Service and Communication

4 Intercultural communicationCOMMUNICATION

What is culture?

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Culture is the philosophy of life, the values, norms and rules, and actualbehavior – as well as the material and immaterial products from these – which are taken over by man from the past generations, and which man wants to bring forward to the next generation – eventually in a different form – and which in one way or another separate individuals belonging to the culture from individuals belonging to other cultures. (Gullestrup 2002: 2)

MANIFESTATION

CORE CULTURE

Invisible

Visible

Simple model of

layers of culture (ibid.)

What is culture?

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Symbols are words, gestures, pictures or objects that carry a particular mean-ing which is only recognized by those who share the culture. The words in a language or jargon belong to this category, as do dress, hairstyles etc.New symbols are easily developed and old ones disappear.

Heroes are persons who possess characteristics which are highly prized in a culture, and who thus serve as models for behavior. It can be real heroes or imaginary heroes (from popular culture).

Hofstede’s Onion Diagram

(via Busch 2011: 218)

SYMBOLS

HEROES

RITUALS

VALUESPRACTICES

What is culture?

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Rituals are collective activities within a culture that are considered as socially essential: they are therefore carried out for their own sake. Ways of greet-ing and paying respect to others, social and religious ceremonies are examples.

Symbols, heroes, rituals can be sub-sumed under the term practices.

The core of culture, according to hof-stede, is formed by values. Values are preferences, and they have a plus and a minus side in specific contexts: evil vs. good, dirty vs. clean, ugly vs. beautiful, unnatural vs. natural, abnor-mal vs. normal, paradoxical vs. logical, irrational vs. rational (etc.).

Hofstede’s Onion Diagram

(via Busch 2011: 218)

SYMBOLS

HEROES

RITUALS

VALUESPRACTICES

Paradigms in culture theory

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Via Adrian Holliday (2011).

Neo essentialists

Represented by: Hofstede (among others)

Culture is: essential features of ethnic, national and inter-national groups (“The Chinese are ...”) There are specific cultures with essential features which can be mapped.We each belong to ‘a culture’: essentialism.

Macro-view

Research methodology on culture: • Fixing cultural features via categories: normative approach• Goal: Understanding/framing the unfamiliar• Cultures have specific “onion skins”: research begins by

identifying categories (like “Japanese politeness”)• Quantitative and qualitative: prescriptive end

Critical Cosmopolitans (non-essentialists)

Represented by: Adrian Holliday (among others)

Culture is: related to cohesive behavior in activities within any social grouping. Essentialist practices are social con-structions (ideology and political interests). Framing the Other is control. We are different in many ways: even in our “own” cultural contexts we may feel alien. We belong to many complex cultures/sub-cultures

Micro-view

Research methodology on culture:• Critical interpretivist methodology: explorative approach• Goal: bracketing of qualitative, singular features• No “onion skins”: enterpreting emergent behaviour

in contextual settings• Qualitative and critical: interpretive process

Intercultural communiction strategy

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Inspired by Adrian Holliday’s presentation: “Developing an action theory for intercultural communication”, http://goo.gl/0xUxSi

DEVELOPING THE GRAMMAR

Connections / ComplexitiesCaution about being too specific

RECONSTRUCTIONS

… that take on a life of their own

ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH

… creates the framework of your understanding. Learn from conversations and behaviour in

coherent, specific forums.

YOUR STRATEGY for INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

THE WORLD YOU MEET EXPERIENCED WORLD

Busines storytelling as intercultural communication

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ClientYOUCompany

You are often in a professional position in which you must convey the brand

essence of your company: You must, as this representative, reflect a positive

company culture. You must be a part of that company’s story and culture.

Busines storytelling as intercultural communication

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Via “Business Storytelling”: http://goo.gl/wIiEa3

“Who-I-Am” stories explain who you are as a person. They tell others about your dreams, goals, accomplishments, failures, motivations, values, or history.

“Why-I-Am-Here” stories commu-nicate why you’re here. People want to know, “What’s in it for me?” and “What’s in it for you?” These stories explain that you don’t have a hidden agenda, and that you’ll both get some-thing fair out of the situation.

“Teaching” stories create an experi-ence that transforms the audience; how a change in behavior, perspective, or skills can lead to meaningful results.

“Vision” stories inspire people, and encourage them to feel hope or hap-piness. Here, you convince your audi-ence that their hard work and sacrifice is worth the effort. You need to link their actions to a specific, valuable, and worthy outcome.

“Values-in-action” stories reinforce the values that you want your audience to demonstrate or think about. These stories can be positive or negative. You can tell stories that demonstrate integ-rity, compassion, and commitment, or tell ones that highlight attitudes that you don’t want to see − for example, cynicism, stereotyping of cultures or a weak work ethic.

“I-know-what-you-are-thinking” stories allow you to address others’ questions or concerns before they voice them. You need to anticipate your audience’s point of view, so you choose a story that deals with their unspoken concerns.

Bibliography

References

Anne Mette Busch et al. (2011):Kommunikation i multimediedesign.Hans Reitzel/Gyldendal Akademisk.

Adrian Holliday’s presentation: “Developing an action theory for intercultural communication”:http://goo.gl/0xUxSi

Business Storytelling:http://goo.gl/wIiEa3

Background literature/resources

Hans Gullestrup (2002): “The Complexity of Intercultural Communication in Cross Cultural Management.” In Intercultural Communication, issue 6.

Adrian Holliday (2011):Intercultural Communication and Ideology. Sage Publications.

Graphic design by D. EngelbySlideshare profile:http://www.slideshare.net/engelby

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