Transcript presentation

COMMUNICATION INFLUENCED BY
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Tatjana Welzer,
University of Maribor, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science, Maribor, Slovenia
João M.Fernandes,
Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
Marjan Družovec
University of Maribor, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science, Maribor, Slovenia
PRAXIS 2014, Genova, September 25-26, 2014
Contents





Introduction
Cross Cultural Communication and Awareness
Innovation and Creativity for Complex Engineering
Systems
Experiences
Conclusion
Introduction

Communications
 Awareness
– to whom - for whom we are
writing/presenting/chatting/contacting

New (social) media – media for social interaction
 New

communication patterns
Academic and professional environment
 Professional

communication
Soft skills for communication (lingual, cultural, selfreliance, self awareness)
Introduction



Communication in Mobility
 EU programs – Erasmus+(students, teachers, staff)
Mobility in the virtual word
 No physical borders and contacts
Communication in different cultures
 Culture
 Cultural shock
 Cultural awareness
Cross Cultural Communication and
Awareness


Culture is a familiar word with a complex history
and diverse range of meanings
Culture is a sum of ways of living including:
 Behavioural
norms
 Linguistic expressions
 Styles of Communication
 Patterns of thinking and beliefs
Cross Cultural Communication and
Awareness

Culture (Hofstede):
 Collective
phenomenon, shared with people who live or
lived within the same social environment – unwritten
rules of social game. Distinguishes different group of
people

Culture (Lewis):
 Cultural
behaviour is the end product of centuries of
collected wisdom, filtered and passed through hundreds
of generations and presented by numerous beliefs,
notions and other patterns
Cross Cultural Communication and
Awareness

Cultural levels (Alvesson, Berg)
 National
culture and culture in societies
 Regional and local culture
 Business cultures - professional and functional culture
 Organizational and corporate culture
 Functional
subculture
 Social groups
 Professional and functional culture
Innovation and Creativity for Complex
Engineering Systems






Erasmus IP – ICCES –2012-2014
http://icces.di.uminho.pt/
Coordination University do Minho, Braga
 Consortium – Universities
 Consortium – Companies (Efacec, Bosch)
Ph.D. students in engineering and technology in
international teams
Problems of high complexity in an innovative and researchoriented perspective within industrial contexts
Preparing Ph.D. graduates for awareness of the
industrial realities
Innovation and Creativity for Complex
Engineering Systems

Erasmus IP – ICCES – 2012-2014
 Deliverables
 Applied
of each edition of ICCES
research plans, written by the Ph. D. students, for
the considered engineering problems;
 Position papers, written by the students, to explain their
research plans to the scientific community;
 Simulations and presentations, by the students, about their
research plans;
 Cross Cultural Communication Experiences.
Experiences

Ph.D. students from different countries and language
groups


Europe, Africa, Asia, South America
Ph.D. students from different professional areas
Industrial Engineering
 Electrical Engineering
 Computer Science
 Media Communications
 Mechanical Engineering
 Chemistry

Experiences

Ph.D. Students from different generations


21- 50
Ph.D. Students from different professional
experiences
Full time students
 University assistants
 Researchers
 Engineers in companies
 Management and top management in companies
 Equality independent on the history

Experiences

Cultural shock
 Confused
and nervous feelings in a new and
different culture, disorientation and anxiety
 Problems
in communication in the team and out of the
team
 Rejection of cooperation
 To
understand culture shock, it helps to understand
what culture is
 Workshops
 Individual
 Reverse
consultations
culture shock.
Experiences

Cultural awareness:
 Based on knowledge of the foreign culture and own
culture
 Workshops
 It
is and ability of observing culture from outside
 Individual
consultations
 Foundation
of communication that involves the
capability of standing back from ourselves and
becoming aware of different cultures, beliefs and
perceptions

Cultural awareness – Crosscultural dialogue
Experiences

Becoming cultural aware:
 Ph.D.
Students realized that we are not all the same,
that the similarities and differences are both important,
that there are multiple ways to reach the same goal
and finally that the best way depends on the cultural
possibility
 Better
communication and cooperation
 Members
of different cultural societies can see,
interpret and evaluate things in different ways
 Benefit
for the project
Conclusion



Communication is important
Culture is a product of centuries, filtered and passed
through hundreds of generations and presented by
numerous beliefs, notions and other patterns
Communication influenced by cultural differences
 Cultural
shock, Cultural awareness
 Preparation
 Workshops,
Courses, Individual consultations