Energize

Interpersonal
Relations
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.

Submitted to

Ms. Samra Javed

By

Mr. Muhammad Owais

Student ID: 2008-3-06-8530
 CONTENTS

THE TOPIC AND THE REASON TO CHOOSE ........................................................................................... 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 AND ISLAMIC 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-CULTURAL STRESSORS ........................................................................................................ 22

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

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

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 Inter-
Dependent Independent dependent

THE TOPIC AND THE REASON TO CHOOSE

A ccording to Social Sciences, a person can be at one of three phases of life, that is, he/she
could be a ―Dependent‖ person (especially in childhood), or feels himself/herself an
―Independent‖ person (especially in teenage), or an ―Interdependent‖ person (when he/she
realize about mutual success in professional life).

The great poet and philosopher, Shair-e-Mashriq (The Poet of East), Dr. Allama Muhammad
Iqbal says:

In this verse he tried to convince people for ―Inter-dependability‖, and says without inter-
dependability a man would be just like a tide out of the ocean, because in an ocean, every wave
supports each other to make thundering tides.

It was the motivational rationale because of which, I have chosen this topic for my final ―Term-
Paper‖ for the completion of ―Interpersonal Communication Skills‖ course. Although,
throughout the course we learnt the similar viewpoints and philosophies, and we discussed to a
great deal that how Non-Verbal cues are interpreted in different cultures and societies, but here I
am trying to present some interpersonal attitudes, notions and behaviors with the combinations of

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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
one’s self at 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 in
diversified-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 don’t even bother about that stressor.

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 Attidudes Beliefes Values

1. Personal Identity and Cultural-Self

E 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 one
another 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:

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 “The law of attraction”, is always working, you can never escape…
everything that comes in your life…you 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 Proctor are two words but it’s not me…., you never
heard 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

S 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 is
historically 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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 Material Social Spritual

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 be
said 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

S hakespeare’s 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‖ burred
somewhere within?

In addition, one’s 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 watching and ―back-stage’ behaviors
when they are not.

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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 don’t 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 it
is 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 thinking you 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 constraints–both
contextual and psychological–on 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 Descartes’s
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

F or 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.

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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 khrēsmoi in Greek, were
often referred to under the same name—a name derived from the Latin verb ōrāre, to speak.

However the last prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) taught the
Muslims to have an Istekhara with Allah (asking Allah’s decision) before starting
any legitimate work or taking any decision in your life. One of prophet’s
companion (R.A) said, “Rasoolllah (Peace be upon him) used to teach about
Istekhara as he taught Holy Quran

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

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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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 Formal Historical Events

3. Time Management in Cultural Context

E 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 divided
twenty-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 cultural
construct, 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.

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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 human
life 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 world
and 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 Practices
Event 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.

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".

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 included
the 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.

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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 2007
when a new Director Admin/HR was appointed in organization and observed the felexible
timings in organization. He abruptly applied the stirct procedures for monitoroing
employee’s 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 managmmet
in 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
dinner’s 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

15
 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. Let’s take closer a look at
each of these issues.

CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO MOTIVATION

In today’s global business environment, managers can’t 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. Let’s look at the several theories to
see if there any cross cultural transferability.

Moslow’s 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 with
American 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 country’s 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. That’s 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 planned
economies, 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, don’t 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 has
aright 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 today’s
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 today’s 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 single
part-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 employee’s needs.
Another alternative is flexible work hours also (popularly known as flex-time), which is
scheduling 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 daily
practice 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.

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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 don’t 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.

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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 by
rejuvenating 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 don’t even bother about 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 Javed’s 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. Discussion – Ms. Syeda Fatima Zehra – MS in Social Sciences

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

6. Discussion – Mr. Kashif Ahmed Saeed– Brand Manager, Mushko (Pvt.) Ltd.

7. Scott S. Blake – Theories of Social Psychology , March 14, 1995

8. The Management – Stephen P. Robbins / Marry Coulter, 8th Edition, 2007

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

10. www.wikipedia.com

11. www.google.com

12. Harvard Business Review (HBR) – Articles

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