Cultural and Ethnic Miscommunication
Hi, Everyone
Can you direct me to articles or books that list or recount examples of cultural or ethnic misinformation that led to misunderstanding and/or conflict? For example, there is the story of Gerber Foods in Africa using the picture of a baby on the front of their product. Unknown to Gerber, outside labels of products sold in Africa typically depict what is inside of the package. Needless to say, baby food bottles with these pictures did not sell very well. Can anyone direct me to books or articles that recount situations such as these?
Also, I would appreciate your suggestions of books or articles that talk about cultural differences (e.g., eye contact, amount of touching, personal space expectations, etc.) that have led to conflict at the workplace.
Thanks.
crs
Can you direct me to articles or books that list or recount examples of cultural or ethnic misinformation that led to misunderstanding and/or conflict? For example, there is the story of Gerber Foods in Africa using the picture of a baby on the front of their product. Unknown to Gerber, outside labels of products sold in Africa typically depict what is inside of the package. Needless to say, baby food bottles with these pictures did not sell very well. Can anyone direct me to books or articles that recount situations such as these?
Also, I would appreciate your suggestions of books or articles that talk about cultural differences (e.g., eye contact, amount of touching, personal space expectations, etc.) that have led to conflict at the workplace.
Thanks.
crs
Views: 7
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kogan Page on -
You might try Bridging the Culture Gap: A Practical Guide to International Business Communication by Penny Carte and Chris Fox.
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Permalink Reply by Peter Bye on -
From a slightly-different perspective than you asked although perhaps still very useful for you, consider "Cross-Cultural Dialogues: 74 Brief Encounters with Cultural Difference," Craig Storti, ISBN 1-877864-28-5. Storti provides excellent examples with explanations of how differing cultural norms and assumptions lead to miscommunication. It is also possible to then construct similar dialogues for situations specific to your business situation.
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Permalink Reply by JACQUELINE M. WALTERS on -
Garvin S. Appleby, "Harassment and discrimination: and other workplace landmines"
Appleby intellectual property on discrimination and the law: what it is and what it does.
Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, "Race Experts" Quinn describes diversity in the workplace, multicultural education, cross-cultural counseling, etiquette-Psycological aspects.
Leslie Aguilar and Linda Stokes, " Multicultural Customer Service" This book is a Business skills express series, social aspects, Intercultural communication.
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