Grahame T. Bilbow

Cross-cultural impression management in the multicultural workplace: The special case of Hong Kong☆

Abstract This paper investigates the spoken discourse of Chinese and Western members of staff in a series of multi-party managerial-level cross-cultural business meetings at a large Hong Kong-based airline. The analysis is based on a corpus of naturally occurring meetings audio- and video-recorded at the airline. Specifically, the discourse used by each group to realise certain directive speech acts (requests, commands and suggestions) is analysed. A model of discourse is proposed which employs the concept of impression management to explain how (i) speakers project certain impressions of themselves to others, and (ii) hearers attribute characteristics to speakers on the basis of their discourse. Impression management (IM), it is argued, is a central and universal function of discourse, irrespective of speaker ethnicity, although it may be applied variably by different individuals in different situations. The Cross-Cultural Impression Management (CCIM) discourse model suggests (i) that the attribution process is significantly affected by the cultural backgrounds of both speakers and hearers, and (ii) that ‘discordant’ attributions may lead to the reinforcement of negative person-perceptions, which, in turn, may result in distorted communication. This paper considers some of the ways in which spoken discourse contributes to attributions of ‘authoritativeness’ in cross-cultural encounters. The paper also briefly presents a model for cross-cultural awareness training that seeks to empower all speakers, whether or not they represent the communicative norm, to make informed choices about the discourse they use in cross-cultural encounters.

Look Who's Talking An Analysis of “Chair-Talk” in Business Meetings

Management is a symbolic activity that depends to a great extent on a managers control of language resources. However, relatively little is known about the linguistic and pragmatic features of managers spoken discourse in a range of speech events common in organisations (e.g., meetings, negotiations, presentations, and so on). Drawing on a corpus of authentic business meetings videotaped at a large airline in Hong Kong, this article investigates a number of aspects of the managerial discourse that occurs in business meetings (chair-talk). Three specific aspects of “chair-talk” are considered: the proportion of chair-talk that occurs in business meetings, the patterns of speech acts that commonly occur in chair-talk, and the ways in which chairs convey command-oriented directive speech acts. These findings are then discussed within the context of such issues as hierarchical power structure in organisations, the function of different meeting types, the role of directness and indirectness in personal relationships, and linguistic tolerance in intercultural encounters.

Strengthening Teaching and Learning in Research Universities

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Fostering Dialogue About Practices

price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. B. Stensaker, G.T. Bilbow, L. Breslow, R. van der Vaart (Eds.) Strengthening Teaching and Learning in Research Universities

From Business Corpus to Business Lexicon

Contemporary research-intensive universities need not only to maintain but also to enhance the quality of their teaching and learning. Diverse strategies are used to raise the quality of teaching and learning, and these typically respond to both institutional and disciplinary cultures. However, there is sometimes a failure to effectively integrate quality enhancement initiatives at the individual (micro) level, the intermediate (meso) level, and the institutional (macro) level within institutions. In particular, the essential role of social processes at the meso level is sometimes overlooked. There may be more that research-intensive universities can do to foster a vibrant teaching and learning culture that facilitates professional conversations in relation to teaching and learning enhancement at and across different levels and within and between disciplinary boundaries. This chapter reports on a modified ‘community of practice’ (CoP) approach adopted at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) to drive change and diffuse innovation at the meso level. HKU’s CoP approach incorporates several unique features that have helped the university to address the specific opportunities and challenges it faces at the collective level, where fostering dialogue plays such a key role.

Strategic Challenges in the Development of Teaching and Learning in Research-Intensive Universities

Abstract: Language corpora are now indispensable to dictionary compilation. They help broaden the role of the dictionary from standardizing the vocabulary to recording a language. The trilingual corpus generated by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University gives a record of business languages used in Hong Kong. It differs from other corpora in that (1) it includes English, Chinese and Japanese; (2) it shows local characteristics; and (3) it focuses on a specific area (financial services, including banking, accounting, auditing, insurance and investment). The paper discusses various issues of setting up a tricorpus, and how to make full use of the data to generate a trilingual lexicon. Keywords: MULTILINGUAL, SPECIAL PURPOSE, CORPUS, LEXICON Opsomming: Van sakekorpus tot sakeleksikon. Taalkorpora is tans onontbeerlik virdie samestelling van woordeboeke. Hulle help om die rol van die woordeboek uit te brei vanaf diestandaardisering van die woordeskat tot die optekening van ‘n taal. Die drietalige korpus wat deurdie Hongkongse Politegniese Universiteit ontwikkel is, verskaf ‘n opgawe van die saketale wat inHongkong gebruik word. Dit verskil van ander korpora deurdat (1) dit Engels, Chinees and Japaneesinsluit; (2) dit plaaslike eienskappe vertoon; en (3) dit op n spesifieke gebied (finansiele dienste,insluitende bankwese, rekeningkunde, ouditering, versekering en belegging) fokus. Die artikelbespreek verskillende aspekte van die totstandbrenging van n drietalige korpus, en hoe om vollegebruik te maak van die data om n drietalige leksikon te genereer. Sleutelwoorde: MEERTALIG, SPESIALE DOEL, KORPUS, LEKSIKON

Business metaphors in a bilingual business lexicon

The chapter provides an introduction to the current challenges facing many research-intensive universities throughout the world. It is argued that issues related to teaching and learning are becoming more important as a way to improve competitiveness and an institution’s profile in a more globalised higher education sector. However, fostering change in research-intensive universities is often dependent on careful design addressing the normative, practical and organisational factors that may prevent institutional transformation. In the conclusion, it is emphasized that initiatives that aim at cultural transformation may be a fruitful way forward for institutions trying to enhance their teaching and learning in a more systematic way.

From business corpus to business lexicon : project

Abstract: General purpose dictionaries benefit users at large in many ways, but the definitions and examples might not satisfy the diverse needs of different professional users. This is especially true of metaphors. The article discusses the treatment of business metaphors in the PolyU Business Lexicon derived from the trilingual PolyU Business Corpus (PUBC). During the process the concordances are grouped by senses, and then separated according to their literal and metaphorical meanings, which in turn lead to the decisions of sense order, word meaning and translation equivalents. Since different cultures have different bags of metaphors, and metaphorical meanings also vary in different registers, the focus is primarily on the differences between Chinese and English in terms of culture, psychology, language and how such differences can be translated and presented in a corpus-based business lexicon with a minimum loss of their original connotations. Cultural transformations, such as direct translation, image substitution, explanatory notes and abandonment of the figure of speech, are suggested to bridge interlanguage metaphorical gaps. Keywords: METAPHOR, DEFINITION, TRANSLATION, CULTURAL DIFFERENCE Opsomming: Sakemetafore in n tweetalige sakewoordeboek. Woordeboeke vir algemene doeleindes bevoordeel gewone gebruikers op baie maniere, maar die definisies en voorbeelde mag dalk nie die uiteenlopende behoeftes van verskillende professionele gebruikers bevredig nie. Dit is veral waar van metafore. Die artikel bespreek die behandeling van sakemetafore in die PolyU Business Lexicon gebaseer op die drietalige PolyU Business Corpus (PUBC). Gedurende die proses word die konkordansies deur betekenisse gegroepeer, en dan geskei volgens hul letterlike en metaforiese betekenisse, wat vervolgens lei tot die besluite oor betekenisorde, woordbetekenis, en vertaalsekwivalente. Aangesien verskillende kulture verskillende sakke metafore het, en metaforiese betekenisse ook varieer in verskillende registers, is die fokus prim?r op die verskille tussen Sjinees en Engels in terme van kultuur, psigologie, taal en hoe sulke verskille vertaal en aangebied kan word in n korpusgebaseerde sakewoordeboek met n minimum verlies aan hul oorspronklike konnotasies. Kulturele transformasies, soos direkte vertaling, beeldvervanging, verklarende aantekeninge en prysgewing van die stylfiguur, word voorgestel vir die oorbrugging van die tussentalige metaforiese gapings. Sleutelwoorde: METAFOOR, DEFINISIE, VERTALING, KULTURELE VERSKIL