| Course | OGL 350 Diversity and Organizations |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 6 |
| Paper type | Experiential reflection paper |
| Length | About 696 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Arizona State University |
| Program | BA in Organizational Leadership |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for OGL 350 Module 6
Sweeping Out the Old Year: What a Tết Celebration Taught Me About Culture and Leadership
Student Name
BA in Organizational Leadership, Arizona State University
OGL 350: Diversity and Organizations
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Sweeping Out the Old Year: What a Tết Celebration Taught Me About Culture and Leadership
Introduction
For my immersion experience, I attended a Lunar New Year celebration, known in Vietnamese as Tết, held at a Vietnamese community center in Phoenix. I went with my friend Minh, whose parents came to the United States from Vietnam, and I had never attended a Vietnamese cultural event before. This paper describes what I observed, interprets it using frameworks from the course and reflects on how the experience broadened my understanding of culture and leadership.
The Experience
The celebration filled a community hall and its parking lot. Families arrived dressed in áo dài, the long tunic many wore in bright reds and yellows. Minh explained that the colors signal luck and prosperity for the coming year. Near the entrance stood an altar with photographs of ancestors, fruit, flowers and incense, and many visitors stopped to bow before joining the crowd. Children received red envelopes of money, lì xì, from elders after offering them New Year wishes. A lion dance, accompanied by drums, moved through the hall to bring good fortune, and the afternoon ended with a meal of bánh chưng, a square cake of sticky rice, mung beans and pork wrapped in leaves.
Minh's grandmother, through Minh's translation, told me that before Tết her family cleans the house completely and settles debts so the new year begins fresh. She asked me about my own family before she asked what I did for work.
Interpreting the Experience
Several practices reflected values that Hofstede's framework describes at the national level. Vietnam scores low on individualism (20) and high on power distance (70), while the United States scores 91 and 40 (Hofstede et al., 2010). The ancestor altar, the order in which elders were greeted and the way children offered wishes before receiving envelopes all expressed respect for hierarchy and for the family as a unit that includes past generations. Vietnam's higher long-term orientation score, 57 compared with 26 for the United States, fit the emphasis on starting the year by cleaning, paying debts and planning ahead.
Communication also differed. Hall (1976) contrasted cultures where much of a message lives in the relationship and the setting, which he called high context, with low-context cultures that spell meaning out in words. Much of what happened at the celebration was never explained aloud; guests simply knew when to bow, whom to greet first and how to accept an envelope. When Minh's grandmother asked about my family before my job, she was establishing a relationship before anything else, a pattern Hall associated with high-context communication.
Data on the community added context. About 2.3 million people in the United States identified as Vietnamese in 2023, and 60% were immigrants (Im, 2025). Many of the elders I met had arrived as refugees, and Minh said the celebration matters partly because it keeps traditions alive for children born here.
How the Experience Broadened My Understanding
I came expecting a festival and left understanding a set of obligations. I had thought of holidays as time off; Tết showed me a holiday that organizes relationships across generations. I was also uncomfortable at first, unsure where to stand or whether I was intruding, and the feeling of not knowing the rules gave me a small sense of what new employees from other cultures may experience in American workplaces.
Implications for Leadership
Three lessons will shape how I lead. First, I will not assume that a team member who waits for direction lacks initiative; respect for hierarchy may be the reason. Second, I will build relationships before tasks, especially with employees from high-context cultures, by asking about family and background before diving into work. Third, I will learn which holidays matter to my team members and plan schedules around them, since Tết, like many celebrations, is not on the standard American calendar.
Conclusion
Attending Tết let me see in practice the cultural values the course describes in theory. Hofstede's dimensions and Hall's high-context communication helped me interpret what I observed, but the experience itself, being a guest who did not know the rules, taught me the most about leading people from different backgrounds.
References
Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture. Anchor Press/Doubleday.
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Im, C. (2025, May 1). Vietnamese Americans: Key facts. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/asian-americans-vietnamese-in-the-u-s/
OGL 350 Module 6 instructions, in plain terms
The Cultural Immersion Experience and Paper is due December 1 in Module 6 of OGL 350, Strategic Management and the Cultural Mindset, and it carries 100 points; a 10-point proposal comes first, in Module 3. Experience a culture that differs from your own and has origins outside the United States by attending an event or taking part in an activity that highlights its traditions, customs or practices. The experience should be new to you and may be in person or virtual, and friends or family are encouraged to join. Afterward, reflect on the insights you gained and how the experience broadened your understanding. Connecting the experience to the course's cultural frameworks strengthens the reflection.
How the OGL 350 Module 6 example is put together
The sample identifies the event, the companion who helped interpret it and the writer's lack of prior exposure, which establishes that the experience was new. A detailed description gives the reader specific rituals, foods and conversations. The interpretation section applies Hofstede's scores and Hall's high-context communication to particular moments and adds population data for context. The reflection names a change in understanding and an uncomfortable feeling honestly, then turns both into three concrete leadership practices. The event details are presented as illustrative, and the paper uses course frameworks rather than general impressions. Margin notes point out how concrete detail and honest discomfort make the reflection credible.
OGL 350 Module 6 rubric: what earns full marks
Graders reading the immersion paper look for evidence of a genuine, new experience, a description specific enough to show engagement, interpretation using course frameworks and a thoughtful account of how the experience broadened the student's understanding. Papers lose points when the event is familiar to the student, when the description reads like a travel brochure, when frameworks are mentioned but not applied or when the reflection stays at the level of "it was interesting." Respectful language matters, as does accuracy about the traditions described. The best papers connect the experience to leading diverse teams, which ties it to the course's purpose. Short, accurate explanations of customs, checked with someone from the culture, help avoid errors that cost points.
OGL 350 Module 6 help with common mistakes
Choose an event that is truly new to you and plan it early, since many cultural events happen on specific dates. Bring someone who can explain customs if possible. Take notes on what you see, hear and taste. Ask at least one person what the event means to them. After the event, match two or three moments to course frameworks. Write honestly about what felt unfamiliar. If you are unsure which framework fits, the desk can help you choose. Check the spelling of names and terms from the culture. End with practices you will use as a leader. Write your notes the same day, while the details are fresh.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Arizona State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More OGL 350 and BA in Organizational Leadership sample papers
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- OGL 300 Module 7: Crisis Action Plan: Five Interventions That Could Have Stopped the Boeing 737 MAX Slide
- OGL 343 Module 7: Final Dream Team Paper: Becoming a Better Teammate and Team Leader
OGL 350 Module 6 questions, answered
Where can I find a free OGL 350 Module 6 sample paper?
The full cultural immersion paper on a Tết celebration is on this page.
What does the OGL 350 cultural immersion paper require?
A new experience of a culture with origins outside the U.S. and a reflection on what it taught you.
Can the OGL 350 immersion experience be virtual?
Yes; the syllabus allows in-person or virtual experiences.
What is a high-context culture?
One where meaning is carried by relationships, setting and shared understanding rather than explicit words.
What is Tết?
The Vietnamese Lunar New Year, a major celebration of family, ancestors and renewal.