As stated by Kagitcibasi and Poortinga (2000, p. 133), “Cross-cultural psychology as a field of research has come about as a reaction against the tendency in psychology to ignore cultural variations and to consider them nuisance variable.” Segall et al. (1999) identified two main goals of cross-cultural psychology as: (a) examines what we know to be the case in our own culture and examines the question in another culture. An example could be Is Anti-social behavior normal in adolescents in other cultures?, (b) explore other cultures in order to discover cultural variation which are not present in one’s cultural experience. Berry et al. (1992/2002) highlighted a third goal as an attempt to “assemble and integrate the results obtained from the 2 goals and then generate a more universal psychology”.
Matsumoto et al. (2007), however, make a distinction between these two terms. They view adaptation as “the process of altering one’s behaviour to fit in with a changed environment or circumstances, or as a response to social pressure” , whereas adjustment is described as “the subjective experiences that are associated with and result from attempts at adaptation” (p.77). I have used the term adjustment as the overwhelming body of research in cross-cultural studies have preferred this term in their models and frameworks including Black et al., 1991, Aycan,
Those who have more than three years of cross-cultural experience are more sensitive than those who have fewer years of experience. Intercultural sensitivity developed by people relates to the number of different ethnic foods people have tried on their own. The ability to enjoy working with people from other cultures on difficult tasks is significantly correlated with intercultural
This relative adjustment is more often is a matter of “acculturation”, that is, the adapt of changes in external behaviour for a smoother acceptance by the new society, than a matter of “assimilation”, which consists in the ability to react instinctively and emotionally to a culture. What may even seem like a perfect adjustment to the new culture may only be a superficial one, consisting in the correct imitation of expected external behaviour in the host
She shows that cultural transition does not always lead to successful integration, which eventually brings the feeling of otherness among the migrants. This also leads to identity crisis for the migrants. Apart from that, the local community feels insecure of the newcomers for they differ in ethnic values, traditions, and life-style. In short cultural transition, which primarily entails the process of acculturation, keeps the emigrants in a struggling position while the host also feels insecurity unless an agreeable point for coexistence is reached. So wars should be avoided to make this world more
People must be ready to learn new traditions and customs. Secondly, relating with people from different backgrounds can be difficult due to the fear of the unknown, bias and stereotypical thoughts that guide social interactions and contributes to the misperceptions about certain cultural groups. There is also the panic and discomfort that exists when a person interacts with a different cultural group. The benefits of intercultural relationships Intercultural relationships enable individuals to gain more knowledge about other cultures around the world. Through interacting with people from different cultures, learning occurs.
In the 19th century “culture” was commonly used by some people for a wide range of human activities and by others to mean to civilization. Later in the 20th c, anthropologists began looking at culture as an object of scientific analysis. While one group used it to differentiate the subtle human adaptive strategies from the predominantly instinctively adaptive strategies of animals (primates included), the other group saw it as a symbolic representations and expressions of human experience without any direct adaptive role. Despite the superficial differences, both the groups comprehended culture as being definite of human nature. It is also believed that culture exhibits the way humans interpret their biology and their surrounding environment.
Diverse practices of migrants can be described through different ‘modes of transformation’ which are: perceptual transformation in the socio-cultural domain, conceptual transformation in the political domain and institutional transformation in the economic domain. These modes of transformation and forms of transnationalism are interrelated and overlapping. The engagement in transnational practices re-establishes the life style and values of migrants. This ‘habitus’ (refers to the lifestyle, values, dispositions and expectations of particular social groups that are acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday life) is transformed through several types of socio-cultural engagement (Morell, 16). These socio-cultural engagements take place primarily within the framework of families and secondly through communities which are linked by some commonality of culture.
Moreover, researches revealed that there exist two forms of adaptation – psychological and sociocultural (John Berry, Jean Phinney, David Sam and Paul Vedder, 2016). Viewpoint 2. Acculturation expectations Acculturation expectations, in contrary to acculturation strategies, connected to cultural majority group. It is such expectations, which concern about how immigrants should adapt (which acculturation strategy they should use) (Bourhis et al., 1997). Referring to recent works (Bourhis & Montreuil, 2013), we can differentiate acculturation expectations up to 6 of them.
Conclusions and implications The overarching goal of this paper is to explain the importance of cross-cultural management in China and to identify cultural awareness and cognitive cultural intelligence among Chinese business students. In addition, the effects of university cross-cultural management education on cognitive cultural intelligence are examined. In China, a rising interest in cross-cultural aspects arose during the 1980s, which intensified over time. The growing number of Sino-foreign joint ventures and cooperations in China itself contributed significantly to this. The rapidly increasing international expansion of Chinese companies supports the process of dealing with cross-cultural aspects.