The political skill and will of expatriates in acculturating to the politics of an organization in a new culture

This paper explores and conceptualizes the process through which expatriates acculturate to the politics of an organization in a new and dominant culture that differs from their origin culture. In addition to an overview of acculturation, we review research on the emergence and perception of political context in organizations, and on political skill and political will. We posit that politically-relevant situational characteristics in organizations and work interact with national culture to affect the intensity with which expatriates perceive politics in their organization. Based on their political skill (operationalized as high versus low) and their political will (operationalized in terms of concern for self versus concern for others), we describe the different political behavior expatriates will use as a means of acculturating to their political context and the effects those strategies have on their acculturative stress and individual effectiveness in the organization.     

Conceptualizing an East Asian popular culture

Since the 1980s, popular cultural products have criss‐crossed the national borders of East Asian countries, enabling a discursive construction of an ‘East Asian Popular Culture’ as an object of analysis. The present essay is a preliminary attempt to provide some conceptual and analytic shape to this object, delineated by its three constitutive elements of production, distribution and consumption. Each East Asian location participates in different and unequal levels in each of these component processes. Production can either be located entirely in a single geographic location or, alternatively, each of the necessary constituent sub‐processes can be executed from different locations; preference for either arrangement tends to reflect the relative dominance of the production location in exporting its finished products. Consumption and thus consumers are geographically located within cultural spaces in which they are embedded. Meanings and viewing pleasures are generated within the local cultures of specific audience. Conceptually, among the several possible consumption positions, the one in which an audience watches an imported programme is most intriguing. In this viewing position, differences between the cultures of the location of consumption and that of the production location become most apparent. The audience member has to bring his or her own cultural context to bear on the content of the imported product and read it accordingly. In this sense, the cultural product may be said to have crossed a ‘cultural’ boundary, beyond the simple fact of its having been exported/imported into a different location as an economic activity. Such an audience position requires the consumer to transcend his or her grounded nationality to forge abstract identification with the foreign characters on screen, a foreignness that is, in turn, potentially reabsorbed into an idea of (East) ‘Asia’; a potential ‘East Asian identity’, emerging from consumption of popular cultural products, is thus imaginable.     

Demographic and Religious Differences in the Dimensions of Self-Disclosure Among Hindus and Muslims in India

This paper discusses a survey, carried out by the authors, of Hindu and Muslim men and women in six Indian states to determine if social/cultural identities influenced self-disclosure. Specifically, an individual's sex, religious, and state identity were investigated. Results indicated that across religions, women disclosed more than men. Comparisons based on religious identification and state of birth revealed significant differences between Hindus and Muslims and between states of birth on self-disclosure. Results also suggest the predictive power of religious identification and state of birth vary dependent upon the dimensions of self-disclosure. Implications for future research include further examination of aspects of identity related to self-disclosure.     

Associations among Attachment Style,Maintenance Strategies,and Relational Quality across Cultures

Previous research has suggested that attachment style is an indicator of relationship behavior and perception universally across cultures; however, research comparing the effect of attachment style on relational maintenance in culturally distinct societies is still non-existent. The present study investigated the effect of the secure or insecure attachment style on commonly used relational maintenance strategies and desired relational features in three geographically distant cultures: the US mainland, Hawaii, and South Korea. Results indicated that as predicted, regardless of culture, secure attachment style was associated with higher ratings of relationship quality (trust, commitment, liking, control mutuality, and satisfaction) and the self- and partner-perceived uses of Stafford and Canary's (1991 Stafford, L and Canary, DJ. 1991. Maintenance strategies and romantic relationship type, gender and relational characteristics. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 8: 217–242. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) relationship maintenance strategies. Culture did not change the effect of attachment style on the dependent factors; however, culture, as an independent factor, contributed to the variance in the self-/partner-perceived maintenance strategies and relationship quality.     

The Effects of National Culture and Face Concerns on Intention to Apologize: A Comparison of the USA and China

The current study examined national culture differences between US American and Chinese participants (N?=?317) regarding face need concerns and apology intention, based on positive and negative face needs (Brown & Levinson, 1987 Brown, P and Levinson, SC. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usages, Cambridge, , UK: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and concerns for self-face and other-face (Ting-Toomey, 2005 Ting-Toomey, S. 2005. “The matrix of face: An updated face-negotiation theory”. In Theorizing about intercultural communication, Edited by: Gudykunst, WB. 71–92. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.  [Google Scholar]). Participants read vignettes that varied in relationship types (in-group vs. out-group members) and situation types (negative face vs. positive face threatening) and responded to scales measuring realism of the vignettes, intention to apologize, and five types of face need concerns. The findings showed that Chinese participants, compared to US Americans, had stronger intentions to apologize when their acts threatened the other person's positive face, while US American participants, compared to Chinese, had stronger intentions to apologize when their acts threatened the other's negative face. Other findings and implications thereof are discussed.     

Minority Cultures and Social Media: Magnifying Garifuna

This paper looks at social media use by the Garifuna people. It explores how they are using social media to create a supraterritorial cyberscape. Despite the claim that global media is marginalising minority cultures and causing global homogenisation, this research found that newer forms of social media are in fact creating virtual cultural cyberscapes that are extending minority cultures. The Garifuna cultural response to social media can be demonstrative of the positive impact of social media minority perspectives. The larger implication, though, is that traditional geographical models of cultural space are becoming obsolete. In this research, a total of 60 Garifuna in locations all across the United States and Honduras were selected for participation. Their access to and use of media were examined.     

Cultural Diplomacy,Branding and the American Film Institute's Project: 20/20

The Global Cultural Initiative (GCI) was a flagship cultural diplomacy effort introduced by the Bush Administration in the mid-2000s; one project of this initiative was the American Film Institute's Project: 20/20, a program of 19 films from five continents scheduled to tour the United States and abroad. This paper is a historical exploration into how the Bush Administration reconstructed American identity and culture through framing, and how that framing was embedded within cultural diplomacy initiatives like the GCI. This paper contributes to an understanding of how intercultural dialogue is often based on key messages and constructed ideas.     

观“剑心书韵”谈武术文化创新——2014年春晚武术类表演项目《剑心书韵》观感

武术文化的创新是武术面向大众传播的重要途径。近年来由于文化富国、文化兴国和文化强国战略的提出,武术文化也获得了创新发展,成为了具有新的生机与活力的时代产物。央视2014年春晚武术表演节目《剑心书韵》即是这种创新的展现。它在展示传统武术的美的同时,也给予人们许多反思。通过分析武术文化的渊源,解析前人传承武术的方式和途径,探究了时代变幻背景下当代武术的文化创新与传承发展的前途,论证了拓宽武术文化传播以及实现武术文化创新繁荣新局面的路径和意义。     

弘扬文化传统彰显个性特色——试论近年来高校图书馆特藏的发展

一流大学不仅要国际化和标准化,而且要特色化和个性化。特藏是体现图书馆及所在高校文化传统和特色的重要指标。文章通过分析和论述境内外四所具有代表性的大学图书馆的特藏建设,较为全面地观察和总结了近年来特藏发展的方向和流变:许多图书馆或创建内容丰富、形式活跃的“新特藏”,以凸现本校本馆特色,支持重点学科发展;或致力于发掘传统的“老特藏”,以梳理馆藏流变,彰显人文内涵和历史传统,传统意义上以“善本”为核心的特藏概念被扩大了。特藏建设已经成为图书馆揭示和打造其文化传统的一个重要方面。