Intercultural Theories

1
Intercultural Theories

• Part 2 of the Module
• International Networking and Intercultural
  Theories

2
Functions of Culture

• Define membership and identity
• Create exclusion of non members
• Regulate external adaptation
• Regulate internal integration
• Maintain norms that create order
• Hence favour survival
• and resist or absorb change

3
Theories

• How to deal with CULTURAL DIFFERENCES?
• Different approaches, based on
• Definition of Culture (160)
• Scientific background (functionalist,
  interpretative, critical)
• Relation to practice experiences
• Involvement in reality of differences (social,
  economical, political, psychological)

4
CULTURE by Guest teachers/readers

• Hofstede (Culture and organisations)
• Rik Pinxten (Cultures die hard)
• Culture Edwin Hoffman (guest teacher Jan
  Verhoeven)
• Intercultural communication - TOPOI
• Culture Juliana Roth (guest teacher)
• Intercultural differences and networking
• Culture Paola Bortini (guest teacher)
• INVESTIGATING CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURES AND
  THEIR RELATION TO NETWORKING/ The southern
  perspective
• Bhikhu Parekh A Commitment to Cultural Pluralism

5
Culture as an iceberg
manners, customs, language, history
explicit
1/9
tacit
Values, vision of the world, presumptions,
way of thinking
8/9
6
Culture onion-diagram
symbols
heroes
rituals
values
practices
7
Culture Hofstede

• Culture 1 ( C writ large)
• Civilisation refinement of the mind
• Culture 2 ( c writ small)
• Anthropologists
• The software of the mind (mental programming)
• Collective programming distinguishing group
  members
• Learned, not inherited ()

8
Culture Hofstede

• Layers of Culture
• national
• regional
• gender
• generation
• social class
• specific socialisation

9
Culture Hofstede

• Levels of cultural programming

Inherited and learned
Specific to individual
Personality
Specific to group or category
Culture
Learned
Inherited
Human nature
Universal
10
A cultural survey

• Based on Hofstedes theory
• 5-D Model Values

11
Cultural DIMENSIONSHofstede

• Power Distance (PDI)
• Individualism (IDV)
• Masculinity (MAS)
• Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI)
• Longterm Orientation (LTO)

12
Dimension Models Hofstede

• Power Distance
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Individualism
• Masculinity
• Long Term Orientation (later added)

13
Power distance

• To what extent do we accept that some people have
  more power than others?
• High Low
• hierarchical egalitarian
• top-down top-down / bottom-up
• Latin Germanic

14
Individualism vs collectivism

• Individualism
• I
• small group
• independence
• personality
•  Western 

• Collectivism
• we
• extended family, group
• interdependence
• harmony
• Portugal, Greece, Spain, Africa, Asia, Latin
  America

15
Masculinity vs femininity

• Femininity
• don t be different
• sympathy for the weak
• solidarity, caring
• environment
• Scandinavian countries, The Netherlands, Africa

• Masculinity
• be the best
• ambition, competition
• money, performance
• success, technology
• Italy, Germany, UK, Belgium, USA

16
Uncertainty Avoidance

• Strong UA
• uncertainty threat
• the unknown danger,
• risk averse
• distrust, stress
• Greece, Latin countries, German speaking
  countries, Finland

• Weak UA
• uncertainty normal
• the unknown interesting
• risk taking,  open 
• relax,  cool 
• Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, Dutch

17
Culture Hofstede

• Cultural Differences are programmed
• ex. Interpretation of State Regulations
• Every thing what is not forbidden is allowed
• ? FR
• Every thing what is not allowed is forbidden
• ? D
• Many things which are forbidden are allowed if
  not controlled
• ? B

18
Culture Hofstede

• Cultural Differences
• programmed ex.
• Universal theory of needs ? universal
• Maslovs theory in US (low collectivism)
• dimensions are based on world statistics
• explanations for obvious differences

19
Culture Trompenaars
Explicit products
Norms and values
Own culture
Assumptions about existence
New culture
20
Culture Trompenaars

• Culture is the way people solve their common
  problems
• Kluckhohns Value Dimensions
• How we relate to nature
• How we relate to time
• Assumptions about human nature
• Relationships between people
• Preferred mode of activity

21
Culture Trompenaars

• Relation orientation
• relationship of individuals to others
• Time orientation
• temporal focus of human life
• Active orientation
• modality of human activity

22
Culture Trompenaars

• Non-nature orientation
• relation to nature
• Human nature orientation
• character of innate human nature
• ? Dimensions

23
Cultural Dimensions Trompenaars

• 1. universalism - particularism
• 2. individualism - collectivism
• 3. neutral - emotional
• 4. specific - diffuse
• 5. achievement - ascription
• 6. attitudes towards time
• 7. attitudes towards nature

24
Six basic cultural orientations

• Human nature good / bad / mix
  changeable or not
• Relation to nature dominant / harmony /
  dominated
• Relation with others individualist/collectivist
  /hierarchical
• Aim of human activity to do/ to become /to be
• Time orientation future / present /
  past
• Space orientation private/ mixed /
  public

25
The key components of a culture

• Language
• Time
• Space
• Context of the communication
• Cognitive styles
• Cultural dimension models
• Hierarchy
• Individualism vs collectivism
• Masculinity vs femininity
• Uncertainty avoidance

26
Culture Pinxten

• Culture Nature
• Culture of a community
• Learned by or transferred to group members
• The ways it is learned or transferred
• not always comparable structures and contents
  of a culture
• dimensions are not universal
• Comparison is difficult, because of a lack of
  common ground

27
Culture Pinxten

• Comparison
• Different schools different methods
• Empiric school (cfr war)(missing strategy for
  comparison mental colonisation)
• Rationalistic school structuralism of
  Lévi-Strauss (missing attribution of meaning and
  dealing with past and tradition)
• Intercultural psychologists social structures
  lt-gt individual
• (missing culture of a group is not monolitic)
• All cultures have strenghts and waeknesses

28
Culture Pinxten

• Cultural Intuition as a concept for comparison
• 12 Cultural spheres over the world

29
Diversity

• Increased cultural diversity in local societies
• ethnicity
• gender
• age
• sexual orientation
• physical abilities
• ...

30
Ethnicity

• Migration
• 25 of Londons labour market
• 30 of schoolchildren in Oslo
• 50.000 businesses in Germany owned by Turks
• 14.000 new jobs in Stockholm in one year
• Resource of people effective in multicultural
  environment

31
Gender

• Growing participation of women in the labour
  market
• in Northern Europe 50 of married women with
  children
• rates for men static, increase for women

32
Age

• The growth in number of older people
• ageing baby-boomers
• next 10 years 3 workers over 45 for 2 in their
  twenties in Germany
• next 20 years half the population older than 50
  in Italy
• De-activating early retirement schemes60 of
  55-64 years old unemployed in EU loss of skills
  and experience (knowledge) social cost
  unsustainable after 2010

33
The needs of specific groups business
opportunities

• gay community
• advertising in UK the  pink pound 
• political forces in Denmark and The Netherlands
• people with disabilities 19 million in EU
• changes in work structures and technologies(telew
  orking)

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CULTURE
Culture Pinxten
Culture Hofstede
Culture Trompenaars

• Culture Shadid

35
Point of view

• Intercultural differences
• Choice for diversity,
• not for homogeneousness
• Intra-culture and Inter-culture

36
Intercultural CommunicationShadid

• Intercultural differences
• Topic 1
• Intercultural meeting
• Topic 2

37
Stereotypes, prejudges and discrimination

• real judgement
• supposition (hypothesis) 
• premature judgement 
• stereotype judgement 

38
Stereotypes, prejudges and discrimination

• prejudice- prejudgement
• discrimination
• racism

39
Racism

• Racism different forms
• Three components (Fernandes Mendes, 1983)
• the belief that mankind can be divided into
  well-defined races.
• the belief that some races are superior to
  others.
• the belief that superior races have to dominate
  inferior ones

40
Topic 1 Intercultural differences

• Both in inter-cultural and in intra-cultural
  situations
• Miscommunication due to
• fixation on the foreign aspects
• mutual prejudices
• more than based on real differences
• change through knowledge, motivation and skills

41
Topic 1 Intercultural differences

• Change through
• knowledge about
• process of intercultural exchange
• intercultural differences
• impact of society-context
• image building

42
Topic 1 Intercultural differences

• Change through
• motivation
• individual motivation
• why change, move
• how to survive
• receiving society

43
Topic 1 Intercultural differences

• Change through
• intercultural skills
• the third perspective

44
Topic 2 Intercultural meeting

• Better understanding of the meeting process
  between members from different cultures

45
Meeting process

• Move to an other culture
• as a choice
• from a need

? Cultural changes? cultural shock
46
Preparation culture shock
1. Preparation leavers
2. Become sensitive to values norms and paterns
of behaviour of others
3. Adaptation courses by arrival
47
Factors which influence the adjustment process

• Individual characteristics

• Cultural distance and size of the group

• Openess of the receiving society

48
Theories

• Convergence theory of communication

• Systhem theory of intercultural transformation

49
Training

• Training intercultural competences ? skills

• The third perspective

50
Relational competence
S / R

• Motivation

Skills
Knowledge
context
51
Relational competence
Skills selfcontrol Interaction
control Altercentrism Expressivity

• Motivation
• Reward
• Purposes
• Fear

Motivation to act effective
Procedural knowledge
Monitoring
Knowledge
context
52
Aspects of intercultural communication

• To treat others with respect

• React fair-minded

• Knowledge is subjective and individual

53
Aspects of intercultural communication

• To approach the world through the glasses of the
  other

• Effective problem solving and
• relation building

• Proper management of the interaction with
  others

54
Third perspective

• Open minded to new ideas

• Empathy to others cultures

• Observe differences properly

• Describe behaviour in stead of judge

55
Third perspective

• Sharp-witted observers of own behaviour and of
  others

• Being able to build relations with people from
  other cultures

• Less ethnocentric

56
Barcelona
legal
culturel
economy
Social-political
providers
57
Learning about interculturality and social work

•  Learning education
• training capacities in intercultural negotiation
• understand what we do
• comprehend why we do as we do

58
INTEGRATION ASSIMILATION - INCLUSION

• statements

59
Process of intercultural meeting Integration
Assimilation - Inclusion

• We are all exciting immigrants

60
Process of intercultural meeting Integration
Assimilation - Inclusion

• 2. Cultures dont meet, people do
• 3. Intercultural communication is not about What,
  but about How
• 4. The difficulty in intercultural communication
  is not the other, but yourself (and the culture
  of yourself)

61
The difficulty in intercultural communication
The difficulty in intercultural communication is
not the other, but myself (and the culture of
myself)

• Others
• Do
• Say stereotypes
• Are

Me selfexpresion ?
62
Process of intercultural meeting Integration
Assimilation - Inclusion

• 5. Learning in intercultural situations is more
  about your own culture as it is about the foreign
  culture
• 6. The process of intercultural communication is
  very complex.

63
Culture shock

expectations
high
low
time
arrival
return
64
Culture shock
break through

incubation
to get used
confrontation
arrival
return
65
Culture shock
breakthrough

incubation
to get used
confrontation
ecstasy
balance
shock
arrival
return
66
Culture shock

• Experienced travellers between cultures

high
adjustment
time
stay
return
low
67
Culture shock

• People who can learn culture very easy

high
adjustment
time
stay
return
low
68
Culture shock

• People who cant learn culture very easy

high
adjustment
time
stay
return
low
69
Culture shock

• Different profiles of adjustment

expectations
high
adjustment
time
stay
return
low
70
Exercise on identity
71
Unique Personality
- education
religion -
- sexe
City/rural -
- gender
-
- black/white
- ethnicity
unique personality
Social - economic -
- nationality
- age
-
- decent
Physical/mental condition -
- profession
family -
72
Communities of Practice
Negotiated enterprise Mutual
accountability Interpretations Rhythms Local
response
Stories Styles
artifacts Tools Actions
concepts Historical events Discourses
Engaged diversity Doing things together
Social complexity Community Relationships mainten
ance