Running head EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION ON MARITAL SATISFACTION.docx

Running head: EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION ON
MARITAL SATISFACTION 1
The Effects of Communication Styles on Marital Satisfaction
Hannah Yager
University of West Florida
EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION ON MARITAL
SATISFACTION 2
Abstract
The differences in communication styles between men and
women have been a
topic of interest in the research world for many years. These
differences may lead to
miscommunication, conflict, and even dissatisfaction between
couples. This study
analyzes the communication styles among genders, more

specifically among married
couples. It questions how differences in communication styles
between married couples
married five years or less affect marital satisfaction. The study
will be conducted
through the use of an interaction analysis. Its goal is to increase
the amount of
knowledge regarding effective communication and how it
relates to marital satisfaction
in order to ultimately aid in the rise of marital satisfaction and
the decrease of the
divorce rate in the United States.
SATISFACTION 3
Today, divorce has become a very common part of life, and it
is likely that
ineffective communication plays a crucial role in the failure of
many marriages.
Communication may lead to the success of a marriage or to its
detriment, depending on
its level of effectiveness. This effectiveness of communication

is likely connected to the
overall satisfaction of married couples and is worthy to be
studied in order to increase
marital satisfaction.
Learning more about the differences in communication styles
between men and
women will aid in the more successful sending and receiving of
messages, both verbal
and nonverbal. For example, a woman may communicate in a
way that has meaning to
her. However, the man receiving the message may interpret it
differently than she
intended due to their differences in communication style. This
can cause conflict and
lead to further problems in the relationship. However, if the
man decoding the message
were familiar with his wife’s style of communication, he may
have interpreted it properly
therefore avoiding a conflict situation. The reverse, when men
are communicating to
women, is also true. Husbands and wives are interdependent,
and their level of
commitment and desire to maintain a healthy relationship often
depends on the other

person (Weigel & Ballard-Reisch, 2008).
Conventional wisdom says that there is no such thing as lack of
communication.
A person always communicates something, whether intentional
or not. Becoming more
aware of how one’s own self communicates will also aid in
more healthy communication
between spouses.
This literature review will discuss nonverbal communication
styles, including
flirtation, and conflict communication, including communicated
perspective-taking.
SATISFACTION 4
This study will further advance communication research by
helping people
discover more about their personal communication styles as men
and women and by
helping them communicate more effectively with their partners.
In a culture where
marriage is considered a risk, it is crucial to conduct studies
that will help further the

knowledge on how to have a successful marriage.
Review of Literature
Nonverbal Communication
To many, nonverbal communication may take a back seat to
verbal
communication. It is often overlooked and may be deemed
unimportant. However, this
aspect of communication speaks volumes. Nonverbal
communication may consist of
looking, smiling, frowning, touching, or expressions of surprise
as seen in Weisfeld and
Stack’s research study (2002). Women have been found to
exhibit these forms of
communication more often than men. Weisfeld and Stack
studied nonverbal behaviors
related to the closeness of a couple and found that women
looked at their partners for a
significantly longer amount of time as compared to men. The
average length of a wife’s
look was 7.5 seconds while the husband’s was 4.5 seconds.
However, while men
express less emotion and nonverbal communication, this may
not necessarily mean that

they are not listening when their wives speak to them. For
instance, Weisfeld and Stack
theorized that men may show less emotion because they have
been taught to dampen
emotions such as anger. When a husband and wife have a
disagreement, the situation
can escalate quickly if the husband fully expresses his emotions
by becoming violent.
Therefore, it was suggested that many men fail to show emotion
in general because
they have trained themselves to be “emotionless” in these
conflict situations. Sabatelli,
SATISFACTION 5
Buck, and Dyer (1982) also suggested that this is true. In their
study focusing on
nonverbal communication and its relationship to marital
complaints, they found that
wives who had husbands who were good communicators tended
to have more
complaints about their husbands. Their hypothesis was that
because men are expected

to tone down their emotions, having good nonverbal
communication skills may be seen
as socially unacceptable to their wives.
It is important to consider who the more effective
communicator is so that we can
learn from each other on how to communicate better. Noller
(1980) found that there is a
connection between a couple’s marital adjustment and their skill
at communication. She
had each participant first take the Marital Adjustment Test
(Locke & Wallace, 1959) to
determine their overall marital satisfaction. Then, after the
couples’ communication was
studied, the results showed that those with low marital
adjustment demonstrated
considerably fewer good nonverbal communications than those
with high marital
adjustment. However, the question must be raised: Do couples
have a higher marital
adjustment because they have good communication, or do
couples have good
communication because they are happy within their marriage?
Women were found to be better nonverbal communicators
across several studies

(Noller, 1980; Sabatelli et al., 1982). However, being an
effective communicator
involves both encoding and decoding messages. Women have a
natural tendency to be
more expressive. Therefore, men were found to make more
errors than women when
encoding messages (Noller, 1980). However, it was also found
that women were not
better decoders, or receivers of messages, than men. Though it
is quite possible that
this was due to the husbands’ poor ability to encode messages
effectively. The same
SATISFACTION 6
was found in other studies (Sabatelli et al., 1982; Koerner &
Fitzpatrick, 2002).
Additional findings by Sabatelli et al. and Koerner and
Fitzpatrick also suggest that
familiarity plays a role in how effective nonverbal
communication is. In both of their
studies, participants encoded and decoded messages to their
partners. The interaction

was recorded and evaluated by judges who attempted to decode
the same interactions.
Both studies revealed that the spouses were significantly more
skilled at decoding their
partners’ messages, implying that couples may become more
successful at interpreting
their spouses’ nonverbal communication over time.
Communication Styles When Flirting. Flirting is often
associated with the start
of a couple’s relationship. It is employed when one shows
interest in another person or
when one wishes to demonstrate sexual attraction. As
demonstrated in Horan and
Booth-Butterfield’s (2010) study, receiving affection is directly
related to relational
satisfaction. While giving affection is connected to commitment
in a relationship.
However, many may wonder if the act of flirting continues in
committed relationships
such as marriage. Is there a reason to flirt within marriage, and
if so, how do women
and men differ in their flirtation styles? In Frisby and Booth-
Butterfield’s (2012) study on
the purpose of flirtation, they found that a major reason for

flirtation within a marriage
was to create a private world between the couple and to
motivate sex. They also found
that women were more likely than men to use attentive flirting,
in which the woman
shows a great amount of concern for her husband. However in a
separate study on
flirtation motivation, men were also found to utilize attentive
flirting in order to make their
wives feel beautiful (Frisby, 2009). In concordance with
previous research, Frisby found
SATISFACTION 7
that men typically flirt to encourage sex, and women often flirt
to focus on attention, fun,
and interest in their spouses.
Another difference in flirtation style may occur due to the
differences in the
amount of expressiveness between men and women. Weisfeld
and Stack (2002)
conducted a study on nonverbal communication related to the
closeness of married

couples. Their research shows that on average, women smile
and laugh significantly
more than men. According to the same study, 78% of the
spontaneous touches that
occurred during the experiment were initiated by women,
demonstrating that women’s
flirtation style is much more animated.
Conflict Communication Styles
One inevitable aspect of any marriage is conflict. We as humans
will always have
disagreements that must be resolved, and as men and women,
we have many
differences in communication styles. It is possible that these
differences are the cause
of conflict situations within marriage. Hanzal and Segrin (2009)
found this to be true in
their study of negative affectivity, a personality trait that tends
to cause distressing
reactions to negative situations. They found that spouses’ use of
harmful
communication styles during conflict was directly related to not
only their own marital
satisfaction but also their partners’.

During conflict, husbands and wives may demonstrate positive
problem solving,
positive verbal communication, compliance, defensiveness,
stubbornness, conflict
engagement, withdrawal from interaction, contempt, anger, fear,
sadness, and whining,
as revealed by Gottman and Krokoff (1989). In their study on
what makes a marriage
satisfying, they found that the use of these types of
communication by certain spouses
SATISFACTION 8
may lead to dissatisfaction in a marriage. For example,
defensiveness, stubbornness,
and withdrawal were found to produce marital discontent over
time, especially when
exhibited by the husband. Based on this research study, it is
evident that marital
satisfaction is more related to negative communication than
positive. It was revealed
that, in particular, the wives’ sadness and the husbands’
whining, examples of negative
communication, were both connected to overall marital

dissatisfaction. Interestingly, it
was also discovered that spouses were more content in their
marriages when the wives
expressed anger during conflict and less content when they
expressed fear and
sadness. One explanation for this could be that men respond
better when their wives
communicate in similar way as they do such as being direct
when expressing
frustration.
Another aspect of conflict communication is partner appraisal,
or a spouse’s
perceptions of the other (Sanford, 2006). In Sanford’s study,
three types of appraisal
were studied: expectancies for partner understanding,
expectancies for partner negative
communication, and negative attributions for partner behavior.
He maintained that
based on a spouse’s appraisal of the other, his/her behavior will
change. For example, if
the wife expects her husband to be harsh and negative when a
conflict arises, she will
begin the argument already in a defensive mode. On the
contrary, if she expects her

husband to be accepting and kind, she will act in the same
manner. Sanford’s study
found that wives’ expectancies produced within-person behavior
change more so than
men’s, implying that women are more susceptible to the effects
of their appraisal.
Communicated Perspective-Taking. One way to resolve marital
conflict
effectively is for both spouses to see things through the other’s
point of view. Kellas and
SATISFACTION 9
colleagues (2013) referred to it as perspective-taking. It
demonstrates that a person
cares for his/her spouse and is making a conscious effort to
resolve any issues. The
research team found that the main way spouses sensed
perspective-taking from their
partners was through agreement behaviors such as confirmation,
supportiveness, and
taking ownership of faults. However, there were significant
differences in how husbands

and wives perceived perspective-taking individually. When
husbands observed negative
or unsupportive behaviors from their wives more often, they
were less likely to rate them
as understanding their perspectives. When husbands observed
attentiveness from their
wives, they were more likely to see them as taking their
perspectives. Conversely,
negative behaviors, such as inattentiveness and disagreement,
were the only factors
that related to wives’ perceptions about their husbands’
perspective-taking, verifying the
differences in communication preferences between men and
women. Overall, this study
demonstrates the great effects of negative communication on the
perceptions of
perspective-taking between spouses.
Communication among couples is a topic that has been
thoroughly studied.
However, further study of the differences in communication
styles between men and
women will lead to better understanding. Specifically,
communication among newlywed
couples should be studied in order to learn what may be causing

strife early in a
marriage and ultimately lead to better understanding of how to
maintain a successful
marriage. Therefore, the following research question is raised.
RQ: How do differences in communication styles between
married couples
married five years or less affect marital satisfaction?
SATISFACTION 10
Method
To answer the proposed research question, I would utilize
interaction analysis.
The sampling frame would consist of any person who has
obtained a marriage license
in Florida within the last five years, which would produce a
diverse group of newlywed
people who have varying incomes, careers, and education. To
choose the sample,
systematic sampling would be employed. The twenty third name
on the list would be

selected and every twentieth name from that point on would be
chosen. Forty couples
would be selected.
To begin the study, participants would first be asked to take the
Marital
Adjustment Test (Locke and Wallace, 1959) individually and in
private to determine their
satisfaction in marriage. In the next part of the research process,
three types of
communication would be examined: nonverbal, conflict, and
flirtation. To assess
nonverbal communication, couples would be placed in a room
that contained a kitchen
and everything they may need to cook a meal. Recipes would be
provided and couples
would be asked to make a three course meal with their spouses.
The interaction would
be videotaped and transcribed. A coding scheme would be
developed based on the
different types of nonverbal cues that occurred. To evaluate
conflict communication,
participants would be prompted to tell a story about a time when
they experienced a
stressful or tense time in their marriage. Again, the interaction

would be videotaped and
transcribed, and the coding scheme would be developed based
on the different types of
positive and negative conflict communication that occurred.
Flirtation among spouses
would be assessed throughout the entire research process
including cooking the meal
and discussing a stressful time in marriage. The data produced
would be compared to
SATISFACTION 11
participants’ scores on the Marital Adjustment Test to
determine how their
communication style relates to their marital satisfaction.
SATISFACTION 12
References
Frisby, B.B. & Booth-Butterfield, M. (2012). The “how” and
“why” of flirtatious

communication between marital partners. Communication
Quarterly, 60(4), 465-
480.
Frisby, B.N. (2009). “Without flirting, it wouldn’t be a
marriage”: Flirtatious
communication between relational partners. Qualitative
Research Reports in
Communicatio, 10(1), 55-60. doi: 10.1080/17459430902839066
Gottman, J.M. & Krokoff, L.J. (1989). Marital interaction and
satisfaction: A longitudinal
view. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57(1), 47-
52.
Hanzal, A. & Segrin, C. (2009). The Role of Conflict
Resolution Styles in Mediating the
Relationship Between Enduring Vulnerabilities and Marital
Quality. Journal of
Familty Communication, 9(3), 150-169. doi:
10.1080/15267430902945612
Horan, S.M. & Booth-Butterfield, M. (2010). Investing in
affection: An investigation of
affection exchange theory and relational qualities.
Communication Quarterly,
58(4), 394-413. doi: 10.1080/01463373.2010.524876

Kellas, J.K., Willer, E.K., & Trees, A.R. (2013). Communicated
perspective-taking during
stories of marital stress: spouses’ perceptions of one another’s
perspective-
taking behaviors. The Southern Communication Journal, 78,
326-351. dio:
10.1080/1041794X.2013.815264
Koerner, A. & Fitzpatrick, M.A. (2002). Nonverbal
communication and marital
adjustment and satisfaction: The role of decoding relationship
relevant
relationship irrelevant affect. Communication Monographs,
69(1), 33-51. doi:
10.1080/03637750216537
SATISFACTION 13
Locke, H.J. & Wallace, K.M. (1959). Short marital-adjustment
and prediction tests: Their
reliability and validity. Marriage and Family Living, 21(3), 251-
255.
Noller, P. (1980). Misunderstandings in marital communication:
A study of couples’

nonverbal communication. Journal of Personality & Social
Psychology, 39(6),
1135-1148.
Sabatelli, R.M., Buck, R. & Dreyer, A. (1982). Nonverbal
communication accuracy in
married couples: Relationship with marital complaints. Journal
of Personality &
Social Psychology, 43(5), 1088-1097.
Sanford, K. (2006). Communication during marital conflict:
When couples alter their
appraisal, they change their behavior. Journal of Family
Psychology, 20(2), 256-
265. doi: 10.1037/0893-3200.20.2.256
Weigel, D.J. & Ballard-Reisch, D.S. (2008). Relational
maintenance, satisfaction, and
commitment in marriages: An actor-partner analysis. Journal of
Family
Communication, 8(3), 212-229. doi:
10.1080/15267430802182522
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& Gender, 4(2), 125-147. doi: 10.1080/1461666031000063656

A Cultural Rationale for International Business Internships
Author(s): Patricia R. Paulsell
Source: Monatshefte, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Fall, 1991), pp. 243-264
Published by: University of Wisconsin Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30166448
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A Cultural Rationale for
International Business Internships
PATRICIA R. PAULSELL
Michigan State University
Introduction:
The International Business Internship and the Student R~sum6
"Business German"' has become an accepted component of Ger-
man programs all over the United States. There are as many
definitions
for "business German" as there are instructors who have
developed
courses within the parameters of their own individual
programmatic and
institutional strengths. The curricular responses to the
unprecedented
increase in the demand for business German have been
accompanied by
a corresponding interest in obtaining international internship
experiences
for students who have completed their more formalized
classroom study.
Much of this interest stems from a sense, both on the part of
business
German students and their instructors, that the internship
increases the
student's marketability upon graduation.2 Such international
work ex-
perience is particularly attractive to future employers whose

own expe-
rience has led them to value experience abroad in the practical
education
of American managers for international assignment. Indeed
Stephen J.
Kobrin, discussing his survey of American multinationals in
the research
report titled International Expertise in American Business,
reveals that
American business professionals rate experience abroad as the
single most
important factor in the development of international expertise.
Kobrin
writes:
Both the survey and the interviews indicate that it is experience
abroad,
particularly experience that involves substantial interpersonal
interaction,
that is most important in developing international expertise. In
fact, vir-
tually all (95.1%) of respondents who had worked abroad felt
that experience
was important, and 69 percent rated the experience as critical.3
Monatshefte, Vol. 83, No. 3, 1991 243
0026-9271/91/0003/0243 $01.50/0
A 1991 by The Board of Regents of The University of
Wisconsin System
2019 06:51:29 UTC

244 Paulsell
Further recent surveys4 of multinational corporations with
regard to their
criteria for hiring international managers with foreign language
skills sup-
port the importance of an internship experience per se on the
student's
r6sum6. Invariably, survey respondents ranked experience
abroad, even
if in the somewhat limited form of an internship, far above all
other
factors in reaching hiring decisions, such as language
proficiency certi-
fication or type of degree obtained, except for the Master's in
International
Business (MIB) with applied language training.
Business Internships:
Goals, Assessment, and Supervision
Given the demonstrated importance of an international work
ex-
perience for the marketability of our business German students,
it is
somewhat surprising to see that very little scholarship in our
field has
addressed the nature and quality of the internship experience.
There have
been numerous descriptions, primarily in presentations at
professional
conferences," of successful procedures for procuring
international busi-
ness internships,6 but little attention has been devoted to
setting goals
for the internship experience and assessing the results. From

the body of
largely anecdotal material concerning business language
internship ex-
periences, it is evident that business language educators have
been almost
fully absorbed with procuring internships; we have not yet
turned our
attention to the matter of establishing concrete and measurable
objectives
against which the quality of the internship experience might be
measured.
In examining how we might establish assessable objectives for
the
international internship experience within the business German
curric-
ulum, it may be helpful to look briefly at the goals-assessment
process
used by companies offering domestic business internships. It
has long
been the objective of such internships to afford students the
opportunity
to (1) acquire some technical skills associated with the career
for which
they are training, (2) develop familiarity with professional
situations typ-
ical of their chosen career area, and (3) further develop
interpersonal
skills in a professional milieu which represents a subculture
quite different
from the student subculture from which they are about to
"graduate."
Yves Benett has pointed out:
In the last analysis 'practical experience' is about knowing what
it's like to

be an engineer, a systems analyst, a teacher, an accountant, and
so on. It
is about developing a view of professional/occupational life
born of first-
hand contact with the 'realities' of the workplace and of
reflection and
analysis. Viewed in this way, the assessment of 'practical
experience' is
indeed a tall order!7
2019 06:51:29 UTC
International Business Internships 245
It is indeed a "tall order," and it is rarely accomplished well.
Typically,
the assessment of business internships has been left to
workplace super-
visors who vary greatly in their willingness to participate in the
assess-
ment process. The quality of the intern experience itself, as
well as the
assessment, is to a large extent dependent upon the willingness
of su-
pervisors to see themselves as an integral part of the learning
situation.
Unfortunately, whether considering the area of domestic or
international
work experience, it is a lamentable fact that a great many
supervisors are
less than enthusiastic about the added responsibility of intern
training

and assessment. Thus, if instructors themselves do not become
involved
in the quantification of goals and the assessment of learning in
the in-
ternship programs they organize, the internships are likely to
remain in
the category of "experience" rather than become opportunities
for "ex-
periential learning", as they should be if they are part of an
academic
program.
As Yves Benett points out in his article, mere activity does not
necessarily constitute a learning experience. Experience and
experiential
learning are distinct concepts and as Benett and Evans, also a
researcher
in the area of experiential learning, agree:
if the 'intellectual test' of moving from a description of
experience to iden-
tifying the learning derived from that experience cannot be
accomplished,
there is no learning to assess, however important to the
individual that
experience may have been.8
Without the establishment of assessable objectives for an
internship ex-
perience, students are placed in a situation in which their mere
presence
in a work environment is somehow expected to ensure some
sort of
learning experience automatically, if only within the
parameters of the
more traditional business internship goals of refinement of

professional/
technical skills.
Just as we cannot assume that a domestic internship will
automat-
ically lead to learning in the professional/technical skills area,
we cannot
assume that merely placing a student in a foreign country on an
inter-
national internship will automatically result in a degree of
language skill
refinement and intercultural understanding. As the cross-
cultural psy-
chologist Stephen Bochner has suggested, an unprepared and
unmoni-
tored internship experience may in fact increase hostility,
suspicion, and
tension in the new culture. Changes in attitude do not follow
automat-
ically from mere exposure to another culture. Changes in
attitude involve
a "reordering of the individual's cognitive structures"'9 which
cannot be
achieved in a setting from which one is unprepared to extract
experiential
learning.
2019 06:51:29 UTC
246 Paulsell
Business Internships:

The Issue of Academic Integrity
Any internship within an academic program should be far more
than "just a job." An "intern" is not yet a full-fledged member
of the
chosen profession; much like an apprenticeship, an "internship"
is still
a learning situation in which the intern is being introduced into
a profes-
sion. Internship experiences should be conceived and
implemented in
such a way that assessable learning can take place. Such
experiential
learning should not be left to chance, but should be integrated
as an
experiential component into the business language curriculum.
The in-
ternship should be conceived in terms of the same types of
quantifiable
objectives which are the foundation of an academically sound
business
German curriculum.
As academic professionals we are all concerned that credit-
bearing
activities be established on an academically sound foundation.
We have
all heard the cries of colleagues who do not consider
internships valid
"academic" experiences. Where students have been left to
"experience"
the workplace without the benefit of articulated experiential
learning
goals, such criticism may be justified. In procuring internships
for
students'0 one is almost always bargaining from the "beggars

can't be
choosers" position; one must take what is offered, regardless of
whether
supervisors in the company are willing participants in the
"intern ex-
perience." This is particularly true with international
internships. Suc-
cessful arrangements are often dependent on good rapport
between the
instructor and company supervisors which is difficult to
establish without
multiple overseas visits. Each internship situation is analogous
to a drama
with a substantially different script and cast of players. For the
most
meaningful experience the faculty supervisor must consider all
of the
variables and ensure that the student intern is appropriately
cast and
directed.
In a series of three papers presented between 1985 and 1987,
Barney
T. Raffield discusses his role as a faculty supervisor of
internship expe-
riences." Raffield places the responsibility for the academic
integrity of
internship experiences with the faculty supervisor. He notes
that faculty
supervision should focus
... upon the acquisition and utilization of knowledge, and the
application
of skills to actual practice. It is essentially a teaching activity,
and the
assumption is that the intern learns by doing and by integrating

his or her
feelings, intellect and performance. The intern-faculty
supervisor relation-
ship is the fundamental catalyst in on-the-job learning
situations.'2
Raffield agrees with much of what has been written about
supervision of
work experience in the social science sector, where the role of
the faculty
2019 06:51:29 UTC
supervisor is seen as much more active in helping to shape the
learning
experience than is normally the case in business internships.
Kadushin (1976)" has suggested that the faculty supervisor
must help the
intern to take some order and meaning from his or her on-the-
job expe-
rience. The faculty supervisor can help the intern identify those
principles
that can provide him or her with an understanding of what he or
she needs
to do to improve the quality, both academically and
professionally, of what
he or she is experiencing during the internship.'4
Raffield, however, expects a level of involvement from the

faculty su-
pervisor, especially in the area of multiple on-site visits with
the interns,
which is unrealistic for all but a few well-funded international
internship
programs. Most of us are not only faculty supervisors, but also
instructors
with teaching and service commitments and very little financial
support
for internship activities. Nevertheless Raffield's application of
social sci-
ence principles in his assessment of the business internship
environment
is well conceived.
International Business Internships:
The Cross-Cultural Training Dimension
With the importance of the role of the faculty supervisor and a
concern for academic soundness of the internship experience in
mind,
we should focus our attention on the establishment of
objectives for
business German internships. All three objectives of domestic
internships
mentioned above, i.e. acquisition of technical skills,
development of fa-
miliarity with professional situations, and further development
of inter-
personal skills in a professional milieu, are also applicable in
the inter-
national internship situation. These objectives, however, relate
to the
development of technical and professional skills in specific
business-re-
lated areas, areas which we as foreign language educators are

normally
not qualified to objectify or assess. For example, if a student
who is a
double major in finance and German is placed in an internship
at a bank
in Berlin, most of us are not qualified to set objectives or
assess the
experiential learning within the area of the finance skills being
used and
developed at the bank. However, the fact that this internship
occurs in
a different cultural environment adds a dimension which offers
us a
unique foundation upon which to establish goals for
international in-
ternship experiences. As professionals in German language and
culture,
we indeed are qualified to assess internship experiences in the
area of
language and cultural learning. From this perspective, the
integration of
the internship experience into the language and cross-cultural
training
and learning goals of the business German curriculum is self-
evident.
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248 Paulsell
At this juncture it might be beneficial to explore briefly the

nature
of the cross-cultural learning and training component which
best serves
our business German students in preparing for careers in
international
business. Since their inception in the late 1970s business
foreign language
curricula have been justified on the basis ofa need to address
the appalling
lack of international awareness on the part of American
managers. This
deficit has been blamed for the continued decline in the
competitiveness
of American business in both international and domestic
markets. This
criticism, leveled largely from the federal government in
reports like "A
Nation at Risk," appeared at a time when foreign language and
culture
study in the U.S.A. were reaching alarmingly low levels.
"Business lan-
guage" courses not only served to attract more students into
foreign
language study, students who were interested in "more
practical" appli-
cations of language skills, but also filled the perceived need to
raise the
level of international awareness of students majoring in fields
where lan-
guage study had not been encouraged (e.g. business,
engineering, etc.),
many of whom would become future American managers.
Many of those involved in developing business German courses
realized, however, that specialized language study alone would

not ac-
complish the goal of raising levels of cross-cultural awareness
in future
managers to the level needed to address seriously the problem
of the
competitiveness of American business in internationally
dependent mar-
kets. To address that task it is necessary not only to go beyond
language
study per se, but also beyond the usual definitions of"culture"
with which
most of us as professionals in the teaching of "German
language, liter-
ature, and culture" are familiar. Our discussions within our
discipline
have traditionally dealt with definitions of"culture" as either
"small c,"
i.e. how to read the train schedule or what color and number of
roses to
bring to your hostess when you are invited to someone's home
for dinner,
or "capital C," i.e. a focus on German philosophy, history,
literature, art,
etc. While the items contained in both categories undeniably
manifest
certain aspects of "culture," they are not capable of revealing
culture in
the degree of complexity which will seriously meet our
students' and our
nation's needs.
In our discipline we have typically disdained "culture," while
tol-
erating its ubiquitous presence, particularly in our introductory
textbooks

and courses. Going to the other extreme, we have virtually
mythologized
"Culture" in texts and teaching at almost all levels, while,
curiously,
ignoring the deeper layers of cultural meaning which have
traditionally
been the domain of our colleagues in the social and
anthropological sci-
ences.
Indeed, Michael Byram, in his Cultural Studies in Foreign
Language
Education, laments the fact that "the intuitions of many foreign
language
2019 06:51:29 UTC
teachers-trained through the study of literature and linguistics-
are un-
refined by those academic disciplines which are the most
appropriate
support for Cultural Studies"."5 If we are now serious about
meeting the
needs of"a nation at risk," then we must base our cross-cultural
training
of future managers in international business on much more
complex
definitions of culture. The task falls, at least at this time,
primarily to us
as educators in the area of language and culture, because our

business
schools and business community have not yet fully recognized
the need
for more sophisticated cross-cultural training for future
generations of
managers who will be increasingly called upon to function
multiculturally.
Despite the fact that recent business periodicals have devoted
more
attention to the subject of developing international awareness
in Amer-
ican managers, the statistics do not reveal that any meaningful
change
has been effected within the past ten years in the actual
performance of
American managers on international assignment. Many articles
in busi-
ness publications have decried for the last decade and still
decry the lack
of international expertise among American managers. The level
of ex-
patriate failure-indicated by premature returns of expatriate
managers
after unsuccessful stays abroad-has not diminished but rather
remained
stagnant or increased in the past ten years. A 1979 survey
referred to a
failure rate of about 33%,16 while in 1990 the rate was cited as
fluctuating
between 25% and 40%.'7 The average cost per failure to the
parent com-
pany was from $55,000 to $150,000, a major contribution to the
billions
of dollars lost every year, not only through ineffectual and/or
failed man-

agement, but also in lost contracts, weak negotiations, and
other rami-
fications of insensitivity to cultural difference.'8
As one might imagine, a similar analysis of our fiercest rivals
in the
international marketplace reveals a considerably different
story. The Jap-
anese, who currently outmaneuver us in almost any phase of
business in
which we compete, also outstrip us in the category of
expatriate failure
rates. A 1982 survey put the Japanese expatriate failure rate at
less than
5%,19 while a more recent survey showed that 86% of Japanese
multi-
nationals had failure rates below 10% for their expatriates.20
While the
two particular surveys do not tell us whether the expatriate
failure rate
is absolutely increasing or decreasing for Japanese
multinationals, the
point is that the Japanese rate is significantly lower than the
American,
running at roughly 1/4 of the cited American figures. Could
this difference
have anything to do with the fact that, on average, Japanese
managers
spend two years of company time preparing for their expatriate
man-
agement role,2' whereas their American counterparts typically
receive less
than one month of pre-departure training of any kind, with
language and
culture training coming primarily from contractual arrangement
with

commercial teaching/training organizations, notably Berlitz and
Inlin-
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250 Paulsell
gua?22 In addition, in an astonishing 23% of responses to the
1985 Inman
survey (up from 16% in 1977), absolutely no pre-departure
training of
any kind was offered to those going on overseas assignment or
required
of them. Inman also reported that less than 4% of the mainly
Fortune
500 companies surveyed indicated that language and cultural
knowledge
were required for expatriate assignment, about 25% felt it was
"desirable,
but optional," and 30% had no official policy. Those who did
require
foreign language and cultural knowledge felt that minimal
survival skills
were all that was necessary.23 The majority of firms still view
English as
the quasi-official international business language; in the Inman
survey,
over 70% of companies reported that business was conducted
both do-
mestically and internationally only in English. Thus, even with
increasing
global competition, the situation with respect to a perceived

need to
formally train expatriate managers in foreign languages and
cultures has
changed very little.24 In characteristic fashion, many U.S.
companies re-
tain the short-sighted view that "training programs are a waste
of re-
sources";25 it is a view which will lead to increasing deficits,
not only in
our balance of trade figures, but also in our ability to compete
effectively
for smaller and smaller pieces of interdependent market pies
which the
Japanese and Europeans will increasingly dominate.
The prevalence of outdated thinking about language and
cultural
proficiency within American multinational firms, among cross-
cultural
training consultants, and in business schools themselves, does
not bode
well for the future of American competitiveness in
international markets.
Gary Hogan and Jane Goodson, in "The Key to Expatriate
Success,"
plead for better preparation of American managers for overseas
assign-
ments, recognizing the deep division between what American
firms view
as adequate preparation for overseas assignment and what
language and
culture professionals view as appropriate training for
successful inter-
cultural communication. They call for U.S. companies to learn
from the
Japanese when preparing expatriate managers adequately for
their as-

signments. This is a request with which language and culture
professionals
can identify:
Managerial training should focus on developing a new set of
skills for a
new culture. The intensity of the training will depend on the
manager's
knowledge of and experience with the specific culture and the
degree of
difference between that culture and the manager's own culture.
The first
step should be a program that focuses on the specific culture
and how its
relationships with employees, co-workers, and the environment
differ from
what the manager is used to. Training should then aim at
developing com-
munication, leadership, conflict management, and other skills
that fit the
particular culture. Because language skills improve cultural
understanding
and business relationships, companies should develop training
geared to
the person's skill levels.26
2019 06:51:29 UTC
Hogan and Goodson then go on to suggest that American
companies

have not taken language and culture training seriously;
expatriate effec-
tiveness is too important to international corporate success to
be taken
so lightly, they argue. Companies should require sophisticated
language
and culture training programs "to ensure that their expatriate
managers
have the skills needed to operate effectively in the new
environment."27
Rather than heeding a call for more sophisticated training
programs
for expatriate managers, however, American companies are
much more
likely to increase their hiring of host nationals, as Lennie
Copeland points
out in "Training Americans to do Business Overseas."28 This
response
to expatriate failure was documented in Kobrin's study, where
50% of
the firms surveyed reported a decrease during the last ten years
in overseas
assignment of American managers, with 26% reporting no
change.29 Both
Copeland and Kobrin agree, on the other hand, that such
maneuvering
will not solve the problem, because "no matter what the
staffing patterns,
somewhere along the line multinational firms, by definition,
have people
of different cultures in contact with each other."'3 The increase
in this
contact is what Kobrin refers to as the "internationalization of
managers":

American firms have matured internationally during the last
two decades.
Many no longer see themselves as U.S. companies with some
overseas
business, but rather as multinational companies serving
worldwide markets.
The impact of internationalization on the managers of these
companies,
however, has been paradoxical. On the one hand, opportunities
for expa-
triate assignments have been significantly reduced. Fewer
Americans are
stationed abroad now than in the past, both in terms of absolute
numbers
and, especially, relative to the volume of business done
overseas.
On the other hand, in the large international companies that are
the
subject of this study, the odds that any manager will be
involved inter-
nationally have risen dramatically. People in "domestic jobs"
find them-
selves involved in a substantial number of cross-border and
crosscultural
interactions. Plant managers in Michigan find that they need to
coordinate
production with their counterparts in Munich and Mexico City
and pur-
chase materials from Korea or Taiwan....31
As Kobrin goes on to point out, this situation suggests a
potential prob-
lem. American managers used to obtain international expertise
through

their company by living and working overseas, but this option
is dis-
appearing with the decline in overseas assignments. At the
same time,
the demand for international expertise due to increased
international
involvement of American business is increasing significantly.
Kobrin ex-
plains: "'International' is no longer the arcane purview of a
small cadre
of managers but is rapidly becoming a component of a wide
variety of
domestic jobs."32 If companies are no longer willing to finance
expatriate
experience abroad and this fact necessitates a further cutback
on the
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252 Paulsell
minimal language and culture exposure of American managers
in the few
existing pre-departure training programs, the question arises as
to where
future managers are going to receive the international training
which they
will need.
Since American companies have traditionally not heeded the
call
for more sophisticated approaches to training their

international man-
agers, it becomes incumbent upon us as educators to prepare
our students
to enter the international business arena. Obviously, to meet
the changing
needs of a paradoxically more internationalized American
business set-
ting in which fewer managers are being assigned overseas,
these students
must be educated in a sophisticated way which prepares them
simulta-
neously to function not only in one host environment, i.e. the
bicultural
competence that we have traditionally sought, but also to
function on a
level of intercultural competence in a more general sense. The
goal of
"Multicultural Competence" can be built into the business
German cur-
riculum, through a three stage approach emphasizing (1) a
knowledge
and information based component for the classroom, (2) an
experiential
component built into the international internship experience,
and (3) an
assessment and integration component achieved through
debriefing ac-
tivities after the student's return to campus life.
Achieving Multicultural Competence:
Goals and Assessment
The explicitly stated strategy of achieving "Multicultural
Compe-
tence" through classroom, internship, and re-entry components
should

be to bring students closer to "multiculturalism" as it is
understood by
cross-cultural psychologists and social scientists. Margaret
Pusch, in the
introduction to her volume Multicultural Education: A Cross-
Cultural
Training Approach, defines "multiculturalism" as
that state in which one has mastered the knowledge and
developed the skills
necessary to feel comfortable and communicate effectively (1)
with people
of any culture encountered and (2) in any situation involving a
group of
diverse cultural backgrounds. (By 'comfortable,' we mean
without the anx-
iety, defensiveness and disorientation that usually accompany
the initial
intercultural experience.) The multicultural person is the
person who has
learned how to learn culture-rapidly and effectively.3
This is certainly an ideal, but one worthy of approaching as
closely as
we can, because, as Pusch discusses further, such multicultural
individ-
uals become "mediating" people capable of bridging the gap
between
cultures and working out global cultural relationships.
2019 06:51:29 UTC

Integrating such cross-cultural training into the student's
business
German classroom, internship, and re-entry experiences is
greatly assisted
by the research of our colleagues in social science, cultural
anthropology
and cross-cultural psychology. There we find not only
information useful
for setting goals for the classroom and the experiential learning
of the
internship situation, but also for planning and implementing
learning
assessment. Optimally, cross-cultural training within the
business Ger-
man curriculum should be comprised of three phases: (1) a
cultural aware-
ness phase which prepares the student to receive input from
other cultures
in a positive way; (2) a cultural use phase in which the student
practices
what was learned in the classroom and consciously reflects
upon expe-
riences in the culture; and (3) a cultural processing phase in
which the
returned student is assisted in objectivizing and integrating the
cultural
observations and interactions experienced while on the
internship. The
cultural use phase can only be fully realized through an
internship or a
similar immersion experience in the culture. The cultural
awareness and

cultural processing phases are, in fact, best carried out in the
classroom
within the native culture.
During the cultural awareness phase, the role of the teacher in
the
classroom is crucial. As Michael Byram writes:
... the teacher's control over cultural learning is crucial, and..,.
the place
which teachers most fully control, the classroom rather than the
period of
direct contract with the foreign culture, has a significant role to
play in
preparing learners so that their reaction to the direct contact
will be a
desirable one. What then should foreign language teachers be
trying to do?
What kind of cognitive and affective changes should they hope
for and how
should they render the environment and experience propitious
for these
changes?34
During this phase the goal should be nothing less than a
measurable
change in student attitudes toward other cultures; such changes
can only
be brought about, Byram argues further, by changes in
cognitive struc-
tures. Cognitive structures which reflect cultural meanings
must be the
focus of the teacher's efforts during the cultural awareness
phase. These
cognitive structures or schemata not only define what is
"foreign," but

also determine how individuals view their own ethnic identity.
If per-
ceptions of others and attitudes toward them are to change,
then per-
ceptions of one's own self and ethnic identity must change.35
One way
to effect change in students' views of their ethnicity is to
present them
with a new experience of their ethnicity:
This can be done by presenting them with a foreigner's view of
their eth-
nicity, with the intention that their existing schemata of their
own ethnicity
shall change when they cannot cope with the new experience.
Such new
2019 06:51:29 UTC
254 Paulsell
experience needs, of course, to be agreeable and non-
threatening, so that
pupils are prepared to change their schemata rather than reject
the expe-
rience by assimilating it to their existing views of foreigners;
they must be
helped to take seriously foreign views of themselves which
differ from their
own, and to adjust their own to give recognition to the foreign
views.36

Particularly useful in introducing German views of American
ethnicity
are German newspaper and magazine articles which deal with
German
perceptions of American society. Here, the students are on
familiar
ground, their own ethnicity, and revealing discussions can
ensue sparked
by the perceptions of the "outsiders." Articles from German
business
publications which are normally used for their factual content
can, thus,
be used for the purpose of improving cultural awareness.
However, as
Byram mentions,"37 these types of materials are not easy to
find. It is rare
that Germans give accounts of their own ethnicity or write
exclusively
about their perceptions of others' ethnicity. But one does not
need to
locate full length articles of this sort to build cross-cultural
awareness. Of
equal, if not greater value are the bits and pieces of difference
in cultural
perceptions which constantly crop up in articles of all kinds.
One must,
first, simply learn to be more sensitive to the existence of
cultural bias
in writing of all kinds, and, second, be more creative in
preparing and
incorporating such articles into the course materials. Another
excellent
technique is to make use of videotaped interviews or to invite
native
Germans (business people) into the classroom to discuss their
perceptions

of American culture.
After students have begun to come to terms with their own
views
of themselves and their values and assumptions, the next step
in the
cultural awareness phase is to help them reconsider their views
of for-
eigners, to change their perceptions of foreign cultures in
general and of
Germans in particular. The cultural awareness phase can only
be accom-
plished by educating our students in the discipline which
focuses upon
cultural studies, social anthropology.38 This classroom cultural
self-as-
sessment phase is best in English; some exercises may be done
in German,
but use of the native language will allow students far greater
freedom to
explore their views and will result in much more stimulating
discussion.
A complete discussion of teaching strategies for the integration
of the
cultural awareness component into the business German
classroom is
beyond the scope of this article, but there are any number of
excellent
texts and handbooks dealing with multicultural education."39
Many con-
tain both an introduction to the disciplinary foundation of
multicultural
education as well as interesting and creative exercises and
teaching strat-
egies in perception, self-assessment in values and assumptions,
listening,

communication, simulations, etc. These exercises can bring an
exciting
new dimension not only into the foreign language classroom in
general,
2019 06:51:29 UTC
but into the business German classroom in particular. One need
only
refine the more general goals discussed here to focus more
strongly on
the subcultures of the German and American business
environments.4"
The goal of the classroom phase in increasing cultural
awareness is
to bring students to the point where they are fully engaged with
their own
perceptions and their own communication patterns, where they
are able
to break through their cognitive defenses and realize that cross-
cultural
misunderstanding relates to them in their own cultural here and
now,
rather than to "them," the outsiders out there.41 The students
must be
secure in their own culture and positively identify with it, must
be aware
of the degree to which they are culturally conditioned, and
must respect

and appreciate cultural differences.42 "It is the function of
cross-cultural
training to provide the framework and content for that kind of
learning."43
Provided that we have successfully achieved this goal (and
there are ways
of assessing it),44 we have prepared students as much as
possible to make
a positive experience out of the immersion into the German
(business)
culture which the internship experience will provide.
The second or cultural use phase of the cross-cultural learning
com-
ponent of the business German curriculum can only be achieved
through
first-hand experience in Germany. The overseas internship
provides the
perfect opportunity for the student to put into practice the more
general
theoretical knowledge gained in the classroom awareness
phase. Optimal
learning is achieved when students become recorders of their
reactions
to residence in Germany and to the internship experience in the
sub-
culture of the business environment. In the classroom, the
instructor
carefully constructed the "other cultural perspective on new
experience"'45
and prepared students to recognize certain coping mechanisms
which
they would inevitably use when maximally stressed in dealing
with that
other perspective. In the other culture, students have to
massively re-

organize cognitive structures on their own-a large-scale
undertaking
which, even with the best of preparation, will inevitably lead to
some
"culture shock." "Culture shock" should not, however, be
viewed neg-
atively. Indeed, if a student recognizes the causes and phases of
this
cultural disorientation, it can be used as a basis for experiential
learning
during the internship experience.
There is now considerable debate in progress among
professionals
in the area of cross-cultural training concerning the nature of
"culture
shock."46 But most agree that there are four readily
identifiable stages
through which most "outsiders" pass as they attempt to deal
with un-
familiar cultural environments. Some outsiders progress
through all four,
some remain locked in stage one, depending on one's
psychological make-
up and the specific circumstances one encounters. The
terminology var-
ies, but the stages can be identified as: (1) "Fight," in which
the ethno-
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256 Paulsell

centric impulse dominates and one defensively over-affirms
one's own
culture. (2) "Flight," which involves a withdrawal from
interaction in
the other culture. (3) "Going Native," in which one takes on the
values
of the other culture and attempts to slough one's own cultural
identity.
(4) "Adaptation," in which one tries to comprehend the other
culture
and adapt one's behavior appropriately, while at the same time
affirming
one's own cultural identity.47 As noted earlier, it is the
objective of the
"cultural awareness" portion of the curriculum proposed in this
article
to prepare students before departure to be at stage four, but,
realistically,
we all know that, no matter how well prepared, students will
experience
some disorientation, not only from the "other" German culture,
but also
from the change from the subculture student group to the
business sub-
culture.
If students have been made sufficiently aware of cultural
difference
and the phenomena associated with "culture shock," they are
prepared
to recognize their own protective reactions to cultural stress.
Student
interns should keep a journal in which they reflect upon these
experiences.
The journal entries will provide the foundation for the cultural

processing
phase, which supplies the framework for personal growth at the
individual
level which transcends any of our more specific goals for
intercultural
learning. This process could indeed lead to the kind of personal
growth
necessary to bring our students to the threshold of becoming
the "me-
diating individuals" we mentioned earlier, individuals who can
"select,
combine and synthesize the appropriate features of different
social sys-
tems ... people who have the ability to act as links between
different
cultural systems, bridging the gap by introducing, translating,
representing
and reconciling the cultures to each other."48 According to
Sharon Rubin,
a personal journal provides, "good raw material for helping
students
demystify an experience through analysis of issues of self-
identity, per-
ception of the world, motivation, relationship to others, type of
activity,
etc."49
Rubin is, however, not discussing international internships, but
rather domestic internship experiences. The novelty of her
approach is
to apply, as we have been arguing here, sociological
methodology in the
preparation for and implementation of the internship
experience. She
sees cultural difference inherent in the fact that the student is
leaving the

student subculture behind and entering the
business/professional sub-
culture. Students therefore will undergo a type of "culture
shock" very
similar to what a person experiences during an extended stay in
a foreign
country even in situations within their own culture. Rubin also
suggests
that students keep journals as a way of monitoring their
feelings and
reactions and reflecting upon their experiences. Our business
German
2019 06:51:29 UTC
students, then, must be sensitized to monitoring reactions to
cultural
difference and reflecting on experience at more than one level.
For the business German internship to be integrated into our
cur-
riculum in an academically sound way, it must, as argued
earlier, con-
stitute experiential learning which has identifiable and
assessable objec-
tives. Of course, any one of a number of different sets of
objectives are
possible. However, a natural integration, commensurate with
our roles
as language and culture instructors, is made possible if the

internship is
viewed as the cultural use phase of a three stage cross-cultural
learning
component of the business German curriculum. The cultural use
phase
must be preceded by a cultural awareness phase in which
students are
prepared for the cultural immersion experience. The keeping of
a journal
that is oriented toward cross-cultural awareness is essential to
the cultural
use phase and helps students reflect upon their own individual
growth
and objectify it. At this point, however, the learning experience
remains
incomplete because most students require feedback and further
process-
ing of their cross-cultural experience before they begin to
approach the
goal of "intercultural competence."
A cultural processing phase must follow up on the internship
ex-
perience. Once again, a lengthy discussion of possible methods
which
could be used in cultural processing would go beyond the
parameters of
this article. But, since there has been no discussion of this
important
station on the road to "intercultural competence" in our
professional
literature, a few suggestions will be offered here.
During this phase the journal can serve two functions. It can
provide

the foreign language instructor with a basis for evaluating the
internship
experience in cross-cultural terms as well as for assisting the
student in
processing the cross-cultural learning. A first step toward
closing the loop
in the intercultural learning experience for each intern could be
the writing
of a longer essay,5" after the student's return to campus, based
on the
individual incidences and observations recorded in the journal.
Here the
student would be required to reflect in retrospect on the
experience, to
identify key incidents, and to summarize in a more general way
the
cultural learning experience as a whole. In a second step, the
essay could
then be used as a basis for discussion with the instructor, who
would
help the student identify her/his coping strategies and problem-
solving
mechanisms in the intercultural internship situation. The third
step could
involve presentation of three or four of the key incidents
identified by
student and instructor as problem-solving situations for group
discussion
in the classroom. This exercise should be conducted only with
advanced
business German students who are nearing the end of their
cultural aware-
ness phase. Each work group in the business German class
could be
assigned to discuss a different situation, without the coping
mechanism

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258 Paulsell
and problem-solving strategy of the student intern having been
revealed.
The work group would be expected to discuss several different
possible
responses to the situation based upon their cross-cultural
training. Such
a three-step methodology benefits the returning student intern
by func-
tioning as a mechanism for processing of the cultural
knowledge obtained
from the internship. But it also benefits those currently
enrolled in the
business German course by incorporating case studies into their
more
advanced discussion of cultural awareness.
The instructor should include as many former interns as
possible
in classroom discussions and presentations, thereby using the
interns'
experiences to help further the intercultural understanding of
peers. In
addition, the experience gained by returned interns could be
beneficial
in a second, domestic internship with companies which may be
consid-
ering international involvement, but which do not yet possess

interna-
tional expertise. It is important that the internship experience
be con-
ceived in stages of(1) pre-departure preparation, (2) monitored
internship
experience, and (3) re-entry with associated reflection and
personal
growth related activities.
Such a cultural rationale for integrating an internship into the
busi-
ness German curriculum can certainly be seen as beneficial
from the
perspective of American business. As Kobrin points out:
Managers view international expertise from both an
informational and an
operational perspective. Economic, social and political
information is nec-
essary for the analysis and forecasting underlying planning and
decision-
making. An understanding of how to interact with people and
organizations
in other countries, or how to "move around and get it done," is
required
outside the United States.'
The designations informational and operational overlap
significantly with
what Kobrin goes on to identify as general and country-specific
inter-
national expertise. Specific knowledge ofa country would
involve knowl-
edge of the language and culture of one country, while general
knowledge
involves understanding of "what is different abroad and the

forms those
differences are likely to take."'52
Those in charge of hiring and assigning managers to
international
positions will always remind us as educators that individuals
involved
in international business must be able to function
multiculturally. Even
if American businesses were to continue to assign expatriate
managers
at one point or another to a country for which their language
and cultural
background has specifically trained them (which, as we have
seen, would
run contrary to recent trends), the managers are not likely to
remain there
for more than a few years before being transferred to another
assignment.
Therefore, the most important component of international
expertise for
2019 06:51:29 UTC
most businesses is what they refer to as "'cultural empathy,'
'wearing
the shoes of other people,' sensitivity to differences in the ways
places
work and the way business is done, knowing where other
people are

'coming from,' and understanding 'how to live there'."53 In
other words,
businesses will be more interested in our students with
experience abroad
who can demonstrate high degrees of cross-cultural awareness
and are
multiculturally competent, regardless of the specific country
knowledge
they may possess. Students must be able to "learn culture,
rapidly and
effectively." The phrase "rapid and effective learning of
culture" under-
scores the business perspective in cross-cultural training
endeavors quite
clearly. Learning culture has always been a question of cost-
effectiveness
for American business. Businesses and business schools have
not nec-
essarily seen the value in students or managers devoting years
to the
study of the language and culture of specific countries. Yet, as
has been
discussed, many experts agree that the current level
ofmulticultural train-
ing of American managers is inadequate. Inman argues that
companies
"must be helped to understand what realistically is involved in
an ade-
quate program of language training and use"'54 because "most
people
unfamiliar with the challenges and rigors of language learning
and teach-
ing simply have no appreciation for the length of time and
considerable

effort required in order for anyone to develop even a working
capability
in a second language.""
We must strive to educate our colleagues in the business
schools
and professionals in the business community about the nature
of "mul-
ticultural competence." Is it possible to "wear the shoes of
other people,
to know their ways of doing business, to know where they are
coming
from, and to understand how they live" without ever actually
walking
in their shoes? As language and culture educators it seems self-
evident
to us that multicultural competence would be extremely
difficult if not
impossible to attain without at some point achieving
intercultural com-
petence. We must strive to convince American business of the
need for
intimate knowledge of the language and culture of at least one
specific
country in the education of future international managers.
Since Germany
is a major world economic power and German a major business
language
next to English, business German courses provide a solid
foundation for
study of a specific country for those interested in international
business.
With a cultural awareness (general/informational) facet, a
cultural use
(country specific/operational) facet, and a cultural processing
(synthes-

izing) facet to our cultural component in the business German
curricu-
lum, our graduates will possess a degree of intercultural
competence
which becomes the basis for developing true multicultural
competence.
Strong cross-cultural awareness components in our curricula
may help
2019 06:51:29 UTC
260 Paulsell
justify more sophisticated "language" study of longer duration
to business
executives who have often viewed language study as
unimportant.
Conclusion:
International Business Internships and a Liberal Education
If some colleagues are unwilling to agree with a rationale for
the
importance of the international internship based upon meeting
the need
for international expertise in the halls of corporate America,
then a second
foundation for this rationale may seem more appealing. To
quote Sharon
Rubin once again:

At its best, it [the internship experience] may help the student
move from
ethnocentrism toward cultural pluralism, an understanding of
the benefits
and disadvantages of his/her own and other cultures and a
commitment
to those aspects he/she believes in within each. If that final
sequence re-
minds one of the process which such developmental theorists as
William
Perry define for the intellectual and ethical development of
college students,
the similarities, I believe are not coincidental.56
Although Rubin has no "foreign" experience in mind for the
internship
experience, but rather a reflective, monitored experience within
a sub-
culture of the mainstream culture, the principles which she has
enunciated
apply to our discussion as well. The internship experience per
se is cur-
rently being reformulated and expanded to fit a "completely
innovative
approach to the acquisition of non-technical skills," as E.L.
Corroni-Long
has put it.57 In this reformulation, the type of skills and
cognitive de-
velopment which experiential learning programs promote are
seen as
directly correlated to a liberal arts education:
If one keeps in mind that at the core of the humanistic approach
to edu-
cation is an emphasis on "process" rather than "content" and

that from
John Dewey on American supporters of a liberal arts
curriculum have
stressed self-realization, in terms of flexibility, objectivity and
individual
maturity and autonomy, as the major aim of post-secondary
education it
is easy to see how experiential learning programs dovetail with
the current
movement toward re-emphasizing humanistic values in
American under-
graduate education.58
With respect to the integration of the cultural component into
business
German curricula, it is important here to emphasize once again
the pre-
paratory classroom activities in cultural awareness and the
reflective and
monitoring activities associated with extracting experiential
learning
from an internship placement. Corroni-Long points out:
If the experiential aspect of a field experience is to bring
cognitive growth,
acquisition of humanistic, non-technical skills such as capacity
for analytical
2019 06:51:29 UTC

and critical thinking, objectivity, flexibility, tolerance for
ambiguity, a dis-
position for human empathy and competence in interpersonal
communi-
cation, then it seems essential that the student be provided the
means by
which the placement setting can be analyzed as a complex
human system
functioning both as a self-contained unit and as part of an
articulated social
framework. Furthermore, the students must be given a
methodology as well
as precise techniques with which their own placement
experience can be
analyzed... .59
A "marriage between theory and practice" is achieved when one
lays the
proper theoretical foundation from cultural anthropology and
related
fields in a classroom phase of instruction which precedes the
experiential
learning phase, according to Corroni-Long. Rubin and Corroni-
Long
make their arguments from the more general perspective of
adding a
dimension of individual growth to experiential learning
situations. Yet
the points are equally valid for our conceptualization of the
value of the
international internship experience.
Such experiences do not have to be seen merely as facilitators
of
the needs of American business, or as ways to make our
graduates more

marketable. They may be seen instead as integral parts of a
pedagogical
strategy which has as its goal the creation of "mediating
individuals."
According to Pusch:
If we live in a plural rather than an assimilationist world, this
[cultural
mediation] becomes a critical function since cultures will not,
as the old
ideal hoped they would, grow together and become one-even
under the
leveling impact of technology. As the earth becomes
increasingly crowded,
the need for more extensive and sophisticated mediation of
differences is
apparent.60
The skills of such mediating individuals are not only valuable
in
the business setting, but are also extremely important to human
society
in general. In working toward training such individuals, we
therefore
contribute not only to the immediate goals of the business
community,
but also to the more long-range goals of our "nation at risk" in
a mean-
ingful way. There cannot be a more humanistic endeavor.
'It would be preferable to move away from this terminology; it
carries connotations
which tend to diminish, in the eyes of many of our colleagues,
the academic legitimacy of
academically sound courses which have been developed under
this rubric. The term is

entirely too close to "business English," which is most often
used, in the United States at
least, for high school level English courses for pupils who are
not college bound. Thus,
whether deserved or not, it often has negative associations. If
we are to continue in a serious
effort to legitimize this undertaking within our discipline, then
it is imperative that we
move toward different designations of our courses and
curricula which are more descriptive
of the rigorous academic content which they entail. "German
for Business and the Profes-
sions" is a more general option; I choose to use "German for
Business and Economics."
2019 06:51:29 UTC
262 Paulsell
2As initial support for this contention, I can only offer
evidence from a survey of
our own business intern graduates. Of the over 100 students I
have placed through the
MSU Business German Internship Program over the past ten
years, more than 30 have
reported that they are actively working in a multinational
company and using their German.
This figure may be even higher, but we did not receive
responses from all graduates; some
addresses may have been outdated and the survey questionnaire
did not reach some in-
dividuals. I cannot say for sure, but I would hazard a guess that

very few of the 150 or so
students who completed the business German course sequence
and did not go on to an
internship experience are working in similar positions.
3Stephen J. Kobrin, International Expertise in American
Business (New York: In-
stitute of International Education, 1984) 38.
4See Roberta Seabrook and Berardo Valdes, "So You Were a
Language Major: Cor-
porate Interviewing and Training in Foreign Languages and
Cross-Cultural Studies," Pro-
ceedings of the Seventh Annual Eastern Michigan University
Conference on Languages for
Business and the Professions (ERIC, 1988) 6 (FL 017 846). In
Seabrook's survey respondents
chosen from Fortune 500 multinationals chose the M.I.B.,
experience abroad, and intern-
ships as their top three criteria for hiring international
managers. In another recent broad
study of Fortune 500 multinationals, Kobrin relates that the
vast majority of respondents
rated business travel and assignments overseas as critical in the
development of interna-
tional expertise in American managers (Kobrin 38).
5For those seeking to establish business German courses and/or
internship programs,
a gold mine of program descriptions can be found in the
published proceedings of and/or
by attending any Eastern Michigan University Conference on
Language for World Business
and the Professions, which is held in Ypsilanti, Michigan
yearly in April or May. It is the
only major conference of its kind.

6For specific information on the implementation of our
successful Business German
Overseas Internship program at Michigan State, through which
over 100 students have
received internships during the past ten years, see Patricia R.
Paulsell, "The Importance
and Implementation of a Business Foreign Language Internship
Program," Foreign Lan-
guageAnnals 16 (1983): 277-86. Although published in 1983,
the information is still largely
valid. Considerable attention is devoted to problems associated
with intern placement. For
a very different approach to establishing internship
connections, see, Linda R. Andersen-
Fiala, "Generating Internship Opportunities for Business
Students with Foreign Language
Competency: A Networking Approach," Proceedings ofthe
Fourth Annual Eastern Michigan
University Conference on Languages for Business and the
Professions (ERIC, 1985) (FL 015
887).
7Yves Benett, "The Assessment of Supervised Work
Experience (SWE)-A Theoret-
ical Perspective," The Vocational Aspect of Education XLI.109
(August 1989): 62.
8Benett 54.
9Stephen Bochner, ed., Cultures in Contact (Oxford: Pergamon,
1982) 23.
'oJust a word here about women and international internship
placement: In their
article "Women in Management: Unused Resources in the
Federal Republic of Germany"

in Women and Management Worldwide, Ariane Berthoin Antal
and Camilla Krebsbach-
Gnath (1988) report that "compared with other European
countries and the United States,
the percentage of women in managing positions in West
Germany is very small, and has
not changed significantly over the past 20 years: only 1.5
percent of the leading positions
in West German firms are held by women, and even those are
clustered in 'female do-
mains' "(141-42). In addition, women in management receive
20% lower salaries than their
male counterparts (142) and many social, cultural, economic,
educational, sociopsychol-
ogical, and systematic barriers still remain for women in
management in Germany. Since
the large majority of our enrollment in German classes in
general and in business German
classes in particular is female, these are disturbing figures.
Anyone who is involved with
German business knows, consciously or unconsciously, the
realities of women's place in
the German business culture. For American women this
presents yet another dimension
of the cross-cultural awareness complex and it is only fair that
the faculty supervisor make
this dimension and its implications for career choices
absolutely clear to all potential female
interns.
2019 06:51:29 UTC

"These papers were presented at the 1985, 1986, and 1987
Eastern Michigan Uni-
versity Conferences and are also available on ERIC microfiche.
'2Barney T. Raffield, III, "The Effective Supervision of
Internship Experiences within
Multinational Business and Foreign Language Programs"
Proceedings of the Fifth Annual
Eastern Michigan University Conference on Languages for
Business and the Professions
(ERIC, 1986) 3-4 (FL 016 623).
'3Alfred Kadushin, Supervision in Social Work (New York:
Columbia UP, 1976.)
14Raffield 8.
"SMichael Byram, Cultural Studies in Foreign Language
Education (Clevedon: Mul-
tilingual Matters, 1989) 7.
'6Alison R. Lanier, "Selecting and Preparing Personnel for
Overseas Transfers" Per-
sonnel Journal, March 1979: 160.
'7Gary W. Hogan and Jane R. Goodson, "The Key to Expatriate
Success" Training
and Development Journal, January 1990: 50.
18Hogan 50.
1gJean M. McEnery and Gaston Des Harnais, "An Examination
of the Predictors of
Success of Expatriate Student Interns," Proceedings of the
Seventh Annual Eastern Michigan

University Conference on Languages for Business and the
Professions, (ERIC, 1988) 8 (FL
017 850).
20Hogan 52.
2'Hogan 51.
22Marianne Inman, "Language and Cross-Cultural Training in
American Multina-
tional Corporations," The Modern Language Journal 69 (1985):
250.
23Inman 249.
24The survey "Foreign language and predeparture training for
U.S. multinational
firms," appearing in PersonnelAdministrator in 1984 is
particularly illustrative of this point.
In yet another study of Fortune 500 multinationals, James C.
Baker, a professor of finance
and international business at Kent State University, also
collected data which revealed the
inadequate level of international training of American
managers. Perhaps the most revealing
facet of this study, however, lay more in the silence to items on
Baker's questionnaire than
in the answers he received. 50% of respondents chose not to
answer the query as to whether
language is required for overseas assignment; 60% chose not to
answer the query as to what
training program they use for language training; 63% chose not
to answer the query as to
whether the training fit the needs of the firm. In addition,
Baker notes that most of the
responses implied that the companies really did not evaluate
the programs they used. If I
were a corporate executive involved in a large Fortune 500

multinational, I too might be
reluctant to answer questions which would reveal that (1)
knowledge of language, even at
the simplest level, is not a prerequisite for assigning managers
overseas in my company,
(2) I had no language training program for those transferred
overseas, (3) I did not know
whether any training my managers were receiving really fit the
needs of my company, and/
or (4) I do not evaluate my training programs.
25Hogan 52.
26Hogan 52.
27Hogan 52.
28Lennie Copeland, "Training Americans to do Business
Overseas," Training, July
1984: 29.
29Copeland 43.
TMCopeland 29.
31Kobrin 42-43.
32Kobrin 46.
33Margaret E. Pusch, ed. Multicultural Education. A Cross-
cultural TrainingApproach
(New York: Intercultural Press, 1979) 21.
34Byram 116.
"Byram 116.
36Byram 117.
37Byram 118.
38Byram 117.
2019 06:51:29 UTC

264 Paulsell
39A few excellent texts are, e.g. Byram (Note 15), Furnham
and Bochner (Note 46),
Pusch (Note 33), Seelye (Note 44), and Marshall H. Segall et
al., Human Behavior in Global
Perspective: An Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology
(New York: Pergamon, 1990).
4Such a cultural awareness component is being systematically
integrated into a new
textbook/workbook/integrated computer program for German
for Business and Economics
(third year college level) currently being produced at Michigan
State. The materials are
scheduled for completion by Fall, 1992.
41Pusch 17.
42Pusch 33.
43Pusch 17.
"See H. Ned Seelye, Teaching Culture: Strategies for
Intercultural Communication
(Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company, 1984) and
Claire Kramsch's discussion
(in "New Directions in the Teaching of Language and Culture,"
NLFC Occasional Papers,
Washington DC: National Foreign Language Center, April
1989) of the AATF suggestion
to add cultural proficiency to the ACTFL speaking, listening,
reading, and writing proficiency

guidelines for French. The suggested cultural proficiency levels
would be "sociolinguistic
ability" (somewhat above the basic survival skills),
"knowledge" (at its highest level, roughly
equivalent to the "cultural knowledge" level I have proposed as
the goal of the classroom
phase of the culture component), and "enlightened attitudes"
(which presupposes quite
sophisticated bicultural communication skills).
45Byram 115.
"See, in particular, Adrian Furnham and Stephen Bochner,
Culture Shock (London:
Routledge, 1989), in which the authors redefine "culture
shock," redirecting our attentions
away from older definitions which rely more on illness
metaphors and toward explanations
which address "psychological reactions to unfamiliar
environments."
47Pusch 23-24.
48Bochner 29.
49Sharon Rubin, "The Internship Process: A Cultural Model,"
Experiential Learning
and Cultural Models, Panel Resource Paper #12, Jane C.
Kendall, ed. (Raleigh, NC: National
Society for Internships and Experiential Education. Peer
Assistance Network in Experiential
Learning, 1983) 5 (ERIC ED 260 638).
AT'he writing of such an essay is a mechanism which avoids
the necessity for the
instructor to read the student's journal. The student will
probably feel much more inclined

to write frankly in the journal if she/he has the assurance of the
instructor that the journal
itself is a personal document which will not be read by the
instructor as a part of the
evaluation process. The instructor can evaluate the learning
process through the essay and
ensuing discussion.
51Kobrin 11.
52Kobrin 12.
53Kobrin 13.
54Inman 254.
SInman 253.
56Rubin 20.
57E.L. Corroni-Long, "Experiential Learning and Cultural
Anthropology. General
Considerations and Case Study," Experiential Learning and
Cultural Models, Panel Re-
source Paper #12, Jane C. Kendall,ed. (Raleigh, NC: National
Society for Internships and
Experiential Education. Peer Assistance Network in
Experiential Learning, 1983) 8 (ERIC
ED 260 638).
58Corroni-Long 8.
59Corroni-Long 10.
6"Pusch 22.
2019 06:51:29 UTC
Contents243244245246247248249250251252253254255256257
258259260261262263264Issue Table of ContentsMonatshefte,

Vol. 83, No. 3 (Fall, 1991), pp. i-iii, 216-379Front
MatterFlemish-Greek ImpressionsIlias [pp. 216-
217]Mythe/Myth [pp. 218-219]Focus on Business German [pp.
220-223]Correction: Tacho eschnapur [p. 223-223]Correction:
Das denken des zufalls [p. 223-223]Business German: Its
Coming of Age [pp. 224-232]Mixing German Studies and
Business: Anatomy of a Business-German Program in Wisconsin
[pp. 233-242]A Cultural Rationale for International Business
Internships [pp. 243-264]The New Prüfung Wirtschaftsdeutsch
International: A Key to Success for Students and Professionals
[pp. 265-275]Personalia 1991/92 [pp. 276-327]Special
SurveyBusiness German Programs and Courses [pp. 328-
351]Review ArticleReview: Stimmen-Gegenstimmen: Neue
Beiträge zu Geschichte und Theorie der modernen Literatur [pp.
352-360]Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 361-362]Review:
untitled [pp. 362-363]Review: untitled [pp. 363-365]Review:
untitled [pp. 365-366]Review: untitled [p. 366-366]Review:
untitled [p. 373-373]Review: untitled [pp. 373-375]Review:
untitled [pp. 378-379]Back Matter
Cultural Cognition in International Business Research
Author(s): Daniel P. Sullivan and Gary R. Weaver
Source: MIR: Management International Review, Vol. 40, No. 3
(2000 3rd Quarter), pp. 269-
297
Published by: Springer
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40835891
Accessed: 25-04-2019 06:51 UTC

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mir vol. 40, 2000/3, pp. 269 - 297 _^A •
Hill" _^A
Manaaomont

mernanonui kgvkîw
© Gabler Verlag 2000
Daniel P. Sullivan/Gary R. Weaver
Cultural Cognition in International Business
Research
Abstract
■ Various literatures hold that treating culture as a cognitive
construct can explain
managers' interpretive frameworks. We extend this thesis to the
academic mi-
lieu by applying principles of cognitive science to study IB
scholars' schematic
representation of interpretive frameworks reported in MIR and
JIBS from 1970
through 1997. We assess the influence of culture on scholars'
frameworks in
terms of national, regional, interactional, and disciplinary
proxies.
Key Results
■ Analysis found that IB scholars' interpretative frameworks
varied in terms of
types and properties for all levels of culture. Student t-tests and
ANO VA found
intriguing patterns of cross-cultural cognitive convergence and
divergence.
These results inform debates on culture as a latent variable
versus culture as a
cognitive construct, cultural influences on the outlooks of IB

researchers, and
calls for transcultural communication.
Authors
Daniel P. Sullivan, Associate Professor of International
Business, Department of Business Admin-
istration, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.
Gary R. Weaver, Assistant Professor of Management,
Department of Business Administration, Uni-
versity of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.
Manuscript received December 1997, revised November 1998.
mir vol. 40, 2000/3 269
2019 06:51:48 UTC
Daniel P. Sullivan/Gary R. Weaver
An intriguing thesis of comparative management proposes that
cultures incorpo-
rate different frameworks that guide both abstract ideas of
rationality and intelli-
gibility and, hence, the interpretation of empirical reality. More
precisely, the
emerging theory of cultural cognitivism proposes that
understanding culture in
cognitive terms reveals culturally-unique interpretive
frameworks that explain
why managers associate and discriminate ideas and phenomena
in particular ways.

Moreover, cultural cognitivism suggests that culturally-rooted
interpretive frame-
works explain managers' associations and discriminations
better than do conven-
tional appeals to latent cultural values
(Abramson/Keating/Lane 1996, Adler/Dok-
tor/Redding 1986, Romney/Boyd/Batchelder/Brazill 1996,
Redding 1994). Ap-
plied study of culture as a cognitive phenomenon in managerial
settings with, for
example, British and French (Calori/Johnson/Sarnin 1994),
French and American
(Calori 1994), German, French, Indian, and American (Welge
1994), American,
Canadian, and Japanese (Abramson et al. 1996), Korean and
American (Hitt/
Dacin/Tyler/Park 1996), and American, Canadian, Hong Kong,
and Singapore
(Sharp/Salter 1997) samples, strongly supports this thesis.
Collectively, these re-
ports show that an individual's cognitive schema "is the
primary locus of culture"
(Talmy 1995) and that cultures vary ontologically in terms of
categorization, dif-
ferentiation, and abstraction (Levinson 1996, DiMaggio 1997).
The interaction of
these attributes, in turn, systematically shapes how a manager
of a particular cul-
ture "perceives, relates, and interprets information that affects
individual and
group behavior" (Abramson et al. 1996, p. 126) such that
managers of different
cultures "may approach the same strategic opportunities and
global markets in
different ways" (Hitt et al. 1996, p. 165).

There are suggestions that cultural cognition occurs in
academia - e.g., schol-
ars from different nations interpret the same thesis differently.
At the national
level, Vernon (1994, p. 227) notes the influence of "US history,
values, and insti-
tutions" on IB studies, while Macharzina and Oesterle (1994)
assess the transcul-
tural dynamic in the scholarship of German and US researchers.
Others (e.g., Red-
ding 1994, Adler et al. 1986) suggest regional effects; for
instance, Teagarden et
al. (1995, p. 1262) report that the "North American positivist
approach, with its
emphasis on rigorous quantitative methods, measurement,
precision, and internal
and external validity" fundamentally shapes the cross-cultural
transferability of
management theories. Finally, at the institutional or discipline
level, some argue
that a positivist paradigm fundamentally shapes the theoretical
and methodolog-
ical precepts of research in general (Chia 1995) and IB studies
in particular (Red-
ding 1994). More significantly, reviews of the epistemological
evolution of IB re-
search highlight distinctive design (Schollhammer 1994,
Sullivan 1994 A), sam-
pling (Sullivan 1994B, Thomas/Shenkar/Clarke 1994), and
interpretative (Dan-
iels 1991, Sullivan 1996, 1998A, 1998B) norms.
In spite of these suggestions, Macharzina and Oesterle (1994,
p. 255) noted
that "(t)here are almost no international comparative studies
regarding the output

270 mir vol. 40, 2000/3
2019 06:51:48 UTC
Cultural Cognition in International Business Research
of research work in the field of business administration."
Consequently, cultural
influences on IB research are largely unknown. As of 1998, this
state of affairs
still prevails. Pioneering works, notably Macharzina and
Oesterle (1994) and
Schollhammer (1994), have begun the task of analyzing
cultural effects on IB re-
search. Our understanding, though, remains largely conjectural.
This is proble-
matic for the future of IB research given reports that cross-
cultural sensitivity en-
genders greater creativity, innovation, and responsiveness
(Chikudate 1991, Sten-
ing/Hammer 1992, Teagarden et al. 1995, Sharp/Salter 1997)
while insensitivity
jeopardizes relations (Macharzina/Oesterle 1994,
Newman/Nollen 1996, Abram-
son et al. 1996). The desirability of creativity, innovation and
responsiveness in
IB research spurs us to identify cultural preferences for
cognitive schémas so that
we can better address how cross-cultural "synergy works and
thus how to deter-
mine the components of the mixture" (Redding 1994, p. 336).

Therefore, clarify-
ing the cognitive practices of cultural groups promises to (1)
explicate the cultu-
ral attributes of the interpretive frameworks embedded in the
theoretical outlooks
and explanatory models of IB researchers and (2) allow
scholars to consider the
extent to which and means by which these interpretative
frameworks can be ex-
ported across cultures. Sharper sensitivity to the melange of
culture and cogni-
tion should enhance communication among culturally disparate
persons - both
within and across national and international organizations
(Macharzina/Oesterle
1994, Redding 1994).
This paper primarily addresses the first issue. Specifically, we
estimate cross-
sectional effects and longitudinal trends of cultural cognition
in IB research. Es-
sentially, we ask how IB scholars from different cultural
settings cognitively frame
theoretical explanations. Addressing this issue requires more
contestable psycho-
logical claims than the conventional view of culture as a
configuration of latent
variable (DiMaggio 1997, Abramson et al. 1996).
Fundamentally at issue, we be-
lieve, is the matter of how IB scholars from different cultures
cognitively handle
research questions (D' Andrade 1992).
Theoretical Foundations
The Cultural Context of Theory and Ontology

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