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Making students aware of their own cultural values and preparing them for intercultural

business communication

Marinel Gerritsen(Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands)

4TH ENIEDA CONFERENCE Vrsac, 29 September–1 October 2011

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Course Intercultural Communication

• First year Bachelor Business Communication Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen

• Lectures for more than 200 students• 7 weeks, 4 hours a week• Students are expected to spend a total of

140 hours on the course (5 ECTS points) • The lecturer was allotted 90 hours

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Course ObjectivesA. To give our students an insight into

1. The differences between cultures in values and the possible consequences of these differences for international Business Communication2. Their own values3. Their intercultural competence

Teaching tool: assignments that measure values and intercultural competence of the students in digital learning environment (Blackboard)

B. To allow our students to1. Experience cultural differences2. Talk about cultural differences3. Learn to cooperate with someone from a different culture

Teaching tool: Intercultural emailproject

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Six basic values (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck)1. Human nature2. Human Relations

Collectivism-Individualism + ContextPower distanceParticularism-UniversalismNeutral-AffectiveAchievement

3. ActivityUncertainty AvoidanceMasculinity-Feminity

4. TimePast, present, futurePolychrony-monochronyConfucian Dynamism

5. SpacePersonal spacePrivate-PublicSpecific-Diffuse

6. Person-Nature

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Assignment 3I feel most comfortable where

People sympathise with the 1 2 3 4 5People admire the top-dogunderdog and tend to be and blame the unsuccessfuljealous of the success of others

At work, people are 1 2 3 4 5At work, people are motivatedmotivated by a pleasant work by clear-cut targets and strictenvironment, warmth and accountability to demonstrate“cosiness” their level of achievement

People try to reach consensus 1 2 3 4 5People see confrontations as at work and colleagues are positive and fruitful; one should not supposed to compete compete or dieagainst one another

Both men and women can be 1 2 3 4 5 Men are supposed to be assertivemodest, tender and concerned and focused at material success, with quality of life issues and women are supposed to be more

modest and concerned with quality of life issues

Lovers look for intimacy 1 2 3 4 5 Lovers look for emotional support

Press to submit

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Your answers

Your answer to assignment 3 is: 37

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Intercultural Communication 2010-2011

Results assignment 3: Masculinity (N=209)

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Results assignment 3: Masculinity (N=209)

• 0=feminine, 100=masculine• Mean of the whole group 35.4 (last year

34,4)• Range 5-66 (last year 0-60)• Standard deviation 10.65 (last year 10.77)• Hofstede (2001) for the Netherlands: 14

Don’t forget your own score!!

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Example of an examination question designed to test the students’ familiarity with their own scores and the consequences of those scores

Imagine that you have to write an annual report for your company together with a person from Hungary who has the values given below.

Describe the problems you would expect to encounter on the basis of the differences between his or her values and yours. Refer to your own values resulting from the Blackboard assignments you completed during the course.

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Communication style: high

Individualism: 80

Power distance: 46

Affective

Masculinity: 88

Uncertainty avoidance: 82

Diffuse

Monochrone

Confucian dynamism: 50

Past oriented

Small personal space

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These assignments related to values give the student insight into

• Their own values

• Individual variation within a country

• Consistency over time for a given value and changes in values

• Methodological problems of previous surveys

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Intercultural Competence: A validated test developed by Karin

van der Zee and Jan Pieter van Oudenhoven (2000)

• Cultural empathy

• Open-mindedness

• Social initiative

• Emotional stability

• Flexibility

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Using a digital learning environment • Advantages

– An individual approach is possible– Whether 20 or 1000 students are involved the work load for the

lecturer is the same – Once the assignments are installed they can be used as often as

necessary – The project results in an extensive data base

• Disadvantages – Analyzing the data for the whole group is sometimes time

consuming– It requires a great deal of work to integrate the tool in a digital

learning environment

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What our students “ wrote” in their evaluations about the assignments

“I like the fact that I know now on which aspects of my intercultural competence I still have to work”.

“It was a nice enjoyable way to find out about myself”.

“It was very interesting to gain an insight into my own values. I asked my boyfriend to do the test too and when we compared the results we both realized why we sometimes have problems with each other”.

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Course ObjectivesA. To give our students an insight into

1. The differences between cultures in values and the possible consequences of these differences for international Business Communication2. Their own values3. Their intercultural competence

Teaching tool: assignments that measure values and intercultural competence of the students in digital learning environment (Blackboard)

B. To allow our students to1. Experience cultural differences2. Talk about cultural differences3. Learn to cooperate with someone from a different culture

Teaching tool: Intercultural emailproject

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The Netherlands and Belgium in the world

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The Netherlands and Belgium in more detail

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The Netherlands and Dutch speaking Belgium: One language but two very

different cultures

“In fact, no two countries (...) with a common border and a common language are so far culturally apart (…) as (Dutch) Belgium and the Netherlands” (Geert Hofstede 2001).

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The Netherlands-Dutch speaking Belgium

An excellent opportunity for our intercultural project because:

a. There are two different culturesb. Both cultures have the same

first language (Dutch)

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Project description for the student

1. Complete a questionnaire on your own

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19 questions/ cases with topics such as:

Symbols

Clothing in a number of situations

The meaning of words

Rituals

(National) holidays

Birth/ birthday/ burial traditions

Values

Measuring values

Communicating with “superiors”

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Examples of questions-1

• Symbols, clothingImagine that you applied for the job of communication manager at a large bank and you have been invited for an interview. a. Describe in detail what you would wearb. Describe in detail what you believe someone of the opposite sex should wear

• Rituals, holidaysGive all the official holidays in your country in 2011. Start with January 1st and end with December 31st. Give the date for each holiday day and its name and then give the following information:a. what is being celebrated;b. how you would celebrate this in your family;c. how this is celebrated in public.

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Examples of questions -2• Values

This is a list with eight things that you could require from a job. Label what you think is most important as “1”, the next most important as “2”, and so on. Label the least important requirement as “8”.

Have possibilities to promotionHave responsibilitiesBe able to show creativityKnow exactly what tasks you have to fulfillHave an unlimited contractHave flexible working hoursHave a cosy work room

Have good relationships with boss and colleagues

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Project description for the student

1. Complete a questionnaire on your own2. Send the completed questionnaire to the

Dutch and the Belgian members of your group

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Example of first contact message: Dutch student mails Flemish

student

Hi!

--- here’s my questionnaire!

I hope to receive yours (informal form) soon too.

Byebye xxx

Esmee

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Example of first contact message: Flemish student mails Dutch

student

Good morning!

Here is my questionnaire too. I have looked at your (formal form) questionnaire and it was good. I’ll start comparing our answers referring to the frame.

Regards

Joris

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Project description for the student

1. Complete a questionnaire on your own2. Send the completed questionnaire to the Dutch and the

Belgian members of your group3. Look for differences within a nationality and between

nationalities4. Tell each other (by e-mail, msn) about the

similarities and differences you find5. Write a report (joint venture) on the similarities and

differences and try to explain these referring to the theories you have been presented with during your course

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Organisational problems for teachers

• Time allocation

• Evaluation system

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Advantages for students

• Experiential nature of the project: actually finding out about cultural differences between … and yet so near to each other

• A practical addition to “theoretical” knowledge about …

• Recognition of the limitation of stereotyping

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What our students “ wrote” in their evaluations about the intercultural email

project

At first sight, the differences didn’t seem that big, but when we discussed things they seemed very big.

We learned how to cooperate with people from a different culture. You have to adapt and look for compromises.

We learned a lot about cultural differences by jointly writing the report, but also by discussing things. The project should stay. It is good to learn to cooperate and adapt in situations like this.

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Last email contact: Dutch student mailed Flemish student

Subject: Saying goodbye, weep, weep

Hi Stijn!

You’re a nice fellow to work with! (…) I think we worked together well, and that our project was a fine piece of work (…)

Thanks very much for the final changes! (…)You’re crazy, but fun to work with with (…)Let’s keep in touch to see what grade we get. Because that will be the real

goodbye moment … when we are in (di)stress about our final result then we can mail each other …

It’ll turn out all right.

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In short: hope to have convinced you of the added value of

• Assignments that measure the values and the intercultural competence of the students via a digital learning environment

• Intercultural email project

for teaching intercultural communication

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Thank you for your attention

Questions?