What is it about?
The experience of “culture shock” is an established concept within international management studies, engendering an industry of training designed to combat difficulties in relocation. This paper argues that the use of the concept is based on a flawed understanding of “culture” and proposes an alternative perspective to help organisations prepare their employees for overseas assignments.
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Why is it important?
The paper challenges the notion of culture as an essential, reified concept, arguing that culture shock is not about culture, but about the dynamics of context and how individuals deal with life changes to navigate the challenges that they face. A paradigm shift in the treatment of culture shock towards a more discourse-based concept created through universal cultural and dialectical processes is proposed.
Perspectives
Cultural difference is cited as a cause for much misunderstanding and difficulty amongst people globally and the perspective of international management studies pursues this idea of irreconcilable stereotyping. There is a tendency to ignore how people interact through discourse and the power relations that exist in all social situations. If cross-cultural management is to be truly multidisciplinary, it needs to draw on specialist areas such sociolinguistics and anthropology to better understand cross-cultural encounters.
Dr Frank Fitzpatrick
University of the Creative Arts
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Taking the “culture” out of “culture shock” – a critical review of literature on cross-cultural adjustment in international relocation, Critical Perspectives on International Business, October 2017, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/cpoib-01-2017-0008.
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