Cross-Cultural Perspectives of Knowledge Sharing for Different Virtual Classroom Environments: A Case Study of Thai Students in Thai and Australian Universities

Collaborative learning has been accepted as an effective learning style that can enhance students‘ and instructors‘ ability to create knowledge and develop understanding. To enhance an effective collaboration learning environment needs the sharing of similar knowledge, background and experience through information communication technologies (ICT). There are a number of ways in which culture influences the use of these information technologies. The cultural characteristics, which can be viewed as the influencing factors on knowledge sharing in a virtual classroom, are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and collectivism. The main purpose of this study was to investigate how the differences in cultural values affect the way Thai students in both Thailand and Australia access and share knowledge in a virtual classroom. According to Hofstede, the national culture between Thais and Australians are different in the degree of power distance, uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism. Thais are likely to have high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance and collectivism while Australians have low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance and individualism. A qualitative method using t-test and Multiple Regression analysis was chosen to test the research hypotheses that Thai students in Thai universities have greater difficulty in knowledge sharing than Thai students in Australian universities. A questionnaire survey designed to identify cultural differences was administrated to 100 students in Thai universities and 100 students in Australian universities who used ICT for sharing knowledge in their virtual classroom. The findings of the study and recommendations will be outlined. The research outcome of the study can assist project managers in implementing effective open-wide knowledge exchange systems

Global Culture, Local Cultures, and the Internet. The Thai Example

This paper addresses the questions of whether, and if so, how and to what extent the Internet brings about homogenization of the local cultures in the world. It examines a particular case, that of Thai culture, through an investigation and interpretation of a Usenet newsgroup, soc.culture.thai. Two threads of discussion in the newsgroup are selected. One deals with criticisms of the Thai government and political leaders, and the other focuses on whether Thai language should be a medium, or perhaps the only medium, of communication in the newsgroup. It is found\ud that, instead of erasing local cultural boundaries, creating a worldwide monolithic culture, the Internet reduplicates the existing cultural boundaries. What the Internet does, on the contrary, is to create an umbrella cosmopolitan culture which is necessary for communication among people from disparate cultures. That culture, however, is devoid of "thick" backgrounds, in Michael Walzer's sense

Politeness in Diplomatic Talk: A Thai Case Study

This research starts from the assumption that there are goal-oriented politeness strategies in diplomatic talk. The case study analyses Thai-foreign diplomatic events during Thailand’s national crisis, the massive demonstrations across the country in the years of 2009-2011, in which the colours of the protesters’ clothing signified divergent political allegiances (so-called “colorized politics”). The research aims are threefold: firstly, to characterise politeness strategies in the Thai-foreign diplomatic talks conducted in English; secondly, to examine the extent to which culture-specific values inform the conversational performance of Thai speakers; and thirdly, to explore potential causes of misunderstandings arising from cross-cultural mismatches which occur during these social interactions. The research data are real-time conversations in courtesy calls and international meetings between foreign diplomatic representatives and the leaders of the Thai state and government agencies. My study is influenced by Brown and evinson’s theory along with intercultural communication theories for analysing the ethnographically observed talk-in-action events and transcribed conversational discourse. The research frames a conclusive argument that the diplomatic speakers use both conventional politeness and unconventional politeness strategies. The latter includes what I term ‘lexical politeness’, ‘interactive politeness’, and ‘intercultural politeness’. The Thai party’s politeness strategies in pursuit of diplomatic goals carry an implication of Thai cultural values, specifically: fun-orientation, interdependence, and non-confrontation. Potential pragmatic failures in Thai cultural-oriented politeness are intimacy and directness. The research reveals the suppositions and entailments of English utterances by non-native speakers (Thais) and develops linguistic politeness strategies from the evidence of the diplomatic conversations

Digital Rhetoric of Cosmopolitanism: A Case Study of Thai Students at Michigan Technological University

This dissertation lies at the intersection of social sciences and humanities. It aims to examine digital rhetoric of cosmopolitanism of people from a marginalized culture as situated in the context of a transnational experience. I view that this rhetoric encompasses digital practices of cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitan repertoire, a set of skills or strategies used in communication via social media in everyday life. I also argue that this rhetoric is connected to other elements in its broader social and cultural networks. To illustrate these ideas, a case study of Thai students at Michigan Technological University in the United States is conducted to investigate their digital practices as they engage with the Other on social media. The final goal of the study is to identify the strategies of digital practices that might be used to negotiate or resist power embedded in the digital environment. To reach this goal, this study proposes using the interdisciplinary approach as the methodology. The methodological framework of this project is designed by consolidating various perspectives from new cosmopolitanism and digital rhetoric with a postmodernist lens as a background. The highlight of this framework is an application of the cosmopolitan ontological framework and the ecological perspective to study digital practices on social media in the context of participants. Within this framework, several qualitative methods are employed for data collection and analysis, namely interviews, participant observations, online observations, and rhetorical analysis. Overall, digital technologies like social media play an important role in establishing and maintaining relationships with people from other cultures. In this context, participants perform their cosmopolitanism in various types of cosmopolitan relationships by relying on a number of digital practices. These practices can be synthesized to form a cosmopolitan repertoire comprising digital literacy skills, multimodal communication skills, language skills, critical thinking skills, rhetoric, and ethics. The rhetorical analysis reveals that participants’ digital practices of cosmopolitanism are influenced by power embedded in some perceived factors in their ecological boundaries. Participants also rest on cosmopolitan repertoire in their negotiation of power. In its contributions, apart from some theoretical and pedagogical implications, this project also helps to shape the idea of digital rhetoric of cosmopolitanism by proposing a definition and a model to explain its ontological dimension. These contributions can lead to more understanding of digital rhetoric of cosmopolitanism and call for further study in this scholarship in the future

Thai cultural standards from a Portuguese perspective

Hoje em dia, há cada vez mais indivíduos que abraçam oportunidades de trabalho no estrangeiro, o que significa que, a quantidade de interações entre pessoas de diferentes origens culturais continua a aumentar. A fim de alcançar o sucesso nestas relações, é crucial compreender os padrões culturais envolvidos para evitar erros de interpretação desnecessários. Como os povos português e tailandês não são exceções, o objetivo deste estudo é identificar as diferenças culturais que afetam o trabalho de portugueses na Tailândia. Para atingir esse fim, a metodologia utilizada, foi o Método dos Standards Culturais. Esta ferramenta baseia-se na pesquisa de informação qualitativa recolhida através de entrevistas narrativas com trabalhadores emigrados. Ao analisar situações descritas, pelos entrevistados, originadas por diferenças culturais, a identificação dos padrões culturais é feita a um nível subtil e permite a comparação com os resultados pré existentes. As conclusões deste estudo deverão ajudar a uma maior compreensão da cultura e antecipação dos comportamentos tailandeses num contexto de negócios, a fim de atingir uma colaboração mais eficaz entre as duas populações. Os padrões culturais obtidos também são essenciais na preparação de programas de formação para gestores e funcionários internacionais.As the globalization phenomenon transforms the meaning of culture, it simultaneously brings up the remaining differences. Nowadays, there are more and more individuals embracing job opportunities abroad. This means that, the amount of interactions among people from different cultural backgrounds continues to increase. However, in order to achieve success in these relationships, it is crucial to understand the cultural standards involved to avoid unnecessary misinterpretations. As Portuguese and Thai people are not an exception, the aim of this study is to identify the cultural differences that affect Portuguese people working in Thailand. To achieve this goal the method used was the Cultural Standards Method. This tool is based on qualitative research gathering information from narrative interviews with expatriate workers. By analyzing reported critical incidents, based on the same cultural differences the identification of the cultural standard is done on a subtle level and allows the comparison with the preexisting findings. The conclusions of this study should help to anticipate and better understand the Portuguese and Thai behaviors in a business context in order to achieve a more effective collaboration among the two populations. The obtained cultural standards are key in the preparation of training programs for international managers and staff

The influence of cultural differences on global advertising strategy

textDo cultural differences influence on consumers’ purchase decision making? The emergence of a global consumer culture emphasizes the idea that sharing similar needs and wants is common among group of people, and several international marketing literatures assert that many products are developed to serve universal needs. However, global marketing practitioners today have encountered a paradigm shift from the old globalism to the new globalism, which states that products and messages developments are not necessary to maximize economies of scale, but that it is more important to understand consumers’ specific needs and local conditions. This study attempts to empirically test this issue by asking consumers in two different cultures, the American individualist culture and the Thai collectivist culture, to identify the attributes they consider important in the purchase of three product categories, as well as the advertising messages that they feel effectively suit to each product category.Advertisin

Localization: An Adaptive Transitional Process for Leadership Capability Development in a Multi-local company

This paper explores leadership theories and cultural dimensions for local leadership development in Multi Nationals Companies (MNCs) in Thailand. It focuses on cultural differences between Thailand and Germany as the subject of discussion related to Siemens Limited Thailand only. The cultural studies range from Thai history that shapes the Thai culture and the education development in the countr y that have direct impact on local leadership styles and capabilities. The MNCs have to develop themselves to be more localized by understanding local cultures that have rooted in each local individual to develop leaders for the organization, which is now perceived more as Multi Local Companies (MLCs) than MNCs. This paper suggests that when cultural synergies are utilized and a specific local leadership development plan is prepared, a higher success rate of foreign companies investing in Thailand in both business and social perspectives is ensured

The discursive construction of nostalgic Thai identity through Thai television programmes

PhD ThesisGlobal pop culture and media consumption have influenced contemporary Thai society and its traditionally perceived national culture and heritage. Such cultural impacts are not only from the global trends of Western cultures, but also from the more local influential Asian cultures, such as South Korean and Japanese. In response to this, within a general strategy, Thai television has been utilised as a principal source for promoting a projected contemporary Thai cultural identity. This study examines the discursive construction of nostalgic Thai identity in popular television variety shows whereby a form of integrative cultural identity for the country is envisaged. The research covers processes of production and consumption of certain television texts to provide an understanding of the ways in which this Thai identity is constructed, represented and perceived. It intends: a. to analyse the textual features of the shows (including visuals, language, design, narrative etc.); b. to examine the perspectives of the key figures in the television industry; and c. to analyse and compare the viewership’s perceptions of Thai identity representations in the shows in relations to their own lifeworlds. The study adopts qualitative research methods: multimodal discourse analysis, in-depth interviews with key figures in the television industry, as well as focus groups with various viewerships. The study finds that the construction of nostalgia around the perception of Thainess has been at the centre of these particular identity discourses which promote the country’s perceived traditional culture and heritage as core identity markers. In this way, the Thai representation in the shows is constructed in line with the reflective nostalgia which focuses on reflecting the nation’s past and culture, rather than a restorative nostalgia which relates to total restoration of national past/symbols i.e. an uncompromising return to “origin”. In addition to the cultural concerns of the text producers, the television shows have actively been substantiating this notion of Thai identity in line with the government’s cultural policy, which envisages contemporary Thai identity as a form of inclusive collective identity incorporating modernism as well as traditionalism, rather than a form of openly nationalistic and exclusionary identity. This representation of Thai identity both arises from and is compatible with the country’s socio-cultural and historical circumstances as a way to underpin the maintenance of the traditionality/distinctiveness of Thai culture, while simultaneously integrating a form of multiculturalism. The inclusive vision of Thai identity ii construction/representation can also be supportive of the international policies of cooperation and relationships between Thailand and other (neighbouring) countriesBangkok Universit

Frictions and Flows: Affective Economies of Fire Dance in the Thai Tourism Industry

This dissertation examines Thai fire dance, a form of labour in the Thai tourist industry, as a platform through which fire dancers confront and negotiate the tensions of increasing tourism, marginalization, capitalist expansion and neoliberal ideologies. In particular, this research highlights the ways in which affective, embodied and spatialized practices in fire art communities form political interventions and group solidarities that are also intimately entangled in the reproduction and recreation of social hierarchies and unequal relations of power. While fire dance communities hold utopic potentials and moments of sharing across spectrums of social difference that allow for the reimagination of geopolitical, cultural and ethnonational boundaries, they are also spaces and practices fully implicated in the issues they seek to address. The affect born and danced into being in these communities is the nexus through which these complex negotiations are worked out through the body, and is the basis for micropolitical and messy solidarities to form in the midst of capitalist and neoliberal times and spaces

Saang Kwaampratabjai: The Influence of Wattana-dharm Thai on Thai PR practice [Impression Building: The Influence of Thai culture on Thai PR practice]

This thesis describes how and what Wattana-dharm Thai [Thai culture] has influenced Thai PR practice through the eyes of Thai PR managers and practitioners. It also provides some background information about the evolution of Thai PR practice to link to the current Thai PR practice. The study employs a qualitative paradigm with in-depth interviews as the main method. Documentary sources are mostly used as a supplement. This thesis provides detailed qualitative data describing how Thai public relations (PR) practitioners operate in Thailand both offline and online. The findings highlighted that Wattana-dharm Thai has a strong influence on Thai PR practice. There are eight main Wattana-dharm Thai aspects that influence Thai PR practice: 1) Relationship orientation (relationships in a Thai style including Bunkhun, Pen-Mitr, and Alum aluay relationships); 2) Community-based orientation; 3) Sanook orientation; 4) Hierarchical structure; 5) Buddhist orientation, 6) Monarchy institution respect; 7) Face and eyes in society; and 8) Form over the content. Thai PR practice has an emphasis on Saang Kwaampratabjai [impression building] through Wattana-dharm Thai. For example, historically, Thais accepted westerners because they did Saang Kwaampratabjai by bringing technology and development to the country. Thais have a positive attitude toward westerners because of this history of impression. Thai PR practitioners also try to use Saang Kwaampratabjai influence the public, such as journalists and opinion leaders by offering incentives altruistically (e.g. Namjai, Bunkhun, etc). Thai PR practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based on Buddhism and their respect of the monarchy. Thai PR place an importance on details of public’s personal information to instigate Saang Kwaampratabjai. For online PR, Thai PR use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support Saang Kwaampratabjai. It would appear that ICTs, in part, are used to promote company’s image rather than having any practical use. Hence, the core of Thai PR is how to practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based solely on personal and social relationship. This thesis aims to fill in the gaps in knowledge relating to PR and culture. It will make a contribution to the academic literature on culture and public relations, not only in the West but globally. This will also provide a framework for Thai PR practitioners to improve and develop their work. This thesis examines culture and PR through the lens of Thai terminology and discourse facilitated by a native inside-out view moderated by the distance obtained by leaving my country for a substantial proportion of the period of the study. This distance allowed me to re-consider many taken-for-granted aspects of my own culture, as well as allowing me to take on board other cultural perspectives available in a Western but international university. Thus this thesis is in part autobiographical, product of my research journey that allowed me to engage with a range of fundamental issues central to cross-cultural living such as hierarchy, religion, political and regal institutional frameworks, and gender