5285336 “Cultural Competence and Customer Service”

Cultural Competence and Customer Service Name: Institution: Course: Instructor: Date:

1 1. Self-analysis Step 1 Strengths Challenges Growth Opportunities Awareness Recognizing and respecting other people’s cultures, beliefs, and traditions. Since I interact with people from many cultural backgrounds, at times I am unable to remember specifically what each culture celebrates on each holiday and this might seem insensitive. Put more effort to ensure that I am fully conversant with these holidays. I could note down what each holiday celebrates and interact more with people from these cultures to know more about their holidays. Knowledge Being aware of common applicable laws of any country that I visit. Being aware of the dos and don’ts when in public places of these countries and other cultural practices and social norms that I need to respect when in these countries. Taking time before getting fully accustomed to their social order and practices – an aspect that might be offending to some people. Leveraging the internet to learn more about the social norms and orders of these cultures and frequently engaging with people from those cultures to accustom myself more and therefore, spend lesser time to learn. Skills Quick adaptation skills of other people’s culture and avoiding being judgmental of these cultures even when they entail practices that I do not agree with. As is the norm with humans, stereotyping might cloud my judgment and thus, I might end up judging every individual from a particular culture based on the characters of a few individuals from that culture. Overcoming the stereotyping and subtle judgmental attitudes that might prevent me from being open enough to learn about various cultural practices. Being open- minded when talking about other people’s culture to enable me learn more. Step 2

3 administrative assistant’s worldview would have helped calm the situation. Cultural attitude would also have helped the administrative assistant more accommodative of the customer’s actions which were normal to him (Neuray, 2021). It was obvious that they had differing opinions on how to address each other based on their culture. Scenario 2 The administrative assistant should have known that in this culture, women are not allowed to do some things without their husbands’ approval or guidance. Therefore, the husband was practicing his cultural mandate whenever he talked on behalf of his wife. Self-awareness would have helped the administrative assistant to be aware of the thoughts and emotions that might develop whenever they feel that the husband is interrupting the inquiry session. With that, they would remind themselves that the husband is just performing his cultural mandate and, therefore, would avoid any reaction resulting in a conflict or communication breakdown (UHV Online, 2020). Cultural awareness would have helped to de-escalate the problem. Being aware of the applicant’s culture would have made the administrative assistant avoid asking the applicant’s husband to step aside so she could talk to the woman privately. Also, the skills to manage the knowledge, attitude, and awareness would have helped to de-escalate the problem. These skills would have helped the administrative assistant to manage the situation effectively and avoid further cross-cultural conflict with the applicant’s husband. Scenario 3 The administrative assistant showed blatant arrogance toward the customer. The assistant should have known they must show positive reception to people from every culture. This response also showed the lack of an administrative assistant to adapt to diversity. Diversity adaptation is important as it ensures that people in an organization can recognize, respect, and

4 value every culture that they interact with in the course of their duties. Self-awareness would have helped the administrative assistant to be conscious of their potential frustrations about a heavy accent that makes it hard for them to understand the customer. Subsequently, they would have politely requested the customer to get in touch with the organization through other means, such as emails, to facilitate quicker and seamless assistance (Center for Community Health and Development, 2023). Self-awareness would also have helped the administrative assistant to reflect on their response to the situation and apologize to the customer before offering another option that the customer could use to get the help they needed. Knowledge and experience would have helped de-escalate the problem. This objective would have been achieved by the administrative assistant being conscious of the possibility of interacting with people from diverse cultures – some of whom she might not understand well. Therefore, she would have been ready to address such situations more rationally (Martin & Vaughn, 2012).