scholarly journals Leveling Differences and Reinforcing Similarities: The Interaction between Information and Communication Technologies and National Culture

10.28945/2696 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Oddvar Soernes ◽  
Keri Stephens ◽  
Alf Steinar Saetre ◽  
Larry Browning

This study compares how workers in Norway and the United States use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Our data—72 in-depth interviews of advanced ICT users - was coded and analyzed using a grounded-theory methodology. As our organizing structure of comparing the two countries, we use Hofstede’s four-dimensional framework of national culture. Our results show that ICTs have a homogenizing effect on cultural differences—but also a reinforcing effect on existing similarities. We hypothesize possible explanations for these findings, including tracing them to our focus on an expert-user subculture and external triggering events.

Author(s):  
Esther Vaquero-Álvarez ◽  
Antonio Cubero-Atienza ◽  
Pilar Ruiz-Martínez ◽  
Manuel Vaquero-Abellán ◽  
María Dolores Redel Mecías ◽  
...  

Since the eighties, technological tools have modified how people interact in their environment. At the same time, occupational safety and health measures have been widely applied. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work considers that information and communication technologies are the main methods to achieve the goals proposed to improve working life and the dissemination of good practices. The principal objective was to determine the trends of publications focused on these technologies and occupational safety in the healthcare sector during the last 30 years. A bibliometric study was carried out. The 1021 documents showed an increased trend per country, especially for the United States (p < 0.001) and year (p < 0.001). The citations per year showed significant differences between citations of articles published before 2007 (p < 0.001). The year was also linked to the increase or decrease of articles (72.2%) and reviews (14.9%) (p < 0.001). The analysis of journal co-citations also showed that the main journals (such as Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology) were linked to other important journals and had a major part in the clusters formed. All these findings were discussed in the manuscript and conclusions were drawn.


2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang-de Liu

Abstract: Through in-depth interviews with Taiwanese newspaper workers, this paper illustrates the “de-skilling” effects of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on journalists. In recent years, Taiwanese reporters have experienced an increase in workload and an intensification of managerial control due to the introduction of new technologies in the newsroom. Using ICTs in the workplace consequently has harmed journalists’ working conditions and autonomy. Moreover, ICTs have led to a trivialization of reporting tasks and devaluation of reporters’ experience and knowledge. The degradation of reporting work resulting from the use of ICTs has enabled managers at Taiwanese newspapers to hire young employees to fill the jobs of experienced reporters and to reduce salary costs. Résumé : En se fondant sur des entretiens en profondeur menés avec les employés de quotidiens taiwanais, cet article illustre la déqualification de journalistes causée par les technologies de communication et de l’information (TCIs). Depuis quelques années, les reporters taiwanais ont subi une augmentation de leur charge de travail et du contrôle administratif exercé sur eux à la suite de l’introduction de nouvelles technologies dans les salles de nouvelles. Ainsi, les TCIs au travail ont porté atteinte aux conditions de travail et à l’autonomie des journalistes. En outre, les TCIs ont banalisé les tâches des reporters et ont dévalué leur expérience et leur savoir. La dégradation du travail journalistique résultant de l’introduction des TCIs a permis aux dirigeants des quotidiens taiwanais d’engager de jeunes employés à la place de reporters expérimentés et de réduire les salaires.


Author(s):  
Zlatko J. Kovacic

Diffusion of information and communication technologies is a global phenomenon. In spite of rapid globalization there are considerable differences between nations in terms of the adoption and usage of new technologies. Several studies exploring causal factors including national cultures of information and communication technology adoption have been carried out. The focus of this chapter is slightly different from other studies in this area. Rather than concentrating on the individual information technology an overall e-Government readiness is the focus. This research conducted an analysis of the impact national culture has on e-Government readiness and its components for 62 countries. E-Government readiness assessment used in this study is based on the UN E-Government Survey 2008, while the national cultural dimensions were identified using Hofstede’s model of cultural differences. The research model and hypotheses were formed and tested using correlation and regression analysis. The findings indicate that worldwide e-Government readiness and its components are related to culture. The result has theoretical and practical implications.


Author(s):  
Mark Raymond

This chapter explains the puzzling 2013 agreement of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on cybersecurity that existing international law applies to state military use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the 2015 GGE report that extended the consensus reached in 2013. These important developments in the emergence of rules and norms for cyberspace took place despite deteriorating relations between the United States and Russia. They also took place despite increasing global contention over Internet governance and cybersecurity issues more broadly, and occurred with less controversy than related (but lower-priority) Internet governance issues. The chapter argues that the 2013 and 2015 GGE reports were reached in large part as a result of a conscious process of rule-making and interpretation structured by agreed-upon secondary rules, and that the timing of the agreements reflected emerging consensus among participants despite remaining divergence on substantive preferences about governance arrangements for cyberspace.


2020 ◽  
pp. 312-324
Author(s):  
Hasnain Falak ◽  
Tariq Zaman

Community engagement is necessary for the success and sustainability of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) projects. To ensure active participation of community, researchers need to understand and adhere to the local cultural norms and adapt in the lifestyle of people. These cultural norms are mainly unwritten and implicit in nature. Hence the researchers spend maximum time of their field visits in observing and developing understanding of the community's life. In our long-term partnership with the indigenous Penan community of Long Lamai in Malaysian Borneo, we co-developed written guidelines for researchers and visitors. The researchers demonstrated their interest in aligning research process to the community's cultural values, however norm internalisation and development of associated behaviour is still a challenging. The written guidelines are yet only one of the attempts to the practices of community researchers' engagement and we are refining our methodology to enhance the researchers' learning process.


Author(s):  
Sondra Cuban

This chapter examines the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by Mexican immigrant families living in the United States to care for their aged left-behind parents and grandparents suffering from poor health. It introduces the concepts of ‘rescue chain’ and ‘care talk’ to account for the interplay between ICTs and transnational families. Drawing on the stories of ten participants, the chapter considers how Mexican immigrants and their siblings, locally and abroad, form rescue chains to deliver care to ageing left-behind parents with health problems through ICTs. It shows that the rescue chain communication involves care talk that focused on protecting, providing, and proving that the care needs of the person in crisis were addressed. The chapter also reviews the literature on ageing and long-distance caring through ICTs, discusses theories on care and ageing, and explains the methodology and sources used in the study.


2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baruch Shomron ◽  
Amit Schejter

The “Bnei Menashe” are a marginalized community that immigrated from India to Israel. The community has diverse information needs, yet they are characterized by difficulties that prevent them from acquiring vital information. In this study, we utilized Sen’s (1993) “capabilities approach” as well as Friedland et al. (2012) “critical information needs” for the identification of the Bnei Menashe’s information capabilities, and the ways in which they answer them. The study was conducted using semi-structured individual in-depth interviews. The findings of the study relate that the Bnei Menashe succeed only partially in realizing the capability of being informed. This is a result of the partial technological exclusion that characterizes the community. This is a first-of-its-kind study, as the Bnei Menashe have not been studied methodically. Furthermore, the utilization of the capabilities approach represents a major contribution to existing communication theories, as the approach allows for a more wholesome understanding of the role of information and communication technologies in society.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sílvia Cristina Marceliano Hallberg ◽  
Carolina Saraiva de Macedo Lisboa ◽  
Déborah Brandão de Souza ◽  
Ariela Mester ◽  
Andréia Zambon Braga ◽  
...  

Introduction:Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are devices, services and knowledge that reproduce, process and distribute information. Psychotherapy has been influenced by these technologies, and there is a tendency for their role to expand.Objective: To describe the current panorama of the scientific literature on psychotherapy and ICTs.Method: This is a systematic and descriptive review. Searches were run on the electronic databases Biblioteca Virtual em Saude (BVS), PsycINFO, Scopus, PePSIC, ScienceDirect and Index Psi, using the Boolean operator AND and the descriptors psychotherapy, computers, Internet, cell phones and social networks.Results: A considerable volume of empirical research was found, published recently in many different parts of the world, especially in the United States. There is very little Brazilian research on the subject. The majority of the studies identified assess the efficacy or describe the development of techniques and psychotherapies, via ICTs, for prevention, diagnosis or treatment of mental and behavioral disorders. The psychopathology most investigated in this area is depression and it was not possible to draw conclusions on a possible trend for research into the subject to increase. The technology most investigated was the Internet and cognitive-behavioral therapy was the most common theoretical approach in these studies.Conclusions:Systematic reviews of published studies can detect gaps in the research agenda within a specific field of knowledge.


Author(s):  
Alexandra Kukharenko

The article describes the features of the development of the field of information and communication technologies in the century of digital transformation of society, the active implementation of innovative technological developments in economic and social processes, provides an analysis of the pace of development of the industry of information and communication technologies in the United States of America, describes the changes that have occurred associated with the global pandemic in 2020-2021.


2021 ◽  
pp. 750-768
Author(s):  
Eneken Tikk

The discussion of norms and international security ahead of us will be paved with fundamental differences between cyber superpowers—the United States, China and Russia—about the pace and direction of further adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). These differences, combined with dogmatic gaps between international and national law, and international and national policy, all constitute obvious apertures for malicious and hostile actors to achieve their goals. Our normative attention to ICTs needs to be both hard and soft, high and low, national and international, reactive and anticipatory, all at the same time.


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