Briefly and accurately summarize the course material concept which is to be discussed in this

entry.

Cultural diversity means having a heart and mind that acknowledges, accepts, values and

celebrates different ways in which people live and interact all across the globe. Everyone is

embraced by cultural diversity regardless of their cultural differences. The basis of

multiculturalism is the ideologies that people should value and maintain their cultural practices

instead of ignoring them. Which is what lead to the downfall of Walt Disney Studio Park

expansion ‘EuroDisney.’ This is a result of many factors, the first being the global manager style

and lack of cultural intelligence during the creation of the theme park.

There are three main global manager styles: parochialism, ethnocentrism and

geocentricism. Parochialism is driven by ignorance; its management practices and the world are

only viewed from their own culture’s perspective. Ethnocentrism is acknowledging cultural

differences but believe that their own culture, value system and ways of doing is the best, which

demonstrates a sense of superiority and ultimately diversity is resisted. The geocentricism is the

ideal style, it values and recognizes cultural diversity and its benefits. During my analysis of

EuroDisney, I was struggling to identify which global manager style the Walt Disney Studio

Park group were displaying, it was between parochialism and ethnocentrism. After much

thought, I concluded that EuroDisney was a result of parochialism, it completely neglected the

French culture and viewed the whole situation from the point-of-view of their own culture

perspectives only. An example of that would be when job postings for EuroDisney were only in

English, which was just blunt ignorance considering the fact that this was a francophone country.

This was just one of many incidents that demonstrated parochialism. The ideal global

management style for Walt Disney Studio Park when entering to France would’ve been to have a

geocentric approach, a global mindset that could effectively manage multiculturalism.

 Another element that the Walt Disney Studio Park group lacked was cultural intelligence.

Cultural intelligence embodies all cultures and allows managers to be successful by allowing

them to understand, adapt and perform managerial tasks globally. In the case of EuroDisney,

they weren’t able to identify distinctions within cultures, (e.g.: their own culture vs the French)

and regions (e.g.: Europe vs France), which demonstrates the lack of cultural analysis from Walt

Disney Studio Park group.

Provide a practical, real-world example of a challenging/surprising cross-cultural encounter that

you have experienced in the past or that you are currently experiencing and appropriately

connect the selected course concept(s) to this real-world example.

I’ve been a volunteer tutor for 3 years now. Tutoring sessions last for one hour per

session and occur several times a week. These sessions can be done in either French or English

to help participants practice their second language with volunteers to improve their proficiency.

These sessions are also done one on one, which means it is extremely personal. Most of the time,

I had many international students attend a session. During my second year of volunteering with

the Bilingualism Centre, I regularly tutored a mature student from Mainland China to help her

improve her conversation skills in English. This student and I had developed a very great rapport

over the course of 5 months, she was receiving very high marks in her English as a Second

Language class and feeling a lot more comfortable communicating with people in English during

her day-to-day tasks (e.g.: asking for help at a store, maintaining a conversation, etc.) During our

last session together, this student had given me a red envelope that contained 100$. When I

opened the envelope and realized I was being given money, I explained to my student that I am a

volunteer and she doesn’t need to pay me. I felt extremely uncomfortable being given money, I

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explained that my mother would never forgive me for accepting money for doing a good deed. I

tried to express that to her in the nicest way possible and apologized. The student was so upset, I

asked to hug you goodbye and she had just taken off without saying a word. It’s really

unfortunate that it had to end that way.

After that incident, I had done tons of research to understand that situation and learned

that the “red envelope” is called hóngāo, it is a monetary gift which is given in red envelopes

during special occasions, it is an ancient custom in Chinese and other East Asian and Southeast

Asian societies. Refusing a hóngāo is considered a selfish thing to do and also considered

extremely insulting. It is often perceived as intentionally avoiding the hand in friendship.

Relating this back to the course, when it came time to do some self-reflection, the theme

of ethnocentrism came to mind. In the sense that we often tend to use the norms of our own

culture as a standard, I had never thought about other cultures and how their way of saying thank

you could be so much more different (e.g.: a thank you card vs monetary gift). It makes me

realize that cultural intelligence is very important, we need to try to understand the world from

other cultural perspectives. We are often not even aware of the cultural assumptions that we are

making, which in my case was that I was under the impression that she did not understand how

the session actually worked. Which looking back was an extremely flawed way of viewing the

situation. After that experience, I had always taken the time to do some research out of my own

curiosity to better assist the students I tutor. The role of cultural value differences has eased my

cross-cultural adjustments because most of the time I am aware of the journey I am about to

embark with the student. It has also eased my experiences outside of volunteering such as

travelling, group work and especially my job as a Community Advisor for the University of

Ottawa Housing Service where I’m actively supporting 55 residents that come from all across the

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country and world. It has impacted the way I communicate and lead within my community at the

Housing Services.

In conclusion, cross-cultural communication is about dealing with people from other

cultures in a way that minimizes misunderstanding and maximizes your protentional to create

strong cultural relationships. It’s important to note that if you want to have a successful cross-

cultural experience, that you’re aware of different global management styles. Having a

geocentricism approach, one that believes that diversity offers value is the best style and this can

apply to many aspects in your life not just in a management position (e.g.: volunteering, work,

school, etc.) Lastly, cultural intelligence will also be beneficial because it allows you to

understand, adapt and perform your best given culturally diverse situations such as mine as a

volunteer, student in a culturally diverse university and a Community Advisor.