Week 10 - Q2 Subscribe Read the article Two Cultures Collide: Bridging the Gener

Question

Week 10 - Q2 Subscribe Read the article Two Cultures Collide: Bridging the Generation Gap in a Non-traditional Mentorship (Merriweather & Morgan, 2013) at http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol18/iss6/2/ What can organizations learn about diversity and cross-cultural mentoring from Dr. Lisa and Miss Berta’s story? Reference Merriweather, L. R., & Morgan, A. J. (2013). Two cultures collide: Bridging the generation gap in a non-traditional mentorship. The Qualitative Report, 18(6), 1-16. Retrieved from http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol18/iss6/

Explanation / Answer

Dr. Lisa and Miss Berta’s story provides invaluable lessons and learning for organizations with regards to diversity and cross-cultural mentoring.

Firstly diversity and cross cultural mentoring will lead to efficient and effective sharing of both tacit knowledge as well as explicit knowledge. In the case Dr. Lisa was 38 year old African American faculty member and Miss Berta was 58 year old White graduate student. Their conversations in different capacities like instructor-student, study advisor-advisee etc. led to sharing of both tacit knowledge as well as explicit knowledge between them.

Secondly organizations and their employees will widen their understanding of different value systems. Thus the worldview as well as experience of the employees will widen significantly.

Thirdly the level of peer resentment as well as negative stereotypes will gradually decline and this will increase the motivational level of employees in the long run.

Fourthly and most importantly employees will be able to develop tangible cross-cultural competencies and will become more aware of not only their own cultures but also about other cultures. The employees will be able to use their new found competence to better communicate and understand each other. This will lead to higher levels of synchronization among the employees. Eventually the productivity level of employees will increase significantly.

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