Chapter 4
Cultural Shock
Quesons
1. The term cultural shock is used to describe the trauma you experience when moving
2. The stages of cultural shock include: excitement or inial euphoria, crisis or
3. Mulnaonal $rms can alleviate cultural shock by selecng employees for overseas
4. Approaches to intercultural training oered by mulnaonal $rms include: intellectual
model or classroom model (parcipants are given facts about the host country using a
5. Types of cultural stress that may confront persons who are living abroad include
adjusng to new foods and problems with housing, climate, services, or communicaon.
6. Posive coping skills to alleviate stress include diversions, such as taking up a hobby,
7. Social class and poverty-wealth extremes can be sources of cultural shock for U.S.
8. Types of $nancial adjustments associated with cultural shock include rate of exchange,
9. The Johari Window is used to depict how people in various cultures dier with respect
to how much of the inner self is shared with others. The panes of the window are used
to represent things others know that I also know (arena or open), things others know
10. The types of reentry problems encountered by persons returning to the home culture
Case 1
Larry made several mistakes while trying to make a good impression on his Japanese
hosts. These include: asking the Japanese to call him by his $rst name, telling several
Case 2
Karl and his family have a big adjustment to make and should prepare for it fully. Karl
should order the local Chicago newspaper to catch up on the events of the area. He may
Case 3
Frank had not prepared for his trip to Mexico by learning about the Mexican business
culture. If Frank had prepared, he would have realized that lunch is around 2:00 p.m.,
and that it is for relaxaon and ge;ng to know each other not for a business discussion.
Case 4
With a li1le research Janice would have realized that English is used in business but is
not used for everyday life. Knowing this she could have taken Japanese lessons to learn
Case 5
1. What does commitment mean to each of the cultures? Germany, The Netherlands,
the U.S., and Mexico are very dierent in their work acvies. Mexicans like to get
2. How do task and group-maintenance goals dier in an internaonal team of
workers? The task goals are more important to the Germans, then the Dutch, then
the U.S., and then Mexico. The group maintenance goals are most important to the
3. What prejudices might these team members have against other group members?
4. Why were the members acng as they did? The Mexicans arrived late, perhaps only
an indicaon that they probably had something else to $nish $rst. For the other
5. What knowledge would everyone need to know going into an internaonal team?
6. How would exploring each other’s beliefs, norms, and values at the beginning of
Acvies
1. Instruct students to use a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 represenng a large degree of reentry
shock and 1 represenng the least degree of reentry shock, for evaluang a through e.
2. Students’ responses to cultural shock expected in Egypt could include: a;tudes toward
3. A9er returning to the U.S. from Kenya, the types of reentry shock a person might
4. Students could simply review material in the chapter to determine the most important
5. Suggest to students that they check the libraries of other public and private schools, in
6. Instructors may wish to use this acvity for extra credit, especially since not all students