The Collection Of Necessary Data Essay

Culture is an observable, powerful force in any organization. “Made up of its members’ shared values, beliefs, symbols, and behaviors, culture guides individual decisions and actions at the unconscious level. As a result, it can have a potent effect on a company’s well-being and success” (One Page, n.d.).

It have been proven effective in providing services to individuals from a wide spread of diverse backgrounds. Cultural competence is understanding a set of congruent behaviors, knowledge, attitudes and policies that enable effective work in cross-cultural situations (Bazron, Cross, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989). This means that an individual trains to understand different cultural groups. Cultural competency training is beneficial to all human service organizations because it aims to increase the knowledge and skills to improve one’s ability to efficiently serve different cultural groups therefore eliminating biases and

"Cultural competence is defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross cultural situations (Cross et al., 1989; Issacs & Benjamin, 1991). Operationally defined, cultural competence is the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standard, policies, practices, and attitudes, used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the

Cultural competence can be used as a strategy to improve quality healthcare and help in getting over racial and ethnic disparities. It is only one solution to reducing racial/ethnic disparities in the healthcare systems. With that said many health care facilities are taking part in cultural competence. Although in this topic we are dealing with healthcare, cultural competence can be utilized within most businesses such as retail, the military and other government related jobs (Harris, 2011) as well as the food industry. With that said, Cultural competence has become a popular strategy within the healthcare world. Before I begin to explain how I would incorporate Cultural Competence into my work environment, I feel as though I must first explain what Cultural Competence is.

Levitt (2014) defines culture as the coherent, learned, shared views of a group of people and about life’s concerns that ranks what is important, furnishes attitudes about what things are appropriate, and dictates behavior. Macy’s corporate culture possesses a diverse leadership team to target their diverse customers and locations. Diversity, based on experiences and passion, gives the Macy’s leadership team new perspectives to promote successful business. Levitt (2014) suggests organizational diversity can be considered as a mixture of people with different group identities working in the same social system. A multi-cultural team of Americans, Italians, Germans and Swiss would adapt well in the rich bouquet of culture in Zurich, Switzerland. As a new team leader, the biggest concern would be establishing integrations between the different cultures working together at Macys.

All Organisations posses a distinct form of culture with some having more than a single culture. This culture is usually very difficult to measure, change and most especially change.

Mather Life Ways (n.d) detail traits of an organization that are trained in cultural competency:

The United States has become increasingly a culturally diverse society. The understanding of cultural relativism in a multicultural working environment can be of a great importance to the success or failure of an organization. What is cultural competency? Before we explain it, let’s take a step back and analyze culture, cultural diversity, and Cultural relativism.

In order to provide the Australia Park Victoria with the appropriate data to solve its current crisis, the most appropriate method of data collection for this research is the qualitative method. According to Gay and Airasian (p 627) qualitative method is the collection of extensive data on various variables over a long time in a natural setting with an aim of acquiring insights not possible using other methods. It involves three different kinds of information collection: direct observation, in depth and open-ended interviews and written documents. Qualitative method involves use of random sampling and structured data collection instruments that fit different experiences. The method also enables the researcher to study the specific area of

Cultural competence begins with the recognition that we are all born, raised and living in social, educational and organizational cultures. These cultures shape our assumptions, beliefs, values and behaviors. When we interact with others, the similarities and differences between our cultural expectations often make the interaction both more interesting, and more challenging.

Globalization and technological advancement have dictated the need for managers to deal with multiple ethnic groups with different culture in their day to day interactions. According to Kulkarni (2012), cultures play critical roles in individuals, including values, beliefs, humor, worries, fears, hopes, opinions, attachments, and anxieties.

It is high time that people learn about different cultures to have a thorough understanding of the same and thus achieve cultural competency. This is necessary for educators, healthcare givers, attorneys, organizations and all to live in a cross-cultural world without any emotional or physical conflict. Most organizations have their presence in multiple countries and have business relations with people of different cultural groups. So, for a successful business also, cultural competency is the demand.

What may appear inconsequential on the surface may be revealed to have greater importance when looked at in the context of the host culture.

The behavior was observed from a large sample of people. This included twenty people shopping alone and twenty people shopping in a group, for a total of forty subjects, each ranging in ages from approximately 19 to 40 years old. The subjects were observed from the time they entered the store until the time they left. The reasoning behind this was to see the buying behavior differences for the whole experience and figure out which areas of the store could be improved in order to appeal to groups of people shopping. The behaviors observed included the amount of time spent inside the store, the amount of money spent, the interactions with associates, and the areas of the stores that were navigated.

Data were collected through an ethnographic study using participant observation and personal interviews as data collection methods. An ethnography means to learn from people, rather than studying people (Glesne, 2011). This was taken into consideration as I stood in as an active participant twice a week for one and a half months. During this time, I assisted in feeding calves during the morning shift. I worked with all four employees during this time. As a participant observer, this gave me a unique opportunity to build trust and rapport with the four employees instead of attempting to simply observe and “study” them before interviewing.