Managing Across Cultures: Sydney

I have officially completed my first week of classes at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) here in Sydney Australia. I am taking a nice range of classes from economics to consumer behavior to management. The campus is absolutely beautiful and has a very modern look to it. There are tons of small cafes and stores located around campus and plenty of large study spaces. Before classes started, there was a week of orientation similar to the first few weeks on campus at UMD. We attended the equivalent of their first look fair, which had hundreds of clubs tabling and recruiting new members. They had sports that I never heard of such as underwater rugby and gridiron, which apparently is another name for American Football. I signed up for the surf club and even made it out onto the water already. Although I never managed to stand up and ride a wave, the experience was thrilling. 

There are some differences in the teaching methods that I am still acclimating to, such as the fact that lectures are two-hour-long, teaching assistants are referred to as tutors, and discussion sections are called tutorials. Another difference is the size of the university. I thought the University of Maryland was large with a student population around 40,000, but UNSW has that number beat. With 60,000 students and over 20,000 international students, UNSW is a massive public institution. Both my economics and consumer behavior classes have over a hundred students and the lecture is in a large hall, whereas my management class is much smaller.

The class I am most excited about is definitely my Managing Across Cultures management class. This is an Australian course, taught by a British professor, to a room full of international students, which makes it the ideal environment to learn about cultural sensitivity and how to work well with people from different cultures. Learning about various cultures and differences in attitudes and mentalities that people have when they approach business situations has been fascinating. We also have a group assignment in the class, where we can put our cross-cultural competency to the test. My group consists of an Australian native, an Austrian student, and myself from America. This mix has allowed me to get a glimpse of their backgrounds and experiences as well as hear about differences in student life across the globe.

I have really come to appreciate the importance of having a global mindset and recognize its importance in this era of globalization. One conversation we had in class was whether or not our world society is heading towards a uni-culture environment. There is no debate that the digital era has connected the world like never before, but I do not believe it will ever erode traditional local cultures. The intricacies and nuances of various civilizations and communities around the world will remain unphased and I believe that as long as we remain scattered around the world, differences in cultures will always exist. Understanding and appreciating those differences is how we can use our differences to create a better tomorrow.