Intercultural sensitivity

There is also a Dutch edition of this book Interculturele Communicatie (isbn 9789023255536).

In a rapidly internationalizing educational environment, students need to develop intercultural sensitivity in order to improve communication with lecturers and students, and to achieve excellence in their future international careers.

Through exchange programmes, millions of students spend part of their studies at universities abroad every year. Lecturer mobility programmes are bringing international lecturers straight into local classrooms. With migration, labour mobility and student mobility, classrooms are more culturally diverse than ever before.

Research shows that culturally diverse groups are seldom "just average". They either perform very badly or extremely well. Performance is low when cultural differences are ignored or suppressed. Culturally diverse groups excel when differences are recognised and managed as valuable sources of innovation and growth.

Intercultural Sensitivity makes university and college students eager to learn about other cultures. It also makes them aware of the uniqueness of their own cultures, which they may take for granted. And it helps students recognize culture as a valuable resource. This book presents the cultural models by Hall, Kluckhohn, Hofstede, Trompenaars and Bennett as competencies.

What's new in this 4th edition? The illustrations by Masaaki Oyamada. Culture turns full circle from global citizenship in chapter 1 to global leadership in chapter 8. It explores the TOPOI model, Hoffman's intervention for cultural "noise" in communication; Pinto's F- and C- Cultures; and the GLOBE project by House. Finally, from a management point of view, it presents the ideal conditions for multicultural team excellence.

This compact book can easily be studied in a 7- or 8-week term. It is packed with hands-on assignments, cases and role-plays from real life intercultural situations. Cases range from education to health care, marketing and management - any place where students will need to communicate across cultures. In class, on internship, or in the professional field, Intercultural Sensitivity helps students achieve intercultural competence.

About the authors

From highly diverse cultural and professional backgrounds, the authors are managers, trainers and lecturers at universities and at universities of applied sciences. They also work as independent intercultural trainers, coaches and consultants.

Preface

Chapter 1 Culture, Communication and Global Citizenship
1.1 What is Culture? Visible and Invisible Culture
1.2 Definition of Culture
1.3 Cultural Programming
1.4 Culture and Subcultures
1.5 Intercultural Communication
1.6 Noise. What Exactly is Communication Noise?
1.7 TOPOI Model, Intervention for Cultural Noise
1.8 Global Citizenship
1.8.1 Definition
1.8.2 Teaching Global Citizenship
1.8.3 Global Citizenship Competencies
1.8.4 What does it mean in practice?
1.9 Assignments

Chapter 2 Working with Hall’s Key Concepts of Cultural Differences
2.1 Communication: High and Low Context
2.1.1 Low Context
2.1.2 High Context
2.1.3 Misunderstanding caused by too little or too much Context
2.1.4 High and Low Context Countries
2.1.5 High and Low Context Subcultures
2.1.6 Can we Communicate High as well as Low Context? Yes
2.2 Monochronic and Polychronic Time
2.2.1 Monochronic Cultures
2.2.2 Polychronic Cultures
2.2.3 How to Succeed by Being both Monochronic and Polychronic
2.3 Personal Space
2.3.1 Dealing with Differences in Personal Space
2.4 Fast and Slow Messages
2.5 Fast and Slow Information Flow
2.5.1 Slow Information Flow
2.5.2 Fast Information Flow
2.6 Action Chains
2.7 Assignments – Cultural Profile according to Hall’s Key Concepts

Chapter 3 Working with Kluckhohn’s Variations in Value Orientations
3.1 Dominating, in Harmony with or Subjugated to Nature
3.2 Past, Present and Future Orientation
3.3 Doing or Being Cultures: Task or Relation Orientation
3.4 Individualism and Collectivism
3.4.1 Individuals, Collateral Groups and Hierarchical Groups
3.4.2 Individualism, Collectivism and David Pinto’s F- and C-Cultures
3.5 Is Space Private or Public?
3.6 Human Nature
3.7 Pinto’s 3 Step Method
3.8 Assignments

Chapter 4 Working with Hofstede’s 6 Dimensions of Culture
4.1 Power Distance
4.2 Individualism
4.3 Masculinity and Femininity
4.4 Uncertainty Avoidance
4.5 Long-Term and Short-Term Orientation
4.5.1 Long-Term Orientation (LTO)
4.5.2 Short-Term Orientation
4.5.3 A Note on the Long-Term Orientation Scores
4.6 Indulgence and Restraint
4.7 Country Scores on Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of Culture
4.8 Assignments

Chapter 5 Cultural Synergy: Trompenaars’ 7 Dimensions and Cultural Reconciliation
5.1 Universalism – Particularism. Rules or Relationships?
5.2 Individualism and Communitarianism
5.3 Emotions: Neutral and Affective
5.4 Involvement: Specific and Diffuse
5.4.1 What can go wrong when Specific meets Diffuse?
5.5 Status: Achieved and Ascribed
5.6 Time
5.7 Attitudes towards the Environment
5.8 Reconciliation: from Vicious Circle to Virtuous Circle
5.9 Three steps to Cultural Synergy
5.9.1 Cultural Avoidance
5.9.2 Cultural Dominance
5.9.3 Cultural Accommodation
5.9.4 Cultural Compromise
5.9.5 Cultural Synergy
5.10 Assignments

Chapter 6 The Growth Process in Intercultural Sensitivity
6.1 Denial
6.1.1 Strategies for moving on from the denial stage
6.2 Defence
6.2.1 Strategies for moving on from the defence stage
6.3 Minimization 
6.3.1 Strategies for moving on from the minimization stage
6.4 Acceptance
6.4.1 Strategies for moving on from the acceptance stage
6.5 Adaptation
6.5.1 Strategies for developing even further when you are in adaptation
6.6 Integration/Intercultural Competence
6.7 Assignment: Intercultural Sensitivity Role Play

Chapter 7 Culture Shock While Studying Abroad
7.1 Culture Shock. What is it?
7.2 What are the Stages of Culture Shock?
7.3 Pre-Departure Stage
7.4 The Vacation Stage
7.5 The Angry Stage
7.6 Adjustment Stage and Strategies
7.7 Re-entry Shock
7.8 Re-entry Shock and International Careers
7.9 Assignments

Chapter 8 Multicultural Teams and Global Leadership
8.1 Managing Diversity in Teams
8.2 Multicultural Teams’ Strengths, Weaknesses and
Conditions for Excellence
8.2.1 What are the Strengths of Multicultural Groups?
8.2.2 Weaknesses in Multicultural Teams
8.2.3 What are the conditions for multicultural team effectiveness?
8.3 Multicultural Teams during the Stages of Group Formation
8.4 Global Leadership: the GLOBE Project
8.5 GLOBE Dimensions or Cultural Competencies
8.5.1 As it is and how it should be
8.6 GLOBE Leadership Clusters
8.7 GLOBE Leadership and Values
8.8 Assignments

About the Authors
About the Illustrator
Bibliography