Dear Colleagues,
Thank you so much for those who responded to my recent question on cross-cultural communication cases. I am new to this discussion email-list, and obviously a similar question was raised on the list before which I was not aware of, but people still tried to help by answering my question. It is highly appreciated, and the following is a summary of the responses to my question in case you are interested. With best regards,
Shan Ma
Responses to My Question on Cross-Cultural Communication
(1) Daniel Rottig: I found a video case study that is particularly helpful for a discussion on cross-cultural negotiation/communication. The name is "Mustang Jeans: Doing Business Across Cultures" (about 15 minutes in lengths and provided by the McGraw-Hill Higher Education). The video came on a DVD independent of a specific text as complementary class material from the publisher. The DVD is called "International Business DVD" (ISBN 0-07-299842-3) and you can find the Mustang Jeans video under Part One: Globalization and Culture.
(2) This video shows the negotiation between an ethnocentric US-manager and a potential Japanese client, and effectively shows the difference in cross-cultural negotiation styles. The video especially well depicts the difference between low context (US-American) and high context (Japanese) communication and the issue of saving face. This video has always been very much liked by my students and generates very interesting class discussions on differences in verbal versus non-verbal communication.
(3) Katalin Haynes: I use the Alpha-Beta negotiation exercise which is a simulation/role play of an real-life negotiations between GE and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Hitachi</st1:city></st1:place> in the 1980's when GE was looking to capture the robotics market. The two negotiating parties are Alpha (representing the Americans) and Beta (representing the Japanese). The case provides both the issues the parties need to agree upon and the information about how they should negotiate.
(4) Dirk Holtbruegge: My doctoral student Markus Kittler developed a cross-cultural simulation game called Explanatorius! It is based on the famous game "Taboo" and allows, e.g., to check for differences between high- and low-context communication. We tested it in a group of German and Chinese students and it worked very well. Please see the attached working paper for details.
(5) Atilla Baslar: You can have a look at http://www.thiagi.com/. There are plenty of games in this website. http://www.nasaga.org is another site for games for cross-cultural practices.
(6) Jan Katz: If you want to look at some unusual cases (business-government-civil society), a negotiation exercise and some other materials that you can download for free and adapt to suit your interests, look at: www.johnson.cornell.edu/internationaleducation/
(7) Kathleem Rehbien: I have used the Luna Pen Case and the game Barnga to focuse on communication/negotiation issues. The Luna Pen case is also a sequential one...
(8) Mario Schijven: While doing part of my undergraduate studies in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place>, we used a book with the title "Intercultural communication: A reader" by Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter alongside a more conventional textbook on intercultural communication. It has been over 5 years ago since I bought it, but I just checked on Amazon, and the book is into its 10th edition so to see. Anyway, it's full of cases and stories that make the challenges of communication across cultures much more tangible for students. I regularly re-read it every now and then, because these anecdotes and cases are very interesting.
(9) Jim Biteman: I am using one on email. I'm out of thee country now, but please remind me and I will give you the reference when I return home. Also, I have enjoyed using the exercise, BaFa-BaFa. It simulates cultural differences and can be played in a 3-hour class.
(10) Donald White: A good case sequence is Johannes Van Den Bosch (Harvard case). It is a sequence of 2 or 3 memos in which communications between parties become entangled. It works well with American students, because they can be drawn into the initial memo as being a "normal" message. The response can then be discussed as to what was expected and initially and what impact the second memo may have on the original sender.
(11) Gina Herzfeldt: Find attached a case study about intercultural management, and a list of case studies and films etc. compiled recently by Svetlana Khapova.
(12) Steve Weiss: As one of the creators of Alpha-Beta, I'd be happy to provide you with additional materials if you decide to take Katalin's recommendation and use the case.
(13) Tara Shetye: I like Cushner & Brislin (1996) for inter-cultural communication case studies.
(14) Dan Caprar: I've found a textbook that includes quite a few cases (some relevant to cross-cultural communication), useful for undergraduate level: Helen Deresky, International Management. Managing Across Borders and Cultures, from Prentice Hall. The text comes with and instructor's manual that includes more info on the cases (for some cases though, the info is pretty limited). All together, I found the textbook very useful exactly because of the cases it provides.