Deck 3: Getting to Know Another Culture

Question 1

Some cultures hold that firsthand experience alone enables a person to "know" with certainty.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Hofstede's work and the GLOBE study are examples of research about cultures at the individual level.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Everyone,regardless of culture,learns by asking questions.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Discuss the use of generalizations when talking about cultures. Are they always stereotypes? Are they useful or harmful?

Question 5

Discuss how a culture's view toward knowing and knowledge is related to how people learn to learn. Use examples to illustrate your discussion.

Question 6

Define high-context and low-context cultures and explain how communication messages may differ when the communicator has to refuse to refund a purchase. Use an example such as this one: May purchased a 3G mobile phone,but found the memory was insufficient to hold all the data the she wants to load into it. May has used the phone for two weeks and has requested a refund,but you,the communicator,have to refuse. Imagine you are from a low-context culture and think what you would say. Then take the part of a high-context culture member.

Question 7

Logic is defined and practiced the same way in all cultures.

Question 8

Some things are considered unknowable to members of some cultures.

Question 9

Treating culture as a theoretical concept means we can make generalizations about a culture.

Question 10

Time is understood and used differently in different cultures. Discuss,using specific examples.

Question 11

Anecdotal travelers' tales are not able to add anything accurate to your understanding of a culture.

Question 12

Discuss the two focuses in the study of culture: a whole-culture focus and an individual-member focus. Give examples of research studies you have read about. Explain emic and etic approaches in your discussion.

Question 13

High-context cultures tend to be group-oriented. Using Category 3,Doing and Achieving, discuss other characteristics of high-context cultures,and give specific examples.

Question 14

How people reason is influenced by culture.Using two of the three cultures discussed in Chapter 3 (European,Asian,Arab)explain some specific differences in reasoning.

Question 15

Workers in some cultures who may appear "disorganized" to members of other cultures,may be using a simultaneous,rather than a sequential,approach to work.

Question 16

Culture as a concept related to a specific group can operate as a theory. Discuss this statement,explaining how the cultural concept of family,for example,can be a theoretical basis for research into Chinese behavior (such as communication). You can refer to the clothesline or beaded chain metaphors.

Question 17

Discuss the cultural dimension that concerns the role of a deity,fate,fortune or luck in business in relation to this question: Why should businesspeople learn about the importance this dimension has in a culture?

Question 18

Members of a culture are not necessarily the best authorities on that culture.

Question 19

Novels in translation are ways to learn about another culture's values,attitudes and behaviors.

Question 20

Discuss the relationship of beliefs in a culture and religions (belief systems)in this question: Does a culture adopt a religion because its values are similar to the culture's values,or does a religion supply the values to a culture? Choose a specific culture that has had more than one dominant religion in its history. Keep your answer focused on a whole culture,not individual personal religious views.

Question 21

Results cultures

A) do not put a high priority on winning
B) do not identify goals and work toward them
C) do not quantify and measure progress
D) do not value relationships as highly as results

Question 22

The world religion with the greatest number of believers is Buddhism

Question 23

Being cultures

A) stress the importance of human beings
B) value stillness,collectedness,and serenity
C) view activity as important for its own sake
D) prefer to fill emptiness with talk and action

Question 24

The third largest group,in the range of world religions,is the non-religious.

Question 25

Uncertainty is the same thing as risk.

Question 26

Change is viewed positively in traditional cultures.

Question 27

Stereotypes are

A) never OK
B) oversimplified generalizations
C) the opposite of mental categories
D) two opposing views in stereo

Question 28

"Cultural priority" means

A) key sources where a society generates its GDP
B) layers of society with a few at the top and many at the bottom
C) a value held by members of a culture to a greater or lesser degree compared with other cultures
D) what you should learn last about a culture

Question 29

Knowing comes from

A) taking in and processing what one reads,hears,and studies
B) listening,doing,and following examples
C) experience,intuition,and formal learning
D) a,b,or c depending upon one's culture

Question 30

Planning is important in cultures that think in cause-and-effect patters,and correspondingly the role of luck is minimal.

Question 31

As the textbook points out,businesspeople do not need to concern themselves with cultural attitudes towards death.

Question 32

When studying cultures,which of the following is NOT an approach to use?

A) emic and etic focuses
B) using whole cultures or using individuals as units of analysis
C) transactional or non-transactional analyses
D) culture as a basis for theory

Question 33

Cultural generalizations

A) need to be used carefully to avoid cultural determinism
B) cannot legitimately be used to make predictions about behavior
C) never play a role in cultural determinism
D) are the same thing as stereotypes

Question 34

Cultures view efficiency differently.

Question 35

Cultures that prefer low-context communication

A) rely on context to communicate meaning
B) are explicit in their messages
C) do not trust words
D) tend to have a high rate of verbs in their communication

Question 36

The definition of punctuality is the same in all cultures.

Question 37

Among the five categories for understanding a culture are

A) thinking and knowing,the big picture,legal and educational systems
B) doing and achieving,the self,and technology
C) social organization,hierarchy,the big picture
D) thinking and knowing,doing and achieving,the big picture

Question 38

Reasoning by putting facts in a logical sequence

A) is something all cultures do
B) is typical of cultures descended from classical Greece
C) is true only of Arab cultures
D) describes Asian cultures best

Question 39

Cultures that prefer high-context communication

A) try to avoid ambiguity,as a rule
B) also have a high rate of verbs in their communication
C) tend to be technologically undeveloped
D) communicate in ways that can be called elliptical and indirect

Question 40

All cultures agree about what signifies an achievement..

Question 41

Time

A) was invented my the monks in medieval Europe
B) is treated as cyclical in Western cultures
C) is treated as linear in results-oriented cultures
D) is past,present,and future at once,in doing cultures

Question 42

Fate (or fortune or luck)is relatively unimportant in Western cultures because

A) they value planning and luck is of no consequence if contingency plans have been made for various outcomes
B) in technologically developed countries things don't have unexpected outcomes
C) luck only affects people who believe it has power
D) Western cultures are not superstitious

Question 43

Christianity

A) is the religion of fewer people than Islam
B) is practiced the same way throughout the world
C) has little relevance to social attitudes toward business ventures
D) shares with Islam a common root in Judaism

Question 44

Hinduism

A) is a relatively young religion
B) involves the idea of hierarchy in spiritual and social levels
C) is practiced throughout India in the same way
D) is kept carefully separate from business life

Question 45

The relationship of humans to the environment

A) has become exploitative only in the past decade or two,since earlier civilizations lived in harmony with nature
B) is not an issue related to religion
C) is captured in the dimension of nature dominating human activity versus humans dominating nature
D) goes beyond culture

Question 46

Change is understood

A) as synonymous with new and improved,in all cultures
B) as something to be feared,in all cultures
C) in connection with avoidance or tolerance of uncertainty
D) by the educated elite in a society but not understood by the masses

Question 47

Buddhism

A) is a system of teachings by its leader,Ghandi,about passive resistance to injustice and social wrong
B) is a system of teachings about moral and spiritual enlightenment;Gautama is the Buddha's name
C) is practiced the same way around the world
D) is an offshoot of Islam;the name of Buddha is unknown

Question 48

Islam

A) has more believers than either Buddhism or Hinduism and is the fastest growing religion in the United States
B) is older than Buddhism or Hinduism
C) worships the god called Mohammed
D) results in behavior of believers that is the same around the world

Question 49

In general,tolerance of uncertainty is

A) rejected by relationship-oriented cultures
B) typical of cultures that are averse to risk
C) not typical of rules-bending cultures
D) more a characteristic of planning cultures than of luck-seeking cultures