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Dear International Management Listserv members,

We will be offering a PDW at the AOM Conference on Friday, August 7, from 9 a.m. to noon in Ballroom 2, The Sheraton Hotel, Chicago.  The title of this PDW is: Using Cultural Metaphors, Cross-Cultural Paradoxes, and Globalization in Management Education and Training.  A brief description of the PDW and a list of the topics to be covered and the names of presenters are given below.  As a special feature of the PDW, there will be a live performance of the Dance of Shiva by the Indian Dance School, which has performed for the International Olymics Committee and in other venues.  It was founded by Ms. Gauri Jog in 1999.

Martin J. Gannon

Professor of International Management and Strategy

California State University San Marcos

Professor Emeritus

Smith School of Business

University of Maryland at College Park

SYNOPSIS OF WORKSHOP

This PDW emphasizes various perspectives and approaches to using cultural metaphors and cross-cultural paradoxes in management education and training.  A cultural metaphor is any phenomenon, activity, or institution with which most members of a national culture identify cognitively and/or emotionally, for example, the Singaporean hawker centers and the Indian Dance of Shiva  (Gannon and Pillai, 4^th edition, in press).  Such metaphors provide a first step in understanding a culture in depth.  However, because of the influence of globalization on culture and vice versa, there is a need to move beyond the national culture.  Cross-cultural paradoxes provide a link between globalization and culture.  A paradox is a statement about reality  which includes inconsistent or contradictory elements that seems to be untrue but is in fact true. 

                                                Martin J. Gannon and Rajnandini Pillai,  California State University San Marcos.  New Exercises and Approaches for Cultural Metaphors and Cross-Cultural Paradoxes

                                                Live performance of the Dance of Shiva, Indian Dance School

                                                Christine Nielsen, University of Baltimore.  Using Cultural Metaphors to Enhance Multicultural Understanding in a Management Training Program at a Large MNC.

                                    Joyce and Asbjorn Osland, San Jose State University.  Expatriate Paradoxes.

Rosalie L. Tung, Simon Fraser University, and Tony Fang, Stockholm University.  Cross-cultural Paradoxical Thinking from a Chinese Perspective.