Culture and cultural differences Essay

â€Å"Motivation is an incentive, inducement, or motive, especially for an act† (Morris 1970) There are many ways which influence the motivation levels of an adult person to do a particular task. One of the most important factors is Culture, which is an intrinsic part of a human being. The term culture is best understood when cross-cultural people join to due to some reason, to form a group. While interacting with such a group for motivation, the main idea is to create a sense of belonging. People, who find their niche place in a group, are much more eager to perform tasks to the best of their abilities. The second most important idea for motivation is to create an environment to do work. The reasons for working vary for people from country to country – In China the work motivation is moral obligation, while in Japan it is trust and in Western societies it is incentives. All these factors should be taken care while motivating a cross-cultural group for working. One should always remember that, in the end all these people are doing the same for albeit for different reasons. What do you believe should be your primary concern when trying to motivate across cultural boundaries? Remember to justify your response. People from various cultures take incentives in a different way. People belonging to Asian countries like Japan, lay more stress on the acknowledgement of the work done, than on any material perks they might be able to earn. In contrast, people from many of the service based western countries like US think of incentives, as something which is to be won. And finally there are some people who might be from poor countries like Vietnam, where the perks mean additional money, the more they work the more they earn. Making all these people motivated with an inspirational talk, no matter how good the perks might be, is the most important factor of all. This is because, dissatisfied people might easily think on the lines of regional bias and try to de-motivate other people. A balanced talk which is aimed to effectively motivate the set of people, by seemingly addressing to the individual cultural sects of the group, hence requires the maximum talent and guile on the part of the motivating person. References LaMonica L, â€Å"The Relationship Between Culture and Learner Motivation and Implications for Trainingâ€Å", 17th July 2001, http://www. geocities. com/llamonica/culture. html