Understanding Cross-cultural Management

CHAPTER 18

DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL
RELATIONSHIPS

• Concept 18.1: Becoming a competent

intercultural communicator

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 Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)

Defined by Kim (1991) as:

‘…the overall internal ability of an individual to
manage key challenging features of intercultural
communication: namely cultural differences and
unfamiliarity, inter-group posture, and the
accompanying experience of stress’
• What is needed to engage in this process?
– information and actions necessary
– the motivation
– the skills to actually perform effectively / appropriately

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 A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

The Ethnocentric stages The Ethnorelative stages

DENIAL DEFENCE MINIMIZATION ACCEPTANCE ADAPTATION INTEGRATION


Isolation 
Denigration 
Physical 
Respect for 
Empathy 
Contextual

Separation 
Superiority Universalism Behavioural 
Pluralism Evaluation

Reversal 
Transcendent Difference 
Constructive
Universalism 
Respect for Marginality
Value
Difference

Table 18.1 A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

Source: Bennett (1998), p. 29

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 A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

Concrete
experience

Active Reflective
experimentation observation

Abstract
conceptualization

Figure 18.1 Kolb’s learning cycle

Source: Kolb (1984), p. 33 (adapted)

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 The cognitive component of ICC

• Knowledge of the people from the other culture(s)

involved:
– their values, beliefs and expectations, knowledge of
the language they use
– the communicative strategies they tend to employ
• This entails being cognitively flexible:
– able to receive and process feedback
– able to take a perspective, to differentiate between
describing, interpreting and evaluating behaviour.
– willing and able to move beyond ethnocentrism

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 The affective component of ICC

Anxiety and uncertainty management theory

(Gudykunst, 2002)
• If high state of anxiety:
– reliance on simplistic information > cannot
communicate effectively
– unable to explain or predict the attitudes, behaviour or
feelings of others
• If low anxiety and uncertainty:
– may not be motivated to communicate
– may predict too eagerly – and inaccurately - the
behaviour of others.
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 Mindfulness

• Entails our thinking about our communication and

continually working at changing what we do in order
to become more effective
• Mindfulness (Langer,1990) includes:
– making more categories/distinctions when categorizing
others
– being aware of more than one perspective
– focussing on the process of communication
– being mindful of our own behaviour as well as the
situation

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 Empathy

• One key aspect of the affective component is

empathy, defined by Casse (1981, p. 139) as:
‘..the ability to see and understand how other people
construct reality’
• When interacting with others, we not only listen to
what people say but we try to work out what people
are actually feeling and thinking
• Empathy is the ability to put oneself in the shoes of
the other, to try and discern their thoughts behind
their words and actions

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 Levels of awareness

• A high degree of empathy = a high degree of

awareness
• Hanvey’s proposed levels of awareness which
can be attained during the competence
development process
• He argues that ‘believability’ is necessary if one
group or individual is to accept the other
• This believability can be achieved only at levels
3&4

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 Levels of awareness

LEVEL INFORMATION MODE INTERPRETATION

Awareness of superficial or
Unbelievable, i.e.
Level I visible cultural traits -- Tourism, textbooks
exotic bizarre
stereotypes

Awareness of significant
and subtle cultural traits Culture conflict Unbelievable, i.e.
Level II
that contrast markedly with situations frustrating irrational
one’s own

Awareness of significant
and subtle cultural traits
Level III Intellectual analysis Believable, cognitively
that contrast markedly with
one’s own

Awareness of how another

Cultural immersion: Believable because of
Level IV culture feels from the
living the culture subjective familiarity
standpoint of the insider

Table 18.2 Levels of awareness

Source: Hanvey (1986), p.20

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 The behavioural component of ICC

How the cognitive/affective components are enacted

• For Spitsberg (2000), behavioural competence is not
the behaviour, but the way it is evaluated:
– appropriacy: does the behaviour stroke with
norms/expectations of relationship?
– effectiveness: does the behaviour achieve ‘valued
goals or rewards relative to costs and alternatives’
• Behaviour deemed as competent may be accidental
or seen as incompetent elsewhere
• Competent behaviour must have a clear and
appropriate rationale behind the behaviour
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 The ethical component of ICC

• Can we make moral judgements across cultures

while being aware that moral principles of behaviour
can be culture-bound and may vary across cultures?

• Gudykunst & Kim (2002) distinguish two approaches:

– an analytical one (being committed to a specific view of
what morality is) : does not allow ethical judgements
– a normative one (i.e. knowing what should be done):
allows ethical judgements on behaviour itself and/or on
the person(s) displaying the behaviour

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 Normative and analytical approach

• If normative approach used, making payments to

company officials to ensure that a tender is accepted
may well be regarded as unacceptable
• If analytical approach taken: those paying gratuities
may see it as a ‘necessary evil’ since those expecting
gratuities are seen as not knowing any better
• Gudykunst and Kim (2002) argue that we should
withhold any ethical judgements when interacting
with those from another culture until we have clearly
described their behaviour and examined various
interpretations

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 Geesteland’s ethical strategies

• Never assume that a ‘bribe’ of some sort is a

prerequisite: show moral courage and say no,
citing corporate policy
• There may be other, ethical ways of responding to
unethical demands, e.g.
• making a public donation to a worthy cause
• creating jobs locally so that the honour falls on the
decision-makers
• Such manoeuvres depend on knowledge of how a
culture ‘works’ and underlying values

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 Is there a meta-ethic?

• Is the cross-cultural arena an ‘ethical void’?

• When we make ethical judgements, we either use
our own cultural standards as a framework of
reference or those of the other culture
• This means, however, that the ethical premises of
one culture are necessarily subordinated to those
of another: no meta-ethic to embrace both sets of
premises

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 Is there a meta-ethic?

• Example of a meta-ethic proposed by Martin,

Flores & Nakayama (2001) with three
principles:
– The humanness principle: respect for all,
empathy and identification with others.
– The dialogic principle: stresses the centrality of
human relationships and mutual support we must
give
– The principle of speaking ‘with’ and ‘to’ instead
of ‘for’ and ‘about’
• Key factor: learning to understand oneself and
others when engaging with others
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 A third culture?

• Casrnir (1999) advocates third-culture building -

would allow a shared system of values to emerge.
• Cross-cultural encounters are not just a question of
trying to achieve outcomes, but also developing
standards/methods for achieving those outcomes.
• The relationship developed in these encounters could
enable a process whereby a third culture emerges.
• This is a framework designed to ensure enduring
adaptation and survival: shared value systems and
increasing interdependence.

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 Building a third culture

Figure 18.2 A dialogic communication model of third-culture building

Source: Casrnir (1999): 109

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 Conclusion: dynamic cultural interaction

The dialogic nature of third-culture building reflects:

• The notion of transcultural competence
– reconciling seemingly opposing values
– developing a dynamic equilibrium
– integrating values through synergy
• The dynamic process of intercultural interaction
– the cultures are defined through own characteristics
– AND through their interaction with each other
• The notion of crisis transformation
– collaborative dialogue which enables transformations
at personal, social and structural level

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