1 / 12

Approaches to Cultural Understanding

Approaches to Cultural Understanding. 17 April and 24 April 2013 by Sigrid Brevik Wangsness. The concept of culture - again. Which aspects do most definitions of culture include? Why have culture and communication become essential elements in corporate strategy and planning?.

derick
Télécharger la présentation

Approaches to Cultural Understanding

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Approaches to Cultural Understanding 17 April and 24 April 2013 by Sigrid Brevik Wangsness

  2. The concept of culture - again • Which aspects do most definitions of culture include? • Why have culture and communication become essential elements in corporate strategy and planning?

  3. What is the best way of approaching cultural differences? • What are the two main approaches to cultural understanding, and what are the major differences between the two? • Which approach has been favoured by most business schools until now? Why? • Why has this approach been challenged?

  4. The functionalist approach • List the strong points of functionalist theory. • Next to Hofstede, who has been the most influential functionalist over the years? Explain his theories of context and time. • What other functionalists have you studied?

  5. The functionalist approach • List the main points of criticism of the functionalist approach. • Explain the concepts of ethnocentrism, determinism and stereotyping.

  6. The interpretive approach • What are the strong points of the interpretive approach? • What do you think the Danish International Sales Manager meant when stating that in intercultural communication ”you should know, what you don’t know”.

  7. The interpretive approach • Mention a leading representative for the interpretive approach. Does his definition of culture make sense to you? (Why/ why not?) • Why do the interpretivists reject the functionalists’ assumption that there is a one-to-one relationship between thoughts and behaviour?

  8. The interpretive approach • How do the interpretivists react to Hofstede’s view that cultures are relatively static and change very slowly? • According to the interpretivists, what should we do rather than predicting a certain behaviour by representatives of a particular culture?

  9. Etic vs. emic perspectives • Explain the difference between the etic and emic way of studying culture. • What is the main criticism of the etic perspective? • What is the main criticism of the emic perspective?

  10. The influence of culture and context in individual markets • How can an emic approach to culture improve intercultural marketing? (How is Danish butter marketed in China compared to in Australia?) • How does Gesteland treat the topic of intercultural marketing? (See CCBB: pp. 119-130)

  11. The problems of the interpretive approach • List the main points of criticism of the interpretive approach. • “Despite the problems with stereotypes, it is necessary to make cultural generalizations.” Why? • Do you agree with the above statement? How problematic are cultural stereotypes?

  12. Conclusion of the article: “Culture in a business context” • According to the authors of this article, how should we approach culture in order to become competent cross-cultural communicators? Should we be functionalists or interpretivists? (Why?)

More Related