organizing,

scheduling, and prioritizing. In some of the societies formal time management referred to just

business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities

also. A formal time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools and

techniques.

In many societies and cultures Listing routine tasks is considered as the wastes of time. These

societies believe if one is in the habit of brushing his/her teeth or having bath every day, then

there is no reason to put it down on the task list. But at the same time some of the societies

consider all of such tasks consume a sufficient time span so, these should also be includedthe priority time list. Similarly, If some time is not regularly spent on achieving long-range

goals, the individual may get stuck in a perpetual holding pattern on short-term plans, like

staying at a particular job much longer than originally planned

Being a global administrator or leader, one has to consider the cultural practices of time and

activities management, because over-emphasizing for formal time management may raise

points of conflict in different societies.

2. HISTORICAL TIME MANGAMENT

Anotehr dimension of time management in cultural context is the way participants percieve

of an use history. This dimension of time mangment does not concern the way administrators

spend their day, but rather how administrators use organziaitonal history as a context for

decision making. In one way or another, administaior must confornt organizational history.

Ms. Hendrickson a Dutch sociologist asserts that Rigid adherence to task lists

can create a "tyranny of the to-do list" that forces one to "waste time on

unimportant activities".


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As we see, one way an organznation can adapt to environmental presures is by augmenting

procedures that enhance organziational identity. Conversly, an orgnization may adapt to an

environment by changing focus and mission. In both cases, however, histrocial time crates

one factor in administravie decisions.

For explaining this point I would prefer to present MUSHKO (Pvt.) Ltd. example. In 2007when a new Director Admin/HR was appointed in organization and observed the felexible

timings in organization. He abruptly applied the stirct procedures for monitoroing

employees In/Out timings. However MUSHKO has an extensive details of Official

Timmings for both regular and roster based employees. Obvious changs have occurred. All

the employees tried their best to come on dot time and leave office correspondingly. The new

Director Adminirtration and Human Resourecs seemed very happy by watching sucessful

and full-feldge implementaiton of new Office Time procedures in the organiztion.

After a month, a board meeting was called, and all other directors and managers were

blaming on Director Admin/HR that because of his un-practical Office Timing Procedures,the effective results of every department were affected very badly. Becaues employees come

on time and complete their work in a defined limited 8 hours jobs, while the same employees

applied their efforts very efficeitnly and effectily before application of new HR procedures

with felxible time and sense of responsibility.

It happened because newly appointed Director did not believe in the flexi-timing which was

the historical culture of organization. Such issues can widely be observed in the organizations

doing their business globally.

So being a manager or leader one has to consider the historical culturre of time managmmetin a socieity and/or organization.

3. EVENT BASED TIME MANAGEMENT

Events, seasonal and ceremonial functions are very important in all cultures and societies,

and they require effective and well-structured time schedules for managing time in larger

context. However, the society practices and norms about time management for such events

can never be ignored for successful arrangement of events and ceremonies.

For example, in Karachi, there is common psychology that people come late in ceremonial

dinners parties. So application of a rigid time-table can create a point of conflict among

people. So this is the responsibility of administrator/manager or event organizer to plan for

such irregularities could be occurred due to rigid time schedules. He/she may divide the


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event or party dinner for subsequent series of time or do something else, so that both on-time

comer and late-comer can equally enjoy the party, without making conflicts on event.

At this point I am not intended to imply a schedule-less management of time for such events

but to have a provision of change and alteration in events schedule with respect to cross-

cultural environment for successful arrangement of event or ceremonial.

In short Time Management is a crucial aspect in cross-cultural environment and societies and

the successful practices applied in a particular society or culture may totally not be applicable

in another one, or create conflicts and disagreements among people. So the organizations

which are operated globally can never ignore such contrasts of cross-cultural norms and

practices.


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4. Motivation in diversified Culture

Motivation is the set of reasons that determines one to

engage in a particular behavior. The term is generally

used for human motivation but, theoretically, it can be

used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well.

This article refers to human motivation. According to

various theories, motivation may be rooted in the basic

need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure,

or it may include specific needs such as eating and

resting, or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being,

ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons

such as altruism, morality, or avoiding mortality.

Understanding and predicting employee motivation continues to be one of the most popular areas

in management research. However, even current studies of employee motivation are influenced

by several; significant workplace issues-issues such as cross cultural challenges motivating

unique group of workers and designing appropriate rewards programs. Lets take closer a look at

each of these issues.

CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO MOTIVATION

In todays global business environment, managers cant automatically assume that motivational

program that works in one location are going to work in others. Most current motivational

theories were developed in USA and about Americans. May be the most blatant pro-Americans

characteristics in these theories is the strong emphasis individualism and quantity of life cultural

characteristics for instance, both goal-setting and expectancy theories emphasize goal

accomplishment as well as rational and individual thoughts. Lets look at the several theories to

see if there any cross cultural transferability.

Moslows needs hierarchy argues that people start at a physiological level and than move

progressively up the hierarchy in order. This hierarchy, if it has any application at all, aligns withAmerican culture. In countries like Japan, Greece, and Mexico, where uncertainty avoidance

characteristics are strong, security needs would be on the top of the needs hierarchy. Countries

that score high on quality of life characteristics-Denmark, Sweden, Norway the Netherlands, and

Finland-would have social needs on top. We would predict, for instance, that group work will

motivation employees more when the countrys culture scores high on the quality of life

criterion.


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Another motivation concept that clearly has an American bias is the achievement needs. The

view that a high achievement need acts as an internal motivator presupposes two cultural

characteristic- a willingness to accept moderate degree of risk(which excludes countries with

strong uncertainty avoidance characteristics)and the concern with performance (which applies

almost singularly to countries with strong quantity of life characteristics). This combination is

found in Anglo-American counties like United States, Canada, and Great Britain. On the other

hand, these characteristics are relatively absent in countries such as Chile and Portugal.

Equity theory has a relatively strong following in US. Thats not surprising given that U.S-style

reward systems are based on the assumption that workers are highly sensitive to equity in reward

allocation. And in the United States, equity means to closely tie pay to performance. However,

recent evidence suggest that in collectivist cultures especially in the former socialist countries of

central and eastern Europe ,employees expect rewards to reflect their individual needs as well as

their performance. Moreover, consistent with a legacy of communism and centrally plannedeconomies, employees exhibited a greater Entitlement attitude that is they expected outcomes

to be grater than their inputs. These findings suggest that USA style pay practices may need

modification, especially in Russia and former Communist countries in order to be perceived as

fair by employees. Despite the cross cultural differences in motivation, dont assume that there is

no cross-cultural constituencies. For instance, the desire interesting work seem important to

almost all workers, regardless of their national culture in a study of seven countries, employees

in Belgium, Britain, Israel and USA ranked. interesting work number one among 11 work

goals. These factors was ranked either second or third in Japan, the Netherlands and Germany.

Similarly in a study comparing job preference outcome among graduate students in US, Canada,

Australia and Singapore growth, achievement, and responsibilities were rated the top three and

has identical ranks, both of these studies suggest some universality to the importance of intrinsic

factor identified by Hertzberg in his two factors theory.

1. MOTIVATING UNIQUE GROUP OF WORKERS

Motivating employee has never been easy! Employees come into organization with every

different needs, personalities, skills, abilities interest and aptitude. They have different

expectation of their employer and different views of what they think their employer hasaright to expect of them. And they vary widely in what they want their jobs. For instance,

some employees get more satisfaction out their personal interest and pursuits and want

weekly pay cheque-nothing more. They are not interested in making their work more

challenging or in Winning performance contests. Other drives a great deal of satisfaction of

their jobs and are motivated to extract high level efforts. Given these differences how can


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manager do and effective job of motivating the unique groups of employees found in todays

workforce. One thing managers must do is to understand the motivational requirement of

these groups and diverts employees, professional contingent workers, and low skilled, and

minimum wages employees.

2. MOTIVATING A DIVERSE WORKFORCE:

To maximize motivation among todays workforce managers to think in terms of flexibility.

For instance, studies tell us that men place more importance on having autonomy in their jobs

than do women. In contrast the opportunity to learn, convenient and flexible work-hours and

good interpersonal relation are more important to women.

Managers need to recognize that what motivates a single mother with two dependent children

whose working fulltime to support her family may be very different from the need of singlepart-time employee or an older employee who is working only to supplement her

requirement income. A diverts array of rewards is needed to motivate with such diverts

needs. Many of the work life balance program that organization implemented are response to

varied need of diverts workforce. In addition, many organizations have developed flexible

working schedule that recognize different needs. For instance, a compressed work-week is a

work-week where employees work longer hours per day but fewer days per week. The most

common form is four 10-hrs days

However organization could design whatever schedule they wanted to fit employees needs.

Another alternative is flexible work hours also (popularly known as flex-time), which isscheduling system in which employees are required to work a specific number of hours in a

week but are free two vary those hours with in certain limits. In flex-time schedule, there are

certain common core hours, when all employees required being on the job, but starting,

ending lunch-hour times are flexible. Flex-time one the most desired benefits among

employees. An employer has respondent as a survey shows that 74% of US employers were

offering flexible work option in year 2002. Another job scheduling option that can be

effective in motivating a diverse workforce is job sharing-the practice of having two or more

split a full time job. This type of job schedule might be attractive to individuals who want to

work but to do not want the demands and hassles of a fulltime option.

Another alternative made possible by information technology is telecommuting. Here,

employees what work at home a link to the workplace by computer and modem? Since many

jobs can be done at home, this approach might be close to the ideal job for some people as

there is no commuting, the hours are flexible, their freedom to dress as you please, and there

are few or no interruption colloquies. However keep in the mind not all employees embrace


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the idea telecommuting. Some workers relish the informal interactions at work that satisfy

their social needs as well as provide a source of new idea.

Through this discussion I am trying to anticipate the cross-cultural issues in motivating people,

because in different society or cultural people may react differently with a hygiene factors or

motivational factors.


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5. Stress Management in different Cultural and Society

Stress is a biological term which refers to the consequences of the failure of a human or animal

body to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats to the organism, whether actual or

imagined. Isdt is "the autonomic response to environmental stimulus.

Stress management is the amelioration of stress, especially chronic stress. There are several ways

of coping with stress. Some techniques of time management may help a person to control stress.

In the face of high demands, effective stress management involves learning to set limits and to

say "No" to some demands that others make. The following techniques have been recently

dubbed Destressitizers by The Journal of the Canadian Medical Association. A destressitizer is

any process by which an individual can relieve stress. Techniques of stress management will

vary according to the theoretical paradigm adhered to, but may include some of the following:

Autogenic Training: Autogenic training is a relaxation technique developed by the German

psychiatrist Johannes Schultz and first published in 1932. The technique involves the dailypractice of sessions that last around 15 minutes, usually in the morning, at lunch time, and in the

evening. During each session, the practitioner will repeat a set of visualisations that induce a

state of relaxation. Each session can be practiced in a position chosen amongst a set of

recommended postures (e.g. lying down, sitting meditation, sitting like a rag doll, etc.). The

technique can be used to alleviate many stress-induced psychosomatic disorders.

Physical Exercise: Physical exercise is any

bodily activity that enhances or maintains

physical fitness and overall health. It is

performed for many different reasons.These include strengthening muscles and

the cardiovascular system, honing athletic

skills, weight loss or maintenance and for

enjoyment. Frequent and regular physical

exercise boosts the immune system, and

helps prevent the "diseases of affluence"

such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease,

Type 2 diabetes and obesity. It also improves mental health and helps prevent depression.

Childhood obesity is a growing global concern and physical exercise may help decrease the

effects of childhood obesity in developed countries.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Central_Park_jogging.jpg


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Meditation: Meditation is a mental discipline by

which one attempts to get beyond the reflexive,

"thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or

awareness. Meditation often involves turning

attention to a single point of reference. It is

recognized as a component of many religions, and

has been practiced since antiquity. It is also practiced

outside religious traditions. Different meditative

disciplines encompass a wide range of spiritual

and/or psychophysical practices which may

emphasize different goals -- from achievement of a

higher state of consciousness, to greater focus,

creativity or self-awareness, or simply a more relaxed

and peaceful frame of mind.

Deep Breathing: is the act of breathing deep into

your lungs by flexing your diaphragm rather than

breathing shallowly by flexing your rib cage. This deep breathing is marked by expansion of the

stomach (abdomen) rather than the chest when breathing. It is generally considered a healthier

and fuller way to ingest oxygen[citation needed], and is often used as a therapy for

hyperventilation and anxiety disorders.

Progressive relaxation: Progressive muscle relaxation (or PMR) is a technique of stress

management developed by American physician Edmund Jacobson in the early 1920s . Jacobson

argued that since muscular tension accompanies anxiety, one can reduce anxiety by learning how

to relax the muscular tension.

CROSS-CULTURAL STRESSORS

For managing stress it is very necessary to know about your stressor, and stress level. However

both of them can vary by person to person and by society to society. There could be a number of

examples so that one stressor can generate a high level of stress in one society and subsequently

low in other one.

In mid-90s the socio-political situation in Karachi was worst, most of the regions of city

thunderous with gun-firing, especially in central region of Karachi. In that time the people of

Liaquatabad town became use to with jingling of daily gun-firing in the town, and after few days

they become as much habitual as they dont even discuss about it. Whereas the same situation

had happened in relatively calm and peaceful area such as PECHS, people stressed out and called

police by eavesdropping, even a single gun-fire.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Sivakempfort.jpg


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CONCLUSION

In this term- paper Energize Interpersonal Relations, by understating cultural diversity, I

tried my best to present cultural and societal diversity for several interpersonal practices byrejuvenating practices in an organization or society. These practices can be implemented

especially in the environment where people from different culture and societies work together,

by creating a positive inter-dependency among them and reviving them with Win/Win cross-

cultural acceptance and admiration.

Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to present a detailed discussion on this topic, but the

scarcity of time and limiting the material for term-paper, restricted me to present only some

issues from cross-cultural practices, which knowledge can enhance interpersonal relationship

among people from diversified background.

Following issues were discussed very concisely in this term-paper:

1. How three dimensions of Self affects on interpersonal relations among people

2. How decisions are taken by the people of different religious beliefs, cultures and societies

3. How an effective Time Management can be made possible in diversified-cultural norms and

practices.

4. How people give value to their achievements in different cultures and societies by got

motivated or unprovoked.

5. How one stressor can create a high level of stress in one society as people in different

society dont even botherabout that stressor

This term-paper can only give an abstract or considered as step-zero to the researchers working

on effects of cross-cultural behaviors in global organizations and environment. Here, I conclude

my term-paper with this hope that upcoming management and social sciences students would

take some more steps further for identifying such societal and cultural practices, which are

indispensable in working at cross-cultural environment.

At last, I would like express deep gratitude and say thank to all the people who helped me

consciously or unintentionally by supporting me with their views and ideas, which really helped

me in the writing and compiling this term-paper.


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REFERENCES

1. Ms. Samra Javeds lectures and handouts

2. Interpersonal Communication - Relating to Others - Steven A. Beebe/Susan

J.Beebe/Mark V. Redmond

3. Bob Proctor (Philosopher) (2006)The Secret, USA

4. DiscussionMs. Syeda Fatima ZehraMS in Social Sciences

5. Lectures and discussion with Mr. Moiz Ahmed - IoBM faculty member

6. DiscussionMr. Kashif Ahmed SaeedBrand Manager, Mushko (Pvt.) Ltd.

7. Scott S. BlakeTheories of Social Psychology , March 14, 1995

8. The ManagementStephen P. Robbins / Marry Coulter, 8 th Edition, 2007

9. Principle Centric Leadership - Stephen R. Covey, 2003

10.www.wikipedia.com

11.www.google.com

12.Harvard Business Review (HBR)Articles

Energize Interpersonal Relations

Documents

Transcript of Energize Interpersonal Relations