Jenny
I teach the IB and was recommended this by the Chief Examiner some years
back. It is now in its second edition. It is I guess a university book but
can easily be cannibalised. It has some wonderful research and case
studies.
For example Trompenhaars asks the question "A boss asks you to help him
paint his house".
His team asks this to a decent sample size of different nationalities and
found only 32% of Chinese respondents would refuse to help. 88% of British
would refuse and 91% of Swiss would refuse.
This is one of many research questions - I found the one on who would lie
about their friends restaurant if they were a critic enjoyable - (I am
ashamed to say because it reinforced a stereotype) - no prizes for guessing
which nation would not lie about food even if it was their friend's place.
Funnily enough this same nation are quiet happy to lie to the police if
their friend hurts someone in a car accident.
The book however is much more than a series of questionnaires - Trompenhaars
goes on to make serious points about how to manage or motivate different
cultures - what I like about this work is that it is researched and bares
some relation to social science rather than an apology for marketing
gobbledegook that Business Studies is presently in danger of becoming (oops
an opinion).
In the classroom this stuff goes down well. In big groups I ask the
questions and do a tally on the board, in small groups I ask them to predict
answers. If your classes are homogeneous in terms of culture the tally
approach doesn't work. I then go on to ask if it is reasonable to deduce
that the French (yes it was them) care more about food than human life. And
I like this because we also get into some research methodology discussions,
which is useful for coursework.
What someone could usefully do is summarise the books main findings for A
level students. I think it is very useful as a library text too.
Chris Rodda
>
> Can you give us all a quick synopsis?
>
> Jenny
>
> At 17:51 11/10/01 +0200, you wrote:
>> You might like to try
>>
>> Riding the Waves of Culture by Fons Trompenaars - Nicholas Brealey
>> Publishing isbn 1-85788-176-1
>>
>> I got mine at the Economist bookshop In London so I guess it is fairly easy
>> to get hold of.
>>
>> Chris Rodda
>>
> Jenny Wales
> Co-Director
> Nuffield Economics and Business Project
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