UNIT 7

INTRODUCTION 11. Intercultural Communication in Organizations 12. Acculturation, Culture Shock, and Intercultural Competence

Relevant Course Outcomes for Unit 7

1. To facilitate more effective communication episodes across gender, ethnicity, culture, and other barriers.

2. To examine the origins of personal beliefs and individual perception.

3. To provide opportunities for exploration of other cultures.

4. To develop strategies for improving communication across cultural boundaries.

5. To establish a philosophical foundation for the study of communication and culture.

Unit Outcomes

1. To develop communication strategies employees can use in dealing with complexities of managing others in a multicultural and multinational business environment.
2. To apply intercultural competence, including when faced with acculturation and culture shock.

Assignments for this week 7:
Read and work through unit/weekly content in eCollege.
Read chapters about Intercultural Communication in Organizations.
and Acculturation, Culture Shock, and Intercultural Competence.
Complete all Discussion Board assignments.
Study for final exam.

 

Part 1 OVERVIEW

 

Quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 

Coordinating and managing people from different cultures within an organizational context represents one of the greatest challenges for the corporate world in the new millennium. Few managers will survive and function effectively without an understanding of the subtleties and complexities of managing others in a multicultural and multinational business environment.

 

Businesses and organizations from virtually every culture have entered into the global marketplace. In 2008, for example, the United States’ top trading partners include (in order) Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany. In just the month of January 2008, trade with these five countries totaled over $135 billion. In 2007, U.S. trade with China (imports and exports) was nearly $500 billion.

 

Within our borders as well, the face of U.S. business is becoming more and more intercultural. In 2002, there were over 4 million minority-owned businesses in the United States. Of these firms, Hispanics/Latinos owned 1.4 million, African Americans 1.2 million, Asian American 1.1 million, American Indian/Alaskans 200,000, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders 30,000.

 

Given the dramatic cultural transformation in today's market place, the relevance of intercultural communication competence cannot be overstated. In order to compete in the global and US markets, today's managers must possess the skills to interact with people who are different than themselves.

 

Part 2 OVERVIEW

 

Quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 

Think about three important features associated with intercultural communication as they relate to traveling abroad to foreign cultures. These features include intercultural acculturation, culture shock, and intercultural communication competence.

 

Acculturation refers to a process wherein you adapt to a new culture by adopting its values, attitudes, and practices.

 

Culture shock refers to a multifaceted experience resulting from the stress associated with entering a new culture.

 

Intercultural communication competence is defined as the degree to which you effectively adapt your verbal and nonverbal messages to the appropriate cultural context. When you communicate with someone from a different culture, you will have to adjust and modify the kinds of verbal and nonverbal messages you send. This process requires that you have some knowledge about the person with whom you are communicating, that you are motivated to communicate with him or her, and that you have the appropriate verbal and nonverbal skills in order to encode and decode messages. Each of these variables affects the success rate of your intercultural communication experiences.

 

When individuals or groups of individuals enter a new culture, they are faced with a different set of values, different behavioral patterns, and a different verbal and nonverbal communication system. In most (perhaps all) cases, such people are affected by their new cultural surroundings.

Source: http://www.notimetokill.org/images/cartoon_ch_26_v2.gif

 

 

 

ACTIVITIES TO APPLY CONCEPTS

1. Conduct a search of advertisements from foreign newspapers and magazines. Compare and contrast the foreign advertisements with US ads. How similar and/or different are the types of appeals used in the ads? How is the organization depicted?

2. Discuss a situation you have observed or heard about.  Reconstruct an intercultural conversation in which cultural mistakes are committed, which affects the perception of the person's competence. Write up the conversation for the class and describe the communication errors.

3.  Degrees of acculturation occur in a variety of settings, including moving away from home to attend college and moving because of military service. Recall your acculturation experiences when you moved to your local area.

4. If you have travelled or lived abroad. Describe your experiences with culture shock and how you experienced the four stages.

Engage with other students by discussing (a.) concepts you learned in this week's reading, (b.) how you are applying what you learn, and (c.) ideas of other students. Please post on multiple days during the week.

PREREADING (Wednesday)

This week you will Intercultural Communication in Work, adaptation to culture (Acculturation), Culture Shock, and Intercultural Competence.. What do you want to know or need to learn about these topic?

FACT QUESTIONS (Friday)

Read the textbook assignment before you discuss an idea from the chapter reading. You will find the question is in the unit link called "Fact Questions." Your professor may assign a number to you for the term so students answer different questions. In that case, answer that question number each week. If there are fewer questions than your number, count through the list twice until you reach your assigned number.

MEASURE (Sunday)

Complete an assessment measure from the reading. What were your results? What are the implications for your multicultural communication strengths and needs.

ACTIVITY--APPLICATION (Sunday)

See the Activity link and complete an Activity so you apply the principles from the reading. Discuss how you are improving your multicultural communication skills.

PROFESSOR'S CHOICE
General discussion, alternative points of views, stories, videos to watch, and media links.  If the provided link doesn't work, conduct an Internet search to find your own choice for an interesting link about exemplary multicultural communication.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Discuss how dimensions of the cultural context affect organizations across cultures.

2. Identify how the environmental context affects doing business in other cultures.

3. Identify variables in the perceptual context and how they influence business with other cultures.

4. Compare and contrast socio-relational contexts on the job across cultures.

5. Discuss some verbal and nonverbal differences across cultures.

6. How are the dominant cultural values of the United States reflected in US management styles and US company policies?

7. How might the US management style of participative management affect a US manager in Mexico?

8. How might the US emphasis on time (i.e., monochronic) affect how you would do business in Mexico?

9. What considerations would you make in preparing for a presentation in a German company?

10. Your company has just established an account with a firm in Saudi Arabia. Your top salesperson is a young woman. Should you send her to Saudi? Why or why not?

11. Compare managerial styles of Japanese, Germans, Mexicans, and Arabs.

12. Describe the manager-subordinate relationships in Japan, Germany, Mexico, and Arab countries.

13. Define acculturation

14. Identify and discuss the factors that facilitate or hinder acculturation.

15. Define and name the stages of culture shock

16. Recognize and discuss the causes of culture shock.

17. Assess your level of culture shock

18. Identify and discuss the four components of intercultural communication competence.

19. .Assess your intercultural willingness to communicate.

20. What factors do you think would most affect you if you were to travel to another culture?

21. Why do some groups in the United States assimilate more than others

22. What groups do you think are the most assimilated in the United States

23. How might the dominant culture of the United States help diverse groups to assimilate?

24. Are there good reasons for groups not to assimilate to U.S. culture?

UNIT 7 LECTURE     LECTURE   Intercultural Communication in Organizations

Directly quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

I. Managing Interculturally

A. There is no culture-free theory of management. Managing other people is the responsibility of people who, like everyone else, have been enculturated and socialized into a cultural set of values and beliefs that govern their thinking, emotions and behaviors. Like communication, management is culture-bound.

B. Many US managers are ill-equipped to handle overseas assignments. While fostering competent intercultural communication managerial skills represents an enormous challenge, the rewards of successful international commerce are extraordinary.

C. Successful cross-cultural management depends on the abilities of managers to communicate effectively. Communication is especially important during the initial stages of a business relationship. Depending on the culture, the process of building trust among business partners may take days, weeks, or even months. American managers prefer to "get down to business" without spending much time getting to know their business partners. In fact, American managers view such relationship building as a waste of valuable time.

D. Much of what you have been exposed to in this book can be applied to your role in organizational settings across cultures. The topics and issues discussed in each chapter can guide you to becoming a successful multicultural manager. Most businesses and organizations can be thought of as mini-cultures, each representing a pattern of values held by a recognizable group of people with a common goal pursued via a collective verbal and nonverbal symbol system. Like cultures themselves, organizations possess value systems, exist in some environmental context, process information from a unique perceptual perspective, develop socio-relations with others, and communicate using distinctive verbal and nonverbal codes.

II. The Cultural Context.

A. This part of the chapter includes a cross-cultural conversation between American businessman Jim Neumouth, and Japanese businessman Kietaro Matsumoto. Jim is applying for a job in Kietaro's corporation, located in Kyoto, Japan. In the conversation, Mr. Neumouth does a good job of expressing his talents and experiences. In the United States, he might appear like the ideal candidate. But to Mr. Matsumoto, he does not appear to be a team player.

B. Organizations in collectivistic cultures are more likely to emphasis group harmony and teamwork. For example, Mitsui Group of Japan, lists group harmony as its number one corporate value. Similarly, Apple Computer workers in Singapore listed teamwork and reserve as their number one and two (respectively) corporate values. These same employees indicated that individualism was the number one value of Apple Computer workers in the United States, however.

C. Power distance is another important cultural influence to assess when dealing with organizations across cultures. A recent survey indicated that the highest rated values of middle level managers of Petronas Corporation, the Malaysian state owned oil company, included status consciousness (e.g., position, degree), top-down communication, and welfare of the employees.

D. Uncertainty avoidance is another important consideration. As a low uncertainty avoidant culture, the US market place is associated with a great deal of risk. In fact, middle-line managers at Advance Mico Devices, a US--based company, indicate that aggressiveness and risk-taking are the top two values guiding their company. Risky business propositions are likely to be rejected by cultures high in uncertainty avoidance, however.

III. The Environmental Context

A. In addition to the cultural context, it is important to assess the organization's perspective on the environment, including such issues as information load, privacy, and their overall orientation to nature. A culture's perspective on nature often translates into its organizational practices. Like they treat nature, some organizations believe they can control market forces and create new markets where none exist. Others attempt a balancing act with the market, sometimes trying to influence it while other times adjusting to its fluctuations. Still others believe that the market is in control and they simply react to it.

B. A culture's tolerance and comfort with varying information rates should be ascertained. In cultures like the United States, managers often prefer as much factual information as possible before making decisions. Statistics, sales projections, historical trends, etc., all help US managers in their decision-making. In some Arab cultures, however, decision-making is fairly inexact and rests on the manager's personal position in the organization, his intuition, and religious beliefs.

 C. Assumptions about privacy are also important considerations to take into account. In collectivistic cultures, for example, where group harmony is paramount, employees may prefer to work together in the same physical location not isolated by office walls and doors.

IV. The Perceptual Context

A. To understand how the organization processes information is crucial to establishing and maintaining effective communication. One information-processing strategy that people from all cultures engage in is categorizing and stereotyping. Before embarking on a business venture with a foreign culture, it may be useful to know of their stereotypes of US business.

B. Most Americans have been brought up to think in very logical, linear, and rational terms. We prefer to make decisions based on empirical (verifiable through direct observation) data. Many of our business decisions are based on the logic that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Asian employers, however, may be guided by their intuition and base their decisions on trial and error. They may get side-tracked or take multiple paths to get to the same point. Chinese, for example, are known to be very patient and take their time in making decisions, a characteristic that sometimes frustrates their American business counterparts.

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V. Socio-Relational Context

A. An organization's emphasis on group membership is clearly something that US managers should know about their foreign companions. Fons Trompenaars employs a family metaphor in describing a particular type of ideal corporate culture seen often in Turkey, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Singapore, and Spain. The family corporation culture is simultaneously personal, with close face-to-face relationships, and hierarchical in the sense that everyone knows his/her place in the rank order. At the top of the hierarchy are the parents (i.e., chief-executives) who are regarded as caring and who know better than the children (i.e., subordinates).

B. The power at the top is not perceived as threatening but as intimate and benign. The philosophy of the employees is to do more than is required contractually in order to please the older brother or father (i.e., person of higher rank). The primary reason for working hard and performing well in this type of corporate culture is the pleasure derived from familial relations. To please one's elders is reward in and of itself.

VI. Verbal and Nonverbal Codes

A. Obviously understanding the verbal and nonverbal codes of your foreign counterpart is an essential part of a successful business venture. While it is true that most of your foreign business partners will speak some English, your knowledge and use of their language demonstrates your willingness to meet them half-way and will be very much appreciated.

B. Axtell found that 80% of persons doing business overseas with a foreign corporation had difficulties interacting with foreigners because of the latter's misunderstanding of American English. But, reports Axtell, the same respondents reported that the problem lies with them, not their foreign counterpart. The type of English spoken here is so laden with jargon, colloquialisms and slang, that English-speaking foreigners have a very difficult time understanding us.

C. Axtell points out what he calls the Seven Deadliest Sins of International Misunderstanding, including local color, jargon, slang, officialese, humor, vocabulary, and grammar. When conducting business with your foreign counterpart, be very conscious of terms and phrases that may be well understood within your corporation, but may be misunderstood to an outsider.

D. Although knowing your foreign partner's language (and he/she knowing yours) is certainly an advantage, there are other communication considerations, independent of verbal language, that can affect your business propositions, most notably nonverbal communication. One's kinesic, paralinguistic, olfactic, haptic, and proxemic behaviors can be interpreted differently depending on with whom you are interacting.

VII. Intercultural Relations

A. Perceptions of relationships vary dramatically across cultures. Especially important are male/female relations within corporations. Although women have made great strides in the US corporate world, in many cultures women still occupy a subordinate role and are relegated to second-class citizens. Because of this, more than half (54%) of multinational corporations in North America say they are hesitant to send women managers abroad for fear that the host culture's perspective on women will negatively impact their effectiveness.

B. In Japan, reports Adler, women are encouraged to obtain the level of education that will enable them to marry managers rather than attain management positions for themselves. In fact, according to Adler, many large Japanese corporations encourage women employees to marry male employees and then use the company's anti-nepotism policies to force the women to retire. Moreover, one-third of Japanese companies indicate that they will not promote women college graduates even if they are as qualified as their male counterparts.

C. Even in Europe, opposition to women in high-level management is quite strong. On one survey, nearly 70% of British managers said they preferred male applicants for executive positions. Likewise, two-thirds of Italian managers said they did not want to receive orders from female managers. And in Germany, nearly 95% of job advertisements for top executives use the masculine noun form thereby discouraging women from even applying for the position.

VIII. Japanese Management

A. Japan is a country of nearly 130 million people, including a workforce of 67 million. According to the U.S. Department of State, per capita income is just over $34,000 a year. Japan is considered an urban culture because only about 7% of the workforce is engaged in agriculture. Japan’s $4.9 trillion economy is the second largest in the world. After maintaining one of the highest economic growth rates in the world from the 1960s through the 1980s, the Japanese economy slowed significantly in the 1990s. According to the U.S. State Department, the economic relationship between Japan and the United States is quite healthy. Although it has taken time and patience, American businesses are competing successfully in Japanese markets

B. Japanese organizations are essentially social organizations

of which two key features include lifetime employment (shushin koyo) and seniority grading (nenko joretsu). Based on these principles, the Japanese company is seen as a custodian of employee security and welfare. The lifetime employment system is based on a psychological contract between the employees and the company about the employee’s lifetime

dedication to the company in exchange for lifetime job security from the organization. Japanese organizations also practice a seniority-based wage and promotion arrangement where employees are promoted and compensated based on the number of years they have served the organization. The system rewards older and longer-serving employees.

C. In comparing Japanese and US managers, Bolda concluded that Japanese managers endorsed behaviors that were other-oriented and principle-oriented. The American managers, on the other hand, supported behaviors that were more instrumental (i.e., goal-oriented) such as individual supervisory skills, belief in one's own ability, and decision-making.

D. Contract negotiations between Japanese and American firms is often difficult and frustrating. The American preference for individualistic rational decision-making often clashes with the Japanese tendency toward relationships and group harmony. Americans, for example, tend to negotiate by exchanging information with the expectation that the other side will reciprocate. Japanese negotiate by trying to foster steady relationships with their partners with the ultimate goal of consensus. Whereas Americans negotiate a contractual agreement, the Japanese think of it as negotiating a relationship.

E. In related research, Brett and Okumura studied the negotiation styles of US and Japanese managers. There results showed that Japanese negotiators paid significantly more attention to power in their negotiation than did US negotiators. They also found a difference in the two cultures' focus on self-interest during negotiations. The US negotiators were much more focused on self-interest than the Japanese negotiators. They also found that joint gains in negotiations were significantly higher in intracultural negotiations than intercultural negotiations.

F. In a recent study, Rao, Hashimoto, and Rao surveyed Japanese managers regarding their preferences for a variety of influence strategies. While some of the Japanese managers preferred influence tactics that are similar to those preferred by US managers, several strategies appear to be unique to the Japanese.

G. While interacting with Japanese business persons, Americans often notice behaviors that are widely misunderstood. To be sure, the Japanese business-person has perceptions of American behavior which may be misinterpreted as well. For example, Japanese are astonished by the typical American's informality and spontaneity. The quick pace of conversation and what are perceived to be ostentatious (i.e., flashy-showy) nonverbal mannerism are off-putting to most Japanese.

IX. German Management

A. Most Germans believe that people are controlled by their own actions, that facts are more important than face (in sharp contrast to the Japanese), and that factual honesty is more important than politeness (again, clashing with Japanese conventions). German children are taught that useless people amount to nothing and that they are to be quiet and respectful. Children are also taught the famous adage to "save for a rainy day.

B. Compartmentalization is the most prominent structural feature of German culture. Germans have a tendency to isolate and divide many aspects of their lives into discrete independent units. Germans are known to compartmentalize their daily schedules, their educational system, office buildings, corporations, homes, and even lines of communication.

C. Germans are a very private (and formal) people. Most German managers isolate themselves in their offices behind closed doors, contrastingly sharply with open door policies exercised by American managers.

D. German compartmentalization can also be seen in the overall market strategy of many very successful German corporations. Unlike many US or Japanese corporate conglomerates whose global market success is attributable to diversification, many German firms concentrate on specialization; that is, doing one thing and doing it right. German corporations with large shares of specialized markets can focus on design, quality, and service rather than competing with price.

E. Like the US, Germany is considered a low-context, monochronic culture, except even more so. The German language is quite literal where individual German words have exact and precise meaning. For example, the Germans have no fewer than eight words for "comfort," each reflecting a slightly different type of comfort. Germans are fairly formal, nitpicky about precision, punctual, and fanatic about facts.

X. Management Practices in Mexico.

A. Generally, in comparison with the United States, Mexico is more collectivistic, and is considered a high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance culture

B. Generally, Mexican organizations do not emphasize self-determination on the job. Unlike workers in the United States, Mexicans generally are not rewarded for initiative. Mexicans see work as a "necessary evil." To many Mexicans, work is required to appreciate the more important things in life, such as family and friends. Mexican employers seek employees who are agreeable, respectful, and obedient rather than innovative and independent

C. Mexico's high power distance can be seen in the government, the church, and throughout Mexican society. Mexican businesses have a rigid hierarchy where the power is centralized in the person or people at the top. Often the top positions are not gained through hard work and initiative, but are inherited or acquired through friendships or mutual favors. Mexican managers reward submission, direction, and loyalty to the person with power.

D. In high (or strong) uncertainty avoidant cultures, like Mexico, innovative or risk-taking behavior is inappropriate. Mexican workers generally prefer close supervision. Likewise, compensation based on incentive is eschewed. Mexican workers prefer to know exactly what they are supposed to do, and want to be rewarded for doing it.

E. De Forest maintains that one of the most frustrating aspects for Americans doing business in Mexico is the Mexican perception of time. American managers should be advised to be patient. Life is simply slower in Mexico than in the US. In Mexico, time does not advance, it tends to be either right now, or some other time. American managers should be prepared for delays. People frequently show up late for meetings, businesses and government offices open and close at all hours, as if at random, electricity shuts down for no apparent reason and may be off for days.

XI. Commerce in the Middle East

A. After World War II, many Arab countries, which had been subjected to European colonial rule, won independence. Along with independence brought many new challenges. Unfortunately, few Arab countries had experienced leaders able to cope with their novel circumstances. Of the many tests facing the Arab world, national development is in the vanguard. Many Arab countries have spent immense amounts of financial and human resources in an attempt to improve the capabilities and performance of their national economies and toward generating change in their political systems and innovations in technology. Today, however, most Arab states are ruled by authoritarian political regimes that do not encourage, or allow, public participation in decision-making.

B. Most countries in the Middle East (excluding Israel) are Moslem. More than anything else, Islam has united Arabs as a single dynamic entity. Yet, in what appears to be an obvious paradox to many Americans, Arabians who staunchly believe in the ideals of Islamic principles consistently disobey them in practice. For example, Islam functions as law in Saudi Arabia. One of principles of Islamic teaching is to trust God over that of kings and rulers. In addition, Islam teaches Muslims never to use such titles as Majesty, Highness, Royal, etc

C. Interacting with Arabs

1. Arabs have a tendency to use elaborate and ritualized forms of communication, especially during greetings. Even in markets, loud and boisterous bargaining is accepted and expected and accompanied with wide gestures and animated facial expressions. Many Americans are unnerved by this.

2. Arab women’s bodies are not to be seen. American women should dress with their arms and legs covered.

3. As a sign of trust and friendship, Arab men may be seen holding hands. During greetings, men kiss on the cheeks.

4. Generally, Arabs have a smaller personal space than most Americans. They tend to stand very close while interacting, sometimes in order to smell their partner’s breath. They expect intense eye contact.

5. During negotiations, Arabs will personalize arguments and appeal to emotions.

6. In general, Arabs are less private than Americans. Visiting and long conversations are expected.

7. Do not hesitate to praise an Arab’s country, food, and art. But do not make comments of any kind about Arab women, especially one’s wife. Do not appear detached or reluctant to accept favors.

8. Unlike the Japanese, Arabs enjoy verbal interaction and expect it from others. Silence will be perceived as something is wrong.

LECTURE Acculturation, Culture Shock, & Intercultural Competence

Directly quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

I. Acculturation.

A. Acculturation is a process of cultural change that results from ongoing contact between two or more culturally different groups. Acculturation is often marked by physical and psychological changes that occur as a result of the adaptation required to function in a new and different cultural context. People adapting to new cultures face changes in their diet, climate, housing, communication, role prescriptions, media consumption, and the myriad rules, norms and values of a new and (relatively) dissimilar culture. The stress associated with such changes (i.e., acculturative stress) is marked by a reduction in a person's physical and mental health.

B. The degree of acculturative stress experienced by people adapting to new cultures varies according to the similarities and dissimilarities between the host culture and native culture of the immigrants. Characteristics such as the amount of exposure one has had to the new culture, the individual's level of education, sex, age, language, race, income, as well as the person's psychological and spiritual strength, all affect acculturative stress.

C. The ability to speak the language of the host culture will certainly facilitate one's ability to adapt and function. Moreover, the host culture's political and social attitudes toward immigrants will have a major impact on one's ability to adjust to new cultural surroundings. Certain racial groups are more or less welcome in some cultures than others.

D. In order for acculturation to occur, there needs to be contact between the members of the host culture and the newcomers. Such contact needs to be continuous and direct. Acculturation effects may vary according to whether the purpose of contact is colonization, enslavement, trade, military control, evangelization, or education. The length of contact is also a factor. Other factors to take into consideration include the social or political polices of the mainstream culture as they relate to the immigrant group (i.e., political representation, citizenship criteria, language requirements, employment opportunities etc.)^.

II. A Model of Acculturation

A. Young Kim's model of cultural adaptation takes into account both individual and cultural factors that affect acculturation. Kim argues that acculturation is not a linear one-way process; rather, there is an interaction between the stranger and the host culture. Kim argues that the role of communication, the role of the host environment, and the role of predisposition best explain the acculturation process. (See the visual model in your text.)

1.In terms of the role of communication, personal communication refers to the individual’s host communication competence—that is, the degree to which the newcomer can encode and decode verbal and nonverbal messages within the host environment. Social communication refers to the actual interaction between the newcomer and host persons.

2.The environment includes the degree to which the host culture is receptive to strangers, the extent to which natives within the host culture exert pressure on newcomers to conform to their culture’s values, beliefs, and practices, and ethnic group strength.

3. Predisposition factors include how much people know about their new culture, their ability to speak the language, the probability of employment, and their understanding of the cultural institutions, and the inherited characteristic that newcomers have as members of distinct ethnic groups.

III. Modes of Acculturation

A. Berry has identified four modes of acculturation, including assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization. An individual's level of acculturation depends, in part, on two independent processes. These processes include the degree to which the person approaches or avoids interaction with the host culture (i.e., outgroup contact and relations), and the degree to which the individual maintains or relinquishes his/her native culture's attributes (i.e., ingroup identity and maintenance).

1. To the extent that the individual desires contact with the host culture (and the various microcultures) while not necessarily maintaining an identity with his/her native culture, assimilation occurs.

2. Some people desire a high level of interaction with the host culture while maintaining their identity with their native culture. This is called integration.

3. When individuals prefer low levels of interaction with the host culture and associative micro-cultural groups while desiring a close connection with and reaffirmation of their native culture, the mode of acculturation is called separation.

4. The fourth type of acculturation is marginalization. This occurs when the individual chooses not to identify with his/her native culture nor with the host culture.

5. Another possible acculturation mode is cultural transmutation. In this mode, the individual chooses to identify with a third cultural group (e.g., microculture) which materializes out of the native and host cultural groups.

IV. Acculturation in the United States

A. The two largest ethnic populations in the United States are Hispanics and Blacks. For these groups, acculturation refers to the degree to which they participate in the cultural traditions, values, beliefs and norms of the dominant White society, or remain immersed in their own unique cultural customs and conventions, or participate in both.

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B. Social scientists are beginning to understand that the degree of acculturation for micro-cultural groups within the US is associated with a variety of social and medical health-related problems, including alcoholism, cigarette smoking, drug-abuse and HIV/AIDS related knowledge, attitudes, and risk-related behaviors. Moreover, micro-cultural group acculturation is associated with methods of conflict resolution (e.g., belligerent behaviors), willingness to use counseling, career development and work habits, and educational achievement (i.e., increase absences, lower grades).

C. In an effort to better understand the maladaptive attitudes and behaviors among the various micro-cultural groups in the US, researchers have devoted considerable efforts toward assessing levels of acculturation. Scales have been developed that measure Hispanic and African-American acculturation in the US.

V. Culture Shock

A. When people move to a new culture they take with them the values, beliefs, customs and behaviors of their old culture. Often times, depending on the degree of similarity between the old and the new culture, the values, beliefs, customs and behaviors of the native culture clash with those of the new culture. This can result in disorientation, misunderstandings, conflict, stress, and anxiety. Researchers call this phenomena culture shock.

B. Culture shock appears to be a psychological and social process that progresses in stages, usually lasting as long as a year. Most models of culture shock include four stages. Most models of culture shock describe the process curvilinearly. Culture shock begins with feelings of optimism and even elation that eventually give way to frustration, tension, and anxiety as individuals are unable to effectively interact with their new environment. As they develop strategies for resolving conflict people begin to restore their confidence and eventually recover and reach some level of acculturation.

1. The initial stage of culture shock, usually called something like the tourist or honeymoon stage, is characterized by intense excitement and euphoria associated with being somewhere different and unusual.

2. Eventually, the fun and excitement associated with the tourist phase gives way to frustration and real stress. Failure events once considered minor and funny are now perceived as stressful. The new environment requires a great deal of conscious energy that was not required of the old environment, which leads to cognitive overload and fatigue.

3. The third phase of culture shock is typically called the adjustment or reorientation phase. Here people eventually realize that the problems associated with the host culture are due not because of deliberate attempts by the natives, but by a real difference in values, beliefs, and behaviors.

4. The final stage of culture shock is labeled the adaptation or acculturation stage. At this point, individuals actively engaged the culture with their new problem-solving and conflict resolution tools with some degree of success.

VI. The "W" Curve Models of Culture Shock

A. Furham and Bochner's "W Curve" model of culture shock includes two "U Curves" including the initial culture shock experienced when the traveler enters a new culture, and a re-entry shock "U Curve." In other words, when people return home after an extended stay in a foreign culture, they experience another round of culture shock, but this time, in their native culture.

VII. Strategies for Managing Culture Shock

A. If you are a human being travelling to a new culture for the first time, it is likely that you will experience some kind of culture shock. The duration of your culture shock will depend on your ability to manage it.

1. Read about your new culture, attend seminars, rent films, and socialize with host nationals about their culture.

2. Learn as much as you can about the local environment in which you will live; things such as where to buy favorite foods, where to find physicians trained in the US, where schools are located, how public transportation operates (if there is any), or how to fill prescriptions. Taken-for-granted operations that we unconsciously perform in our day-to-day lives will be different in your host culture.

3. If you are not fluent in the language of your host culture, or even if they speak English, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with their verbal and nonverbal language.

4. A common mistake made by many expatriates is remaining within a network of intracultural relationships. The best way to get to know and understand another culture is to establish relationships with host nationals.

5. Maintain your intimate-intracultural relational network. Close interpersonal relations can provide positive feedback on matters related to one's self-esteem and emotional needs.

6. Try to understand that things are simply going to be different in your new culture and that the way you are accustomed to doing things is not the only way. Remember that your perceptual context is biased in favor of your culture and your ingroup.

7. Regardless of how well you prepare for your journey, there will moments when you are unsuccessful at accomplishing your goals. Before you depart, anticipate failure events.

VIII. Assessing Culture Shock

A. Successful management of culture shock depends on an awareness of its symptoms and the degree of its severity. Kim Zapf has developed a questionnaire called the Culture Shock Profile which is designed to assess the intensity of culture shock you are experiencing.

IX. Intercultural Communication Competence

A. Interculturally competent people successfully and effectively adapt their verbal and nonverbal messages to the appropriate cultural context. For the most part, competence is something that is perceived about another person rather than something another person inherently possesses. In other words, an individual may appear competent to one person and not to another. Moreover, intercultural competence varies from situation to situation.

B. Verbal and nonverbal appropriateness and effectiveness are two important qualities of intercultural competence. Appropriate behaviors conform to the rules, norms, and expectancies of the cultural context. Effective behaviors are those that successfully accomplish communicative goals (e.g., uncertainty reduction).

X. A Model of Intercultural Competence

A. There are three necessary and interdependent ingredients of communication competence: knowledge, motivation, and behavior. The model of intercultural competence presented in this book includes these three dimensions along with a fourth component of a set of situational features.

B. The knowledge component consists of how much a person knows about the culture of the person with whom one is interacting. This includes, minimally, some comprehension of the other's dominant cultural values and beliefs. Verbal and nonverbal scripts, cognitive simplicity-rigidity, ethnocentrism, are also a part of the knowledge component.

1. Verbal and nonverbal scripts are like blueprints for communication that provide people with expectations about future communicative encounters with others, including greetings, farewells, etc.

2. Cognitive simplicity and rigidity refers to the degree to which individuals process information about persons from different cultures in a simplistic and rigid manner.

3. Ethnocentrism is the extent to which one perceives one’s own group as the center of everything, and judges other groups with reference to it.

C. The affective component refers to the degree to which a person approaches or avoids intercultural communication; that is, one's motivation to interact with others from different cultures. A central feature here is intercultural communication apprehension (ICA) and intercultural willingness to communicate.

1. One's ability to cope with stress also leads to approach-avoidance tendencies. Due to the potential inordinate uncertainty during intercultural communication, anxiety levels may be high as well, leading to increased stress.

D. The psycho-motor component refers to the actual enactment of the knowledge and affective components. Elements of the psycho-motor component include verbal and nonverbal performance, and role enactment.

1. Verbal performance refers to how people use language. The individual needs to pay close attention to the nuances of the kinesic, paralinguistic, haptic, olfactic, and proxemic codes of the other culture.

2. Role enactment refers to how well a person executes the appropriate verbal and nonverbal messages according to his/her relative position and role in the host culture.

E. The fourth component of intercultural competence is the actual situation in which intercultural communication occurs. Some of the situational features that may affect competence include, but are not limited to, the environmental context, previous contact, status differential, and third party interventions.

Text directly quoted from Neuliep, J. W. (2009). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Clipart from Microsoft. Photographs by W. Aitken-Palmer and C. Aitken-Palmer and as indicated. Copyright. All rights reserved.