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What is the meaning of Cultural Dissonance?

            Cognitive dissonance is the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information, the tension that the conflict arouses in people is relieved by one of the several defensive maneuvers; they reject, explain away, or avoid the new information, persuade themselves that no conflict really exists, reconcile the differences, or resort to any other defensive means of preserving stability or order in their conceptions of the world and of themselves.(Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d).
            Cognitive dissonance is a stronger motivator which leads organizations and or people to change one or other conflicting beliefs, like mentioned before the conflicting belief feels like two opposing thoughts, in order to release the tension one of the following actions ca be considered. (Changing minds, n.d).
·       Change our behavior
·       Justify our behavior by changing the conflicting cognition
·       Justify our behavior by adding new cognitions.
            The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, behaviors and beliefs or by justifying or rationalizing them (ebrary.net, n.d), given these facts it makes cognitive dissonance good for both individuals and organizations.
            Our perception about the World and behavior is influenced by our experience, whenever our beliefs are challenged by new information, we may be forced to act in either of the three ways aforementioned, a culturally intelligent leader will change his behaviors, he will gain understanding on when his behaviors are inappropriate and learn not to repeat them by adjusting his behaviors  to match what is appropriate, and if the behaviors were appropriate it is worth continuing with such. (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
            When making changes to behaviors, there are three questions that we need to consider according to cultural intelligence for leaders (2012).
What is changing? A leader needs to be clear of what he wants to change in his(team’s) cultural interactions, then make it his intention to change and carry out the change which is supposed to be linked to his motivation for changing, the leader must ask him self why it is important to change and how the change would impact his future cultural interactions with individuals or groups.
What will actually be different because of the change? A leader’s ability to visualize the end result is a motivation drive for the change, a leader must have the ability to articulate how the desired results and outcomes should look like, setting clear expectations for getting to the desired results can motivate the leader himself and the team.
Who’s going to lose what? In any cultural shift, there must be some beliefs and values that will have to be replaced, a leader has to contemplate on questions like, what values and beliefs might I have to let go? why is it hard to abandon these values and beliefs? How well have these values and beliefs served him or the team? What barriers do they create for the future of the leader or the team? (cultural intelligence for leaders, 2012).
            In case of resistance, leaders can use several approaches to effect behavioral change in organizations, for example, changing the minds of their subordinates through cognitive thinking and storytelling.
            Cultural strategic thinking, motivation, and mindfulness helps individuals to think about thinking, contemplate and adapt based on one’s findings and reflections, behaviors whether appropriate or not must be identified and defined objectively, one needs to know which behaviors are reoccurring and why  they need to be changed, this way one is able to describe the things he says to himself as well as the situations or behaviors that are being imagined. (Cultural intelligence for leaders, 2012).
            Compelling stories embodied in one’s own life can be a good agent of mind change, for example, stories that could eventually topple the counter stories in one’s culture can shape a culture positively by changing one’s mind. (cultural intelligence for leaders, 2012).
            Idealized Influence, a leader can overcome resistance by idealizing himself as a role model, he should behave and adapt to the behavior he is trying to sell to the team, eventually his subordinates will emulate him and finally individualized consideration which is having a one-on-one meeting with each of your subordinates to discuss their roadblocks and frustrations and ideas to improve, the first strategy of  cultural strategic thinking, motivation and mindfulness is best applicable during a one-on-one.

Reference:
Changing minds, n.d, cognitive dissonance, retrieved October 12, 2018, from http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/cognitive_dissonance.htm
Cultural intelligence for leaders, 2012, Saylor Academy. Creative commons by-nc-sa 3.0, retrieved       October 12, 2018, from https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/325629/mod_page/content/5/BUS5211Textbook.            pdf
Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d, Cognitive dissonance, retrieved October 12, 2018, from      https://www.britannica.com/science/cognitive-dissonance
Ebrary.net, n.d, cognitive dissonance, retrieved October 12, 2018, from             https://ebrary.net/3073/management/cognitive_dissonance

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