Grant Proposal: A Training Guide to Cultural

Competency: How to Bridge the Cultural Gap in the

Business World
To: National Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation
Date of Submission: 12/22/2016
By: Saud Aldossary
Major Program of Study: Business Administration
Abstract: This grant proposal is to produce a training guide on cultural
competency. Interviews with people involved in international business will be
conducted, and surveys will be given out to business students at the
university. This grant proposal is asking for $2,700 to do the research,
produce a booklet (with copyright going to the university), and a video (with
copyright going to the university as a video file on a flash drive). The
research will look at ways to bridge cultural gaps that might occur in
international business but, unlike most research, this project will also
approach why there is resistance or why people hesitate to learn about
and/or accept other cultures in order to do business. A line-item budget is
included to fund the project.

Overview
This project serves to answer questions about cultural competency in
business. Many projects answer the question about how to bridge cultural
gaps, but this project will also answer why there is resistance/uncertainty
about accepting and/or learning about other cultures.

Literature Review
There are numerous examples of when cultural competency has been a focus of
businesses and grant proposals. In 2013, the Global Real Estate Markets Conference for the New
York Stock Exchange presented a panel discussion in which culture was discussed and the
talking points centered on how and why businesses should train their employees about cultural
differences (Bridging the Culture Gap). According to the panel discussion, we should care
about culture because often assumptions about culture get us into situations that are simply a
misunderstanding that turns into a business failure. Because we pick up our own cultural identity
by the time were about three years old (Bridging the Culture Gap), it is a task to see other
cultures from their side. The way to have global success in business is to learn about cultural
competency. Cultural competency is all about understanding other peoples cultures so that there
is an understanding between people when they do business. This can include varying
geographical location, languages, and/or organizations. Ignoring culture is a huge mistake for
business. According to the panel, 70% of global mergers and acquisitions fail because of
cultural differences. Almost 90% of top executives from 68 countries named cross cultural
leadership as their top management challenge (Bridging the Culture Gap). We can see from
this information that cultural differences are a real problem if they are ignored. This panel
discussion identified several ways to acknowledge culture gaps and to get better results when
doing business. One of the ways is to make sure to send people who can be culturally sensitive to
other people and businesses. These people should go on several trips to a foreign country in order
to see how their culture works and how to approach a business relationship. While these people
are on the trips, they should assign some of them to work with the people from the other culture
so that they can create boundaries and bridge the cultural gap.
Another piece of literature to look at is the National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH) Bridging Cultures Initiative (About the Bridging Cultures Initiative). This initiative has
led great efforts in cultural bridging, including a screening of four NEH-funded films regarding
the acceptance and understanding of other cultures. In addition, the NEH held a conference,
which was then broadcast on the Twin Cities Public Television channel; it was called Shared
Cultural Spaces: Islam and the West in the Arts and Sciences. This was about how the western
countries and Islamic countries working together to make advances in many different areas,
including architecture, physics, and literature. The NEH has highlighted these events, and along
with that they have given grant opportunities for conferences, studies, workshops, and other
types of proposals. The most recent rewards were community culture grants, film grants, and
curriculum and faculty development grants that all revolve around bridging the gaps between
cultures in order to have a more successful future in a number of disciplines.

Design and Methodology

The way I will collect the data is to do individual interviews as well as
send out surveys that can be analyzed to see where the issue is the most
problematic. For the individual interviews, I will interview several different
people who are involved in international business or who are involved in the
business education field (professors of business, students, etc.). These
people will be chosen from a selection of business professors from University
of Idaho and Idaho State University (through direct call or email), as well as
business professionals in Idaho and Saudi Arabia who have extensive
experience in international business. In the interview, I want to ask them
several different questions, but the main focus will be on the following:
1. What country are you from or from which culture do you consider
yourself?
2. How would you describe the business culture in your culture? For
example, is it based on or does it have anything to do with experience,
connections, manners, gift-giving, strict guidelines, etc.?
3. How many countries have you visited for business reasons? Which
countries were they? Did you enjoy your trip? What customs did you
notice that were different from your own?
4. What is your first language? When doing business, have you ever
needed a translator or have you ever had to learn something about
another culture before doing business with someone from that culture?
5. If you have never traveled outside the US, what considerations would
you take before going on a business trip to another country?
6. Would you consider culture to be an important aspect of doing
business? Why or why not?
7. Have you ever engaged in cultural competency training or even
diversity training?
8. What could possibly go wrong, in your opinion, if you are not familiar
with another culture and you try to have a business relationship with
them?
9. Which cultures seem the most similar to yours and which seem the
most different? Why do you think that is?
10.
Within your own culture, what misgivings or assumptions make it
difficult to accept other cultures or understand those cultures? Are
there any cultures you personally see as unacceptable or
fundamentally wrong? Why?
The following survey will be given to business students and/or people
involved in business who are not part of the personal interview process.
For all of the following questions, circle True or False:
1. T or F: Culture is the most important aspect of business.

2. T or F: You cannot do business with people outside your culture if you

know nothing about their culture.
3. T or F: People from other cultures should learn about your culture.
4. T or F: English should be considered the language of business.
5. T or F: If someone from another culture offends you, it should be taken
personally.
These questions will serve to show how people in the business field feel
about culture and its place in the business world. It is important to
understand which misunderstandings there can be and how to bridge the
gaps between understanding culture and trying to bridge the gap. However, I
do not believe one can start to bridge the gap between cultures unless they
understand where that gap lies. Unfortunately, that is not readily known,
which is why my interviews and survey will serve to answer the question and
ultimately lead to an informational and specific training guide for cultural
competency to be used in business courses or at companies and
organizations that are involved in international business.
I will collect the answers from the interviews and surveys and
determine where the weaknesses regarding culture are. With those known, I
will compile a prioritized list of ways to bridge the culture gap by providing
training that emphasizes cultural differences, acceptance, and openness to
changing business techniques to better serve the needs of international
business relationships. Identifying why people are apprehensive about other
cultures is vital to this study because it will give way to different methods of
presenting cultural competency to different people.
The project timeline will begin on the first day of the academic spring
semester of 2017-2018, which is 1/9/2017. Interviews will begin on that day
and will continue until they are finished, which should take roughly two to
three weeks if all interviewees are available within that time frame. 200
surveys will be dispersed between 1/9/2017 and 1/30/2017 to students
identified as business majors on the campus of Idaho State University. All
data and research will be organized and analyzed starting on 2/13/2017.
Prioritization of issues will be completed by the following week, 2/20/2017.
The training guide content (for both a booklet and video) will begin
compilation on 2/27/2017. When the content is organized and ready for
presentation, booklet writing and assembly will begin, and the video will be
filmed; this will all be completed by 4/3/2017 and ready for review and/or
revision. Revisions and final product will be complete by 5/1/2017.

Preparation
My cultural preparation begins with my experience as an international student from Saudi
Arabia. The cultural differences between my culture and American culture are significant, and

there is a lot of learning to do to integrate these two cultures. I apply that to this training guide
project because there are certainly differences between many cultures, so with a general guide to
acceptance and understanding, I believe it will be applicable to any culture. I have researched
and found that there are many different ways that businesses and other organizations bridge
cultural gaps, as my literature review section has shown. However, these approaches have been
objectively about the solution to questions that are simply about how to bridge the cultural gap
and not why there is an apprehension to bridge the cultural gap and then resolving that issue. The
coursework I have taken includes business-related courses as well as courses taken on diversity
and cultural awareness both in Saudi Arabia and within some of the business courses at Idaho
State University. Although these courses are beneficial, they have not covered the approach that I
would like to take in my training guide.
My mentors expertise is in international business and he has spent many years working
on international business and engaging in international relationships. He has helped me find a
group of three MBA students to help me with my research and data analysis. My mentor has
worked for a multinational corporation, and he spent seven years working in China and
Indonesia. While he was in these countries, he learned the specifics about their cultures and
found that western countries are more likely to expect foreign business people to adapt to their
culture than eastern people are. With this knowledge, he has helped guide me to the questions I
have asked regarding the nature of accepting and learning other cultures. My field contacts
include two business professors from Idaho State University and one HR representative from
Saudi Aramco (he is a Saudi citizen and has worked for Saudi Aramco for 12 years). With these
contacts, I intend to get to the real issue at hand, as well as offering solutions and specific
training that deals more with the attitudes and assumptions about accepting and engaging with
other cultures rather than just how to bridge cultural gaps.

Line-Item Budget

Item

Cost

Notes

Capitol Outlay

$700

Expendable Supplies

$1,200

Training guide will stay with

university for future use
(copyright goes to
university)
$500 high quality
video camera rental.
$150 stationary for
surveys and glossy
paper for guide.
$200 Printing
services for booklet
(5 copies: 2 copies
to university, 2
copies to researcher
(myself), and one
copy to my mentor
$350 miscellaneous
costs (reprints,
unforeseen costs)
$0 for video editing
(there are many free
or trial video editing
software options).

Personnel Services

$600

$200 per MBA

assistant (roughly
20 hours of work at
$10 per hour). MBA
assistants will hand
out surveys,
collect/analyze data,
film the guide
presentation video,
act in the video,
help write script).
$10 per hour is
equivalent to hourly
wages for reception
or clerical work at
the university.

Indirect Costs

$200

Total

$2700
Works Cited

About the Bridging Cultures Initiative. National Endowment for the

Humanities. 3 April 2012. Web. 21 Dec. 2016.
Bridging the Culture Gap: How to Thrive, Not Just Survive, in the Global
Marketplace. Center for Real Estate: Wisconsin School of Business. 22
Nov. 2013. Web. 19 Dec. 2016.