Note: Topic has been changed from Roman culture to business students
Even
though intercultural communications is largely based on the study of the
interactions between different races, cultures, or religions, a surprising
amount can be learned from the interaction of people with different academic
backgrounds. Since I am an engineer myself, this report will focus primarily on
the culture of business students, particularly with reference to academic and
professional settings. To study the differences, one should look at a few key
indicators such as personal identity, value orientations, and communication
type.
It is prudent to
discuss the generally accepted differences between business students and
engineers. An online blog describes each group’s character well in the terms of
an ongoing conflict: “the logical, practical engineer butting heads with the
uncomprehending, inefficient business major. Or wait – is it instead the
visionary manager struggling to focus a socially inept engineer puttering off
on an inscrutable tangent?” (Miss Outsider, 2011). As described, engineers are
generally seen as logical and practical, while businessmen take on managerial
and visionary identities. Many Dilbert comics provide entertaining commentary
on the communication difficulties between engineers and businessmen.
Personal
identity is, of course, vital to studying any culture. Martin describes a personal identity as “who
we think we are and who others think we are.” (2012). To determine the
self-identity of business students, I have drawn from my previous experiences
working with businessmen, as well as interviews with business students. Dylan
McAugherty, a business student at UNL (see image), indicated that business
students are very much goal oriented and will do whatever it takes to achieve
their objective. Dylan believes that the phrase “don’t take it personal, it’s
just business” rings very true within the business community. Dylan also
provided a view of engineers from within the business perspective. He discussed
how most business students view engineers as “the nerdy group that’s probably
not worth talking to because no one can understand a damn thing they say
anyway.” (personal communication,
October 19, 2012).
Much
in the same way different cultures value different principles, business students
also have a certain set of value orientations. Martin describes the four
Hofstede Value Orientations, of which uncertainty avoidance and Short-term/Long-term
orientation are particularly pertinent. Current business student Ian Smith
commented on these values. Firstly, uncertainty avoidance refers to the
acceptance of rules and procedures by a group. The amount of uncertainty
avoidance preferred by business students appears to be based on their specific
position. For example, it was indicated that an accountant would prefer to have
specific rules to follow whereas a marketing student would rather have a more
open ended problem to solve (personal communication, October 19, 2012). Short-term/Long-term
orientation refers to a group’s preference for quick results vs. perseverance. Even
though business students can fall on either end of this spectrum, managers are
more likely to be short term oriented. After all, a successful business is
built on the ability to provide quick results to a client. It is important to
note that value orientations are not universal across people of the same group.
For example, many engineers decide to enter the management field and end up
earning an MBA degree. These people likely have more of the value orientations
inherent to business students in the first place.
Even when an engineer and businessmen both
speak English, adequate communication can be challenging because of each groups’
different points of view. However, effective communication between the groups
is vital because successful teams must include people with varying backgrounds.
From personal experience, I have found code switching to be a useful tool. Code
switching refers to changing language or dialect to fit a situation (Martin,
2012). In the business-engineering example, the actual language spoken is not
any different, but the jargon and intonations are different. As Dylan mentioned
during the course of his interview, engineers are more likely to use technical
jargon. Business students prefer to put
value on the overall end goal and how to work towards it, as opposed to the
specific mechanisms needed to achieve that goal.
Despite
the differences between business and engineering oriented people, it seems that
the most successful individuals have traits inherent to both groups. The
Silicon Valley goliaths such Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, and Steve Jobs come
to mind. Each one of them had the technical knowhow to create a product that is
desirable in the marketplace. However, they also had enough business sense to develop
their ideas into wildly successful businesses.
Overall
communication between people of different academic backgrounds is vital to the
success of a workplace. In particular, differences between engineers and
business students are apparent in their personal identity and value orientations.
However, the differences can be overcome by using effective communication
techniques such as code switching.
Further study on this project will
include a couple hours of observation of business students in their… natural
habitat?
Finally, because I like Dilbert, please
enjoy the following comic strip.
Martin,
J.N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts
(6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Personal interviews: see in text citations
(as per http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/11/)
