The MTPD fosters awareness about national identity, as a cohesive whole, provides contexts and the impact these have on one’s role in the society. For example, the functioning of marginalized communities. We are educating students, addressing cultural differences, making clear that we share universal rights and dignity no matter where we are from, by emphasizing that one cannot explain away injustices by cultural relativism.
A Dutch Marketing & Communications manager is working for an international company headquartered in London, active in the security industry. The company is located in more than 85 countries and serves customers in 1,300 different industries.
A group of four students, two from Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, one from Kozminski University in Warsaw Poland, and one from Auckland University of technology in Auckland New Zealand conducted an interview with a male Bulgarian national who has lived in Amsterdam for five years. The interviewee works for an American company with British colleagues that focus on business performance. The interview works predominantly with British and Dutch colleagues and clients. The aim of the interview was to identify any cultural limitations within the interviewee’s work environment. Cultural limitations identified were primarily centred around miscommunication caused by the conflict in high-context and low-context communication styles and expectations around workplace etiquette.
A Montenegrin consultant for an international company headquartered in the Netherlands was interviewed to shine light on international communication in a business environment. The company is mainly viewed as an employment agency, but engages in European building projects as well. Despite the headquarters being located in the Netherlands, majority of the business is done abroad and internationally, with their biggest clients located in Germany. Therefore, the consultant is required to travel abroad quite often, as he is the one responsible for interacting with partners/employees from different cultural backgrounds. Since the clients the company work with in the Netherlands are usually also of different origin due to their specialties in certain industries, the languages spoken differ with each client. The main spoken languages are English, German and Dutch; however, the use of Slavic languages has increased lately.
A Dutch concept development team member working for an Interna-tional HR service provider headquartered in the Netherlands, and op-erating in over 30 countries was our interview subject. The concept development team travels the world on- and offline in order to meet with their global colleagues. With the insights of those meetings with all different operating companies, this team initiates new business concepts or develops existing business concepts. Consequently the business concept team member has had the opportunity to work with and adjust to many different cultures on a daily basis. Therefore he has experienced many different cultures and has adjusted to those cultures.
The interviewee shared that the firm has made a shift to a more “culturally sensitive corporate environment”. A good example of this cultural awareness is that the firm has introduced a policy that allows people to leave a meeting if they feel (culturally) inhibitive or prohibitive with the behavior their col-leagues are presenting. Another shift in the firm is that they are anticipating building a culturally centered diversity community.
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