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Co-cultural Activities

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C0-CULTURAL ACTIVITIES 2

Co-Cultural Activities

Co-cultural activities are various activities which supplement and complement the

various cultural activities within a community or a country at large. These are activities intended

to enhance and to enable productivity of the cultural values. They are also meant to increasingly

and steadily make progress towards making the cultural activities more competent and of greater

values to the both the local people and the country at large just like any other important cultural

activity.

These co-cultural activities or customs also enables individuals of various

professionalism and various areas in which they are working to be able to integrate cultural

parameters into their evaluation and handling of various clients as they attend to their various

day to day activities. This is a very important role since there is increased awareness of the

cultural activities and it also shapes the perception of various individuals as far as the

understanding of the cultural activities is concerned.

In additional the co-cultural activities differ from one community to the other, from one

community to the other and as well as from one race to the other .The main objective is to

develop cultural competence society, country or race as the cast may be primary they are also

intended to provide services full of cultural response. This aspect also address how to create

cultural awareness and prescribes core completeness such as personal -knowledge and skill

development. It widely captures behaviors as skills and ideas for learning cultural competences

and also developing a positive attitude conducive for effective working environment with a very

diverse population.

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Furthermore, it also provides well defined guidelines and procedural steps for offering

culturally responsive services and actions to the entire population based on race. This facilitates

appropriate provision of organizational strategies which encourages the enactment and full

implementation of these practices in order to achieve a very fruitful culturally responsive

practice. Co-cultural activities also provide a more general overview for each of the major racial

and ethnic components by providing clearly stated knowledge related to attitude, beliefs, customs

and also behavior and also more convenient overview of practice and research approaches and

infuriation.

Literature Review

Current researchers tend to focus on various differences and the various types of co-

cultures, nationality and ethnicity. They tend to explore the differences between the co-cultural

practices in different parts of the world based on various races in existence. Even though such

researchers always carry out limited research on the effect of co-cultural differences between the

races, co-cultural systems have been in use for a very long period of time mostly to study and

understand the interactions between cell populations and are necessary and is a basic requirement

to the population interaction study one would like to be involved in. At a very basic level it

primarily a cell set-up in order to allow two or more various populations to grow with a common

entity between them. The advantage of such a set-up is to allow studying of natural interaction

among the population s and also a good working plan in order to improve culture-based success

for a given race. Co-culture is a collection formed from the various beliefs or behaviors which

set it apart and make it a bit different from the culture in specific.

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A co-culture basically is the explication and identification of the conversation activities

and practices of co-cultural groupings that are of great value and importance for understanding

how various persons interact and communicate. The main focus is to bring to light how various

populations in a cultural set up interact and converse when addressing the dominant group or

race. People choose various approaches such as working to do away with the stereotypes in order

to join the dominant race. All these take place in order to achieve a common goal which is to

create a connection with the dominant race. Co-culture also brings on board the element of

various cultures being together in the same geographical place.

Methods

The available co-cultural practices differ on a number of grounds. Even though these

parameters upon which the co-cultural practices differ from one race to the other are clearly

stated and distinct from one another but they are all linked in terms of their effects to the cell

behavior in the various co-culture. Furthermore the co-cultures can be distinct based on the

following areas:

Degree of likelihood among the various races, the emerging differences between races

and local environment, the volume or the size of the co-culture within a certain race and also the

time scale of the various co-cultural practices carried out by a certain race or population. There

also exist a remarkable trade-off between these methods, for example specialized distinctions

between the various cultures within a race have mostly been done to their success at the small

volume scale and with a minimal number of separate cultures taking place

One aspect of interaction that has not been adequately looked at so far emanates from the

many uses media such as the mass media. The use of media presents itself in various forms and

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has a connection to the cultural niches. What one witnesses on the screens becomes a major part

of the co-present. Those who use similar media use it as a means of ascertaining their social

creation of reality. The various programs, and comedy arenas that they watch or attend to are

equally comparable to other means of socialization unless that the participation is active and the

content may be educative. In addition, after an event as taken place on television programs some

people tend to imitate them through role playing. These happenings are form part of their

memory since they are able to memorize, imitate and be part and parcel of their culture. They

work, in various approaches as a grouped memory that is being shared between various

individuals and the same individuals are always triggered to bring out such happenings in a

public set up and they become the emerging realities or occasions. One can ably confirm that

based on the television programs one subscribes forms the virtual memory and thereafter

becomes social markers collections.

Race is on of the most important identifier for many people, identification by race can

influence communication in different ways depending on the race one comes from and fully

subscribes to its beliefs and practices. People always communicate through a language that they

both understand, but because of the various languages which are mostly race based only allow

people from the same race to communicate and hence they can be identified with it. Furthermore,

apart from the verbal communication people can still communicate by way of written documents

or other signs and symptoms one would like use. All these hinder communications between

people whose belong to various races.

Similarly, gender is also co-cultural factor which also highlights the difference between

the races in terms of the co-cultural activities. Gender basically refers to male or female and

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therefore it is a co-cultural group because men and women have and always subscribe to the

various and different cultural identities based on the socialization and biological differences.

Since each gender has its own unique way and means of socialization, this clearly establishes the

difference in co-cultural practices within the races. Furthermore it is a common knowledge that

the biological differences between the male and female genders without any doubt clearly spells

out the various differences in existence among the various races.

Likewise, another factor which brings forth a blatant difference between races is

religion. This is an act of belief and good practices within the word and there exist a number of

religion beliefs and customs from the racial perspective. Religion is one of the major co-cultural

practices for example United States has always reflected Judeo-Christian practices and values

this categorically.

Samples

For efficient and effective operation of any international business, it requires expatriates

to have a clear and deeper understanding of the various differences between co-cultural practices,

for example business capabilities, a group of expatriate professionals who are well equipped with

the skills, management of both foreign and local personnel, and co-cultural individuals take for

granted a good knowledge of co-cultural differences in existence. Herskovits (1995) defines and

clearly demonstrates that culture as the human made part of the environment. Co-cultural

practices entail both subjective and objective elements in existence. There are a number of

tangible aspects of co-culture, for example tools, roads, television programs, organization and

architecture, and other physical artifacts. The intangible aspects of co-culture include customs,

beliefs, norms, values, ideas and other meaningful recognizable symbols. Hofstede (1994)

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describes co-culture as a group of mental programming of people. He further asserts and also

give a comparison between culture and the mental capability that clearly stipulates the way

interact, think and reason and moreover distinguishes people from other classifications and alters

people’s behavior. Co-culture is an interplay of differences and sameness since there is a

consistent pattern of differences and sameness between the various co-cultural practices. Close to

all co-cultures are interchangeably very similar and different from the racial point of view.

Regardless of the fact that human beings possess many commonalities and universals, a

classified group of people or societies have many differences. In a nutshell some co-cultures

entail complex practices as compared to others. Furthermore, a given number of co-cultures are

more individual based, while on the other hand others are more collectivist, they tend to include

many people. Some co-cultures subscribe to a number of norms, customs, rules, and constraints

on social behavior and others directly impose very few. Co-culture evolves within each and

every society to classify its people and to differentiate them from others. Initially it captures how

the members of the society or a given race live and carry out their day to day activities for

example, how they provide basic needs to themselves. In addition, it also explains how various

members of a society or race interact and behave with each other at an individual level and also

in public meetings with other groups.

In addition, co-cultural practices also define the customs beliefs and values of members

of a given race and how they view and understand the meaning of life (Salacuse, 2004). Cojocaru

(2011) states that all co-cultures of the various races, regardless of the many differences

encounter a number of common challenges and have a common set of features known as cultural

universals. The most casual way of perusing an introductory part textbook in co-cultural

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anthropology leads to the unavoidable conclusion that there exist many societies with their own

unique cultures and diversities. The determination of how many different cultures in existence

today depends greatly on how one can define and understand the problem in place, a well-

structured definitional question should be put in place mostly there is no consensus between the

world’s anthropologists. The overall approximation of the racial co-cultural variation and

differences can be brought to light by considering that approximately eight hundred and fifty

different and distinct cultures are on the African continents (Cojocaru, 2011). Instead of always

being in count with the exact number of co-cultures in the various races in existence at any given

time, it is important to put emphasize and effort on the importance of their variability to mean a

remarkable number of differences among the co-cultures explains the degree of flexibility and

adaptability of humans and in relation to various animals in existence. This is because each

culture has incorporated various remedies to solve the universal human problems that affect all

societies.

Findings

The constant interdependence among states, business arena and individuals has

brought to light the significance of national co-cultures to the forefront. Co-culture greatly

affects how people think, communicate and relate to one another. Therefore, it is of great impact

on various aspects of a negotiation. It is worth noting that co-culture, ethnicity and nationality

are always different. Various Co-cultures within a nation can be different. For example, cultures

identified between China and America (Ndapwilapo, 2008). Kavum (2007) states that unlike

political, legal, and economic systems, co-culture has proven very difficult to point out and

analyze. Its impact on both local and international business is widely spread, deep and broad. Co-

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culture affects a number of interpersonal exchanges and a list of chain operations such as the

design of service and product, marketing, and sales. Business owners must design products and

packaging with culture in mind, even regarding the brand of color. For example, while red is the

preferred color for Russians, it is the symbol of sad moments in many states in Sub Saharan

Africa. What is an appropriate gift for business owners also varies from one place to the other

around the world. While items such as pens are universally appropriate, others may be

considered inappropriate. Examples include cutting tools such as knives, which imply cutting off

the relationship or other negative implication, chrysanthemums, which are directly linked with

funerals, and handkerchiefs, which is a sign of sadness (Kavum, 2007)

Most companies intend to have their employees learn about their co- cultures and gain a

degree of co-cultural. For example, in In California’s Silicon Valley, where IT firms are engaged

and are concentrated Intel offers a conference to its staff on working effectively with India. The

conference aims at helping employees work more effectively and diligently with roughly

400,000 Indian nationals. A number of other Silicon Valley firms provide similar training.

Another computer firm, AMD, gets IT workers from India to its company in Texas for a month

for co-cultural training with U.S. employers. Workers role-play, assuming to be local Indians,

and take subjects like Indian political history, Indian movies, and the differences between

Hinduism and other Indian religions. Training includes lessons on assigning work (Routeman et

al., 2008).

Cojocaru (2011) suggests that multinational companies have the great importance of

working in and with different co-cultures to manufacture their products and services accessible

to a far wider community. The significance for reaching beyond the borders results into

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commercial sense. When multinationals develop into or with other countries there may be a

conclusion that because everyone within the company is working for the same goals and to the

same values, they will communicate with one another, think and portray the world in the similar

way. When a number of co-cultures start working together, problems or difficulties arise that a

number of people within the same companies are not skilled or semi-skilled or totally not skilled

such an issue before or they lack enough experience to deal with effectively. This can simply be

because they’ve never had to deal with the issue before (Cojocaru, 2011). Language is always

the least difficult barrier to breach.

When we recognize that there may be language differences, we should have a greater

awareness of the potential for such problems. However, much more often than not it’s a

completely different way of viewing things and an inability, analyses or unwillingness, to view

what the other party is seeing that is likely causing the difficulties. Black, Mendenhall and

Oddou (1991) brought to light some three main skills areas that specialists need to pay more

attention in order to survive in a new co-culture: skills associated with maintenance of self, skills

relating to bringing forth connections with local nationals and skills that encourage a correct

view of the local environment and its social units. Berry, Kim and Boski (1988, p.63) explained

three strategies for adjusting with this continuous change process. Specialists can adjust

psychologically by adjusting their behavior to cope with the environment, or they can adjust by

changing the environment moving from one place to the other, or they can move to a friendlier

environment.

Effective handling of the co-cultural interface is a very critical source of a firm’s

competitive advantage among others. Managers need to develop not only empathy and tolerance

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toward co-cultural differences, but also acquire a enough degree of factual know-how about the

beliefs and values of foreign counterparts’-cultural proficiency is paramount in many managerial

duties, including: manufacturing products and services; communicating and relating with foreign

business persons; screening and choosing foreign suppliers and other partners; discussing and

local and structuring international business ventures; interacting with current and potential

clients from within and abroad; preparing for overseas trade fairs, conferences and exhibitions;

preparing advertising and promotional documentations (Routamaa & Rautiainen, 2002).

Short notes

Co-cultural differences have the potential of affecting some of the workplace issues. For

example it has important impact on working together when local and foreign people cannot get

along well with one another. There is significance for having groups to signify one another for

good work relation to thrive. Co-culture has got an impact of a very long of employment

(Routamaa & Rautiainen, 2002). For instance, workers in some Asian countries enjoy a

paternalistic engagement with their managers and work for the very firm all their life time. The

expectations that come to place from such devoted engagements can bring problems dealings

with outside firms. Western managers work hard and motivate clients who expect they will

always retain the same job regardless of the quality and nature of their work. In some nations,

merit and performance is often not the primary grounds upon which employees are promoted. In

China and Japan, a person’s age is the most significant factor in promoting workers. When

Western firms evaluate their employees, such kind of employees using performance-based

measures, then their productivity is likely to have a problem (Routamaa & Rautiainen, 2002).

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Some companies prefer to give authority to country employers, creating a decentralized

organizational set up. Others are classified by autocratic structures with power concentrated at

regional and the distinct headquarters. Firms are encouraged to be entrepreneurial or

bureaucratic. But how can they be in a position to get a bureaucratic supplier to be responsible

about demands for on time delivery and performance? This approach can reduce the flexibility

of company day to day activities if the union representatives do not allow change. In each

country, nationals have a unique capacity to cope with ambiguity. For instance, some managers

like exact and summarized instructions on work to be undertaken, whereas others give long and

incomplete instructions. If an employee is at peace working with minimum guidance or taking

well informed action, then the employee may have difficulty fitting into some co-cultures

(Routamaa & Hautala, 2008).

The concept of culture as a unit of knowledge used by all persons within a group can no

longer be maintained. Just like economic classifications transcend state borders in order to do

business, mass media transcends the very borders in order to carry out marketing of goods. What

was once a simple matter of explaining the mores of a tribal unit or a nation-state has become

into a number of cultural practices that play a vital role in the present worlds of numerous

consumers. How does one start to describe how this new form of cultural diffusion? How does

one begin to start the forces behind these infusions of cultural symbols? (Debord, 1995)? How

does one handle the spectacle of life (Baudrillard, 1975)? One could like this overflow of

information to a co-cultural flood over the old terrains and valleys of the nation-states. What

happens in this co-cultural flood is that some of the cultural practices remain and take hold on

the old co-cultural space and some of the co- cultural practices are faced out and deposited

elsewhere? Those co-cultural practices that remain are either accepted, changed, or re-invented.

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Those that are accepted become part of the new practices. Those that are revised are taken to be a

part of the present and those that are re-invented are treated as emergent realities.

At some point, the present becomes a part of the old only to be reintroduced within the

new present practices as the new. It was argued initially at the investigation that Kuhn’s theory

of scientific revolutions only provides ground for the discussion of change within the co-cultural

fabric of a society. More emphasis has been placed on the period of crises where the social

creation of reality is questioned new potential paradigms emerging. It was argued that this locale

is different from the present but the present, the place where the past and the present meet each

other. It is where the present is carried in the habitus of the past. It is also where the future is

being created by means of latest levels of consciousness-raising and new re-presentations of the

artifacts of the past.

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