Negotiating cultures in cyberspace

In this paper we report findings of a multidisciplinary study of online participation by culturally diverse participants in a distance adult education course offered in Canada and examine in detail three of the study's findings. First, we explore both the historical and cultural origins of "cyberculture values" as manifested in our findings, using the notions of explicit and implicit enforcement of those values and challenging the assumption that cyberspace is a culture free zone. Second, we examine the notion of cultural gaps between participants in the course and the potential consequences for online communication successes and difficulties. Third, the analysis describes variations in participation frequency as a function of broad cultural groupings in our data. We identify the need for additional research, primarily in the form of larger scale comparisons across cultural groups of patterns of participation and interaction, but also in the form of case studies that can be submitted to microanalyses of the form as well as the content of communicator's participation and interaction online

Advancing Dispute Resolution by Unpacking the Sources of Conflict: Toward an Integrated Framework

Organizational leaders, public policy makers, dispute resolution professionals, and scholars have developed diverse methods for resolving workplace conflict. But there is inadequate recognition that the effectiveness of a dispute resolution method depends on its fit with the source of a particular conflict. Consequently, it is essential to better understand where conflict comes from and how this affects dispute resolution. To these ends, this paper uniquely integrates scholarship from multiple disciplines to develop a multi-dimensional framework on the sources of conflict. This provides an important foundation for theorizing and identifying effective dispute resolution methods, which are more important than ever as the changing world of work raises new issues, conflicts, and institutions

Corporate marketing strategy using social media: a case study of the Ritz-Carlton Seoul

With the increasing trend of popularity of websites and social networking sites, it is quite evident that companies need to take cautionary measures in protecting the reputations with respect to company and brands. In this process, every company should indulge in enhancing their company and brand image through websites and social networking sites that fortify the bonding nature among them. The always-on nature of websites and social networking sites has contributed to their phenomenal marketing power and altered the balance of power between consumers and firms. Websites and social networks are used by hundreds of millions of people to communicate about a huge range of topics, including personal interests, activities, social events and even public issues. The paper explores a case study of the Ritz- Carlton hotel for their marketing strategy and organizational use of their website and social media in communicating with their customers. Even for the normal luxury traveler who would not have previously used the Internet to research a hotel or make a reservation, ritzcarlton.com is making it possible for them to do so in a sense of the luxury and typical Ritz-Carlton style. It seems to be a staple of the company for years to come

An Investigation of Intercultural Miscommunication Experiences

Communication, which has always been one of the basic elements of life, is becoming more and more intercultural in today’s world. People are not only transferring goods and technology among nations; they are also transferring their thoughts, ideas, and cultures. As this flow of communication among nations becomes common, intercultural communication problems, which can be called intercultural miscommunication, is becoming common as well. This paper investigates possible reasons for miscommunication among people from different cultures. Twenty-two participants from different nationalities took part in the study, and shared their intercultural miscommunication experiences. The researchers analyzed these miscommunication experiences by classifying them according to the categories suggested in the literature and the categories the researchers themselves suggested. The participants’ feelings and thought about their miscommunication experiences were also investigated. This study showed that there are many causes and factors that can lead to intercultural miscommunication. Thus, effort, desire and patience is needed a lot to get better mutual understanding and learn more about cultural differences so that we can increase cross-cultural awareness

Communication science: An integral part of business and business studies?

Communication is at the center of any business transaction. Unfortunately until recently, communication has rarely been assigned its proper relevance in traditional business studies at German universities. This paper attempts to demonstrate why communication science can and should be an integral part of all business studies. Without understanding the pertinent communication principles, it will not be possible to fully understand specific business relationships. With understanding, more effective and efficient use of communication in business relationships will become possible. This paper, therefore, briefly outlines the role of communication in some areas of business and then proceeds to sketch a succinct communication model to illustrate how communication affects business relationships. The paper ends with a concrete example, namely that of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, of how communication science may be integrated as a distinct subject into the curriculum of business studies. -- Kommunikation stand schon immer im Mittelpunkt jeder Wirtschafts- und Geschäftsbe-ziehung. Leider wurde der Kommunikation bis vor kurzem jedoch keine eigenständige Rolle in wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Curricula an deutschen Universitäten zugesprochen. Dieses Arbeitspapier versucht darzulegen, warum Kommunikationswissenschaft ein integraler Teil aller wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Curricula sein sollte. Denn ohne ein wahres Verständnis der relevanten Prinzipien der Kommunikation ist es nicht möglich, viele Wirtschafts- und Geschäftsbeziehungen tiefgreifend zu verstehen. Demzufolge beschreibt dieses Arbeitspapier in knappen Zügen die Bedeutung der Kommunikation für einige Bereiche der Wirtschaft, um dann im Rahmen einer kurzen Beschreibung des Kommunikationsmodells darzulegen, wie die Kommunikation diese Beziehungen beeinflusst. Anhand des Beispiels der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften an der TU Bergakademie Freiberg wird abschließend erläutert, wie die Kommunikationswissenschaft in ein wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Curriculum integriert werden kann.Business Communication,Intercultural Communication,Communication Process,Business English Curriculum,Wirtschaftskommunikation,Interkulturelle Kommunikation,Kommunikationsprozess,Wirtschaftsenglisch Curriculum

Miscommunication at the Workplace: Causes and Ways to Improve Internal Communication

The objectives of this research were to survey the significant causes and reasons that lead to miscommunication at the workplace and to suggest the key solutions for the organizational management to improve internal communication, based on BERLO’S SMCR Model; Sender, Message, Channel and Receiver. The sampling group included 128 respondents whose level of education ranging from bachelor’s to doctorate’s degree, currently working in various organizations, covering government agencies, state enterprises, private and business sectors. The online questionnaire was used as the data collection tool and statistics used for data analysis was the Frequency and Percentage. The survey results showed that the causes of miscommunication at the workplace responded by 128 respondents ranging from agree to highly agree indicated that Sender was 68.75% (88) the highest cause, Channel 61.54% (79) as the second while Receiver 51.57% (66) and Message 49.22% (63) ranked the third and fourth consecutively. Regarding to other factors that may influence the causes of miscommunication at the workplace, the results ranging from the highest to lowest percentage and frequency as follows: 1) 25.26% (98) the attitude of either sender or receiver may cause miscommunication, 2) 21.13% (82) the readiness of both sender and receiver, 3) 18.56% (72) relationship between sender and receiver, 4) 18.04% (70) organizational context and culture, and 5) 17.01% (66) communication context consecutively. The last part of this study focused on the ways to improve internal communication at the workplace, the findings indicated that the top three key solutions with the highest percentage and frequency consecutively included: 1) 15.34% (81) sender must prepare your message before communicating with receivers 2) 14.94% (79) message must be clear and easy for receivers to understand, and 3) 13.26% (70) respect others’ opinions is a must among members in the workplace. It is fully expected that the findings of this research may inspire organizational leaders to aware of, to have an insight look into the power of communication and acknowledge how to manage communication problems before the situation worsen and may lead the organization to fail office

Desperately seeking reassurance: analysing requestive hint miscommunication in an email exchange

This article seeks to determine reasons for the miscommunication of a requestive hint within an authentic email exchange between two native speakers. It includes the analysis of the interaction from the perspectives of ⅰ) speech act theory, ⅱ) implicature, relevance, and prior email history between the two interlocutors, and ⅲ) politeness

A Multi-Method Approach to Identifying Norms and Normative Expectations within a Corporate Hierarchy: Evidence from the Financial Services Industry

This paper presents the results of a field study at a large financial services firm that combines multiple methods, including two economic experiments, to measure ethical norms and their behavioral correlates. Standard survey questions eliciting ethical evaluations of actions in on-the-job ethical dilemmas are transformed into a series of incentivized coordination games in the first experiment. We use the results of this experiment to identify the actual ethical norms for financial adviser behavior held by key personnel – financial advisers and their corporate leaders – in three settings: a clash of incentives between serving the client and earning commissions, a dilemma about fiduciary responsibility to a client, and a dilemma about whistle-blowing on a peer. We also measure the beliefs of financial advisers about the ethical expectations of their corporate leaders and the beliefs of corporate leaders about financial adviser norms. In addition, we ask financial advisers about their personal normative opinions, matching a common methodology in the literature. We find, first, systematic agreements in the normative evaluations across the corporate hierarchy that are consistent with ex ante expectations, but second, we also find some measurable differences between the normative expectations of corporate leaders about on-the-job behavior and the actual norms shared among financial advisers. When there is a normative mismatch across the hierarchy we are able to distinguish miscommunication from ethical disagreement between leaders and employees. Our subjects also report their job satisfaction and take part in a second incentivized experiment in which it is costly to report private information honestly. A last finding is that a mismatch between advisers’ personal ethical opinions and corporate norms – especially those of peers – strongly correlates with job dissatisfaction, and less strongly but significantly with the willingness to be dishonest.field experiment, financial services, corporate leader, financial adviser, ethics, norms, coordination game

Howwa wheyya: Performance and gendered style in the Egyptian caricature The Piece of Paper

This qualitative study explores linguistic styles and mis/communication as they relate to gendered performance in the context of Egyptian caricature. Within this context, seventy-four illustrations from The Piece of Paper by Gawish (2015) are subjected to discourse analysis. This type of caricature, as an example of performed speech, represents the perceptions of a group of Egyptian men, the cartoonist and his team, in depicting gendered daily-life interactions. The study investigates styles to examine the linguistic choices based on social groups such as women and men (Eckert and Rickford 2002: 26), and it explores gendered similarities as well as differences. The study focuses on social perceptions reflected in performed interactions for the significant relationship between perceptions and language practices in natural interactions (Tannen 1994: 139). It reveals the significance of the gendered use of the style of affective functions. Women are displayed as using more affective functions than men do. Women are shown to use more stylistic devices including asking questions, indirectness, verbal aggressiveness and repetition than men do. The image of miscommunication caused by the style of affective functions and its devices is clearly portrayed. Women are depicted as using physical aggressiveness against men, signifying the influence of affective functions and its devices on miscommunication. This study develops a deeper understanding of the overall picture of gender and language production in Egyptian Arabic