Description
Project Overview
In this project, you will reflect on your worldview and how it affects your understanding of the world around you. Then, you will research the culture of another country and share strategies for collaborating between and among cultures.
This work will help you practice cultural competency and awareness. These are important skills in the modern diverse workplace.
Competency
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:
Describe perspectives of more than one worldview in real-world interactions
Scenario
You work for Agua Sin Fronteras (ASF, or “Water Without Borders”), an international nonprofit. ASF works to provide access to clean drinking water, improve sanitation, and deliver health education programs. Globally, children living in urban poverty have little control over their water sources. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) awarded funding to ASF to work on solving this problem. ASF plans to use this money to expand its efforts into new countries.
Your supervisor, Sue Edge, asked you to be on a committee that recommends countries for ASF’s programs. These programs include the following:
Building wells
Installing water purification systems
Creating educational materials about water health
Directions
Committee Orientation Activity
The committee leader, Ty Dalwave, wants the team to be aware of their biases when doing research. To build that awareness, he has asked everyone to reflect on their worldview by doing the following:
Describe your worldview, including how it changes and forms.
How do you view the world?
How do you understand how the world works? How do you understand your purpose in the world?
What assumptions, beliefs, and values affect how you explain the world, understand your circumstances, and live your life?
How did your worldview develop? How has it changed over time?
Explain how your worldview affects the way you interact and perceive others at work.
How could your worldview affect your interactions with and perceptions of your coworkers?
Committee Brief
Now that you’ve reflected on your worldview and its effect on how you navigate the world, you are ready to start researching. As a committee member, you will investigate the social, political, and cultural situations of another country and report what you learn to the group.
Choose a country to research.
Choose a country that you are not familiar with and would like to learn more about.
Note: For this project, you should assume that ASF’s worldview is the same as your own. For this reason, you must investigate a country that’s different from your own.
Research your chosen country.
Use the Country Analysis Questions document to help you research your chosen country’s social, political, and cultural situations.
If you would like to, you can do some of your own research beyond the country profiles information provided in the Supporting Materials section. Remember to use authoritative sources and cite them in your work.
Explore how ASF could conduct operations in your selected country.
The committee wants you to present your findings in a committee brief. Remember to assume that ASF’s worldview is the same as your own and base your responses on that. In your committee brief, include the following information:
The name of your selected country
A summary of the country’s geography, government, health, education, culture, economy, and history
A discussion of how you think various groups in your selected country would perceive ASF’s work:
What differences in worldviews do you think could be potential sources of conflict when communicating between the two cultures? Brainstorm and describe at least three.
How do people in your own country interact in groups and at work? How does this compare to your selected country?
Propose at least three actionable solutions to address potential conflict and foster collaboration. Consider the following question:
If ASF started working in the country that you chose, what recommendations would you make to support collaboration and avoid conflict between differing worldviews?
What to Submit
Every project has a deliverable or deliverables, which are the files that must be submitted before your project can be assessed. For this project, you must submit the following:
Committee Orientation Activity
Reflect on your worldview and describe how it affects your interactions and feelings of others. This should be 250–500 words (about 1–2 pages).
Committee Brief
Research and write a summary of the social, political, and economic situations of the country you chose. Then, discuss how ASF would be perceived in that country. Identify potential conflicts, and propose ways to reduce conflict and increase collaboration. Your committee brief should be 750–1,200 words (about 3–5 pages). Note: Do not submit the Country Analysis Questions document.
Supporting Materials
The following resources may help support your work on the project:
Country Analysis Questions
These questions will help you to analyze how your chosen country might perceive ASF. Use the questions to collect and organize information for the committee brief you will submit. Note: Do not submit this document.
Country Profiles
The following websites provide information about social, political, and economic conditions of countries around the world. Use these websites to find information about the country you chose.
Website: BBC News Country Profiles
Website: The World Factbook
Website: International Model United Nations Association (IMUNA) Country Profiles
Website: Lonely Planet: Destinations
Website: World Health Organization: Countries
Website: UNESCO Country Profiles
Website: If It Were My Home
Website: Encyclopedia Britannica
Country Comparisons
The following resources may be helpful when comparing the cultures of your home country and your chosen country:
Website: The Culture Factor Group: Country Comparison tool
You can use this site to help compare your home country and your chosen country. To use this site, do the following:
In the search box, start typing the name of your chosen country, then select it from the drop-down menu. Then, in the same box, do the same for your home country. This will create a graph that shows your chosen country compared to your home country.
Click on the “Read more about chosen countries” button below the graph for an explanation of what the graph shows.
Website: Cultural Atlas
This website has detailed information about the cultures of several countries around the world. This might be a useful tool to research your chosen country.
Reading: World Business Cultures: A Handbook, Part 2
This text contains information about different countries, including China, France, India, and more, that might be helpful if you chose one of these countries.
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Country Analysis Questions
The following questions will help you analyze the selected country that you will discuss in your
committee brief.
Country
• What is the official name of your selected country?
Geography
• What region of the world is your country located in? Who are your country’s neighbors?
• How would you describe your country’s physical features and climate?
• What environmental problems does your country face?
Government
• What type of government does your selected country have? What types of ideologies influence
its government?
• How many people serve in the country’s military?
• What are the domestic issues in the country?
Health
• What is the average life expectancy?
• What is the country’s birth rate, maternal mortality rate, and infant mortality rate?
• What are the country’s major infectious diseases? What is the rate of HIV/AIDS infection?
Education
• What percentage of the population is literate?
• How many years, on average, do people attend school?
• Is school free and/or a requirement?
Culture
• What is your country’s official language? What other languages are spoken?
• What is the ethnic composition? Religious composition? Racial composition?
Economy
• What is the economic system in your selected country?
• What is your country’s gross domestic product (GDP)?
• What are some of the country’s natural resources?
• What is the country’s currency? Is it stable?
History
• Was your country ever a colony? If so, for what country? When did your country become
independent?
• Did your country ever colonize another country? If so, for how long?
• What are some major events/conflicts in your country’s history? Why are they important?
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