Cross-Cultural Communication

We report on a diary study of the activities of information workers aimed at characterizing how people interleave multiple tasks amidst interruptions. The week-long study revealed the type and complexity of activities performed, the nature of the interruptions experienced, and the difficulty of shifting among numerous tasks. We present key findings from the diary study and discuss implications of the findings. Finally, we describe promising directions in the design of software tools for task management, motivated by the findings.

In cross-cultural communication and adjunct disciplines such as cross-cultural management and international business, there is a negativity bias of seeing cultural differences as a source of potential issues. The emergence of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) questions this problem-focused approach. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion from neuroscience's perspectives in several ways. Firstly, it provides a neurological look at this bias. Secondly, it proposes that the problem-focused approach may (1) give us a biased outlook of cross-cultural encounters rather than a reality, (2) hinder creativity, (3) lead to the rebound effect, and (4) turn belief into reality. Finally, based on insight from neuroscience and adopting the POS lens with the connection between POS and creativity, it's recommended that future research takes three directions: (1) Using similarity as the starting point; (2) strategize body language, context and theories; and (3) develop a multicultural mind. In essence, the paper contributes to existing knowledge of the field by employing an interdisciplinary approach, aiming to gain a more holistic view, provoke thoughts, and trigger future empirical studies.

Japanese listeners rated the expression of joy, anger and sadness in Japanese, Western, and Hindustani music. Excerpts were also rated for tempo, loudness, and complexity. Listeners were sensitive to the intended emotion in music from all three cultures, and judgments of emotion were related to judgments of acoustic cues. High ratings of joy were associated with music judged to be fast in tempo and melodically simple. High ratings of sadness were associated with music judged to be slow in tempo and melodically complex. High ratings of anger were associated with music judged to be louder and more complex. The findings suggest that listeners are sensitive to emotion in familiar and unfamiliar music, and this sensitivity is associated with the perception of acoustic cues that transcend cultural boundaries.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct a critical analysis to address cultural metaphors – a much
overlooked aspect of cross-cultural studies. Mainstream cultural metaphors (e.g. the iceberg, the software of
the mind, the onion, and the distance) are not only limited in number, but are also overwhelmingly based on
the static paradigm – as opposed to the dynamic paradigm that is often sidelined in academic discourse.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper introduces the Diagram of Diversity Pathways – an
interdisciplinary framework that sheds some light on how the inherent meaning and heuristic orientation of
static cultural metaphors may stand at odds with evidence from the newly emerged field of neurobiology.
Findings – The implications of these metaphors are called into question, namely, culture is all about
differences; values are stable; values guide behaviors; and values are seen as binaries.
Research limitations/implications – The paper suggests that theorists and practitioners should pay
more attention to the contribution and scholarly work of the dynamic paradigm since there appears to be
substantial compatibility between them.
Originality/value – The matching of neurobiology and dynamic paradigm brings into focus alternative
metaphors which not only offer insightful perspectives but also may open doors to perceive culture in a new
way. Furthermore, cultural metaphors deserve more academic scrutiny because metaphors and theory
development can have a symbiotic existence.
Keywords Interdisciplinary, Cultural metaphor, Cultural neuroscience, Dynamic cultural paradigm,
Evolutionary biology, Static cultural paradigm
Paper type Research paper

This article proposes a framework examining the impact of non-native accents on speakers' work and career outcomes, namely, career advancement and career satisfaction. Drawing on stigma theory, we present a conceptual model to assess cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions towards non-native accents. We contend that speaking with a non-native accent is linked with (i) managers' perceptions of speakers' fluency, (ii) expectations concerning non-native speakers' performance abilities, (iii) positive regard in social interactions and (iv) supervision style towards speakers with non-native accents. Moreover, we suggest that speaking with a non-native accent may lead speakers to (i) feel excluded and devalued at work, and (ii) assume an avoidance approach at work. Together, these effects can create a self-fulfilling prophecy that negatively affects non-native speakers' work and career outcomes. We also suggest that the strength of accents' consequences depend on the presence of particular person-related (accent prestige, exposure to the non-native accent, and non-native speakers' goal orientation) and job-related factors (nature of the job and company ethnocentrism). Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adaptive educational hypermedia (AEH) systems that is currently under investigation by the EU ADAPT project. Within this project, design dimensions for high granularity patterns have been established. In this paper we focus on detailing lower granularity adaptive patterns based upon learning styles. Several patterns from existing AEH system case studies are identified and classified according to an extended learning style "onion" model. This model forms the basis of a learning style taxonomy, introduced here, whose components determine adaptation patterns for AEH. These patterns are of importance both for authoring, as well as for interfacing between adaptive hypermedia systems. From an authoring point of view, these patterns may be used to establish a fine-grain approach to instructional strategies that can be implemented in AEH systems, as a response to a particular learning style. The implementation of this adaptation pattern taxonomy is discussed, both generally and in detail.

The demand and opportunity for cross-cultural technology design is rapidly rising due to globalization. However, all too often resulting technologies are technically usable, yet cannot be immediately put to meaningful use by users in their local, concrete contexts. Support for concrete user activities is frequently missing in design, as support for decontextualized actions is typically the focus of design. Sun examines this disconnect between action and meaning in cross-cultural technology design and presents an innovative framework, Culturally Localized User Experience (CLUE), to tackle
this problem.

Incorporating key concepts and methods from activity theory, British cultural studies, and rhetorical genre theory, the CLUE approach integrates action and meaning through a dialogical, cyclical design process to design technology that engages local users within culturally meaningful social practices. Illustrated with five in-depth case studies of mobile text messaging use by college students and young professionals in American and Chinese contexts spanning years, Sun calls for a change in cross-cultural design practices from simply applying cultural conventions in design to engaging with social affordances based on a rich understanding of meaningful contextualized activity.

This book will be of interest to researchers, students, practitioners, and anyone who wants to create culture-sensitive technology in this increasingly globalized world that requires advanced strategies and techniques for culturally localized, participatory design.

Authors: Bhui K, Aslam RW, Palinski A, McCabe R, Johnson MR, Weich S, Singh SP, Knapp M, Ardino V, Szczepura A

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Black and minority ethnic (BME) people using psychiatric services are at greater risk of non-engagement, dropout from care and not receiving evidence-based interventions than white British people.
OBJECTIVES:
To identify effective interventions designed to improve therapeutic communications (TCs) for BME patients using psychiatric services in the UK, to identify gaps in the research literature and to recommend future research.
PARTICIPANTS:
Black African, black Caribbean, black British, white British, Pakistani and Bangladeshi patients in psychiatric services in the UK, or recruited from the community to enter psychiatric care. Some studies from the USA included Hispanic, Latino, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian and African American people.
INTERVENTIONS:
Any that improve TCs between BME patients and staff in psychiatric services.
DATA SOURCES:
The published literature, 'grey' literature, an expert survey, and patients' and carers' perspectives on the evidence base. Databases were searched from their inception to 4 February 2013. Databases included MEDLINE, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, The Cochrane Library, Social Science Citation Index, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EMBASE, The Campbell Collaboration and ProQuest for dissertations.
REVIEW METHODS:
Studies were included if they reported evaluation data about interventions designed to improve therapeutic outcomes by improving communication between BME patients and psychiatric professionals. Qualitative studies and reports in the grey literature were included only if they gave a critical evaluative statement. Two members of the team selected studies against pre-established criteria and any differences were resolved by consensus or by a third reviewer, if necessary. Data were extracted independently by two people and summarised in tables by specific study designs. Studies were subjected to a narrative synthesis that included a thematic analysis contrasting populations, countries and the strength of evidence for any intervention. The components of the interventions were compared. Patient perspectives on acceptability were considered alongside quality scores and methodological strengths and weaknesses.
RESULTS:
Twenty-one studies (19 from the published literature and two from the grey literature) met the inclusion criteria. There were 12 trials, two observational quantitative studies, three case series, a qualitative study and three descriptive case studies. Only two studies, one a pilot trial and one a case series, included economic data; in both, a favourable but weak economic case could be made for the intervention. The trials tested interventions to prepare patients for therapeutic interventions, variable levels of ethnic matching (of professional to patient), cultural adaptation of therapies, and interventions that included social community systems in order to facilitate access to services. Empowering interventions favoured by patients and carers included adapted cognitive-behavioural therapy, assessments of explanatory models, cultural consultation, ethnographic and motivational interviews, and a telepsychiatry intervention.
LIMITATIONS:
Studies tended to have small sample sizes or to be pilot studies, and to use proxy rather than direct measures for TCs.
CONCLUSIONS:
Empowering interventions should be further researched and brought to the attention of commissioners. Several promising interventions need further evaluative research and economic evaluations are needed.
STUDY REGISTRATION:
The study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42011001661.
FUNDING:
The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme.

This research contributes to the knowledge and theory on cross cultural communication by investigating the impact of cross cultural communication competence on the collective efficacy of multicultural National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball teams. Data was collected from 140 U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball coaches via the Cross Cultural Communication Competence Questionnaire and the Collective Efficacy Questionnaire for Sports. Principle component analysis was conducted on the data, revealing that the cross cultural communication competence and collective efficacy of basketball teams are multidimensional. The hypothesized relationship between cross cultural communication competence and collective efficacy was confirmed and statistically measured through regression analysis. It was found that four of the cross cultural communication competence dimensions produced by the principle component analysis exhibited a significant positive relationship with one of the two dimensions within collective efficacy. Given the well-supported relationship between collective efficacy and team performance in business, this study produces important implications for scholars and practitioners working with multicultural sporting teams.

This study argues that understanding the nature and influence of cultural differences in print advertising is important for an effective international marketing strategy. Previous studies have investigated cross-cultural differences in advertising, but have not focused on advertising from the Arab world. There is also a shortage of studies providing specific recommendations about localizing advertising for Arab consumers. This study therefore conducts a comparative analysis of Arab and US print advertisements in magazines, to identify cross-cultural differences in advertising and make recommendations on localizing advertising to Arab consumers, and in particular, those in the Persian Gulf states.

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is an important construct attracting growing attention in academic literature and describing cross-cultural competencies. To date, researchers have only partially tested the relationship between CQ and its dependent variables, such as performance. In this study the relationship between CQ and communication effectiveness and job satisfaction is measured in a sample of 225 Chinese managers working for foreign multinational enterprises in China. The results show that CQ plays an important role in reducing anxiety and influencing both communication effectiveness and job satisfaction positively. Another outcome is the unexpected influence of anxiety on job satisfaction but not on communication effectiveness. These findings contribute to the development of theory with regard to the CQ construct.

—Introduction: With the growing need for intensive and online course formats, it has become increasingly difficult to determine what combinations of knowledge and skills that are important for both academia and industry can best provide students with the grounding for exploring the questions of global technical communication (TC) during their programs. About the case: The 7.5-week online global TC course at Arizona State University is divided into six theme-based units and a unit that focuses on a research/revision project. Situating the case: While over the last 20 years, excellent practical materials for teaching global TC have been published, there is a need for comprehensive course descriptions, particularly for courses in online and intensive formats. Methods/approach: The course was based on an extensive literature review of academic and trade publications. The course's effectiveness was analyzed based on final reflective discussion assignments and anonymous student course evaluations. Results/discussion: The literature review revealed six major themes that define global TC: culture and communication, the frameworks of culture, verbal communication, global content and technology, visual communication, and cross-cultural collaboration and audience work. Each unit addressed one of these themes. The course was well-received, and students started posing critical questions to explore in future courses. Conclusions: In our program, having a dedicated global TC course was very beneficial because it introduced students to concepts that they could further explore in other 7.5-week online courses. In addition, I present recommendations for adopting/adapting the course, as well as its limitations and suggestions for future research.

Taking ideas about interfaith communication among stakeholders in the British “God Debate”
as an illustrative case, I propose that the translation metaphor, widely adopted across
disciplines, might productively be replaced by a different metaphor, “translanguaging”
(García and Wei 2013). I suggest that the model of sociolinguistic relations offered by
translanguaging nicely addresses the genealogical inseparability of “religious” language and
“secular” language. This working replacement for the translation metaphor invites new kinds
of philosophical and anthropological engagements with difference and may be extended to the
analysis of other phenomena that demand non-binary thought, such as transculturalism,
transgenderism and transnationalism. [translation metaphor, translanguaging, Britain,
religion, interfaith dialogue]

Our understanding of the cross-cultural aspects of personal epistemology is limited. In particular, cross-cultural comparisons of elementary school teachers’ and students’ personal epistemology have received very little theoretical or empirical attention. The current chapter aims to examine German and U.S. elementary schools in terms of their philosophical and practical similarities and differences in personal epistemology. Both theoretical and empirical work will be reviewed to support a more holistic model of personal epistemology, the Educational Model of Personal Epistemology. In light of this model, we discuss our expectations for differences and similarities in the epistemic climate of elementary classrooms in the U.S. and Germany. Drawing from this discussion, we suggest that researchers should approach cross-cultural research in personal epistemology from a more holistic standpoint, employ a diversity of methods, and obtain a solid understanding of the educational context under study. Regarding educational implications, we propose a possible fusion of the educational philosophies held in the U.S. and Germany concerning the implementation of teacher training and classroom education. Finally, we recommend that fostering evaluativistic thinking (i.e., a way of knowing that focuses on the evaluation and decision-making among differing viewpoints) should be a main goal for education starting at the elementary level to ensure students’ future roles as productive citizens in Western societies and stress the role of the teacher in this endeavor.

Purpose – The underlying objective of this literature review was to investigate what kinds of semiotics researches have been employed in user interfaces design and usability evaluation, and how were they employed.

Design/methodology/approach – This research follows a systematic literature review process that consists of three key stages: planning the review, conducting the review, and reporting the review. Starting with an initial set of about 1,000 research articles, 65 were selected for this review, using an inclusion and exclusion criteria. Qualitative and quantitative data were extracted from the selected literatures following a data extraction strategy in six themes of data extraction. The extracted data were synthesized to formulate the stated research questions to obtain the review goals.

Findings – This systematic review identified research strengths, gaps, and challenges. Apart from this, further research possibilities were also explored in this review. For research, the review showed clear needs for more researches to increase both the number and the quality of studies that can be focused on the research gaps identified by this systematic review related to: outcome validation; cultural issues consideration; user interfaces of mobile applications and websites; semiotics perception in usability evaluation; and further improve the value and applicability of research ideas. For practice, the review showed the significance of semeiotics in user interface design and usability evaluation to develop users' intuitive interfaces for boosting the system's usability.

Originality/value – Based on a systematic literature review, the paper not only depicts the current status of semiotics research in user interface design and evaluation, but also provides a number of implications for research and practice. Thus, the review contributes to the scientific community of user interface design and evaluation, as well as suggesting the actual advances in the state of the practice in semiotics research on user interface.

Visual narratives sometimes depict successive images with different characters in the same physical space; corpus analysis has revealed that this occurs more often in Japanese manga than American comics. We used event-related brain potentials to determine whether comprehension of " visual narrative conjunctions " invokes not only incremental mental updating as traditionally assumed, but also, as we propose, " grammatical " combinatoric processing. We thus crossed (non)/conjunction sequences with character (in)/congruity. Conjunctions elicited a larger anterior negativity (300–500 ms) than nonconjunctions, regardless of congruity, implicating " grammatical " processes. Conjunction and incongruity both elicited larger P600s (500–700 ms), indexing updating. Both conjunction effects were modulated by participants' frequency of reading manga while growing up. Greater anterior negativity in frequent manga readers suggests more reliance on combinatoric processing; larger P600 effects in infrequent manga readers suggest more resources devoted to mental updating. As in language comprehension, it seems that processing conjunctions in visual narratives is not just mental updating but also partly grammatical, conditioned by comic readers' experience with specific visual narrative structures.

This study examines how willingness to disclose and perceived risks of disclosing personally identifying information (PII, also referred to as personal data in Europe) in ecommerce is affected by demographic variables. The study was conducted among participants in the US and Estonia, and utilized a 17-item list of potential disclosure items (name, email address, etc.), categorized reliably into six sub-indices: contact information, payment information, life history information, financial/medical information, work-related information, and online account information. Online disclosure consciousness (ODC) is introduced as a framework to conceptualize, explain the study’s findings, and empirically measure the gap between one’s willingness to disclose and perceived risk pertaining to the overall 17-item index used in the study, the sub-indices, and particular items. The results show significant gaps among participants both within and across nations. Despite Estonia’s advanced adoption and progressive policies and practices toward the Internet, Americans are more willing to disclose, and less concerned about perceived risks. The findings suggest willingness to disclose and risk aversion can and should be analyzed empirically together. The theoretical model provides an alternative conceptualization to the ideas of the privacy paradox, privacy calculus, and privacy cost-benefit ratios. Implications for theory, consumers, marketing practice, and public policy are discussed. Importantly, the study can inform increased adoption of ecommerce and the digital economy, while also protecting consumer’s personal data.

Implicit cognitive responses to drug use cues and drug outcomes, assessed with measures of memory association, were studied in a sample of high-risk White and Latino adolescents. The utility of these responses as predictors of drug use was examined and compared with potentially confounding predictors, including gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and acculturation. The background variables also served as potential moderators of the effects of implicit cognition. The results revealed that measures of memory association were consistent, direct-effect predictors of marijuana and alcohol use. In addition, these implicit cognitive measures were stronger predictors than were the background variables, and their predictive effects were not moderated by other variables. The results provide further support for the implicit cognition perspective in drug use.

"Latinos are now the largest ethnic minority population in the United States and still they encounter a great deal of misunderstanding, prejudice, and discrimination. Utilizing a strengths-based perspective, Social Work Practice with Latinos addresses the unique needs of this diverse population.

Written by practitioners and scholars from many disciplines, this book discusses social issues of consequence to Latinos and specific strengths and risk factors of the Latino community. They then offer methods that utilize these strengths to ensure a culturally-competent approach to practice with Latino populations. Each chapter is accompanied by key questions for personal and group reflection to facilitate discussion and understanding of these vital themes.

The editors have nearly three decades of combined experience working with Latino populations inside and outside the United States. Drawing on this experience, they integrate these varied perspectives to prepare students and practitioners for practice with this richly diverse community."

It is widely acknowledged that perceptions of (im)politeness vary across different cultural groups. However, the emphasis on cross-cultural or cross-linguistic variation has resulted in individual variability in perceptions of (im)politeness being relatively neglected in (im)politeness research. In this paper, we move to examine more closely the extent to which the individual variability in evaluations of the relative (im)politeness of an apology that emerged amongst the twenty-five Australian in a previous study (Chang and Haugh 2011) could be attested across a larger sample of eighty respondents. Our analysis confirms that there is indeed significant variability in elicited perceptions of (im)politeness with respect to the apology in question, and that the rationales that individuals draw upon to warrant their classifications of (im)politeness also vary significantly. We argue that this kind of variability amongst individual speakers in their perceptions of (im)politeness of the same discourse event has significant implications for the way in which we go about studying and theorising (im)politeness. However, we caution that while further experimental studies are clearly needed in (im)politeness research, it is important that they be grounded in studies of contextualised, naturally occurring discourse rather than being based on constructed or decontextualised instances of language use.

Although Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media, scholars are yet to examine cultural differences among users' behavior. The current study compares motives for Instagram use between participants from two countries: Croatia, a highly collectivistic culture, and the United States, a typically individualist culture. Specifically, it examines the relationship between motives and behavioral outcomes of use (time spent on Instagram, the frequency of hashtagging, and the number of Instagram followers). Findings reveal that while motivations behind Instagram use do not vary across cultures, different forms of gratification determine how Instagram is used, and how culture moderates these relationships. Croatian students' Instagram use reflects collectivist tendencies, primarily social interaction. American students' use of Instagram reflects individualistic trends, namely self-promotion and documentation. In addition, American students' self-promotion gratifications are significantly related to the amount of time spent on Instagram, although this effect is not apparent among Croatian students. While American students are inclined to use hashtags for documentation, Croatian participants tend to use hashtags for other reasons, including self-promotion, social interaction, and creativity.

This study examines how language and culture brokering (translating and interpreting language and culture for others) influences the acculturative experiences and self-perceptions of young adults from immigrant Arab, Asian, and Latino American backgrounds. Semi-structured interviews with 10 participants suggest that mediating information for members of different cultural and linguistic groups strengthens awareness of linguistic, cultural, and social processes. This cultivated awareness, in turn, is leveraged for social and cultural processes as identity formation and transcultural competencies. Experiences both prior to immigration and in the new immigrant context also differently shape the experiences of brokers from different ethnic groups.

Plagiarism is increasingly evident in business and academia. While links between demographic, personality, and situational factors have been found, previous research has not used actual plagiarism behavior as a criterion variable. Previous research on academic dishonesty has consistently used to self-report measures to establish prevalence of dishonest behavior. In this chapter the author covers the results of four studies that used plagiarism behavior to establish its prevalence, as well as relationships between plagiarism behavior and: 1. Integrity-related personal selection measures 2. Workplace deviance 3. Ethnicity 4. Acculturation 5. Individualism 6. Collectivism 7. Religiosity 8. Spirituality.

Recent trends in the understanding of culture contact, with concepts such as hybridization, cosmopolitanism, and cultural innovation, open up the possibility of a new understanding of human interaction. While the social imaginary is rich with images of conflict resulting from culture contact, images of creativity are far rarer. We propose the creation of an extensive research project to document cultural creativity, starting with obvious examples in the arts, and expanding intoall areas of life in order to counteract the present conflictual images and developa social imaginary with positive “attractor” images that can guide to greater creativity.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the emerging importance of dialogue, dialogism and dialogic communication culture in media education, with a special view to foreign language education and to cross-cultural communication. The concept of dialogue is discussed in relation to human-to-human communication (HHC) and to computer-mediated human communication (CMHC).

Another important aim is to analyse the role of technology, especially modern information and communication technologies (MICT), as an enhancing component in dialogic communication. This analysis is made through creating a multidimensional hierarchy of direct and mediated communication, to be applied to MICT. Tools and media are regarded as cultural artifacts, which are seen as a concept that integrates dialogism and technology.

Keywords: Dialogic communication; culture; cross-cultural communication; learning; media education; modern information and communication technologies (MICT); an information and communication society; pedagogy.
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Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on kuvata ja analysoida dialogin, dialogismin ja dialogisen viestintäkulttuurin kasvavaa merkitystä mediakasvatuksessa, erityiskohteena vieraiden kielten didaktiikka ja kulttuurienvälinen viestintä. Dialogin käsitettä tarkastellaan suhteessa ihmistenväliseen viestintään ja tietokonevälitteiseen ihmistenväliseen viestintään.

Toinen keskeinen tavoite on analysoida tekniikan, erityisesti modernin tieto- ja viestintätekniikan roolia dialogisen viestinnän keskeisesti kasvavana komponenttina. Tämä analyysi tehdään kehittämällä moniulotteinen suoran ja välitetyn viestinnän hierarkia, jota sovelletaan moderniin tieto- ja viestintätekniikkaan. Välineitä ja viestimiä tarkastellaan kulttuurisina artifakteina, jotka nähdään käsitteenä, joka integroi dialogismia ja tekniikkaa.

Avainsanat: Dialoginen viestintä, kulttuuri, kulttuurienvälinen viestintä, oppiminen, mediakasvatus, moderni tieto- ja viestintätekniikka, tieto- ja viestintäyhteiskunta, kasvatus.

In this paper, results of experimental research on the preattentive mechanism in the human-computer interaction (HCI) were presented. Fifty four subjects were asked to find interface elements from various panel structures. The arrangements were differentiated by their orientation (vertical, horizontal), colour pattern (ordered, unordered) and object background colours (green-blue, green-red, blue-red). The main finding of the study generally confirms the profits provided by the visual preattentive processing of the colour feature in graphical panel operation efficiency. However, the vertical way of arranging the items in search layouts resulted in decreasing the preattentive effect related to the item background colour. In regular, chessboard-like patterns of different coloured items, the effect of the early vision was less salient than in the case of structures with randomly dispersed colours. The reported results can help in designing efficient graphical user-computer interfaces in many interactive information systems.

Recent inclusive policies are promoting the involvement of individuals with disabilities in identifying barriers that limit their full participation and inclusion in public spaces. The present two studies explored the contributions provided by different stakeholder groups in the identification of architectural barriers in elementary and secondary schools. In each school, the principal, special education resource teacher and a student independently identified architectural barriers using an observational walkthrough method. The first study consisted of 29 schools where the student evaluator had a physical disability and the second study consisted of 22 schools where the student evaluator did not have a disability. The results of both studies showed that students identified the greatest number of barriers and principals the least. The type and location of identified barriers are explored and the conclusions are examined in relation to person-environment congruence. The results highlight the efficacy of youth involvement and provide support for collaborative assessments that equitably involve all stakeholders in inclusive environmental assessments.

There is no better arena for observing a culture in action than business. Cultures tend to reveal themselves in situations where much is as stake, because it is here that their resources are most needed. Marriage, family obligations, and such stressful experiences as illness and the death of a loved one bring out much of what is distinctive and fundamental in a culture. The same is true of business, because economic survival is at stake. Business practices are shaped by deeply-held cultural attitudes toward work, power, trust, wealth-and communication.

This paper explores communication and shared understanding in culturally diverse collaborations. It draws on empirical research involving a large UK organization that collaborates with many public, private and not-for-profit organizations located in many different countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA. Through analysis located in a ‘culture paradox’, it proposes a multifaceted account of cultural diversity which has implications for how communication and shared understanding in culturally diverse collaborations may be understood and managed. It develops two specific management tensions pertaining to ‘developing cultural sensitivity’ and ‘designing communication processes’. These tensions explicate the complexity of culturally diverse contexts and highlight pertinent trade-offs and compromises that may enhance a collaboration’s ability to yield advantage rather than inertia.