Essay about Cross-Cultural Observation - 1411 Words

Cross-Cultural Observation: Macy’s Department Store In order to observe the interactions between individuals from different cultural background, my partner: Gina Nguyen and I went to the Macy’s department store, located downtown Boston. We selected this store because of the size and their reputation of having a diverse workforce. Gina and I started our observation at 3:30pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 and finished it at 4:20pm. We were observing the interactions between the coworkers, as well as the ones between the staff members and the customers. Before we started our observation, we read the assignment together, just to make sure we were on the same page. After that we selected some spots in the store where we were able to†¦show more content†¦I also noticed that all of them seemed to enjoy what they were doing, or at least that was the impression they were making. Over the course of the observation, I notice that there were three types of interactions between the workers: professional, strictly related to a work question; personal/friendly, showing a tighter connection between each other; and interactions based on avoidance, when workers interacted only for a couple of seconds, with almost no communication. There were a couple of instances when I observed professional interactions between employees; the interesting fact is that most of them happened between persons with different cultures. For example there was a Latino white male that had a conversation with an African-American woman, the male was explaining and showing her something on a computer. Their attitude was distant, which could be explained by employment rules like sexual harassment. There was a space between them that suggested the fact that they knew each other but did not engage in other conversations outside work. Their voice tone suggested a that there was no power distance, however I felt a certain level of intimidation in the voice of the female, which I believe to be because of the fact that she asked for help in the computer situation. This type of interaction happened between the Latino white male and an African-American male as well, however this time I felt an attitude of equality fromShow MoreRelated Body Language: Cultural or Universal? Essay1714 Words   |  7 Pagesmodified to suit cultural ideals and constraints? It is my proposal that of all forms of nonverbal communication the most universal is the communication of emotions through facial expression. Other channels of nonverbal communication are also of great importance in many cultures. However which channels are emphasized, what cues are considered acceptable and the symbolic meaning of the cues may vary from culture to culture. 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