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In the contemporary world it is extremely important to maintain the stability in the society which is often based on intercultural tolerance. It is not a secret that nowadays the society is characterized by national and racial pluralism that naturally results in cultural pluralism. Consequently there appear a lot of problems concerning differences between cultural traditions of this or that group.
Naturally, there are different methods that may be applied in solving intercultural problems that exist in the real everyday life of people. Nowadays one of the most effective methods that can be applied in order to solve such kind of problems is the Jigsaw method. This method has been developing since 1970s and its progress is strongly associated with the names of such specialists as Aronson, Gonzalez, Lazarowitz, Young, Hadgraft and many others.
Still among the founders of this methods the names of Aronson and Gonzalez are traditionally singled out. As for the entity of the method, it should be said that it is based on close cooperation of people regardless their nationality, race or cultural traditions and as a rule these people are united by some common idea or goal and know well what each of them has to do in order to achieve the positive result or the goal they aim at.
So, it seems that the method should be very effective. Naturally the question arises: how can this method be applied in the real world? In fact the sphere of its application may vary beginning from the modeling of some problems in a classroom to the solving of vital problems of intercultural cooperation within a definite social community of a city or some region.
Naturally this method could be also applied in solving intercultural problems that could exist when different people wish to start a business in associations with representatives of other, different cultures. For instance, it may be some business in the sphere of grocery commerce, or any other business that may be created within any intercultural community of a city.
First of all, it should be clear that the method should be applied properly in order to achieve the best results for this it would be necessary to apply some key principles of this method in real life situations. According to Aronson, for the success of the Jigsaw Method it is vitally important that people were responsible for their own part of the common work (1978). For instance, one person may concentrate on administrative work, another on financial part, while others may choose and work in the field they are the best, such as shop assistant, driver, manager, etc., and that does not contradict to their cultural norms and traditions. Such a division of work may be very effective especially if representatives of different cultures work in one and the same company because for some people their traditions may forbid to work with certain kinds of products, consequently such people would rather choose the job that would not come into conflict with their cultural traditions and beliefs.
Finally, it should be said that applied in such a way the Jigsaw Method cannot fail to succeed for many specialists state that it is extremely effective and productive (Colosi and Zales, 1998). Furthermore, it “encourages the development of communication skills” (Young and Hadgraft, 1997:154) that is extremely important, especially in solving intercultural problems because human relations are mainly based on the process of communication if there is no communication there won't be any mutual understanding and thus intercultural problems will remain unsolved.
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