Culture Shock

The educational literature suggests that international contact contributes to a comprehensive educational experience. The Five Stages of Culture Shock examines an international shipboard educational program and seeks to identify specific insights resulting from informal extracurricular contact between students and host nationals in the context of culture shock experiences. Using the critical incident methodology, Pedersen analyzes students' responses to nearly 300 specific incidents which resulted in insights that apply to the students' own development, as well as the sociocultural context of the host countries. This use of critical incidents shows one way to evaluate and assess the subjective experiences of the informal curriculum. More broadly, the analysis sheds light on the concept of culture shock as a psychological construct.

Today, more Americans than ever are going abroad to visit, work, or study. Increasingly, the ability to communicate and work in cross-cultural situations is seen as an important determinant of success in business, government, education, and the social services. Being successful depends less on what you know of a particular culture than it does on what you know about managing new cultural situations. This book provides a comprehensive and practical guide to communicating, learning, and adapting within any new cultural environment. The skills learned from this book are essential to success and can be put to use in any new culture, anywhere in the world.

Provides teachers and trainers with proven methods for developing coping strategies and problem solving skills in the cross-cultural arena.

Drawing from a diverse literature that underscores America's growing racial hostility and violence, York defines and explores the claims of cross-cultural training as an aid to increasing personal satisfaction and professional productivity in culturally diverse work environments. York claims that soaring "failure rates" among cross-cultural workers, particularly teachers, business personnel, and missionaries, are the result of inadequate, poorly administered, or inappropriate cross-cultural training. Examining more than 500 studies of cross-cultural training programs in more than a dozen occupations, York compares training given to Peace Corps and diplomatic corps members, teachers, doctors, and others who work in culturally diverse environments. In an analysis of these programs, she determines whether differences in policies, goals, selection procedures, lengths of training time, age or race of trainees, training location, or other factors contribute to long-term effectiveness of the programs.

Although firms have been sending employees on international assignments for decades, systematic understanding is sorely lacking. This volume looks at such critical aspects of the assignment process as the selection process, the training required, factors that affect adjustment, performance and commitment, and how to retain and capitalize on the international experience once employees return home.This book is written for human resource managers and executives whose focus includes the global economy and the strategic role of people in achieving international competitiveness. It can be used as a textbook for courses in International Human Resource Management.