abstract Essays (1332 words) - Cross-cultural Psychology

Abstract This collection of articles was originally inspired by several presentations at CATaC'041 and subsequent critical discussion of their use of the frameworks for cultural analyses developed by Edward T. Hall (1966, 1976) and Gert Hofstede (e.g., 1980, 1991). In response to these presentations and discussion, we developed this special thematic section for the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Introduction The thematic questions that guided this collection are: 1.To what extent are the now widely used?but also seriously criticized?frameworks for cultural analysis provided by Hall and Hofstede fruitful for cross-cultural and intercultural communication in CMC environments? and 2.How have CMC scholars and researchers developed, modified, and/or created alternative frameworks for analyzing cultural dimensions of online communication? While each of the articles collected here can stand on its own, together they build a coherent response to these questions. In particular, they help to define more clearly those domains of online intercultural communication research that are well served by Hall's and Hofstede's frameworks, and those that are more fruitfully examined using alternative frameworks. Corresponding roughly to the two questions above, the articles in this collection are organized into two sections. The articles included in Section I?Hall, Hofstede, and CMC: Applications and Contemporary Research?both individually and collectively build an extensive literature review of the significance of Hall's and Hofstede's frameworks for cultural analysis in the research and findings of several disciplines, including marketing and various foci of CMC, such as HCI and organizational studies. This review highlights the most important critical limitations of these frameworks, including the limitations of Hofstede's original research database (i.e., to IBM employees) as a basis for generalizations regarding national culture, and questions surrounding the apparent assumptions regarding culture as fixed, essential, and synonymous with national cultures. Given these limitations, however, each of the authors then demonstrates in compelling ways that Hall and Hofstede still function wel l for at least certain kinds of online research. Perhaps the most notable such research is that related to the graphic elements of advertising websites, e.g., for universities (Hermeking) and multinational corporations (W?rtz), that are localized in ways clearly consistent with Hall's and Hofstede's cultural analyses. At the same time, three of the studies show that the correlations found between culture and media use?as predicted on the basis of Hofstede's axes of individualism and uncertainty avoidance (Callahan; Barnett & Sung) and Hall's distinction between monochrons and polychrons (Lee)?do show up, but in ways that are statistically weak. These results both confirm and identify the critical limits of Hall's and Hofstede's work. They also make clear that, as any number of critics points out, cultural analyses resting on such relatively simple dichotomies may be too simple for dealing with the real-world complexities of culture. Hence, in section II?Critical Turns, Alternative Frameworks?we turn to research and reflection that point beyond Hall and Hofstede. These articles develop first alternatives that may prove more useful for researchers attempting to come to grips with the complexities of culture online, including in specific contexts such as online classrooms and collaborative workgroups. Hall, Hofstede, and CMC?Applications and Contemporary Research The collection opens with five articles that provide helpful overviews of the now extensive literature on Hall, Hofstede, and CMC, and demonstrate in their analyses how far Hofstede and Hall succeed as frameworks for fruitful and insightful analysis. Marc Hermeking begins by reviewing the importance of Hofstede's dimensions in marketing literature and research. In particular, he shows striking correlations between two of Hofstede's dimensions?individualsm (vs. collectivism) and uncertainty avoidance?and Internet use both globally and within the European Union and Scandinavian countries. There appears to be a strong positive correlation between Individualism and Internet usage, and a strong negative correlation between high Uncertainty Avoidance and Internet usage. These correlations have been noted in numerous earlier studies conducted on a global scale (e.g., Maitland & Bauer 2001) and are further supported in this issue by the statistical analyses of Barnett and Sung (see below). As Hermeking goes on to note, however, a first series of critiques of Hall and Hofstede's work rests on the basic notion of 'culture' presumed in their work, a concept rooted specifically in the Functionalist theories of culture initially developed by Clyde Kluckhohn (e.g., 1949). A central critique of Hofstede's work is that it relies on