Stephen Bochner

Role Conflict, Ambiguity, and Overload: A 21-Nation Study

The extent of role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload reported by middle managers from 21 nations was related to national scores on power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, an...

Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism, and Job-Related Attitudes in a Culturally Diverse Work Group

Hofstedes power distance (PD) and individualism (IDV) constructs were validated in the context of a single multicultural work setting. Two hundred sixty-three workers from 28 different countries employed in the information services branch of a large Australian bank completed a questionnaire the items of which measured some implications of the constructs, namely: superior-subordinate relationships, decision-making styles, the work ethic, task orientation, the psychological contract, and individual versus group achievement. On the basis of their Hofstede country index, the subjects were divided into high and low PD and IDV groups, respectively, and differences in their scores on theoretically relevant items provided support for both constructs. The questionnaire also included items stenming from the model about the nature and incidence of inteethnic work-related friction. As predicted, the out-group non-Anglo-Celt respondents reported a greater incidence of discrimination, regarded cultural diversity in the workplace more favorably, and engaged in more behaviors that the host culture would regard as countemormative.

Friendship Patterns of Overseas Students: A Functional Model

Abstract The respondents were 30 foreign students at the University of Hawaii (6 each from Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand), and 6 host national (American) students, balanced for sex. The subjects identified their 5 best friends, and the 5 people with whom they spend most of their time. The subjects were then presented with a list of 15 activities, and identified a preferred companion for each of the situations. The data were used to test a functional model of the academic sojourn, which predicts that foreign students will belong to three social networks, in descending order of salience: a) a conational network whose function is to affirm and express the culture of origin; b) a network with host nationals, whose function is the instrumental facilitation of academic and professional aspirations; and c) a multinational network whose main function is recreational. The results confirmed the existence, predicted differential function, and salience hierarchy of these three social networks, a...

The communication of medical information in general practice consultations as a function of patients' social class

Abstract A total of seventy-nine (79) naturally occurring general practice consultations were videotaped and measured for length of consultation. Instances of information giving by the doctor were also scored. Four types of information giving were identified and scored separately: information given voluntarily, explanations given voluntarily, information given in answer to a patients question, and explanations given in answer to a question. The patients were classified according to their sex and their social class. Each dependent measure was analysed separately to determine the relative importance of doctor, sex of patient and social class of patient in accounting for the total variance. The findings were: o 1. Differences between the doctors accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in duration ofconsultation . 2. Differences between male and female patients accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in information given in answer to questions . 3. Social class differences between patients accounted for a significant proportion of the variance inexplanations volunteered by the doctors . The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to the problems of influencing a patients behaviour and the management of chronic disease.

Person–Organisation Fit Across Cultures: An Empirical Investigation of Individualism and Collectivism

The present study extended person–organisation fit research by concentrating exclusively on one national culture dimension affecting organisational values: individualism–collectivism (I–C). Volunteers (N=581) from two matched organisations (hospitals and management consultancies) in Australia and in South-East Asia completed questionnaires measuring individuals’ orientations on I–C and other organisational variables. Two types of fit were analysed: interactions between (1) individual I–C and national culture, and (2) individual I–C and organisational culture. These interactions were tested in relation to three outcome variables: organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and tenure. Both national and organisational differences were found with respect to I–C. Asian organisations were more collectivistic than Australian organisations, and hospitals were more collectivistic than management consultancies. In support of person–nation fit hypotheses, collectivists were more committed to their organisations and had longer tenure than individualists in Asian, as compared to Australian organisations. Interaction terms were significant even in the presence of direct effects of collectivism on organisational commitment and tenure. The same results were not found for job satisfaction. Predicted effects of person–organisation fit were not found at the organisational level within cultures. Cette e´tude prolonge les recherches sur l’ade´quation entre la personne et l’organisation en se focalisant exclusivement sur une dimension culturelle nationale affectant les valeurs organisationnelles: l’individualisme-communautarisme (I–C). 581 volontaires provenant de deux types d’organisations apparie´es (des hopitaux et des cabinets-conseil en management) en Australie et dans le sud-est asiatique ont rempli des questionnaires mesurant les orientations de chacun sur l’I–C et d’autres variables organisationnelles. Deux cate´gories d’ade´quation ont e´te´ analyse´es: des interactions entre d’une part l’I–C individuel et la culture nationale, et d’autre part l’I–C individuel et la culture organisationnelle. Ces interactions ont e´te´ mises a` l’e´preuve avec trois variables de´pendantes: l’implication organisationnelle, la satisfaction professionnelle et l’anciennete´. Des diffe´rences a` la fois nationales et organisationnelles sont apparues en ce qui concerne l’I–C. Les organisations asiatiques sont plus communautaires que celles d’Australie, et les hopitaux le sont davantage que les cabinets-conseil en management. Conforme´ment aux hypothe`ses sur la correspondance personne-nation, les communautaristes se sont montre´s plus implique´s envers leur organisation et pre´sentaient une plus grande anciennete´ que les individualistes en Asie, par comparaison avec les organisations australiennes. L’interaction e´tait significative meme en pre´sence des effets directs du communautarisme sur l’implication organisationnelle et l’anciennete´. Les memes re´sultats n’ont pas e´te´ retrouve´s avec la satisfaction professionnelle. Les effets attendus de l’ade´quation personne-organisation ne sont pas apparus au niveau de l’organisation a` l’inte´rieur des cultures.

Cross-cultural assessment of altruism and its correlates

Abstract We describe the development and psychometric properties of a 56 item self report altruism scale. Subjects reported on the frequency with which they gave help and received help (for items with a direct reciprocal to giving) and on the rated importance of the helping behavior described in each item. The scale was administered to university student subjects in Australia, Egypt, Korea, the Republic of China (Taiwan), the United States (Hawaii and Missouri) and Yugoslavia. We obtained measures of guilt, shame, psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism, lying, and intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity from subjects; not all measures were obtained from all subjects in all samples. The scale had good psychometric properties. Mean scores on the three altruism measures differed significantly across samples; the differences were not associated with national or regional income level in any consistent fashion. Sex differences, when significant, indicated that males gave more help and, for two of three significant differences, received more help as well. Differences across samples and sexes were almost always consistent across categories of altruism. For most samples, measures of altruism were positively correlated with guilt, extraversion, and intrinsic religiosity while shame was negatively correlated with giving and receiving help but positively correlated with the rated importance of helping. Lie scale scores generally yielded low negative correlations with altruism scores. Amounts of giving and receiving help and the rated importance of helping were very highly correlated both within and across samples. While it is probable that giving help would be regarded as socially desirable, it seems improbable that receiving help is regarded as highly desirable. The very high correlations between giving and receiving help, like the lack of association between lie scores and altruism measures, suggest that social desirability response sets did not greatly influence our results. The very high correlations across measures of giving and receiving support the existence of reciprocal altruism.

Coping with unfamiliar cultures: Adjustment or culture learning?

Abstract Persons exposed to novel and unfamiliar cultural environments include migrants, foreign students, refugees, tourists, business persons, international guest workers. Coping with unfamiliar cultures has been regarded in the literature as a matter of adjusting the “culture travellers” to their new cultures, within a clinical framework based on the assumption that sojourning in foreign places causes “culture shock.” The adjustment model is rejected on the grounds that exposure to a second culture is essentially a learning process, in particular acquiring the social skills of the new culture. Emphasizing intra-psychic determinants of behaviour stigmatizes those experiencing difficulties in “adjusting.” A culture learning formulation avoids implications of relative culture superiority, assimilation, and culture erosion inherent in the concept of adjustment. The culture learning model also has specific implications for the design, implementation and evaluation of culture training programs, particularly ...

The Friendship Patterns of Overseas and Host Students in an Oxford Student Residence

Abstract Twenty-three overseas and nine English residents of an Oxford student residence were asked to name their three best friends in England. Only 17% of the friends of the foreign students were English, and only 26% of the friends of the English students were foreign. These results are consistent with previous findings that international houses are not overly successful in facilitating the creation of bonds between foreign students and host nationals.

7 – Social difficulty in a foreign culture: an empirical analysis of culture shock

THIS CHAPTER deals with cross-cultural contact in international educational exchange. In particular, theory and research pertaining to the social difficulties of overseas students will be reviewed, and an original experiment described. Although international education is only one of many forms of cross-cultural contact, it is a very important meeting ground. What distinguishes overseas study from other kinds of interchange is its relatively benign character, although there have always been political overtones associated with exchange schemes (Bochner, 1979); in the nature of its participants, who have generally been young and members of the elite; and its implicit values, encouraging the students to transcend cultural and national boundaries, or at least make an attempt to do so in the interests of creating a scholarly or scientific network to further the expansion of knowledge in their particular area of expertise (Useem, Useem and McCarthy, 1979). like most other instances of contact, educational exchange has an ancient tradition. People preoccupied with contemporary race relations tend to ignore that since the dawn of time, individuals brought up in one culture have travelled to other lands, there to trade, teach, learn, convert, succour, settle or conquer. Cross-cultural education is no exception. As Brickman (1965) has shown, the idea of studying abroad is as old as recorded history. The highly visible foreign scholar, constituting 10 per cent or more of the student population on many campuses throughout the western world (Bochner and Wicks, 1972), suggests to the casual observer that international education is a modern phenomenon, characteristic particularly of the post-colonial era. This is not so. Thus during the reign of the Emperor Asoka the Great of India (273—232 B.C.), the University of Taxila became a major international institution, attracting students from all over Asia Minor, and requiring its graduates to travel abroad following the completion of their courses. In China the emperors

Anticipated Role Conflict of Returning Overseas Students

Summary Studied the re-entry phase of the overseas academic sojourn. At the conclusion of their sojourn and immediately prior to re-entry, 15 Asian graduate students attending the University of Hawaii were asked to anticipate three events that would make them happy, and three events that would make them unhappy after their return. Results indicate that 89% of the statements were about interpersonal events and referred to job, peer group, and family relations. Two indices indicate a substantial amount of anticipated role conflict in the job and peer domains: an almost equal ratio of positive to negative statements, and the high proportion (53%) of Ss who simultaneously expressed both positive and negative expectations, in each of these two areas. The data suggest that the middle of the W-curve is much flatter than either extremity.