VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES **************** PHẠM THANH HUYỀN COMMUNICATION STYLE AT THE VIETNAMESE AND AMERICAN WORKPLACE PHONG CÁCH GIAO TIẾP CÔNG SỞ Ở VIỆT NAM VÀ MỸ M. Minor Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi – 2012 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES **************** PHẠM THANH HUYỀN COMMUNICATION STYLE AT THE VIETNAMESE AND AMERICAN WORKPLACE PHONG CÁCH GIAO TIẾP CÔNG SỞ Ở VIỆT NAM VÀ MỸ M. Minor Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: PHAN THỊ VÂN QUYÊN, M.A Hanoi – 2012 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -1- TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality of project report Acknowledgements Abstract List of figures and tables CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Objectives of the study.
Significance of the study. The scope of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study.
- 3 - CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Definition of intercultural communication. Hofstede’s and Hall’s cultural dimensions. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.
Hall’s cultural dimensions. Communication style at the workplace. Some potential problems in multicultural working environment. Selection of participants.
Data collection instruments. Methods of data analysis. - 24 - -1- TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -2- CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Self – evaluation of the effectiveness of the intercultural communication at the workplace.
Attitude towards team work. Decision-making style. Implications for people working in intercultural working environment .Implications for people working in intercultural working environment - 41 - 5. Implications for Americans working with Vietnamese.
Limitation of the study. Suggestions for further study. - 45 - REFERENCES APPENDICES -2- TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -3- LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Definition of Culture by Ferrando.2: Definition of Culture by Levine and Adelman.3: Definition of Culture by Nguyen Quang.4: Definition of Communication by Nguyen Quang. LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Vietnamese and American working experience Table 2: Vietnamese and American working experience with Americans/ Vietnamese Table 3: Vietnamese and American self-evaluation on the intercultural communication effectiveness Table 4: Vietnamese and American punctuality Table 5: Vietnamese and American preference towards individual work and team work Table 6: Vietnamese and American priority in team work Table 7: Vietnamese and American decision-making style Table 8: Vietnamese and American reaction when assigned a too difficult task Table 9: Vietnamese and American way of presenting new ideas Table 10: Vietnamese and American way of conflict resolving Table 11: The Vietnamese and American evaluation of personal contribution to the team project‟s success Table 12: Individual and collective responsibility for the team project‟s failure -3- TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -1- CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale Globalisation, internationalization, trans-border trade and cross cultural business are all terms that have been coined over the past decade(s) to reflect the reality of the world economy. Growth and success in today’s global economy depend on being able to work internationally. In this era of globalization, multinational organizations are dominating the world economy (Shuter & Wiseman, 1994). In recent years many researchers in applied linguistics and professionals working for an international company have emphasised the importance of knowledge of different cultures and they agree that globalisation has brought about the growing trend to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds (Borgulya, 2007; Bakacsi et.
One of the central challenges faced by multinational organizations is to manage a workforce composed of people from different cultures (Joshi, Labianca, & Caligiuri, 2002; Shenkar & Zeira, 1987). Because employees from different cultural backgrounds often have different values, beliefs, and assumptions concerning various issues, misunderstanding or conflict could easily occur during intercultural interaction (Earley & Mosakowski, 2000; Ting-Toomey, 1999). As a matter of fact, problems relating to inadequate intercultural understanding have undermined international organizational effectiveness (Lindsley, 1999). On the contrary, effective intercultural communication contributes to a healthy working environment and productive collaboration among culturally diverse staff (Tokarek, 2006).
Therefore, it is necessary to study intercultural communication in a multicultural and multilingual workplace. Although there is extensive literature on intercultural communication, existing intercultural communication theories still have limited direct application to communication in a business setting (Beamer & Varner, 2008). With the increasing importance of the Vietnam market in the world economy, many international companies rushed and planned to enter Vietnam to explore business opportunities. International working teams in Vietnam are quite common these days.
This has spurred the need for cross-cultural research in Vietnam. It was reported that the great barriers caused by cultural differences like difficulty of communication, different objectives and means of cooperation and operating methods, have led to the failure in people’s communication at the multicultural workplace. This includes the communication between employer - employee and employee - employee in the same working environment. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -2- Although in this context it mainly includes opportunities and challenges of developing global society, the cooperation advantageous for the partners involved may change into mutual competition.
The question like "how to understand Vietnamese/ American people so as to work with them effectively" has occupied the minds of people who are planning to work or have already worked in a multicultural organization. That is why the author of this study decided to do a research on this field in order to investigate the need to manage problems of controlling and communication in the cross-cultural environment of companies. Objectives of the study The objectives of this research are as follows: - To investigate the typical characteristics in Vietnamese and American communication at the workplace. - To identify the potential problems in Vietnamese and American cross- cultural communication.
The specific research questions are addressed as follows: - What is the Vietnamese communication style at the workplace? - What is the American communication style at the workplace? - What are the similarities and differences in the communication style at the Vietnamese and American workplace? 1. Significance of the study It is hoped that this study will be of great use in helping people, especially those who intend to apply for a job or are working in a multi-cultural working environment, have an overview of possible problems occurring when Vietnamese and American staff communicate with each other. As a result, they can have deeper understanding of the two cultures and avoid misunderstandings when communicating with each other. In addition, in the age of globalization when intercultural communication is common nowadays, this study hopes to contribute to the worldwide research on cross-cultural communication.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. The scope of the study The study focuses on investigating Vietnamese and American communication style at the workplace in some areas such as punctuality, group work, decision-making process, reaction to leaders’ command, presentation of new ideas, personal contribution and responsibility in teamwork results. Other areas should be beyond the scope of this study. Methods of the study All the supervisor’s guidance, other teachers’ ideas and opinions, and relevant items have been selected, studied, analyzed, synthesized and paraphrased.
The survey has been done by distributing a questionnaire to 30 Vietnamese and 30 American people who have experience in intercultural communication in different workplaces. In addition, informal interviews with the Vietnamese and American staff have been conducted to have a deeper view of the problems. All collected data and information have been analyzed by using quantitative and qualitative methods. Design of the study The study consists of 5 chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the significance, the methods and the design of the study.
Chapter 2: Theoretical background starts with the definitions of culture, communication and intercultural communication. Then, Hofstede’s and Hall’s cultural dimensions are presented and discussed. After that the communication style at the workplace are taken into consideration as well as some potential problems in multicultural working environment are identified. Finally, the previous studies is mentioned and evaluated.
Chapter 3: Methodology presents the methodology used in this study. This part consists of 3 parts: the selection of participants in which the author gives some reasons for the selection and the description of the participants; the data collection instruments in which the instrument and procedure of data analysis are discussed; methods of data collection in which the methods and procedure of data collection are identified. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -4- Chapter 4: Findings and discussion introduces the results of the survey which describe the differences between Vietnamese and American communication style, which leads to problems occurring when Vietnamese and American people communicate at the workplace. Then, the findings are analyzed and discussed.
Chapter 5: Conclusion presents the conclusion, implication for people working in intercultural working environment, the limitations of the study in which the author states the reasons for the study’s limitations, and suggestions for further study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -5- CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2. Culture There have been a great number of discussions and conceptualizations of culture. However, the definitions of culture might fall into two following categories: +Definitions of culture based on the emphasis of one or more constituents.
One of these is the definition by Garry Ferrando. He states: “culture is what people have, think and do as a member in a society” (cited in Nguyễn Quang [2007, p. This can be illustrated as in figure 2. Material Ideas,values, Behavior objects attiudes pattern (HAVE) (THINK) (DO) CULTURE Figure 2.1: Definition of Culture by Ferrando.
Levine and Adelman (1993, p.17) hold that: “Culture is a shared background (For example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values.” They take culture as an iceberg, with one-fourth floating and three-fourths sinking as in figure 2. FOOD LANGUAGE APPEARANCE VALUES BELIFES PERCEPTIONS COMMUNICATION STYLE ATTITUDES LEVINE & ADELMAN (1993) Figure 2.2: Definition of Culture by Levine and Adelman. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -6- The small floating part presents the tangibility of culture (language, food, appearance); the large one sinking in the water expresses the intangibility (beliefs, values, attitudes, perceptions and communicative styles). According to Levine and Adelman (1993, p.17), people are hardly able to see the influences of culture to an individual.
The floating part of culture itself does not usually cause the difficulties in cross-cultural communication, but the sinking part with its components significantly influences on people’s behavior and in interaction. +Definitions of culture based on the contrast between nature and culture. Those who support this view believe that culture is non-natural. They put nature in opposition to culture.
The way they see it, what belongs to nature does not belong to culture and vice versa. Some other authors associate culture-nature with human- beings. They hold that the extension of ―Human‖ makes ―Culture‖ and that of ―Being‖ makes ―Nature‖. They co- exist in harmony.
This view can be illustrated by Nguyen Quang’s chart as figure 2. CULTURE Human Being NATURE Figure 2.3: Definition of Culture by Nguyen Quang. Communication The term communication can be defined in many ways. Lustig and Jolene Koester (1996, p.29) defined communication as ―a symbolic process in which people create shared meanings‖.
A symbol in this definition refers to a word, action or object that represents a meaning. Meaning, then, is a perception, thought or feeling experienced and communicated by a person. Meaning can be a personal experience which cannot be shared with others as such but needs to be interpreted as a message. A message, in turn, is a set of symbols used to create shared meanings.
(Lustig and Koester, 1996.29) For example, the words in this text are symbols that form the message that is communicated. Symbolical interpretations are often attached to certain behaviour. For TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -7- example, blushing can be interpreted as a feeling of embarrassment, at least in some cultures. According to Larry A.
Samovar and Richard E.