Intercultural Communication, Argentina

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Recommended: Misunderstandings between cultures

Working for an international corporation has been a crash course in various cultures. I have participated on teams with people from Brazil, India, Singapore, England, and Australia just to name a few. It has also been a lesson that Americans aren’t always sensitive to different cultures. One distinct example comes to mind, and I try my best to not make a similar mistake. About 2 years ago my boss decided to get his team together for a face-to-face meeting. We came from all over the United States, but more importantly we were not all native to this country. My manager and one co-worker originated in India, the former was a strict vegetarian and the latter would not eat beef. Our meeting was in Texas, and the “host” decided that the first lunch served would be local cuisine, barbecued beef. No consideration was given to the fact that some people couldn’t eat beef or meat, for religious or dietary purposes. The members with dietary restrictions had a piece of bread for lunch, and I am sure our host didn’t even notice. Although I am by no means perfect I decided then and there to be cognizant of other people’s customs, and do my best to respect them.

The culture I have chosen for this paper is Argentina. I have a person on my team that I have been training since July and she resides there. Instruction has not been going well, it’s been about 8 months, and she is still not able to work on simple projects independently. While I attributed part of this to a language barrier I didn’t focus enough on our cultural differences. I’ve worked with people from Central and South America previously with much success. I also have an Uncle who is Argentine, he’s well educated, very serious, and takes control of situations. He has ass...

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Although I have tried not following the example of my “cowboy” co-worker it seems my ignorance of Argentine culture and customs may have hampered me from effectively communicating with a team member. I was considering asking for her to be removed from the team, as it was taking more time to get her to understand an assignment than to complete it myself. An ethno-relativistic manager recognizes and respects cultural differences and finds ways to make the workplace amendable to all (Hynes, 214). I need to work a bit harder to develop these skills.

Works Cited

Hynes, G.E. (2011). Managerial Communications Strategies and Applications (5th ed.).

New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Transnational Management Associates Ltd. (2011). TMA World

Country Navigator. Retrieved February

4, 2011 from http://www.countrynavigator.com

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