REASONING AND ANALYSIS PAPER
Spring 2017
For this assignment, you will write a 3-page (750-1000 words) paper in which you
use assigned materials and an example from your personal experience or popular
culture to analyze intercultural communication conflicts in a real life scenario.
Intercultural communication conflicts are problems that arise when communicators
are unaware of differences in their own and others verbal and non-verbal behavior.
You are required to select and read one of the assigned scenarios* in which the
values and norms in the communicator’s co-cultural groups (i.e., socioeconomic
status, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, region, nationality, and membership)
and/or key cultural values (individualism, collectivism; high-context, low-context;
nurturing, achievement; power distance; uncertainty avoidance) are in conflict with
one another.
In this paper you should:
1. Identify which co-cultural groups and/or cultural values are in conflict with each other.
2. Discuss which values and norms within those co-cultural groups/cultural values are in
conflict.
3. Your discussion should a) clearly describe the cultural value(s) and co-cultural group.
Using examples from the scenario, information from the textbook, and supporting
examples from the two (2) of the assigned articles as well as your own experience, b)
discuss how the cultural values and norms influenced how the communicators in the
scenario acted with each other. Additionally, knowing the impact of cultural differences on
intercultural communication success, c)what communication competence strategies could
the communicators have used to help them better communicate with each other?
Select one of the Scenarios below:
4. An ethnographer inadvertently causes a communication crisis when
she accuses a family member of stealing from her. Click here for the
article Being_There_Learning_to_Live_Cross_Culturally ch 8
Shame and Making Truth
• Hay, M. Cameron. “Shame and Making Truth: The Social Repairs of Ethnographic
Blunders.” Being There: Learning to Live Cross-Culturally. Ed. Sarah H. Davis and
Melvin Konner. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press, 2011. 112-127.
ProQuest ebrary. Web. 31 October 2015.
2. An ethnographer adjusts to living with her family in a place that is
suspicious of strangers. click here for the article: My Family’s Honor
•
o
▪ Davis, Sarah H. “My Family’s Honor. Being There: Learning to Live CrossCulturally.” Ed. Sarah H. Davis and Melvin Konner. Cambridge, MA, USA:
Harvard University Press, 2011. 208-223. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 05 March
2016.
Assigned Articles (Select two to use as supporting material)
1. Avruch, Kevin. “Cross-Cultural Conflict.” Conflict Resolution. Encyclopedia of Life
Support Systems. n.d.
http://www.eolss.net/ebooks/Sample%20Chapters/C14/E1-40-01-01.pdf
2. Fuld, Leonard M. “Cross-Cultural Communication Takes More than Manners.”
Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review, 01 August 2012. Web. 3 March
2016.
3. Jaeger-Fine, Desiree. “Five Cultural Values That Will Enhance Your Study & Job
Search in the U.S.” Five Cultural Values That Will Enhance Your Study & Job Search
in the U.S. Lawyer & Statesman, 25 Jan. 2016. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.
4. LeBaron, Michelle. “Culture and Conflict.” Beyond Intractability. The Conflict
Information Consortium, University of Colorado. July 2003. Web. 29 February 2016.
http://www.beyondintractability.org/bksum/lebaron-bridging
5. Markus, Hazel and Alana Conner. “8 Cultural Conflicts That Make Us Who We
Are.” HuffPost Books. TheHuffingtongPost.com, 06 December 2013. Web. 29
February 2016.
6. McKeiver, Kathy. “Identifying Barriers to Effective Intercultural Communication.”
NACADA: Academic Advising Today. Kansas State University, Dec. 2013. Web. 06
Feb. 2016.