I don't think to conform closely to italian stereotypes,
but may be
some of my values, beliefs, paradigms, behaviours, etc are influenced
by my culture. Nevertheless, I don't think culture is "static" (and
many sociologists and anthropologists support this assumption), even
though i use "cultural models" (Hofstede, Laurent, Hall, etc, etc) to
teach my students cross cultural communication. Though, I try to
explain students that models are just (usefull) models, not the
"universal truth". Any way, i believe cultural traits can change (may
be not completely) and the so called multicultural organizations
(international organizations, transnational firms according the well
known Bartlet and Ghosal model, ONG, etc) can produce new cultures and
facilitate cultural ibridation. For this reason i think some times
classic cultural models, based on tassonomies, does n't fit completely
to organizational behaviours. Particularly if we refer to communication
processes.
Best regards
fabrizio
Dr Fabrizio Maimone
Professore a
contratto di comunicazione organizzativa
LUMSA University, Rome
Via
della Traspontina 21,
00164
Rome, Italy
email:
fabrizio.maimone@tin.it
----Messaggio originale----
Da:
Jacob.Eisenberg@UCD.IE
Data: 10-mag-
2006 4.48 PM
A: <
MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU>
Ogg: Re: Stereotypes
George (son of Kelley) and colleagues,
First, weary as I am of
inaccurate stereotypes (and having been numerous
times both victim and
perpetrator of such), I do believe that there can be
'helpful or
'tentative' stereotyping. That is, in the absence of any
information on
a new person from a different culture, knowing something
about the
general core features of that culture may aid understanding and
facilitate communication. However, one has to be aware that these
general,
stereotypical characteristics should be adjusted and modified
along with
one's learning about the person as a concrete, idiosyncratic
individual. At
any rate, I have the issue as one of my major
philosophical dilemmas in
teaching Cross Cultural Management and this
is the approach I am trying to
encourage students to take. I did not
find a way around the necessity to
teach students some general
characteristics, which is where the large
cultural dimension frameworks
are helpful.
Secondly, I indeed do not conform closely to the Green
Irish Type (whatever
it may be), mainly because I am not Irish and my
parents were born in two
different nations, I grew up in a third.moved
to study and work in three
other countries in N. America and Europe now
enjoying living and working in
Ireland.
Cheers,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.
UCD
School of Business,
University College Dublin,
Belfield, Dublin 4,
Ireland
Tel: +353-1-716 4774
Fax: +353-1-716 4762
Email: Jacob.
eisenberg@ucd.ie
http://www.ucd.ie/busadmin/
_____
From:
Management Education and Development Discussion
[mailto:MG-ED-
DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Lmxlotus@AOL.COM
Sent: 09 May 2006
15:53
To:
MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: Stereotypes
In a
message dated 5/9/2006 6:16:51 AM Central Standard Time,
Jacob.
Eisenberg@UCD.IE writes:
Colleagues,
I agree that stereotypes, in
most situations, tend to be 'dysfunctional'.
One simple reason for that
is that stereotypes, by definition, are not
accurate representation of
reality and therefore can bias us in assessing a
certain situation and
bring us to base our decisions on wrong assumptions (a
lot of research
is available to that effect). At the same time, and with no
contradiction of the first statement, at the fundamental level
stereotypes
are inevitable. Stereotyping is an integral part of human
cognition and one
of the main reasons for this 'mental shortcut'
mechanism is that, for most
of us, the world is too complex to perceive
and organize and we constantly
employ various mechanisms such as
stereotyping to simplify it (e.g., to
enable better prediction and
reduce uncertainty).
Thus, while stereotyping as a process is deep-
rooted in the evolutionary
development of our cognitive mechanism, the
content of the stereotypes and
the degree to which the process is
occurring varies among persons and
cultures and can be modified.
Stereotypes, just like beliefs and actual behaviors, are shaped by
individual level factors (e.g., personality, individual experiences)
and by
broader-level factors such as one's SES and culture. Cultures
differ in
their values and, consequently, so will stereotypes. Thus,
stereotypes
regarding power and sex/gender will tend to be stronger in
cultures that
Hofstede called high on Masculinity and are referred to
in the GLOBE project
as Assertiveness and Gender Differentiation. Thus,
it is possible to
explain/predict, in which cultures gender stereotypes
will be more
predominant (for example, S. Korea and Egypt are high on
Gender
Differentiation, Brazil and Italy are medium and Sweden &
Denmark are low).
Now, I am really not versed in the research areas
discussed below, but I
would guess that if these studies were conducted
in Scandinavia, the general
results would be much more 'mild'.
Finally, my conclusion is that change in stereotypes is possible and it
is
possible to achieve it with educational tools (in my experience,
combination
of experiential learning with higher conceptual processing
works well). On
the national level, this would involve a gradual change
of cultural values,
which is a difficult and very slow process.
Warm
wishes,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.
UCD School of Business,
University College Dublin,
Belfield, Dublin 4,
Ireland
JACOB
WELL SAID ! I AGREE WITH ALL BUT THE HOFSTEDE AND
HOUSE NATIONAL
STEREOTYPES DIGUISED AS DEEP-LEVEL CULTURAL PARAMETERS.
THESE ALSO GET IN
THE WAY OF DEEP-LEVEL CROSS-CULTURAL FRIENDSHIPS IN
MY WORK. I DOUBT THAT
YOU CONFORM CLOSELY TO THE GREEN IRISH TYPE. MY
PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER DID
NOT.
GEORGE,SON OF KELLEY GRAEN