Concrete Experience Before heading to Iraq, we (the soldiers) had to be instructed on the culture of the country we were heading to. It may not seem like much, but certain customs that are relative to us as Americans can be viewed as offensive to other cultures. Likewise, certain habits of other cultures may seem strange and alien to us. The briefings were a two-part training exercise. One aspect of it was to make sure we (the soldiers) do not cause any more trouble than we were, being the invasive force. The other was to make us more aware of possible inconsistencies in behavior and alert us to possible threats. While I was in Iraq I was what people in who served would call a Fobbit. The term means a person who stays on a base and does not go into combat situations outside the base. This …show more content…
While the situation of cultural differences may not seem relevant in a combat zone, there is a key point to cultural respect. In the workplace there is a “turnover cost of losing women and minorities to the competition” (pg 278: Osland, Kolb, & Rubin). In business it creates a higher turnover rate which creates costs related to rehiring, training. In a combat zone, it creates an opportunity for an ally to become an enemy by creating a hostile work environment. One of the mistakes that I made was using central tendency in my perceptions (pg 175: Osland Kolb, & Rubin). It was taking my perception of the world that people just want to exist, and distorting my view of the situation. In that same sense though my friend was utilizing the halo effect, in his view that everyone is out to get us (pg 175: Osland Kolb, & Rubin). Neither view was absolutely correct, however his perception did save a lot of lives that day. On the other side though, a lot of the locals kept him at arm’s length for the rest of the time in Iraq. Active