Depicting National Cultures: Comprehensiveness of 21st Century Travel Guidebooks

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-181
Author(s):  
Henrik Vejlgaard
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Information Source ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Competitive Edge ◽  
Cultural Behavior ◽  
Experiential Value ◽  
Practical Information ◽  
Partial View

Travel guidebooks play an important role in tourism as an information source. They not only give practical information but also cultural information. However, this latter aspect of guidebooks has barely been researched. Guidebook authors can choose to write about any aspects of a country's national culture, but we do not seem to know which aspects they chose to write about—that is, how comprehensive the guidebooks' depictions of culture are. In order to establish the comprehensiveness of contemporary guidebooks, a framework of cultural categories is developed based on theories about culture and intercultural communication. The method is content analysis of document data. In the empirical part of the study, three guidebooks about Denmark are examined quantitatively in order to establish how comprehensive their representation of the cultural values and cultural behavior categories of Denmark is. Based on the criteria set, travel guidebooks cannot be considered comprehensive. Readers should be aware that guidebooks only give a partial view of a destination's culture. With the increased availability of online hotel and restaurant resources for tourists, the publishers of travel guidebooks could expand the sections on national culture. This will increase readers' experiential value of the guidebooks and give guidebooks a competitive edge, whether the guidebooks are printed or digital.

scholarly journals Cultural Values and Its Influence on the Enactment of Leadership in Public Sector Organisations

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Pg Siti Rozaidah Pg Hj Idris
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Emerging Nations ◽  
Public Sector Leadership ◽  
Context Specific

This research contributes to our understanding of leadership in public sector organisations by examining the influence of national culture on the enactment of public sector leadership in the context of Brunei. It followed a qualitative interpretivist research approach employing semi-structured interviews involving public sector leaders in Brunei. This research contributes to existing debates that claim that public sector leadership is context specific and contingent upon cultural backgrounds and the national cultures of specific countries and emerging nations. The findings suggest national culture appear to have a constraining influence on public sector leadership, where tension exists between abiding to Islamic work ethics and cultural tribal activities, particularly relating to the issues of fairness and justice regarding recruitment, selection, and promotion.

scholarly journals National Cultures and Politeness Strategies in Intercultural Communication Among Japanese and American Characters in “The Last Samurai” Movie: A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Eka Nurilaila ◽  
Sigit Ricahyono ◽  
Dwi Setyadi ◽  
Samsul Arifin
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

<p>The study which is descriptive qualitative in nature, aims to investigate preference of politeness strategies by American and Japanese characters in  “The Last Samurai movie and explain it in terms the national culture.  Results show that the order of preference by Americans is: 1) BoP (11/50%), 2) PoP (7/31.8%), 3) NeP (3/13.6%), and 4) OfR (1/4.5%).  That by the Japanese is: 1) OfR (18/60%), 2) BoR (6/20%), 3). NeP (6/20%), 4) PoP (0). American national culture and that of Japan which are different affect their preference of politeness strategies shown in “The Last Samurai” movie. In conclusion, language and culture affect each other. People coming from different language and culture communicate differently.</p>

scholarly journals NATIONAL CULTURE AND TRANSPARENCY: EVIDENCE FROM ISLAMIC BANKS

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-109
Author(s):  
Rochania Ayu Yunanda ◽  
Mohammad Ali Tareq ◽  
Akbariah Binti Mahdzir ◽  
Faried Kurnia Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
Uncertainty Avoidance ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Islamic Banks ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Business Operations ◽  
Other Hand

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of predominant cultural values on banking disclosure. On one hand, Islamic banks have practiced Islamic principles which are universal for all countries. Islamic banks are expected to provide transparent information especially in terms of social and Shariah(Islamic) compliant information as Islamic banks claim themselves to have social objectives as the prime consideration. Islamic banks also have Shariah supervisory body to ensure that the banking activities and business operations are in line with Islamic requirements. On the other hand, Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions and Gray‘s hypotheses have rendered remarkable contributions in financial and accounting practices among different nations. Examining 45 Islamic banks in 11 Moslem majority countries, this paper focuses on four particular cultural dimensions namely individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance and whether these dimensions have an impact on transparency. This study found that two out of four national cultures still have significant effect on the transparency level in Moslem majority countries.

scholarly journals Intercultural communication: concept, essence and theories of intercultural communication

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Jumaev Ulugbek Sattorovich
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Cultural Identity Formation

The author conducts globalization impact conceptual analysis on the national culture and cultural identity formation and development in contemporary societies. The main focus is driven on such issues, as the globalization phenomenon, the extent to which national cultures are exerted influence by globalization, as well as threats and opportunities produced by globalization that reflect on cultures.

scholarly journals Translation as a Communication Strategy in Representing National Culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aizhan Akkaliyeva ◽  
Baktigul Abdykhanova ◽  
Lyazat Meirambekova ◽  
Zhanar Jambaeyva ◽  
Galiya Tussupbekova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication

The linguistic trinity policy, which has been implemented in Kazakhstan since its independence in the 1990s, is aimed at integrating translation into global processes. Kazakh-Russian bilingualism, caused by the historical and geopolitical proximity of the two countries, is now turning into trilingualism, joining up with English as the dominant language for international communication. Literary translation as a part of cross-cultural communication is also involved in social inclusion processes, contributing to the exchange of cultural values and a better understanding of modern multilingual Kazakhstani society. This article focuses on the issue of presenting Kazakh literature in translation through a mediating language and the research involves an analysis of culture-related lexemes as representations of a nomadic lifestyle in the mirror of intercultural communication. The authors highlight cultural and linguistic aspects of Kazakh transmitted from the mediatory Russian into the target English. Based on a review of previous findings on indirect literary translation, this article discusses whether a mediating language affects the inclusion of Kazakh culture in the globalization process.

THE IMPACT OF NATIONAL CULTURE ON THE CORPORATE CULTURE IN GLOBAL HOTEL COMPANIES

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-102
Author(s):  
Zdenko Cerović ◽  
Amelia Tomašević
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Local Staff ◽  
Business Operations ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Hotel Service ◽  
The Impact

The national culture is a system of assumptions, values, norms and traditions shared by one national group; the corporate culture is a system of rituals, behavior patters, norms and values shared by majority of employees in a company. Both cultures influence the style of management and communication with employees. The national culture influences the corporate culture, but in a long term, a corporate culture can also influence the national culture. Strong corporate cultures can suppress the national culture through the system of standardization of business operations, which in international companies is an element of brand identification and a competitive advantage. Global hotel companies which manage the hotels all over the world, face problems which derive from differences between their own corporate culture and national cultures of local staff. The efficiency of operations will depend on the way and skills in handling those problems. The influence of national and sometimes local cultures might have positive impact on creation of very successful hotel system of hotel service which often is well accepted on tourist market, but might also result with potential misunderstandings and even opposite effects. The paper surveys the elements of national cultures which might have impact on corporate cultures. The paper assumes that global hotel companies often face big cultural and social differences in certain destinations of their business interest. The model of survey are hotel corporate cultures in Croatian, European and world hotels and their corporations.

scholarly journals Dimensions of national cultures and organisational behaviour

Kultura ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 323-345
Author(s):  
Gordana Đuretić ◽  
Nevena Krasulja
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Climate ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour ◽  
Huge Impact ◽  
Organisational Behaviour ◽  
Main Support ◽  
Very High

The main goal of this paper is to point out that the dimensions of national cultures have a huge impact on different aspects of organisational behaviour. The main support in the work is Hofstede's five-dimensional cultural model. The authors pay special attention to the dimensions of power distance and uncertainty avoidance. When both of indexes are high at the level of national culture, organizational climate will have some special features such as high hierarchical pyramids, centralised decision making, and autocratic behaviour of managers, negative attitudes towards work, stress and lack of entrepreneurial behaviour. Also, special interest in this topic results from the fact that both of these dimensions in Serbia are very high.

scholarly journals On “Nationology”: The Gravitational Field of National Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 002202212110447
Author(s):  
Plamen Akaliyski ◽  
Christian Welzel ◽  
Michael Harris Bond ◽  
Michael Minkov
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Field ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Individual Values ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Collective Phenomenon ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual

Nations have been questioned as meaningful units for analyzing culture due to their allegedly limited variance-capturing power and large internal heterogeneity. Against this skepticism, we argue that culture is by definition a collective phenomenon and focusing on individual differences contradicts the very concept of culture. Through the “miracle of aggregation,” we can eliminate random noise and arbitrary variation at the individual level in order to distill the central cultural tendencies of nations. Accordingly, we depict national culture as a gravitational field that socializes individuals into the orbit of a nation’s central cultural tendency. Even though individuals are also exposed to other gravitational forces, subcultures in turn gravitate within the limited orbit of their national culture. Using data from the World Values Survey, we show that individual values cluster in concentric circles around their nation’s cultural gravity center. We reveal the miracle of aggregation by demonstrating that nations capture the bulk of the variation in the individuals’ cultural values once they are aggregated into lower-level territorial units such as towns and sub-national regions. We visualize the gravitational force of national cultures by plotting various intra-national groups from five large countries that form distinct national clusters. Contrary to many scholars’ intuitions, alternative social aggregates, such as ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, as well as diverse socio-demographic categories, add negligible explained variance to that already captured by nations.

scholarly journals LOS RASGOS CULTURALES EN LA CONFORMACIÓN DE LA COMPETITIVIDAD Y DEL CRECIMIENTO SOSTENIBLE

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilianne Isabel Pavón Cuéllar
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Capital Social ◽  
Growth Study ◽  
International Context ◽  
Environmental Care ◽  
Production Factors ◽  
Potential Link ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Stages Of Economic Development

El marco de estudio del crecimiento económico consiste en explorar el desempeño de los factores productivos, tanto en calidad como en cantidad, así como la interrelación de estos factores con el producto nacional, todo ello influenciado por el contexto político, social e internacional. Con el fin de complementar la teoría formal de crecimiento con referentes empíricos y de enfatizar la importancia de considerar elementos adicionales en dicho proceso, esta investigación se concentra en la posible vinculación entre los rasgos culturales de un grupo seleccionado de países y los demás factores productivos, para explorar si dicho capital social informal incide de forma determinante en su conformación y desempeño. Se incluyen también dos variables vinculadas a la equidad y al cuidado medioambiental, al considerarlas insumos esenciales para la competitividad y el crecimiento sostenibles, y se analiza cómo se ven afectadas por la cultura nacional. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que la cultura influye en todos ellos a través de distintos canales y que aun cuando esta relación no sea estable en el tiempo o varíe de acuerdo al grado de competitividad alcanzado por un país, su signo positivo o negativo, según el rasgo cultural del que se trate, es consistente entre naciones y en distintas etapas de desarrollo económico.AbstractThe framework of the economic growth study consists in exploring the performance of productive factors, both in quality and quantity, of the interplay of these factors with the domestic product, all influenced by the political, social and international context. In the aim of complementing the formal growth theory with empirical referents and emphasize the importance of considering additional elements in this process, this research focuses on the potential link between the cultural values of a selected group of countries and other production factors, in order to explore whether such informal social capital influences decisively its creation and performance. This work also includes two variables related to equity and environmental care, considered as essential inputs for sustainable competitiveness and growth, as well as the analysis on how these variables are affected by the national culture. Results demonstrate that culture influences all of them through different channels and that even though this relationship is not stable over time or vary according to the degree of competitiveness reached by a country, is consistent across nations and at different stages of economic development.

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