i AM NOT THE AUTHOR, TESTING

2. CULTURE, CONFLICT AND
COMMUICATION IN THE
GLOBAL WORKFORCE
March 27, 2008
University of Illinois
Dr. Gary R. Weaver
American University

3. WHY IS DIVERSITY
IMPORTANT?
Changing demographics
Not just in urban areas
“Globalization”

4. The American Culture
Today
• Not a Cultural Cookie Cutter or Melting Pot
• Patchwork Quilt
• Salad Bowl
• Mosaic
• Tapestry

5. Minorities in USA Today
12% African American
15% Hispanic
4% Asian and Pacific
Islanders
1% American Indian

6. TO MORE EFFECTIVELY
SERVE YOUR CLIENTS
Conveying information
Developing skills
Overcoming barriers caused by differences
Using differences to create synergy

7. TRAITS THAT CORRELATE
WITH FAILURE IN CROSS-
CULTURAL INTERACTIONS
• Low tolerance to ambiguity or high
uncertainty avoidance
• Overly task-oriented or high need
for individual achievement
• Overly closed-minded and inflexible

8. What is “Culture?”
• culture - the way of life (values, beliefs
and behaviors) of a people passed
down from one generation to the next
through learning

9. Generalization vs.
Stereotype
• Cultural Generalization • Cultural Stereotype
– Never applies to everyone – Applies to everyone
in every situation in every situation –
– Only a first “guess” no exceptions
– Discard it when no longer – Retained even when
accurate or useful no longer accurate or
useful

12. Culture
is like an
Iceberg.
Most of it
is
UNDER
the water.

13. BEHAVIOR
BELIEFS
VALUES AND
THOUGHT
PATTERNS

14. As we interact, differences will
become LESS important.
• Leon Festinger
– Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
• Muzafir Sherif
– Development of a “Superordinate Goal”

15. CULTURAL CONTINUUMS
To Do To Be
• Earned Status • Ascribed Status
• Individual Achievement • Affiliation
• Individual Action • Stability
• Equality • Inequality
• Immediate family • Extended Family
• Self Reliance • Reliance on Others
• Independence • Interdependence
• Individual Competition • Cooperation
• Individualism • Collectivism
• Guilt • Shame
• Future • Past or Heritage
• Class Mobility • Caste Rigidity

17. CROSS-CULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

18. What Doesn’t Fit?
Nice weather we’re having!
Sunny, high in the 70s.
Haven’t we met before?

19. What Doesn’t Fit?
• Nice weather we’re having!
• Haven’t we met before?
• High-Context - Relational - Associative
• To Be - Poets
• Sunny, high in the 70s.
• Low Context - Abstractive - Analytical
• To Do - Memo Writers/Lawyers

20. Communication Styles
A B

21. Communication Styles
A B

22. Communication Styles
A B

23. Communication Styles
A B

24. Project Timeline
Stage One Stage Two Stage Three Stage Four
0-6 6 - 12 12 - 18 18 - 24
Months months Months months

25. Project Timeline
Stage Stage
Stage One Stage Two
Three Four
0 - 12 12 - 18
18 - 22 22 -24
Months Months
Months Months

26. NONVERBAL
COMMUNICATION
We send messages, not meaning
To Do people tend to be verbally-oriented
To Do people trust vision

27. Cross-Cultural
Conflict

28. QUESTIONS:
How do you know if it’s a conflict?
Is it escalating or de-escalating?
When do you resolve it?
When it is beyond resolution?
How do you resolve the conflict?

29. Resources
• Hall, Edward. Beyond Culture.
• Weaver, Gary R., ed. Culture, Communication
and Conflict, 2nd edition. Boston, MA:Pearson
Publishing, 2000.
• Weaver, Gary R. and Adam Mendelson,
America’s Midlife Crisis: The Future of a
Troubled Superpower, Boston, MA: Intercultural
Press, 2008
• www.interculturalpress.com
• www.imi.american.edu