Cross culture relates to US and Sg military

Assignment Details

1) Introduction

A comprehensive report on the application of the course concepts within your own workplace or one with which you are familiar.

2) Key paragraphs

· The culture between US military and Singapore military. Perhaps information why do the people in US serve and what is their thoughts.

· Other aspect of culture, such as language, religion, social structure, political / economic philosophy, education, cultural norms in the society, or any other cultural dimension you think is important.

•    Discuss and analyse the determinants of culture in the country chosen: History, Religion, Social Structure, Political Philosophy, Economy, Language, and Education.

•    Apply the cultural theories to the chosen culture.

Look at the Hofstede Dimensions and World Values Survey to find background info.

There should be a strong level of analysis, demonstrating focused background reading on the chosen topic.

3) Conclusion. (Not more than 500 words)

Conclusions must be an analytical synthesis of all of the above about the cultural environment in the given country/region.

Examples given to be included in the assignment. Kindly include more findings on the cultural differences between the USA and Singapore.

Introduction

Military personnel being deployed to USA during his national service in Singapore Air Force. This report is to be presented to the Commanding Officer after returning back to Singapore. An overall view of the cultural differences experience by him in USA. Aims to reduce cultural conflict, understands their behaviour and act as references for future deployment or training.

Topics which I would like to include but make necessary changes

1. What is USA culture?

2. What is the culture differences between USA Army and Singapore Army?  

3. What exactly do the USA Army felts about the present of another Asia military personal in base?

4. Why do people in USA serve the forces?  

5. How they look at Singaporean as a whole? Is there any stereotype view against us and vice versa?

6. What is SAF roles and involvement during peacetime and why it is important?

e.g Support in disaster in supplying medical and foods.

Handling the differences between Singapore and USA example:

Work Cultures

USA: Start work on time and knock off on time. No obligation to overtime should their boss requested them. (Due to labour and human rights policy)

SG: Start work on time and knock off later most of the time. Frequent overtime is expected and engineers are expected to adopt “Big Boy” concept and do not complain if you are require to work overtime.

Meal Time

USA: Go for lunch on time and will not entertain or engage into any request with regards to work that will potentially push back their lunchtime.

Example: If the engineer approaches an American guy for help due to work related issue while he is having his meal. He will be very furious and will not hesitate to tell you off right in your face.

SG: Usually no fix lunch time as lunch time greatly depends on the amount of work you have on that day.   But should the engineer encounter some issues that require immediate attention with regards his work, priority goes to solving the issue and lunch break will be push back to a later timing.

Recognition:

US: Very generous in showing recognition to their engineers. Any job that is deemed well done by their supervisor will usually be awarded with intrinsic or extrinsic rewards.

SG: Typically shy in this area and usually a job well done in a task is what you ought to do (It could be due to Asian Culture I suppose). Rewards will only be awarded to those with significant contribution to their work.

Language:

US: Low context communicator and Americans are usually very expressive. They tend to be very comfortable with direct speech.

SG: High context communicator. Shy and does not feel comfortable with aggressive conversation and also does not like to be interrupted in a conversation.

Food:

USA: Love hamburgers and salads at the same time they seldom take spicy food.

SG: Whereas Singaporean loves spicy food and they usually have either rice or noodles to come with main dishes.

Education:

USA: the education style is very open and children are asked to present in front of the classes, therefore when they are in the working society, they do not have stage fright as they are trained at young.

SG: the education style is very classroom style where teacher will teach on the blackboard, there when they are in the working society, they tends to have stage fright and require time for preparation prior to a presentation. Singapore follows Cambridge education standards, therefore some measuring units are used different between Singapore and USA (e.g Kilometer and Miles to measure distance - Metric system and customary units).

Festivities:

USA: Independence Day, Columbus Day and St Patrick Day.

SG: Chinese New year, Deepavali celebration and Singapore National Day.

Singaporean being the minority living the USA, in order to foster a stronger relationship and better understanding between the two cultures, Singaporean will usually organise a celebration during the Chinese New Year and Singapore National Day which is not observed in the American calendar.

During the eve of Chinese New Year, American counter-parts are invited to join them in the reunion dinner followed by a Chinese performance. And the Singapore National Day is celebrated quite similarly and a video on how Singapore became a multi-racial society and independence will be showed after the dinner.

No Plagiarism Please

Please include a bibligography or reference and literature sources used is essential. Ensure that you use various written sources of information and reference accordingly.

You may take references from the following website:

•       Hofstede Home Page: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/

•       World Values Survey: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org

•    CIA World Fact Book: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/index.html

Many other comparable sources of background information: Country Statistical Organisations, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, The Economist, OECD, IMF, World Bank, United Nations.