Posted by Question on March 29, 2005 at 06:45:40
In Reply to: Re: You are coming late into the discussion posted by Monika Kosz on March 26, 2005 at 07:29:54:
Monika,
I do not mean to be impolite. You are facing many unexpected challenges on choosing such a subject for your thesis: "ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF A SECT ON THE BASIS OF COG." I don't know how your school system works in Poland, but part of higher education is challenging your own assumptions. If you are being challenged here, it is because what you have presented so far is unsound.
If you wish to quote Geert Hofstede, the exact wording in English is: "Symbols: Words, pictures, gestures or objects which carry a particular meaning only recognized as such by those who share a culture."
You quote Hofstede, then mention 3 commonly listed symbols: architectural, physical and status. Then you go on to quote "The majority of sects use the symbols such as suggestive pictures, gestures, etc. (A. Zwoliński, Anatomia sekty, GOTÓW, Kraków 1996, p.110.)"
From there, you make an assumption that "posters have a lot to do with organizational culture" and this applies to the COG. While these statements by Hofstede and A. Zwoliński hold true and could apply to the COG, your assumption that posters have something to do with the organizational culture of the COG may be a bit of a leap in your conclusions.
"As you can see posters have a lot to do with organizational culture. Now I can see that the problem is in your lack of knowledge about the nature of organizational culture."
As you can see, some of us read the same books as you do, but do not find support for posters being part of the COG organizational culture. "Suggestion" was right in that you are incorrect to assume we know too little.
"I repeat it once more: THE TITLE OF MY WORK IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF A SECT ON THE BASIS OF COG and I do not research all the aspects of it only the ones connected with organizational culture."
And I repeat, the problem is you are not approaching this correctly.
"I am really begining to feel like an intruder who constantly has to explain the intentions and reasons. All I wanted to do was getting the answers to the questions and I can see that it is far more difficult than I had expected."
What is happening here with your interaction is completely predictable. Geert Hofstede describes it in the same book you read, from a chapter called "Intercultural Encounters" the section on "intended vs. unintended intercultural conflict":
"..unintended conflicts which often arise during intercultural encounters..which happen although nobody wants them and all suffer from them."
Monika, English is not your native language, you are new to the internet as a form of communication and interaction with exmembers of this group. There is a language, culture and psychology behind this encounter which you were not prepared for.
"Culture shock and Acculturation
"There exist a number of standard psychological and social processes wich tend to accompany intercultural encounters. The simplest form of intercultural encounter is between one foreign individual and a new cultural environment."
That is like you, interacting in English with exmembers of a cult using the internet.
"The foreigner often experiences some form of culture shock..This usually leads to feelings of distress..hostility towards the new environment.
"There are also standard types of reactions within host environments exposed to foreign visitors..if the visitor..tries to function in the host culture, a..phase sets in: ethnocentrism. The hosts will evaluate the visitor by the standards of their (own) culture, and this evaluation tends to be unfavorable..he or she will appear rude, naive and/or stupid."
This describes some of the reactions you have received.
The solution?
"Learning intercultural communication
"The acquisition of intercultural communication abilities passes through 3 phases: awareness knowledge and skills. Awareness is where it all starts."
More awareness is what is being asked of you.