Page 419 - Cultures and Organizations

384 IMPLICATIONS

between schoolteachers and the immigrant parents of their students, and
between businesspeople trying to set up international ventures. Subtler
misunderstandings than those pictured by Morier but with similar roots
still play a prominent role in negotiations between modern diplomats and/
or political leaders. Intercultural communication skills can contribute to
the success of negotiations, on the results of which depend the solutions to

crucial global problems. Avoiding unintended cultural conflicts will be the
overall theme of this chapter.

Culture Shock and Acculturation

Intercultural encounters are often accompanied by similar psychologi-
cal and social processes. The simplest form of intercultural encounter is
between one foreign individual and a new cultural environment.
The foreigner usually experiences some form of culture shock. As illus-
trated over and over again in earlier chapters, our mental software contains
basic values. These values were acquired early in our lives, and they have
become so natural as to be unconscious. They form the basis of our con-

scious and more superficial manifestations of culture: rituals, heroes, and
symbols (see Figure 1.2). The inexperienced foreigner can make an effort
to learn some of the symbols and rituals of the new environment (words to
use, how to greet people, when to bestow presents), but it is unlikely that
he or she can recognize, let alone feel, the underlying values. In a way, the
visitor in a foreign culture returns to the mental state of an infant, in which
the simplest things must be learned over again. This experience usually
leads to feelings of distress, of helplessness, and of hostility toward the new
environment. Often one’s physical functioning is affected. Expatriates and
migrants have more need for medical help shortly after their displacement

than before or later. 4
People residing in a foreign cultural environment have reported shifts
of feelings over time that follow more or less the acculturation curve pictured
in Figure 11.1. Feelings (positive or negative) are plotted on the vertical
axis, and time is plotted on the horizontal axis. Phase 1 is a (usually short)
period of euphoria: the honeymoon, the excitement of traveling and of see-
ing new lands. Phase 2 is the period of culture shock when real life starts in
the new environment, as described earlier. Phase 3, acculturation, sets in
when the visitor has slowly learned to function under the new conditions,
has adopted some of the local values, finds increased self-confi dence, and