Critical Journal Reflection

This essay attempts to provide an insight into our lived and learnt experiences that have originated from both our Chinese/Malaysian and Australian backgrounds. We have applied our differing cultural backgrounds to different social situations illuminate some of the difficulties that may be faced when doing business with people come from differing cultural backgrounds such as ours. We have used the process of critical self reflection to comment on the differences that we have found between our two cultures. The way in which Chinese/Malaysian and Australian cultural understandings differ in areas such as the family, building trust and loyalties and social 'niceties' are explored. The implications of these different understandings are then applied to international business and international human resource management (IHRM).

Kath Fisher (2004) defines the process of critical reflection as on ongoing process of analysing one's 'own positioning'. She writes that it requires a level of 'self-awareness' and argues that is challenging as it requires the individual to question their own unconsciously-held beliefs and assumption.

Rare Golden Chinese Coins

Chinese Brush for Writing Calligraphy

Flickr Chinese Dragon Year Statue

These beliefs and assumptions are often held and supported by the social institutions and structures surrounding them. Through working together we have been able to share some of own beliefs that we hold and thus has provided us both with an opportunity to question our own 'self-positioning'. We firstly discussed the 'common ground' that we did share and used this as a 'springboard' to start to explore some of different ideas and understandings that we held that have originated from our very different upbringings. We both held contrasting opinions and differing interpretations of different social situations cultural practices such as 'telling the truth' and overtaking the family business. Through our discussions together it enabled us both to understand how different cultural positions have the potential to have strong impacts on businesses operations and expatriates...