ITM Master 1. Sem.
8007: Social competence development
           We 15.45 - 17.15 h, H 03

Do's and Don'ts - What and Why?

CULTURE AS AN ICEBERG

 Many intercultural trainings concentrate on the "Do's and Don'ts" of different cultures:

 - Give and receive a namecard to a Chinese persons always with both hands

 - Avoid the number 13 in western countries

 - Do not give knifes or scissors as a present in China

 - Unwrap a gift immediately if you receive it from a western person

 - Do not give money as a gift in Bulgaria ... etc.

Two arguments:

a) For an internationally active manager, it is impossible to know the "Do's and Don'ts" of all cultures and sub-cultures (always use a 100 US$ bill when snorting cocaine at a Manhattan party...) in the world.

b) Reducing the cultural differences to "above the sea-level" features will not help you to understand the underlying differences and will not help you to understand the relativeness of your own cultural behaviour.

 Let us try to understand the "Why?" behind some different behaviours and customs for some typical occurences:

Examples

 - telling the truth / being polite

 - punctuality / flexibility

 - quoting sources / following mainstream

 - learning from theories / learning from examples

(please name more):

30 h face-to-face 90 h own work.

Three project presentations per participant.

Project No. 2: Each student should select two different "Do's" and another two different  "Don'ts" based on personal experience. Each time one should be from the own culture and one from another culture.
(Example for Chinese student: 1 "Do" from Chinese culture, 1 "Do" from German culture, 1 "Don't" from Chinese culture, 1 "Don't" from American culture)

Try to analyse the cultural reasons behind the behaviour using your background knowledge (including for instance Hofstede).

Each student should present his findings in a 10 - 12 minutes presentation.

  Contact: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt, Study Program Director
Bachelor and Master Program International Tourism Management
arlt@fh-westkueste.de, Office 2.018, Tel. 0481 8555-513
Consultation hours (during lecture period): Wednesday 11.00 - 12.00 h