Independent effectiveness: A reconsideration of cross-cultural orientation and training1

Despite the good intentions, high energy and unquestionable commitment of most people in the field, cross-cultural orientation and training programs are all too often ineffective because of unintended outcomes. There is a need for a new model, one which will move people toward developing/enhancing the skills they need to become independently effective cross-cultural sojourners. In order to achieve this aim, training and orientation programs must focus on “learning how to learn” rather than on learning a particular fact or set of information. The skill training, described in this article, allows sojourners to develop the means to deal with new situations after the program has ended. It grows out of rigorous experiential training methodology that is in turn based on sound principles of adult education. Rather than leading people toward conclusions (“Don't you think that…?”) or telling participants what they will learn from living abroad, this model requires of trainers an unusually disciplined combination of study, feedback and in-depth knowledge of the educational process.     

Conceptual framework for the development and evaluation of cross-cultural orientation programs

This article describes factors which have hampered the development of effective cross-cultural orientation programs and discusses nine fundamental issues which orientation efforts ought to address: the role of expectation in coping with stressful situations, the selectivity of perception, cultural differences in behavior, the role of attributions, the centrality of values, the importance of social factors and context, erroneous assumptions about other cultures, the importance of social support, and the issue of effectiveness of the cross-cultural orientation program. The paper then describes the Intercultural sensitizer or culture assimilator as a method for cross-cultural orientation and discusses how the intercultural sensitizer addresses these issues.     

The “learning how to learn” approach to cross-cultural orientation

Since no amount of specific cultural information can prepare sojourners for every eventuality, orientation participants would benefit from “learning how to learn” about intercultural interaction. This paper discusses how to set goals, design curricula, and organize instruction for orientation programs wishing to teach participants to “learn how to learn.” An adaptation of Kolb's “Learning Cycle” is suggested as a format to assist program planning. The author would like to thank Judith Martin and R. Michael Paige for their suggestions on a draft of this paper.     

Challenging evaluation to the cross-cultural test: Program evaluation in cross-cultural settings

The author cites the recent emergence of two new fields in education: evaluation and international education. Each has developed unique methodologies in its area of most concern. Evaluators judge the process and output of national programs; international educators plan for programs overseas. Although the author believes such developments should be complementary, the professions have remained relatively isolated from one another in two distinct regards: as practitioners in a single field, and in the manner in which they train students. Drawing upon personal experience, the author illustrates how current evaluation methods fail to provide adequate guidance in cross-cultural settings. The author further identifies issues, poses questions, and calls for increased cooperation between fields of evaluation and international education as well as across the social science disciplines.     

Modes of cross-cultural training: Conceptualizing cross-cultural training as education

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for examining existing intercultural communication training models and to present a multidimensional approach for educating sojourners for experiential learning. The paper differentiates among, orientation, training and education by mapping the goals, the content, and the process approaches used in each. The Intercultural Programming Grid which emerges from this differentiation examines five major programming models based on three aspects which distinguish one model from another: the nature of the goals (cognitive, affective, behavioral), the nature of the content (culture general or culture specific), and the nature of the process (experiential or intellectual). The strengths and limitations of each model are discussed. A multidimensional model is proposed which integrates all the dimensions with the experiential learning cycle.     

Person perception in cross-cultural settings: A review of cross-cultural and related cognitive literature

The purpose of this paper is to review cross-cultural studies and other relevant cognitive literature concerning person perception in a cross-cultural setting. A summary is made of the major findings and hypotheses are suggested which would significantly increase our understanding of this very underresearched field. The authors determine that cross-cultural research in those areas reviewed suffers from lack of unity as a result of little common theory-driven research. Finally, potentially contributive cognitive theories and concepts are briefly mentioned that might improve research paradigms and provide a more unified approach to cross-cultural person perception research.     

Academia: A cross-cultural problem

This paper discusses strategies to help graduates in U.S. universities survive their thesis or dissertation. The assumption is that universities create their own unique cultural environments and all new students, irrespective of background, will experience some culture shock. Therefore cross-cultural orientation programs should focus less on individuals' cultural origins and more on their strengths and weaknesses as learners. The paper argues that a thesis or dissertation requires four different kinds of problem-solving behavior: experiential involvement in the research, reflective observation of the results, theorizing to and from the data, and applying data analysis to solve the research problem. Students are likely to find some of these activities less comfortable than others. They can be given guidelines to structure their research to maximize their problem-solving strengths and minimize potential weaknesses.     

Upward impression management in the work place cross-cultural analysis

This paper examines three basic issues pertaining to impression management behavior in the cross-cultural context: (a) Do employees coming from different cultures differ in the legitimacy they attribute to upward impression management? (b) Is there an agreement across cultures about the image one should convey to one's superior? (c) Do cultural groups differ in the use of impression management strategies? We use preliminary data collected in two different cultural groups: Israel-born employees and recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union.     

Building friendship through a cross-cultural mentoring program

This paper examines the efficacy of a short-term mentoring program in building cross-cultural friendships between students at an Australian university. Using a quasi-experimental approach, our study found that the mentoring program (Local Aussie Mentoring Program—LAMP) increased cross-cultural interactions for mentees, but not for mentors. About 45% of both mentors and mentees wished to continue their relationship with mentoring partners after the completion of the mentoring requirements. Mentees spent significantly more time with cross-ethnic friends than did controls after the completion of LAMP. We examined whether multicultural aspects of personality, as measured by the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), would positively correlate with cross-cultural mentoring effectiveness and cross-cultural friendship interactions (the dependent variables). Multicultural personality aspects of mentors (as measured by the MPQ) had significant positive relationships with both mentee and mentor-rated mentoring measures. All mentor MPQ scales showed some significant but small and positive relationships, with mentor friendship items, particularly Open-mindedness, Cultural Empathy and Emotional Stability. We found a significant, positive relationship between mentee Cultural Empathy and Social Initiative with cross-cultural friendship. These results show some partial support for a positive relationship between MPQ scales and cross-ethnic friendships.     

Japanese intercultural communication competence and cross-cultural adjustment

This study explores the relationship between language and communication skills and patterns of success and failure in the cross-cultural adjustment of Japanese university students. Seven interpersonal communication skills which were selected by Ruben and Kealey as important to cross-cultural adjustment were examined: empathy, respect, role behavior flexibility, orientation to knowledge, interaction posture, interaction management, and tolerance for ambiguity. Besides these skills, language was taken into consideration as a major component influencing Japanese intercultural communication. The behavioral assessment method developed by Ruben was utilized to measure communicative performance and behaviors of Japanese university students who visited the United States for 4 weeks for their English training. In order to assess the language skills of these individuals, listening, speaking, structure and written expression, and vocabolary and reading comprehension skills were measured. At the end of their stay in the United States, the dimensions of culture shock, psychological adjustment, and interactional effectiveness were examined. Comparisons of pre- and post-test measures indicated that six out of the seven communication behaviors observed in the Japanese students did not predict success or failure in adjustment to the United States. Only ambiguity tolerance yielded correlation with culture shock. However, speaking and listening skills were closely correlated with interactional effectiveness.     

Facework in Syria and the United States: A cross-cultural comparison

“The first rule when communicating with people from the Arab world is not to let them lose face” said J. Al-Omari. Face or one's social identity is cultural. A face threat is a situation which threatens to create a loss of face. When experiencing face-threats people guard their face with facework – behavioral actions enacted to protect one's face. Since facework varies across cultures, this study analyzed how cultural collectivism, power distance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance influence direct, indirect, competitive, cooperative, hostile, and ritualistic facework in Syria and the United States, employing a MANCOVA design with gender as the covariate. Significant findings (n = 336) showed that: (a) US Americans reported using more direct, competitive, and hostile facework strategies than Syrians while (b) Syrians reported using more indirect, cooperative and ritualistic facework strategies than US Americans (c) US American facework strategies corresponded to individualistic, weak power distance, masculine, and low uncertainty avoidance cultural dimensions while Syrian facework corresponded to collectivistic, high-power distance, moderately masculine, and high uncertainty avoidance and (d) VSM 94 results showed Syria to be more individualistic than Hofstede's original rankings.     

Theoretical framework for evaluation of cross-cultural training effectiveness

The first part of this paper presents a theoretical framework which includes the independent and dependent variables that should be considered in studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of cross-cultural training. Six kinds of training—general or specific, affective, cognitive or behavioral—plus self-insight training are considered. In addition, the quantity and timing of the training, and attributes of trainers and trainees are considered. The second part considers strategies for the evaluation of the effects of these independent variables. Controversies in evaluation research are reviewed to find out what can be learned from past experience that might be applicable to cross-cultural training. This review shows a trend toward the broadening of evaluation research, using many more dependent variables, with measurements obtained from many kinds of people. New methodologies that permit the incorporation of diverse points of view and a broad analysis of the effects of the training program are examined. Questions are also raised concerning who should have the information acquired during an evaluation study. Finally, the paper examines ethical problems that cannot be ignored by those evaluating cross-cultural training.     

A cross-cultural study of values of Germans and Americans

The Rokeach Value Survey was used as the instrument to study the values of German and American university students. The Survey was translated into German by the hack-translation method. It was administered to 199 students in Germany in May, 1982 and to 231 students in the United States in the fall. 1982. The results show the differences as well as the similarities between the two groups in their value orientations. The distinct differences between the two groups are: (1) the Germans are more competence oriented in the means they desire to attain their end-states of existence; however, their end-states of existence are society-oriented and interpersonal. (2) The Americans are morality oriented in the modes of conduct they desire to attain their end-states of existence: their end-slates of existence are more personal or self-centered and intrapersonal than those of the Germans. Thus, the means to the end, as well as the end, differ for both groups.     

Negative side effects of music listening during cross-cultural transitions: Exploring how music hinders cross-cultural (re)adaptation among student sojourners

Although media use has been shown to have benefits in many contexts, including study abroad, it may also hinder cross-cultural transitions in academic sojourns. This study examines how music (as a form of communication media) may interfere with adaptation to the host culture and readaptation to the home culture. Focus groups and interviews with a total of 23 college students (twelve U.S. students and eleven international students) revealed that music hindered sojourners’ ability to interact in social settings, as well as amplified negative feelings while abroad and during reentry. Participants experienced these temporary side effects in conjunction with (or as part of) their purposeful and functional use of music to escape from the social environment and alleviate negative emotions.     

The cross-cultural transfer of educational technology: A myth

This paper argues that technologies can never be transferred from one culture to another. The implementation by Costa Rica of the Open University system of technologies developed in England is used as a case in point. The paper focuses on the non-applicability of using the term “transfer” with its attendant connotations, to signify the implementation of similar technologies in different cultures; differentiates between system specific and culture specific problems in the process of this implementation: and discusses the interaction of three cultures in the process of “transferring” a system of technologies from one of these cultures to another. The Open University system of technologies is described as it exists in England and the system specific problems of these technologies are delimited. The system of technologies is then “transferred” to Costa Rica and the culture specific problems discussed as seen by two evaluators from yet a third culture (the United States). The expectations of individuals from all three cultures (English, Costa Rican and U.S.) are raised in tight of these culture specific problems.     

Locus of control: A review of cross-cultural research

This paper reviews some 70 reports of cross-cultural research in locus of control done prior to 1981. Findings of cross-cultural and cross-ethnic similarities and differences are generally inconsistent and inconclusive. Neither do studies of antecedents, correlates, and consequents of the construct enhance our faith in its universal generality. Issues such as cross-cultural conceptual and functional equivalence, dimensionality, appropriateness of measuring instruments, modes of cross-cultural comparison, and theoretical contribution are raised. Potential fruitfulness of research on the control dimension is asserted, given that we attain some modifications in our methodology.