Vive la Différence

Author(s):  
David Gefen ◽  
Nitza Geri ◽  
Narasimha Paravastu

The differences among peoples and how their respective culture and history may affect their adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT), as well as their preferred usage patterns, are often discussed in the literature. But do we really need to look that far to find such cross-cultural differences? Considering language is one of the major defining attributes of culture, this chapter takes a sociolinguistic approach to argue that there is a cross-cultural aspect to ICT adoption also within the same culture. Sociolinguists have claimed for years that to a large extent, communication between men and women, even within the supposedly same culture, has such characteristics due to their different underlying social objectives which affect their communication patterns. This chapter examines this sociolinguistic perspective in the context of online courses, where students are often requested to collaborate with their classmates in online threaded discussions. Although the stage is set in online courses to smother cultural and gender differences if participants wish to do so, a key finding is that gender based cultural patterns still emerge. These differences were strong enough to allow significant identification of the student gender, despite the gender neutral context of the course discussions. Implications for ICT in general in view of this Vive la Différence are discussed.

2009 ◽  
pp. 2644-2654 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gefen ◽  
Nitza Geri ◽  
Narasimha Paravastu

In the ITC cross-cultural literature, we often talk about the differences among peoples and how their respective culture and history may affect their adoption and preference usage patterns of ITC. However, do we really need to look that far to find such cross-cultural differences? Considering language is one of the major defining attributes of culture, this article takes a sociolinguistic approach to argue that there is also a cross-cultural aspect to ITC adoption within the same culture. Sociolinguists have claimed for years that, to a large extent, the communication between men and women, even within the supposedly same culture, has such characteristics because men and women communicate with different underlying social objectives and so their communication patterns are very different. This article examines this sociolinguistic perspective in the context of online courses. A key finding is that although the stage is set to smother cultural and gender differences if participants wish to do so through ITC, gender based cultural patterns still emerge. These differences were actually strong enough to allow us to significantly identify the gender of the student, despite the gender neutral context of the course discussions. Implications for ITC, in general, in view of this Vive la Différence, are discussed.


Author(s):  
David Gefen ◽  
Nitza Geri ◽  
Narasimha Paravastu

In the ITC cross-cultural literature, we often talk about the differences among peoples and how their respective culture and history may affect their adoption and preference usage patterns of ITC. However, do we really need to look that far to find such cross-cultural differences? Considering language is one of the major defining attributes of culture, this article takes a sociolinguistic approach to argue that there is also a cross-cultural aspect to ITC adoption within the same culture. Sociolinguists have claimed for years that, to a large extent, the communication between men and women, even within the supposedly same culture, has such characteristics because men and women communicate with different underlying social objectives and so their communication patterns are very different. This article examines this sociolinguistic perspective in the context of online courses. A key finding is that although the stage is set to smother cultural and gender differences if participants wish to do so through ITC, gender based cultural patterns still emerge. These differences were actually strong enough to allow us to significantly identify the gender of the student, despite the gender neutral context of the course discussions. Implications for ITC, in general, in view of this Vive la Différence, are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritika Jain

AbstractDoes the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) lead to better and more inclusive women representation in the workforce? We explore this question for India- a developing economy characterized by strong patriarchal norms and gender-based discrimination in the workforce. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey of 2014, we examine the effect of computerization, email usage and Internet services on three aspects of female representation- total female representation, representation across the hierarchy of workforce and quality of female representation. Using instrumental variable estimation models, we find that ICT adoption has a positive effect on the total share of women in the workforce. A deeper analysis reveals that the positive effect of ICTs on female employment is limited to the share of females in the highly skilled workforce. In contrast, it does not affect the female share in the low or unskilled workforce. This indicates that ICT adoption has a semi-polarization effect on women. We also find that ICT adoption is associated with better quality females in the workforce. Both rises in demand for skilled people and a women-friendly work environment drive these results. The overall findings establish the effective role of ICTs in enhancing women’s representation in the workforce.


Author(s):  
Ana-Cristina Ionescu

In this new age, the Internet, the network of networks connected by a complex array of electronic, wireless, and optical technologies extending from the private to the public sector, and from academic to business and governmental organizations, is starting to have increasingly broad social implications, besides the technical ones. Nevertheless, as women and men enter and progress differently into employment and occupations, not all humankind benefits equally from Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In this paper, the author addresses the question of whether women have equal rights and opportunities to access and use ICTs. In this article, the author strengthens the idea that in this changing era, new ICTs represent a cardinal instrument for social transformation, enabling and empowering women to become controllers of information.


Author(s):  
Ana-Cristina Ionescu

In this new age, the Internet, the network of networks connected by a complex array of electronic, wireless, and optical technologies extending from the private to the public sector, and from academic to business and governmental organizations, is starting to have increasingly broad social implications, besides the technical ones. Nevertheless, as women and men enter and progress differently into employment and occupations, not all humankind benefits equally from information and communication technologies (ICTs). The question that this chapter addresses is whether women have equal rights and opportunities to access and use ICTs. In this chapter, the author aims to strengthen the idea that in this changing era, new ICTs represent a cardinal instrument for social transformation, enabling and empowering women to become controllers of information.


Author(s):  
Yolanda Rodríguez-Castro ◽  
Rosana Martínez-Román ◽  
Patricia Alonso-Ruido ◽  
Alba Adá-Lameiras ◽  
María Victoria Carrera-Fernández

Background: Within the context of the widespread use of technologies by adolescents, the objectives of this study were to identify the perpetrators of intimate partner cyberstalking (IPCS) in adolescents; to analyze the relationship between IPCS and gender, age, sexting behaviors, pornography consumption, and ambivalent sexism; and to investigate the influence of the study variables as predictors of IPCS and determine their moderating role. Methods: Participants were 993 Spanish students of Secondary Education, 535 girls and 458 boys with mean age 15.75 (SD = 1.47). Of the total sample, 70.3% (n = 696) had or had had a partner. Results: Boys perform more sexting, consume more pornographic content, and have more hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes than girls. However, girls perpetrate more IPCS than boys. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression indicate that hostile sexism is a predictor of IPCS, as well as the combined effect of Gender × Pornography and Benevolent Sexism × Sexting. Conclusions: it is essential to implement sexual affective education programs in schools in which Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are incorporated so that boys and girls can experience their relationships, both offline and online, in an egalitarian and violence-free way.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 355-372
Author(s):  
Rachel Karniol

Abstract The purpose of the current research was to examine strategies of persuasion used by Arabic-speaking and Hebrew-speaking boys and girls to determine the relative contributions of culture and gender in determining communication styles. Children were asked to write a letter to a male or female peer asking for a gender-stereotyped or a gender-neutral gift. Four meta-categories were identified: formality, self-focus, other-focus, and gift-focus. For each meta-category except gift-focus, there were significant main effects and interactions. Language group was significant for formality and other-focus but not for self-focus. Importantly, there were several interactions between participant gender, target gender, and gender-stereotypy of gift, but these did not interact with language group. The results were discussed in the context of children’s socialization to the ethos of musayara and dugri in Arabic-speaking and Hebrew-speaking culture.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Alejandro Valencia-Arias ◽  
Carolina Herazo Avendano ◽  
Laura Echeverri Sanchez ◽  
Juan Manuel Peña Plata ◽  
Stephanía Vasquez Giraldo ◽  
...  

Modern societies are increasingly globalized, where information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a fundamental role in every aspect of daily life: from the social, family, labor, among others. Every day more people who without distinguishing age and gender are seen in the need and desire to have at least one technological device. Objective: To examine the impact of using ICTs in the family relations of the residents of Medellín city. Methodology: exploratory-descriptive research through a quantitative methodological design, a non-probabilistic sampling by criterion was made, where 77 people were selected. Data were collected through a questionnaire type survey with closed questions in a virtual way during 3 Months. Results: among the results, 73.4% of responders suggest that there is no adequate supervision of adults to guide children and adolescents to establish a critical position on these contents. On the other hand, the most valued resources are the mobile device and computer for the possibilities of communication between relatives that are far way and for being means to improve the educational and labor processes. Conclusion: studies around ICTs and their impacts have grown significantly, which it ratifies the importance of the topic. It is imperative that parents stop seeing ICTs as a distant entity, and try to be at the forefront of the uses of the same by children, to generate effective control in the training processes within the family.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mladen Cudanov ◽  
Ondrej Jasko ◽  
Milos Jevtic

This paper presents research on influence of information and communication technologies on decentralization of organizational structure. An empirical research was conducted, in which decentralization was described by dominant management style was compared to the level of composite index of ICT adoption. Also, consulting experience in four major Serbian companies was used to further elaborate and explain the results in the context of modern literature and practice. Conclusions were that ICT adoption is more frequently expressed in decentralized companies, empirically described by dominant liberal style of management, although ICT adoption can also lead to centralization in some cases, depending on other factors in the organization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Albert Miró ◽  

The main aim of this research is to contrast the existence of a positive relationship between the total factor productivity (TFP) of companies in the Spanish tourism sector and their use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). in the understanding that the trend is for companies to opt for ICT in‑ vestment and development to improve their TFP and their interaction with the international market (export and import) also leads to an improvement in TFP in the context of the “New” new trade theory. Likewise, the current debate on the dispersion of TFP has affected all economic sectors. In this case, the hy‑ pothesis revolves around the existence of a divergence of this variable between a period of crisis (2007‑2011) and a period of economic recovery (2012‑2017). The data from the Iberian Balance Sheet Analysis System (SABI) were extracted fto the ends of the correct development of this research which has allowed the TFP to be estimated using MCO, EF and LP, as well as the correct verification of the hypotheses using the SEM method. Three conclusions are reached: i) that the Spanish tourism sector seems to have a low level of ICT adoption in its business structure; ii) that TFP dispersion is demonstrated with respect to the two subperiods analysed (crisis and economic recovery), and that iii) internationalisation has a significant result on TFP.


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