Week 5 & 6: Ethics, Leadership and Global Citizenship

I believe that education plays a vital role in informing people about global citizenship and the Takkaca and Akdemirb reading “Training Future Members of the World with an Understanding of Global Citizenship” does a great job in explaining this.

Takkaca and Akdemirb explain that global citizenship means that ‘every human being is an equal inhabitant of this planet’ while sharing a set of globally acceptable moral values. For me, growing up in Dubai where there are people from all over the world I got to learn about different cultures in class and to treat everyone equally from a very young age which made me appreciate cultural differences and led to my passion for travelling to experience different cultures.

The second reading “What Does It Mean to Be Globally Competent?” by Hunter was very insightful in helping me to realise what does it mean for me to be a globally knowledgeable person.

I learnt that it is important not only to have knowledge and understanding of different cultures but also to empathise and have a positive attitude towards cultures even though there might be huge differences. Understanding someone from a different cultural viewpoint takes time and patience in my opinion but it is always important to show respect. I think this definition can also be applied to a business environment to understand employee cultural norms and expectations in order to communicate more effectively with employees and thereby enhance the productivity of employees. For instance, in India head nodding shows acceptance so it is important for foreign managers to understand that cultural behaviour to know whether what is being communicated is well understood.