Culture, Language and Productivity in the Workplace within the BRICS Nations

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Kaschula ◽  
H Ekkehard Wolff ◽  
Andre Mostert
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Financial Integration ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Economic Environment ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Light Touch ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

The changing economic environment globally carries challenges and opportunities for business. Cross-cultural environments and financial integration call for greater understanding of the workplace. The authors assess the usage and status of language and culture in workplaces within the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries through a light touch survey to assist in framing further and deeper research activities. The objective is to develop a suitable research framework regarding the place of language and culture in the workplace in multilingual and multicultural contexts. The authors argue for the inclusion of a cultural dimension linked to multilingual strategies in the workplace. The inextricable link between language and culture is explored in this article. It is suggested that orality and the way we pass on information in the workplace should be considered when encouraging productivity in the multilingual, multicultural workplace in order to create a sense of integration and belonging rather than one of alienation.

scholarly journals The Influence Of Cultural Diversity On Marketing Communication: A Case Of Africans And Indians In Durban, South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abosede Ijabadeniyi ◽  
Jeevarathnam Parthasarathy Govender ◽  
Dayaneethie Veerasamy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Marketing Research ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Marketing Communication ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Cultural Marketing

This paper investigates the cultural diversity between Africans and Indians in Durban, South Africa, based on marketing communication. While cross-cultural marketing research has been concentrated on Western and Eastern societies, there is a lack of such research in Africa. The study examines the cultural values of Africans and Indians based on the individualism-collectivism cultural dimension, adapted to account for marketing communication-specific cultural values (MCSCV). The study was a quantitative study which used judgmental sampling technique to recruit subjects and analysed data using the t-test. Surveys were completed by 283 African and 92 Indian respondents at the main shopping malls in two of Durban’s renowned African and Indian townships viz. Umlazi and Chatsworth, respectively. The findings of the study revealed that Indian respondents showed more individualistic tendencies toward marketing communication, as compared to their African counterparts. The study highlights that target markets’ indigenous cultural values may not necessarily serve as predictors for market segmentation. The study further shows that directing stereotypical marketing communication strategies toward culturally homogeneous markets based on indigenous cultural dispositions, without investigating the compatibility of both cultural contexts, can be deleterious. The paper builds on current thinking in cross-cultural marketing literature and develops an orientation of MCSCV.

TRANSLATION AS MENTAL INTERPRETATION ACTIVITY IN LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (28) ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
Svitlana Gruschko
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Cross Language

In the article the phenomenon of translation is regarded as mental interpretation activity not only in linguistics, but also in literary criticism. The literary work and its translation are most vivid guides to mental and cultural life of people, an example of intercultural communication. An adequate perception of non-native culture depends on communicators’ general fund of knowledge. The essential part of such fund of knowledge is native language, and translation, being a mediator, is a means of cross-language and cross-cultural communication. Mastering another language through literature, a person is mastering new world and its culture. The process of literary texts’ translation requires language creativity of the translator, who becomes so-called “co-author” of the work. Translation activity is a result of the interpreter’s creativity and a sort of language activity: language units are being selected according to language units of the original text. This kind of approach actualizes linguistic researching of real translation facts: balance between language and speech units of the translated work (i.e. translationinterpretation, author’s made-up words, or revised language peculiarities of the characters). The process of literary translation by itself should be considered within the dimension of a dialogue between cultures. Such a dialogue takes place in the frame of different national stereotypes of thinking and communicational behavior, which influences mutual understanding between the communicators with the help of literary work being a mediator. So, modern linguistics actualizes the research of language activities during the process of literary work’s creating. This problem has to be studied furthermore, it can be considered as one of the central ones to be under consideration while dealing with cultural dimension of the translation process, including the process of solving the problems of cross-cultural communication.

If only cultural chameleons could fly too

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maribel Blasco ◽  
Liv Egholm Feldt ◽  
Michael Jakobsen
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Cultural Intelligence ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
Human Attributes

The article offers a critique of the concept of cultural intelligence (CQ) from a semiotic perspective. It addresses three assumptions that underpin the CQ concept: that CQ exists, that conflict and misunderstandings are antithetical to CQ and that metacognition involves a cultural dimension. The analysis focuses in particular on the dimension of cultural metacognition which has recently been claimed to be the CQ concept’s main contribution compared to earlier concepts such as cross-cultural or intercultural competence, a claim which is found to be overstated. The article uses the example of CQ training to illustrate the need for greater attention to context and motivation when CQ is deployed for business purposes, as well as to the role of experience in cultural learning processes. At a broader level, the article urges caution in assuming that all human attributes can be trained for business purposes, especially through short-term interventions.

scholarly journals The Challenge for Building Integration of Highly Transparent Photovoltaics and Photoelectrochromic Devices

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Cannavale ◽  
Francesco Martellotta ◽  
Francesco Fiorito ◽  
Ubaldo Ayr
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Final Stage ◽  
Accurate Description ◽  
Technological Evolution ◽  
Visual Comfort ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Open Issues

This paper holds a critical review of current research activities dealing with smart architectural glazing worldwide. Hereafter, the main trends are analyzed and critically reported, with open issues, challenges, and opportunities, providing an accurate description of technological evolution of devices in time. This manuscript deals with some well-known, highly performing technologies, such as semitransparent photovoltaics and novel photoelectrochromic devices, the readiest, probably, to reach the final stage of development, to disclose the manifold advantages of multifunctional, smart glazing. The complex, overall effects of their building integration are also reported, especially regarding energy balance and indoor visual comfort in buildings.

FINANCIAL INTEGRATION AND ENVIRONMENT IN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF OUTPUT GROWTH AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150002
Author(s):  
EKUNDAYO PETER MESAGAN ◽  
KAYODE ABIODUN AKINYEMI ◽  
ISMAILA AKANNI YUSUF
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Financial Integration ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Output Growth ◽  
Particulate Emissions ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Output Increase ◽  
Specific Emissions

As economies integrate financially and both investment and output increase, the environment may be affected depending on the nature of international financial resources attracted into the country. Hence, this study examines the effect of financial integration, output growth, and foreign direct investment (FDI) on the environment in selected African countries involving Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Angola between 1980 and 2017. The study uses carbon emissions and particulate emissions (PM) to proxy pollution and analyze the data through the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) technique. Empirical results show that financial integration worsens pollution in Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, and in Africa; output growth deteriorates pollution in South Africa, Algeria, Angola, and in Africa; while FDI fuels environmental degradation in Egypt and South Africa. We recommend that African countries should strive to establish specific targets for lowering emissions even though the Kyoto Protocol did not set specific emissions reduction targets for them.

Living With Ambiguity: Toward Culture Exploration in Adult Second-Language Classrooms

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roumiana Ilieva
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Community Culture ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Second Language Education ◽  
Culture Teaching ◽  
Language Classrooms

On the basis of personal experiences with immigration and current conceptualizations of culture in anthropological and culture teaching literature, this article outlines an approach to cultural instruction in adult second-language education, named "culture exploration," which calls for the recognition of ambiguity embedded in cross-cultural encounters. Culture exploration consists of employing techniques of ethnographic participant observation in and outside the classroom and holding reflective, interpretive, and critical classroom discussions on students' ethnographies. It is argued that through culture exploration students can develop an understanding of humans as cultural beings, of the relationship between language and culture, and of the necessity of living with the uncertainty inherent in cross-cultural interactions. Through this process of naming their experience of the target community culture and reflecting on it, it is hoped that students will be in a position to develop their own voice and will be empowered to act to fulfill their own goals in their new environment.

Increasing the Validity of Cross-Cultural Assessments: Use of Improved Methods for Test Adaptations 1Laboratory of Psychometric and Evaluative Research Report No.275. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, School of Education. Paper presented at the 23rd International Congress of Applied Psychology, Madrid, 1994.

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald K. Hambleton ◽  
Anil Kanjee
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
School Of Education ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Evaluative Research ◽  
University Of Massachusetts ◽  
The Many ◽  
Educational Tests ◽  
Improved Methods

Translating or adapting psychological and educational tests from one language and culture to other languages and cultures has been a common practice for almost a hundred years, beginning with Binet's test of intelligence. Despite the long history and the many good reasons for adapting tests, proper methods for conducting test adaptations and establishing score equivalence are not well known by psychologists. The purpose of this paper is to focus attention on judgmental and statistical methods and procedures for adapting tests with special focus on procedures for identifying poorly adapted items. When these methods are correctly applied, the validity of any cross-cultural uses of the adapted test should be increased.

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