TASK 1: Define: ‘Culture’ & ‘Interculture’

Instructions:

For the first 10 Minutes: Divide yourselves into teams of THREE or FOUR Persons Produce the best definition of ‘Culture’ that you can, remembering from other

such exercises, we will need not only to consider the 'WHAT' but also the who, when, where, how and why.....

Write the definition out clearly in English (It must be legible and self-explanatory as you will be passing this to one of the other groups for their consideration).

Then for a further 5Minutes:

Swap your definitions: Team 1 Team 2 and Team 3 Team 4 etc Consider how you might ‘extend, improve and enhance’ the other team’s

definition in the light of your earlier thoughts on the matter. Swap back your ‘extended and improved’ versions to the originating team,

explaining how and why you made the changes you did.

Then for a further 10 Minutes:

Each team provides a rapporteur to present and explain their team’s final definition to the whole class

Together we compare and contrast the definitions to ascertain significant similarities and differences

Together we consider the prospect of creating from the four definitions one ‘hybrid’ working definition that satisfies the group.

We consider (critically analyse and evaluate) our hybrid working definition to ensure there are no major omissions and to ‘sharpen’ and ‘tighten’ it as much as possible.

Then for a further 10 Minutes:

Read (from handout supplied) a number of definitions of ‘Culture’ as produced by various academics ‘coming at’ the issue from a variety of different perspectives: Identify which of these definitions you prefer and think why this is so In the light of the above, how do we ‘feel’ about our hybrid working

definition? Is it comprehensive / limited …… or just plain different? Did we ‘miss’ any significant feature / issue (Give yourselves a % mark!)

Let’s construct (and agree for the purposes of this unit) a ‘definitive definition’ combining the best attributes and insights provided by our own hybrid working definition and the definitions provided by others.