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COMU1002:
Communicating Across Cultures:
Theory and Practice
Taxonomy of cultures
WEEK 2 , 27 FEBR UARY
AM IR SHEIK HAN, M ICHAEL AT HER INOS, ANDR EA RODR IGU EZ ,HOJJAT R ASSAEI M OQADAM
What’s on today?
PART 1:
Ø Concepts;
Ø Case studies.
PART 2:
Ø Group activities.
Week 2 concepts
With what concepts are we working this week?
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Taxonomy of cultural patterns
Individualism or collectivism?
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COMU1002 and I:
Student voices
COMU1002 and I:
Student voices
Differences: Case studies
Stories and webpage design
Stories (Imada, 2012):
• American stories:
• ambition, a varied life, being influential, choosing goals, and enjoyment.
• Japanese stories:
• sympathy, friendship and affection, helpfulness, pleasure in making others happy, and a sense of
belonging.
Webpage design (Gevorgyan & Manucharova, 2009):
• American preference: Privacy and selectivity
• external hyperlinks, blogs, search engines, private chat rooms;
• Chinese preference: Group membership and many-to-many communication
• public chat rooms, newsletters, loyalty programs, user forums, social networks.
Individualism and collectivism in one
culture
Mutually exclusive? → NO!
Case studies:
• Singapore;
• Cameroon.
Case study: Singapore
Cultural hybridity in the workplace: Singapore embodies Western
modernity while retaining its Asian values.
Collectivist tendencies: in-group members expected to adapt and
present a united front; conform for the sake of maintaining group
harmony.
Individualist tendencies: self-disclosure and more direct
communication; reason rather than duty in persuasive strategies.
Yeo & Pang, 2017
Case study: Cameroon
Traditionally, a collectivistic society:
◦ The unity of the group;
◦ Communities’ structures to emphasise solidarity between members.
Modern social changes (esp. in an educational setting):
◦ Being the best – assert one’s self in society;
◦ Western capitalism – justification for their propensity for individualism.
! Individualism not totally integrated: people may hide their
individualistic tendencies because nobody wants to be rejected by
the community
Pirttilä – Backman et al., 2004
Small or large power distance?
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COMU1002 and I:
Student voices
COMU1002 and I:
Student voices
Masculinity or femininity?
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Strong or weak uncertainty avoidance?