Week 3 of PR Internship: Managing Cultural Gaps

During my internship, one of the most problematic issues I had to deal with was managing cultural gaps with my colleagues at Cameleon Productions. I still remember last semester when I was studying a module called 'International Public Relations' whereby the most important lesson I learned was that different cultures must be adapted by public relations practitioners and not be changed. This ensures a better efficiency in terms of communication within a company.

Similarly in my case, my supervisor is French and one of my colleagues was born in Madagascar. One of things which is not respected very well in Mauritian culture is the aspect of time; 15 'mauritian' minutes might actually mean 30 minutes in reality. On my first day of my Internship, I arrived at the office 6-8 minutes later than expected and my supervisor did not hesitate to notify my lateness. Such lateness would be tolerable in some workplaces according to me.

Another cultural gap which I had to deal with was within the language itself. In the workplace, French was the main language used to communicate with employees. Being not as proficient in French, it was difficult for me to effectively communicate my actions and my justifications to my supervisor which led to miscommunication sometimes. Eventually, I was able to work according to my supervisor's rhythm and was able to achieve all of my tasks which were assigned to me.

Managing cultural gaps is crucial in a workplace comprised of foreign workers. Cross cultural gaps can destroy the cohesion found between colleagues if not managed properly. To do this, compromise must be reached as well as setting your ego aside which is not easy to do for many people.