My cultural difference assessment

Since both CPQ and GlobeSmart are about assessing cultural difference, I am blogging about them together so this is a long one - be warned :-)

1. Both assessments provide baseline benchmarks from different cultural groups. Because of my diverse cultural backgrounds (mix of Chinese, British (HK being a British Colony), and North America (being in NA for almost 25 years), I am not surprised to see myself being a culture marginal to either China, HK, or US.

2. The GlobeSmart assessment shows that US and China are in two opposite ends of the spectrum. However, I am surprised that the benchmark from HK is so much closer to China.

My profile is much closer to US than to China - which makes me a cultural marginal to either the culture in China or HK. I think it make senses because I received my higher education in North America and spent my entire career in US. So, my culture values are more tuned towards US than to China, while still maintaining a strong tie to Chinese/HK culture from my family and friends. But it's interesting to find that the benchmark from UK is very similar to mine, except on the short vs long term category.

My grand parents' profiles will be different from mine because they didn't experience the North American culture. They also had to live through the WW-II environment (i.e., HK was briefly occupied by Japan during the WW-II) and the peripheral effects of the Cultural Revolution in China (i.e., HK was already a British Colony during the Cultural Revolution but we still had family ties in the mainland China) - both of them were life-changing experiences.

3. My CPQ score again shows that my profile is less similar to the benchmark from HK then to the benchmark of the class. My CPQ score is quite aligned with the class average but I seem to be more future and individual oriented. I think my choice to enroll into the SJSU EMBA program and this class reflect my future oriented attribute. For example, I could have taken classes in technology, project management, etc which are closer to what I need now for my job.

My CPQ score alignment with the class average make sense as I see the classmates representing a sub-culture in the SF bay area - highly educated professionals whom are open-minded, eager to learn, and immersed in a multi-cultural environment. However, I also realize that there are distinctively higher or lower results among the classmates. I think this variance reinforces the often forgotten fact that we are all different individuals even within a sub-culture. We need to be conscious of our differences in our daily engagements and be open-minded. To relate back to our BaFa BaFa simulation, we want to stay with 'description' and away from 'interpretation' and 'evaluation'.