The Critical Incident Technique aims to harvest the rich, personal perspective of life and facilitate understanding of the issues in any critical incident. A critical incident need not be spectacular, but it should hold significance, something that made one stop and think whether it contributed to an effective or an ineffective outcome. (Serrat, 2010) The technique aims to understand critical incidents at a depth that may not be apparent through purely quantitative methods of data collection. (Serrat, 2010) Critical incidents are often seen as bearing little significance until we ask the right questions; What really happened? How did I feel? What do I think about it now? What did I learn? (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009)
What essentially occurred.
The incident I will choose relates to my current workplace and is currently ongoing. I will choose this incident because it is at first appearances a mundane, run of the mill, mix up. But upon looking into it further, I have today discovered there’s a lot more going on under the surface, to use Schein’s cultural iceberg analogy. (Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2010) I run the Chess Club at the school where I work and for the last three weeks, we have been engaged in our annual Chess Championship. The games are held after school in our clubs and activities time. Chess being chess however, the games don’t always finish when club time ends. I have made several requests for the aircon to be left on in my classroom for an additional period at the end of the day to facilitate the late games. Thus far, out of the six tournament play days, the aircon has been turned off on five of them. I have fired off several emails each time, asking why the aircon was not left on later. On each occasion, according to our building services staff, there was a mix up in communications – on five out of six occasions!
To continue my story, our building services staff are Thai, in a school where most of the staff requesting their help are non-Thai, mainly from the US and Europe. Realizing that the lost message response was unlikely to
be true, today I approached a few members of our Thai teaching staff to ask the critical incident technique question “What really happened?” (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009) As it turns out the building services staff are unhappy that a lot of the additional activities organized by teachers mean that they have to work outside their normal working hours, without additional pay. The teachers don’t get paid for these activities either, however, the teachers do get a much better base salary than the building support staff. What is really happening is that the Thai support staff are feeling used and taken for granted and are effectively operating work to rule protest. The critical incident technique really can reveal underlying trends and motives. (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009) The value of critical incident analysis lies in the questions that people are supposed to answer in the process of analyzing the incident. Rather than the usual incident reporting questions; Who? What? When? Where? How? The critical incident technique encourages us to ask; What really happened? How did I/they feel? What do I think about it now? What did I learn? (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009)
The first, crucial step is probably to try and improve communication. (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009) The Thai staff I spoke to suggested I talk to the building staff and empathize with their situation. Let them know that I agree they should be compensated for their extra efforts. Drop my polychronic insistence on the correct procedures and build a better relationship with the support staff, something that is particularly important in Thai polychronic culture. (Rick, 2014)
Application of the theoretical frameworks of cultural interpretation (Hofstede, Hall, etc.) presented in our readings and apply this approach to the situation.
I was also advised to use another, seemingly contradictory approach to the situation by the same Thai staff who advised the relationship building approach. They also suggested that I make my boss aware of the situation, in full knowledge that he would raise it with the boss of the building services staff. As I said, I
found this advice contradictory the first piece of advice, but it does fit neatly with the Hofstede–Bond studies interpretation of cultural differences. (Krietner, 2012) The first two dimensions outlined by this theoretical framework suggest that cultures differ in their Power-Distance relations and Individualism–collectivism. Thailand is quite a hierarchically structured society. A lot of emphases, for example in education, is put on respect and deference towards those who have higher status. At the same time, it is a highly collective society, with tight bonds between individuals and societal groups. These twin forces mean that an approach to their Thai boss, from my non-Thai boss, invokes both the power of a higher authority and the peer pressure of the collective. They are more likely to respond positively to their own Thai boss on two levels; as an authority figure, and as part of their own collective.
How I, as a manager, would you have handled the situation differently. I feel that I eventually am handling the situation quite well. I guess I could have handled it better in the first instance by talking to my Thai colleagues earlier. It would have saved a few sweaty after school activity days. Left to my own devices I would probably have spoken to my boss about the situation sooner or later. I would never have come up with the twin-pronged approach of invoking authority while building relationships though.
What I can do, as a manager, to ensure I am able to adapt to multiple cultures. “There are no adequate substitutes for knowing the local language and culture.” (Krietner, 2012, p.111) I feel I am becoming more culturally intelligent and therefore adaptable to multiple cultures as time goes on. But this comes with actual experience and at the expense of many small cultural catastrophes along the way. I think I just have to keep trying and keep asking the critical incident technique questions; What really happened? How did I/they feel? What do I think about it now? What did I learn? (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009) Useful questions I think.
CONCLUSION
The Critical Incident technique’s focus on critical issues can bring major benefits to an organization; the technique turns complex experiences into rich data and information providing in-depth information at a much lower cost and with much greater ease than observation. (Serrat, 2010)
REFERENCES
Kilianska-Przybylo, G. (2009, June). The Analysis of “Critical Incidents” as a Way to Enhance Intercultural Competence. Retrieved from old.hltmag.co.uk: http://old.hltmag.co.uk/jun09/sart09.htm
Krietner, R. &. (2012). International OB: Managing Accross Cultures. In R. &. Krietner, The World of Organizational Behaviour (pp. 84-113). New York: McGraw Hill.
Rick, T. (2014, November 26). Orgabizational Culture is like an Iceburg. Retrieved from www.torbenrick.eu: https://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/culture/organizational-culture-is-like-an-iceberg/
Saylor. (2012). Cultural Intelligence for Leaders. Saylor Academy: Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0.
Schein, E. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Serrat, O. (2010). The Critical Incident Technique. Washington DC: Asian Development Bank. Retrieved from The Critical Incident Technique
What essentially occurred.
The incident I will choose relates to my current workplace and is currently ongoing. I will choose this incident because it is at first appearances a mundane, run of the mill, mix up. But upon looking into it further, I have today discovered there’s a lot more going on under the surface, to use Schein’s cultural iceberg analogy. (Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2010) I run the Chess Club at the school where I work and for the last three weeks, we have been engaged in our annual Chess Championship. The games are held after school in our clubs and activities time. Chess being chess however, the games don’t always finish when club time ends. I have made several requests for the aircon to be left on in my classroom for an additional period at the end of the day to facilitate the late games. Thus far, out of the six tournament play days, the aircon has been turned off on five of them. I have fired off several emails each time, asking why the aircon was not left on later. On each occasion, according to our building services staff, there was a mix up in communications – on five out of six occasions!
To continue my story, our building services staff are Thai, in a school where most of the staff requesting their help are non-Thai, mainly from the US and Europe. Realizing that the lost message response was unlikely to
be true, today I approached a few members of our Thai teaching staff to ask the critical incident technique question “What really happened?” (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009) As it turns out the building services staff are unhappy that a lot of the additional activities organized by teachers mean that they have to work outside their normal working hours, without additional pay. The teachers don’t get paid for these activities either, however, the teachers do get a much better base salary than the building support staff. What is really happening is that the Thai support staff are feeling used and taken for granted and are effectively operating work to rule protest. The critical incident technique really can reveal underlying trends and motives. (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009) The value of critical incident analysis lies in the questions that people are supposed to answer in the process of analyzing the incident. Rather than the usual incident reporting questions; Who? What? When? Where? How? The critical incident technique encourages us to ask; What really happened? How did I/they feel? What do I think about it now? What did I learn? (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009)
The first, crucial step is probably to try and improve communication. (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009) The Thai staff I spoke to suggested I talk to the building staff and empathize with their situation. Let them know that I agree they should be compensated for their extra efforts. Drop my polychronic insistence on the correct procedures and build a better relationship with the support staff, something that is particularly important in Thai polychronic culture. (Rick, 2014)
Application of the theoretical frameworks of cultural interpretation (Hofstede, Hall, etc.) presented in our readings and apply this approach to the situation.
I was also advised to use another, seemingly contradictory approach to the situation by the same Thai staff who advised the relationship building approach. They also suggested that I make my boss aware of the situation, in full knowledge that he would raise it with the boss of the building services staff. As I said, I
found this advice contradictory the first piece of advice, but it does fit neatly with the Hofstede–Bond studies interpretation of cultural differences. (Krietner, 2012) The first two dimensions outlined by this theoretical framework suggest that cultures differ in their Power-Distance relations and Individualism–collectivism. Thailand is quite a hierarchically structured society. A lot of emphases, for example in education, is put on respect and deference towards those who have higher status. At the same time, it is a highly collective society, with tight bonds between individuals and societal groups. These twin forces mean that an approach to their Thai boss, from my non-Thai boss, invokes both the power of a higher authority and the peer pressure of the collective. They are more likely to respond positively to their own Thai boss on two levels; as an authority figure, and as part of their own collective.
How I, as a manager, would you have handled the situation differently. I feel that I eventually am handling the situation quite well. I guess I could have handled it better in the first instance by talking to my Thai colleagues earlier. It would have saved a few sweaty after school activity days. Left to my own devices I would probably have spoken to my boss about the situation sooner or later. I would never have come up with the twin-pronged approach of invoking authority while building relationships though.
What I can do, as a manager, to ensure I am able to adapt to multiple cultures. “There are no adequate substitutes for knowing the local language and culture.” (Krietner, 2012, p.111) I feel I am becoming more culturally intelligent and therefore adaptable to multiple cultures as time goes on. But this comes with actual experience and at the expense of many small cultural catastrophes along the way. I think I just have to keep trying and keep asking the critical incident technique questions; What really happened? How did I/they feel? What do I think about it now? What did I learn? (Kilianska-Przybylo, 2009) Useful questions I think.
CONCLUSION
The Critical Incident technique’s focus on critical issues can bring major benefits to an organization; the technique turns complex experiences into rich data and information providing in-depth information at a much lower cost and with much greater ease than observation. (Serrat, 2010)
REFERENCES
Kilianska-Przybylo, G. (2009, June). The Analysis of “Critical Incidents” as a Way to Enhance Intercultural Competence. Retrieved from old.hltmag.co.uk: http://old.hltmag.co.uk/jun09/sart09.htm
Krietner, R. &. (2012). International OB: Managing Accross Cultures. In R. &. Krietner, The World of Organizational Behaviour (pp. 84-113). New York: McGraw Hill.
Rick, T. (2014, November 26). Orgabizational Culture is like an Iceburg. Retrieved from www.torbenrick.eu: https://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/culture/organizational-culture-is-like-an-iceberg/
Saylor. (2012). Cultural Intelligence for Leaders. Saylor Academy: Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0.
Schein, E. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Serrat, O. (2010). The Critical Incident Technique. Washington DC: Asian Development Bank. Retrieved from The Critical Incident Technique
Comments
Post a Comment