X-Culture: Willingness to Cooperate is Vital

Guest Blogger: Danielle O’Brien, Nathan M. Bisk College of Business student

X-Culture project gave me the opportunity to experience working with others from around the world and from different cultures. I learned that even though people may come from different cultures and countries, they are still able to work together and are capable of being productive and effective. The diversity of x-culture teams enabled more well rounded decision making because problems and obstacles can be seen from different perspectives.

I have learned that culture differences and language barriers can be very challenging obstacles to overcome. I had a first-hand experience on how cultural differences in style of writing emails and instant messages can make communicating difficult at times. I have realized the standards held on plagiarism vary greatly around the world.

From this experience, I now know that patience, understanding, self-awareness, and willingness to cooperate are vital when working in a virtual group project. I can take what I have learned from the X-Culture project and apply to situations in my future career. I have not only gained virtual group project experience, but also friendships with group members.