Cross-cultural Contact Proposal Business & Marketing Essay

Team Cultural Intelligence Experience

(15% of the total grade)

 Exercise Guidelines and Rubrics

The goal of the Cultural Intelligence Experience exercise is to provide participants with an opportunity to experience cross-cultural interaction and functioning in contexts characterized by cultural diversity. The exercise involves two parts: 1) cross-cultural contact and 2) a reflective report.

Part 1: Cross-cultural Contact Proposal (100 points, 5% of your final grade, 1 - 2 single space pages + optional exhibits).

As part of this experience, your group is tasked with planning and engaging in a cross-cultural contact with members of a culturally different group. For this assignment, it’s important to choose a group of people from a different country, so that you get to learn about their different country and culture. This experience should have the following characteristics:

1. The national culture should be new to every team member (i.e., team members have not had any personal contact with the members of a chosen cultural group from a different country)


2. Meaningful face-to-face interaction lasting at least 3 hours.


3. Contact should have common goals that should be reached by the end of the experience (e.g., clean up a park together; plant a tree; prepare a meal, develop a brochure or a social media site for a business, participate in a cultural sports or recreation activity with the “locals,” participate in a culturally different ceremony or service, etc.)


4. Equal status between all participants in the encounter, including your team members and members of a chosen cultural group (e.g., your team members cannot be in the role of a customer; you cannot pay for the experience)


5. Legal, safe, and follows the SDSU student conduct code

Submission: Each team will submit a 1-2 single-space pages and exhibits (optional) Cross-Cultural Experience Proposal addressing the following topics and questions:

1. Clearly identify and describe the “new cultural group” you are planning to have contact with (e.g., Russians exchange students, Ukrainian refugees, Expatriates from India, etc.). Explain why this target national culture group qualifies as a "new" taking into consideration previous contact that your team members may have had with this cultural group.


2. Clearly describe your intended “new cultural experience” (What? When? Where? How? and Why?).


3. Clearly describe how the intended activity meets each of the required experience characteristics (i.e., face-to-face interaction, common goals, equal status, legal/safe).


4. Think of another back-up activity in case this one will not get approved. Clearly describe the back-up activity and how it meets the required characteristics.


5. Written submission guidelines: see syllabus.

Part 2: Cross-cultural Contact Reflective Report (100 points, 10% of your final grade, 5 [five] single-space pages + required exhibits).

Please read:

1. Earley, P. C., & Mosakowski, E. (2004). Cultural intelligence. Harvard Business Review, 82(10), 139-146.


2. Chapter 5. “The Cultural Environment.” (2014). In J. Gaspar et al. Introduction to Global Business: Understanding the International Environment and Global Business Functions. Mason, OH: Centage.

Reflecting on your “new cultural experience” and the reading materials, please submit a Cross-Cultural Experience Report (5 [five] single-space pages max + exhibits) addressing the following topics and questions:

New Culture / Country information

1. Define the concept of culture, its components (elements), and its main characteristics.


2. Identify and describe the culture of the group of people that you had contact with during the “new cultural experience.”


3. Choose one of the cultural dimensions frameworks described in Chapter 5 of the textbook (e.g., Hofstede, Trompennars, or The Globe dimensions). Describe the culture of the new group using at least two (2) relevant cultural dimensions.


4. Briefly describe the political, legal, economic, monetary, and trade environment of the country where the group of people you had contact with came from:
   
   
   1. Political and legal environment (e.g., political system; legal system; political and legal risks)
   
   
   2. Economic and monetary environment (e.g., economic system, currency system, economic and currency risks)
   
   
   3. Trade environment (e.g., balance of payments, major exports/imports, main trading partners, regional economic integration, trade barriers and/or incentives)
   
   

New Cultural Experience

1. Provide a detailed and diligent description of your “new cultural experience.”


2. Explain whether and how your interaction met the experience requirements (i.e., face-to-face interaction, common goals, equal status, legal/safe).


3. What did your team members find most memorable? Why?

Team’s Cultural Intelligence

1. Define cultural intelligence and its three main components.


2. On a scale from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high) how would you rate your team’s collective cultural intelligence prior to the “new cultural experience?” Please explain your rating taking into consideration every component of cultural intelligence (see Earley and Mosakowski’s article for details).

Some experiences may seem to increase the team’s cultural intelligence, while some may seem to do just the opposite. Please use the following scale to answer questions 10 through 12:

Substantially                          Stayed the                              Substantially

decreased       Decreased           same                       Increased        increased

       (1)                              (2)                               (3)                               (4)                               (5)

1. Please rate the change in your team’s ability to understand the meaning and imitate behaviors that are characteristic (i.e., specific or distinguishing) of different cultures following the “new cultural experience.” Please elaborate on your rating using examples.


2. Please rate the change in the level of drive, motivation, and confidence your team has in the team’s ability to interact and understand members of culturally different groups following the “new cultural experience.” Please elaborate on your rating using examples.


3. Following the “new cultural experience,” please rate the change in the team’s ability to observe and reflect on any new knowledge, facts, and patterns on how people from different cultures interact with you. Please elaborate on your rating using examples.


4. Describe three (3) main factors or experiences (e.g., characteristics of the hosts, place, activities, interactions, etc.) that contributed to the increase (or decrease, or no change) in your team’s overall cultural intelligence.

General report requirements:

• Exhibits: Please incorporate a sufficient amount of evidence (e.g., photographs, artifacts, etc.) to illustrate what happened during your “new cultural experience” in the text or in the Appendix. If you are including evidence in the Appendix, please make sure to reference it in the report.


• Written submission guidelines: see syllabus.