The U. K. Lewis Model Of Cultures

The U.K. is only one away from being on the linear-active section of Lewis’ (Culture Active, n.d.) model of cultures. After reviewing the typical characteristics (both core values and beliefs, as well as social and business behaviors), I agree one hundred percent with the assessment. I am a planner, respect the law, facts and institutions, and part of me needs a good time-line to feel like everything is in order – not just in business, but in my personal life too – so the core values and beliefs feel very apt.

My own communication patterns resonate with the Lewis model description, especially being polite but direct, and hardly ever interrupting. I believe being polite but direct can help to clearly show my classmates the point I am trying to make, or reasoning behind a grading I am giving, so I would not change anything there. However, I think diplomacy is very …show more content…
At first, I just presumed it was a language-barrier thing or an accent thing, but no; most of them are very talkative (a typical trait, as per the model) and I realized that I needed to learn to interrupt more than I was comfortable with if I were to get any of my points across at all! One woman in particular, just would not come up for air, ever, so finding a gap to share one’s opinion on the topic at hand, or even to announce that I needed to leave, would virtually impossible. I found it quite an endearing quality because it came across to me as almost a nervous trait; if she kept the conversation flowing, she felt more comfortable socially – at least that is what it came across like to me. Unfortunately, she ended up being the blunt of male jokes at parties because they knew if they got stuck talking to her, there was no way of getting away! I hate interrupting, but over the years I started learning how to do it, but in the most polite way I could, so as to save the other person’s