The 'Dark Continent' goes north: an exploration of intercultural theatre practice through Handspring and Sogolon Puppet Companies' production of Tall Horse

This essay explores the complexities of intercultural interaction, specifically in the context of globalization. These interactions involve not only contact with, but also negotiation of cultural representations. The debates about the processes involved in such encounters are complex and highlight tensions among aesthetics, ideology, the ethics of production, voice, and authorship. The essay begins by outlining some of the key debates and issues specifically for theatre; in particular, it looks at the tension between Brook’s transcultural approach to intercultural theatre and Rustom Bharucha’s insistence on contextualized and historicized interactions. These theoretical positions are explored against the specific example of Tall Horse (2005), an intercultural production by the South African Handspring Puppet Company, the Malian Sogolon Puppet Company, a choreographer from Benin, and a scriptwriter from New York. The essay examines both the ideological issues raised in the text and the practical issues of cross-cultural collaboration and interaction to suggest an approach that may mediate between binaries that seem to dominate cultural interaction

Cross-Cultural Communication within American and Chinese Colleagues in Multinational Organizations

Globalization is a mantra nowadays that has been employed to describe the highly active exchange activities between countries and regions across the globe. It takes a multidimensional form, connecting people and things regardless of spatial and temporal confines, and permeating into all walks of life. Along with changes brought by this dynamic international interaction, a myriad of organizations, no longer isolated and static, are beginning to ride on this gravy train by expanding tentacles into every cranny and nook of the globe. One of the challenges that is facing the multinational organizations is the increasing diversity of the workforce and similarly complex prospective customers with disparate cultural backgrounds. After all, language barriers, cultural nuances, and value divergence can easily cause unintended misunderstanding and low efficiency in internal communication in a multinational environment. It leads to conflict among employees and profit loss in organizational productivity. Therefore, in international organization, cross-cultural communication, also known as intercultural and trans-cultural communication, serves as a lubricant, which mitigates frictions, resolves conflicts, and improves overall work efficiency; likewise, it serves as coagulant, which integrates the collective wisdom and strength, enhances the collaboration of team work, and unites multiple cultures together between race and ethnicity, which leads to desirable virtuous circle of synergy effect. This paper identifies three aspects of culture that constitute people’s understanding between each other in professional settings, namely, language and non-language code; cultural values and beliefs; as well as cultural stereotypes and preconceptions

Elements of Cross Cultural Influences in the Behavior of Brazilian Professionals in France.

Comportement organisationnel; Cross-cultural management; Brésil;

The design of an intercultural communication skills training for multicultural Catholic parishes in the Diocese of San Bernardino

The purpose of this project is to present the design and guidelines for implementation of a theory based intercultural communication skills training program. An instructor manual was designed primarily for people in leadership positions in Catholic parish communities in the Diocese of San Bernardino, California, in order to help them to develop the necessary skills and abilities to become competent intercultural communicators

Negotiating multicultural identities within the classroom.

This thesis explores cultural identity negotiation among American born Chinese (ABC) college students. Specifically analyzing their communication patterns within the classroom, the author illuminates how ABC students negotiate their multicultural identities through emergent dialectical tensions and patterns of praxis

Intercultural communication: the perceptions of university students learning Chinese as a foreign language in China

This study investigates the ways learners of Chinese as a foreign language experience intercultural communication in China. The Chinese context and diversity of participants’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds have provided a unique setting while filling a gap in the research around intercultural experience in a Chinese university setting. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, aiming to understand participants’ perceptions of intercultural communicative competence and identity. This study found that participants were motivated to study Chinese and to engage in intercultural communication through their desire to improve career prospects and/or to integrate into the host Chinese community. These motivations developed, interacted and changed over time as documented in this thesis. Four main challenges arising from intercultural communication emerged from the study are: language issues, unfamiliarity with cultural practices, nonverbal communication and stereotypes. According to participants’ accounts, the success of intercultural communication and the development of intercultural communicative competence were influenced by their willingness to communicate and motivation, attitudes towards intercultural communication, language proficiency and the skill of discovery. Participants experienced intercultural communication as a process of negotiation and transformation in identity, during which they moved from positioning themselves or being positioned as an ‘outsider’ to gradually becoming an ‘insider’. This change was significantly influenced by their developing intercultural communicative competence. By focusing on the experiences and perceptions of this under-researched group, international students of Chinese as a foreign language in China, this study contributes to the literature on intercultural communication and offers practical implications for educational institutions, foreign language education, and individuals in the context of China

Behavioral Mimicry in Chinese and Canadian Negotiations: Frequency, Duration and Impact

Negotiation literature stresses the importance of mimicry in improving relational and economic outcomes. Yet, there is a dearth of work examining how culture influences the display and impact of mimicry in negotiations. In this research, we systematically coded behavioral mimicry among Chinese and Canadian dyadic, intracultural, video-taped negotiations. Using cultural theories of high/low context communication, and individualism/collectivism, we predicted and found that low-context, individualistic Canadian negotiators were more direct in their behavioral mimicry by exhibiting higher frequency of postural mimicry, than Chinese negotiators. In contrast, Chinese negotiators were more indirect in their displays of mimicry via longer durations of mirrored postures. Interestingly, gender moderated the effects of culture on the frequency and duration of mimicry. Mimicry led to higher joint gains, only when dyads did not attend to the indirect meanings of the mimicked behaviors. We discuss implications of behavioral mimicry in cross-cultural negotiations

Negotiation: Women’s Voices

Gender shapes the way we communicate. Using legal theory, case studies and intercultural analysis, this paper explores the way women’s self-identity interacts with negotiation processes and outcomes. Part I examines social, psychological, cultural and political factors shaping women’s identity, voice and participation in negotiations. Part II explores the way women’s view of themselves impacts their participation in negotiations. Lastly, Part III studies the impact of formal training on gender-based differences in negotiations. Through investigating gender’s impact on negotiations, this paper finds that gender and context interact with negotiation process and outcomes. Through gaining more insight on gender’s context-specific impact, negotiators can equip themselves to better manage their negotiation processes and outcomes