Objective:
The purpose of this assignment is for students to demonstrate their ability to find academic reference material relating to a particular topic, interpret academic texts and apply paraphrasing techniques and the APA referencing style. Students will prepare an annotated bibliography.
Description of assignment, PART A:
You will need to select five (5) journal articles on the topic of non-verbal and/or intercultural communication that you intend to use as part of the supporting evidence for your essay. You are required to write a 200 word summary of each article comprising one to two paragraphs.
Each annotated bibliography needs to include the following five parts:
a) Full citation information for each article above each summary
b) A short statement in your own words of the author's viewpoint
c) A short summary in your own words of the theory or research findings
d) Comments (your opinion) on the usefulness and/or limitations of the theory/research findings for your own research paper (essay)
e) An evaluative comment on the article content, in your own words, on how the contents of this article will fit into your own research topic
Objective:
The purpose of this assignment is to enable students to evaluate professional communicationwith particular reference tointer-cultural communication, to research a topic and to demonstrate an ability to communicate the key issues through a written essay.
Assignment topic:
Intercultural Communication
It is possible for miscommunication and misunderstandings to occur between individuals when interacting professionally. In particular, when people from different cultural backgrounds interact on a professional level, it can lead to poor impressions being established. This can be due to the different cultural context and values each individual brings to the interaction. It is argued that an intercultural business strategy is important and involves a cultural strategy, a business strategy and a communication strategy (Varner, 2000).Archee (2013),refers to Hofstede's five dimensions of culture as significant distinguishing features between cultures (p.97).
Using an example scenario expanded upon from the list below, write an essay of at least 1500 words in which you describe a problem that occurred due to poor intercultural communication. Highlight the cultural differences that led to the problem. You must refer to at least one of the Hofstede's dimensions of culture: Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism-collectivism, Masculinity-femininity. Explain how your example relates to one of these dimensions.
Examples of poor intercultural communication you might use:
I. Archeeet. al., (2013), describe an interaction between a Chinese business man and an Australian business man (p.85). The Australian addresses the Chinese man informally and this leaves the Chinese man feeling uncomfortable.
II. A Japanese businessman meets an Australian businessman who is a delegate from an Australian Company with an office in Japan. The Japanese businessman gives his business card to the Australian who puts it in the back pocket of his pants and sits down on it. The Japanese man interprets this as a sign of disrespect toward him.
III. You may have an example from your own life experience of an incident you have observed (or been involved in) where intercultural communication problems were evident.
In your essay, give clear definitions of culture, communication and intercultural communication in your own words. Using your chosen example scenario, demonstrate how communication can be negatively impacted upon due to intercultural communication problems. Using five (5) journal articles you have found, discuss how intercultural awkwardness or difficultiesmight be avoided.You may wish to suggest a strategy that would help improve communication with reference to your chosen example.