Cross-cultural communications

David McArthurAssistant Professor of International

Business and Strategic ManagementUtah Valley State College

Experiences with other cultures

Describe the heart of an experience that struck you as strange or difficult in dealing with people or systems across cultures.

(Sony computer haiku)Sony has announced its own computer operating system

now available on its hot new portable PC called the Vaio. Instead of producing the cryptic error messages characteristic of Microsoft’s Windows 95, 3.1, and DOS operating systems, Sony’s chairman Asai Tawara said, "We intend to capture the high ground by putting a human, Japanese face on what has been until now—an operating system that reflects Western cultural hegemony. For example, we have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with our own Japanese haiku poetry." The chairman went on to give examples of Sony’s new error messages:

Universalism v. Particularism

• Universalism– Rules, codes, laws,

and generalizations that define what should happen

• Particularism– Exceptions,

circumstances, relations that modify or define what should happen

Both views of governing relationships use the rules, but they approach the problem of what governs our decisions in dealing with it.

How does these dimensions manifest themselves?

• In business…

• In law…

• In families…

• In school…

Why is North American culture universalist?

• The earliest settlers of New England were Calvinists or were influenced by Calvin’s teachings

• They were dissenters from England’s state church

• The energy and vigor (the success) of the American expansion have “steamrolled” many other cultures

Advantages to universalism

• Values equality of treatment

• Makes opportunities available on the same basis to all

• “No one is above the law”

• Allows large diversity of means

• Economies of scale

• Celebrates science & technology

Disadvantages of universalism

• Simplistic application of laws stifles other views and ideas

• Objectifies aesthetics such as beauty and character

• Assumes linearity as a fundamental characteristic

• Opportunistic application of laws

Advantages of particularism

• Higher rates of some types of creativity

• Customization is valued• Develops supportive markets for

higher quality goods• Gives expression to personal zeniths• Closer to nature• May be more vital

Disadvantages of particularism

• Mystical or obscurantist v. rational or scientific

• May justify avariciousness • Is in-group oriented:

– Secret, conspiratorial, racist– Prone to favoritism, special privileges– In-group stresses have few outlets

(violence)

Universalist-Particularist continua

Scientific management

Mass production

Formal authority

hierarchies

Building core competencies

human relations school

Customization

informal trust networks

getting close to the customer