Cross-cultural Communication and Marketing of Museums

Cross-cultural Communication and Marketing of Museums Museum is a place for leisure, education and protection of global civilizations. It is an important public service sector and tourism attraction. As an NPO (Non-Profit Organization), how it play in the context of globalization is an interesting and worth studying subject. Therefore, in this report, it will discuss the cross-cultural communication and marketing of the international museums in London. How the Science Museum and Victoria Albert Museum perform in the background of globalisation will emphasis on how to attract diversified needs and improve service quality. The study will come out with some implications, through analysis of the observation held in the museum. Research was carried out in the forms of data collection. It randomly picked up the issues the visitors encountered while visiting the museum, by using the problem-oriented approach. This approach indeed added a lot of fun in my research, on one hand. A case in point, I saw an elder woman, who pushed a baby carriage, was wandering in a channel. In the beginning, I thought she had some problems and was in need for help, I stepped forward to ask her, and humorously was told that she just wanted to make her grandchildren sleeping. On the other hand, it is an effective, stimulated and enjoyable approach, so that I was encountered in the process. Later, I will describe four special events that meaningful for me and for this observation of globalization. The first thing happened in a gallery of jewellery and other ornaments in the Victoria and Albert Museum, I met a Chinese tourist who was going to take a photo of a pair of sword. At that moment, an administrator blocked him. I went to talk to the man immediately and discovered that he just could not help to photograph the precise sword. In addition, he also mentioned that although the majority of the exhibits in this museum allow photographing, but there is still a small part of non-photos area. However, which are specific non-photos areas, he was not very clear, but he believed that there must have some reminder in those areas and if inappropriate, the administrator will told him. So he did not care about the rules and regulations of the museum, which is not a big deal for him and do not want to spare some time to note down these regulations. The second incident occurred during my visit to a Chinese art exhibition. It is about the understanding of a French visitor towards a Chinese collection ?C a statue of. The tourist asked me about the history of this person, who is admired by most of the Chinese. When I was talking about the public faith of Kuan Kung as the God of Wealth in China, he interrupted me and said that this belief is very interesting. Then he explains his opinion that people need to success by themselves, but not ask for god for help and he also doubt that this was why Chinese doing business through Guanxi made sense. After this, we kept going on this topic. The third thing is about a Japanese mother and her daughter in Science Museum. They are living in London for couple of years. This time, she planned to take her daughter to practice zone, named Launchpad to play a game called the Big Machine. Many people were there and every parts of the game were occupied. She said that she used to bringing her daughter to the Science Museum because children can practice the knowledge there, but every time they just enjoyed one or two parts of the game. Luckily, she said, today we play the four parts of the game and this is due to a very kind American parent who let us play after noticing that we are waiting for a long time. I ask her that why she did not grasp opportunity by them. The explanations she gives to me are impressive. The first one is, in her opinion, she did not want to disturb someone enjoying the game. Second she said that the child is too shame to play with others, she is now seven 7 years old. Finally, she said they had time to visi t this museum, so she did not worry about any chance to practice. The last one, it is very simple, but worth for analysis. It is an Australia woman. She came to me and asked me for the time. After I told her, she complain that the root design and layout of the exhibition in the Science Museum are so bad that she cannot use time efficiency and missed many collections. It is a pity for the tourist. Although there exist the anti-globalization voices, such as German Martin and Schumanns (1996) The Global Trap, the British author Alan Rugmans (2001) the end of globalization, , for now, Globalization is an indisputable fact and continually affects everyones daily lives. As Held and McGrew (2000) emphasized that globalization is currently does not have a universally accepted definition by the world. In the past, the globalization is far more defined as the formation of the global market, where the goods, technology, services; capital can flow and trade freely in the world (Theodre Levitt, 1985). However, the results of theoretical research on the current point of view, this is only part of globalization. From Roland Robertson (1992), has started to pay attention to the broader implication of globalization. That is globalization is a set of globalization among economic, political, cultural, technological and other processes. Here we will focus on cultural globalization, and some of the theories on cross-cultural communication and marketing. Giddens and others transformationlists (2001) thought that globalization is a comprehensive process of development and the economic globalization is bound to lead to the globalization of culture and value. Along with the acceleration of globalization, the impact of globalization on culture has also been keen to explore by scholars. The first understanding believes that cultural globalization is the formation of a common or a single culture, which can be described as a cultural homogeneity (Stephan Dahl,). They explored that cultural globalization refers to mutual penetration, absorption of the worldwide different lifestyles, consumption patterns, ideas, and awareness, thus the development of culture will show the trend of homogenization. The second major theory insists that cultural globalization is the parallel process of homogenization and heterogeneous, or the dialectic of globalization and localization in parallel (). The third main study directly denies the existence of cultural globalization. Samuel Huntington () is an important critics of globalization discourse. He made his famous clash of civilizations theory, which Demonstrate the development of world history will strengthen the differences and conflicts between civilizations. Throughout these theoretical insights, in line with materialistic point of view, cultural globalization is inevitable. Moreover, in reality, we can find the subtle changes are taking place in the worlds civilizations, whatever the western or oriental. (David Herder, 2001). Therefore, this cultural is still diversified in the context of globalization. Cross-cultural communication and marketing of an organization will determine whether it is able to compete in the global market to survive. Cross-cultural communication is to study how people from different cultural backgrounds communicate effectively with each other through language, behaviour, etc. (Cross-cultural communication, 2008). Cross-cultural communication involves a lot of the edge of disciplines, including psychology, ethnology, culture and science. Cross-cultural communication theories are the mainly base on theories that study difference between the values of the culture. These theories include the Geert Hofstedes (2001) five dimensions of culture, Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turners seven dimensions culture model. The following will be further elaborated in Fons Trompenaars models, combined with the investigation to analyse how museums manage and market in cross-cultural environment , both of the achievements and shortcomings, through our investigation, although very simple and not comprehensive. First of all, will be a brief introduction of Trompenaars model(). This model, like other onions model studies the culture by dividing into seven dimensions. Five dimensions of them are reflecting how people interact with each other. The first dimension is Universalism versus Particularism(). Universalism is more emphasis on the importance of the rules and regulation system. As described in his book, Americans do not tend to lie when disobey the regulation or rules. The second is Individualism versus Collectivism, which show whether the relationship between the individual and the collective is an Isolationism, or collectivism. The next is Neutral vs. Emotional expression is a measure of whether the emotion is naturally revealed. The fourth one is the Specific versus Diffuse. These are being considered when weighing the participation and responsibility of individuals in the organization. The fifth is the recognition of the position, named Achievement versus Ascription. Trompenaars arg ues that some people believe the position embody the personal contributions, but not your organization. In other words, they measure the loyalty towards organization. The last but one is a Sequential versus Synchronic, mainly to reflect the concept of time of the different cultures. The last one is Internal versus External Orientation, which are to examine the different cultural attitudes on the external environment. There are two arguments, some think that people are controlled by environment, while the others insist human being Dominate the environment. These seven dimensions are well defined and being used to analyse how cultural differences in the museum. However, there is a need to introduce one management framework to help us figure out some implications from the cross-cultural analysis. Therefore, we would also like to use SERVQUAL theory() to study customer perceptions of service quality in the museum. SERVQUAL is based on the theory of total quality management theory and puts forward in the service industry. The core of this new service quality evaluation system is the Service Quality Model or 5GAP model. Firstly, SERVQUAL divides service quality into five levels: physical Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, including total 22 small questions. The method used to analyse is to measure the gap between customer perception and expectation. Whereby, the company need to fix up the other four gaps ,which are less understanding of the customers expectation, wrong service design and standards, failure to standards of service delivery, not match between service performance and service promise. While some reviews on the theory argue, it needs for appropriate modifications when applied in cross-cultural study (Smith Reynolds, 2002), nevertheless, beca use of time and a limited extent to research, we will still stick to the original theory. The first step of analysis will focus on the customers cultural differences. From the above, it suggests that the cultural differences still exist, as the transformation theory argues. However, following the Trompenaars model, we can examine these differences specifically. Above all, the photograph incident indicates that the Western view on rules and regulations are different from the oriental. As usual, most Western tourists have not the habit of taking pictures in the museum. This is because of their awareness of the requirements in the museum in one hand, in the other hand, that they pay more attention to understand the exhibits, rather than simply to mark the travel. Of course, we cannot judge the person who take photos in the museum is fault, but it did tell us that how different values and norms conveyed by different persons. The Chinese tend to disregard the rules, although he knew. In the meantime, there are many other tourists spend some time looking through the maps and rules in the brochure. This is somehow referring to the first dimension that Trompenaars said whether to obey the rules. Easily, the query of the French visitor that I met in the Chinese gallery, make me feel uncomfortable. However, it can refer to the fifth dimension and reveal the distinction between west and east towards personal achievement and the environment. The French person, represent the West, prefer to success by his own effort, but not the god. We can say westerners are more pragmatic and rational. In other words, Chinese rely more on the external environment, while westerners desire to control the environment much more. Followed by, the Japanese mothers shyness is unlike the West, where the parents who can speak calmly of ideas, more open and proactive. This is about the personal liberty. The westerners used to and dare to express their ideas, because in their opinion, everyone is equal to the world, besides the game in the museum. Yet, the mother did not think by this way, she was worry about the others or maybe avoid some risks that disobey their norms. As cite in the model, the mother is more neutral than the American parent is. Eventually, the Australian woman seems to care about the quality of her visit and hope herself has enough time to look around and explore more about the exhibits. Unfortunately, she did not make it. As she complained, she does not like the open form of display in the museum, especially the large museum. She even regards this as time consuming. We can suggest that she takes time serious and tend to not to do one thing at one time. As indicated in the VA Report on Cultural Diversity 2007() , the manager has insight the trend that more BAME(Black, Asian Minority Ethnic) background audience visit the museum(, but there is little forces on impact on service quality by the cultural differences, even more there is no reports for 2008 and 2009. Recommended by the SERVQUAL model, that can offer some implication on five fields. For one thing, the museum needs to make more effort on tangible aspect, to avoid the irregularities. For example, Rules need to be modifying in a clear and well delivering and more clear signs are demanded, too. This not only makes the visiting smoothly for visitors, but also protects the heritage in the museum. To accommodate the customers who are not emotional, there is better to employ some advisors or rules in the practice zone. In addition, it can use some systems, like booking system for this kind of customers to book in advanced or when entry. This will assure the customer right to enjoy the facilities in the museum. Many of tourist use no more than one day to look around in the museum, this is a pity for them. How to make up this perception difference of service quality is worth analysis. In China, museums prefer to make some valuable roots for visitors, this will save time and value for custom ers. This is related to the reliability of the service, because if the visitor can not well experience the service, or the exhibitions provided by museum, that means the museum has neglect its aim due to responsible for its own loss and profit. To conclude, this is just a small observation in museum. The result turns out without enough supportive evidence is a disadvantage of this paper. Over all, it is beneficial to discuss about how a NPO, as well as the public sector to face the globalization, especially manage in the cross-cultural environment. Reference Iris V. and Linds B. (2000) Intercultural Business Communication in the Global Workplace (second edition). McGraw-Hill Stephan Dahl () Communications and Culture Transformation Benjamin Barbers McWorld vs. Jihad Finola Kerrigan, Peter Fraser, Mustafa Ozbilgin (2004) Arts Marketing Butterworth-Heinemann Alan M. Rugman (2001) The End of Globalization: What it means for Business (Paperback). Random House Business Books; German Martin and Schumanns (1996) The Global Trap: Civilization and the Assault on Democracy and Prosperity The Global Trap: Civilization and the Assault on Democracy and Prosperity (Paperback), St. Martins Press; David Held and Anthony McGrew (2000) The global transformations reader: an introduction to the globalization debate. Cambridge: Polity Press; Theodore Levitt (1984) The globalization of markets THE McKINSEY QUARTERLY 1984 Summer; Robertson R. (1992) Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (Published in association with Theory, Culture Society) (Paperback), Sage Publications Ltd; Giddens, Anthony (Ed.) (2001) The Global Third Way Debate. Cambridge : Polity; Cross-cultural communication (2008) Wikipedia. Available from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-cultural_communication [ accessed 02 Jan 2010]

Comparing Juan Preciado and Father Renteria in Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Param

In every influential novel, there are definite characters that apply certain aspects to the narrative to show importance of key aspects of the story. In Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo, the case is no different in that specific characters carry an importance to the entire aspect of the story. The characters in the novel that have great importance are Juan Preciado and Father Renteria. These two characters symbolize greater things that cannot just be plainly noticed. Juan Preciado is majorly important for the fact of that he is the first character introduced in the novel and he is the character that at first doesn’t realize he is dead. Also, Juan Preciado is like that of the reader in that he is in no place to identify his position in his life or in the readers case, the story. Father Renteria is a character that the people of Comala look to for wisdom and forgiveness because he is the God like figure in the novel Pedro Paramo. The character Juan Preciado is the first character the reader comes upon while reading the novel. Juan Preciado is the son of Pedro Paramo and has just come to the land of the dead otherwise known as Comala in the novel Pedro Paramo. â€Å"I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Paramo, lived there† (3). Juan Rulfo uses Juan Preciado in the same way the reader is unfamiliar with the text of the narrative. Juan Preciado’s relationship to Comala is the same to the readers’ relationship to the text for the reason being that the story is a journey in which both reader and character are constantly off balance. Juan Preciado and the reader don’t understand in the beginning that Comala is a town filled with dead souls but eventually, clues arise that lead to the conclusion that e... ...s. Father Renteria had lost all faith in his religion and himself. As if he had failed a test, he says, "Alright Lord, you win"(26). Father Renteria represents the constant struggle a person has to maintain personal integrity against outside corruption and personal vices which means that he is constantly tempted to do wrong things and sometimes falls for them. Juan Rulfo makes Father Renteria a necessary asset to Pedro Paramo because in Comala everyone is dead and they are all waiting to either receive forgiveness to go to heaven or take the opposite route and Father Renteria is a deciding factor for the people of Comala. To conclude, Juan Preciado and Father Renteria have significant roles in the novel Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo. They are necessary assets to the narrative in that Preciado is much like the reader and Renteria is the God like figure in Comala.

Empathy in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Essay

In the novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, learning to â€Å"walk about in someone’s skin† is a main theme, particularly as two of the main protagonists Jem and Scout learn to do this as they grow up throughout the book along with the reader. Atticus, the children’s father, educates the children on how to treat and comprehend other people. As Jem and Scout grow older in the novel, they begin to understand this lesson and act upon it both knowingly and sub-consciously. Scout empathises with Walter Cunningham during school at the beginning of the book. When her teacher, Miss Caroline offers Walter a quarter because he has no lunch (Walter’s family can not afford it and so he says he’s forgotten it) and refuses it, Miss Caroline can not see why and so continues to offer it with growing impatience. Scout empathises with how Walter is feeling at the time and so on his behalf explains why he has no lunch and why he will not accept her offer; â€Å"The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back – no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. They don’t have much but they get along on it.† She did this to spare his embarrassment. Scout goes on to say, â€Å"You’re shamin’ him, Miss Caroline.† This shows her understanding of Walter’s perspective at that time and also how she tries to spare him by explaining to t he teacher. Early on in the book, Jem can already step into someone else’s shoes and empathise with them to see their perspective. The reader knows this when Jem confronts Scout after she beats up Walter Cunningham at school and he says, â€Å"Come on home to dinner with us Walter.† This shows Jem’s maturity and ability to empathise with those around him as he knows that what Scout did to Walter was wrong and he was able to see this by looking at it from Walter’s perspective. He also defends Walter when Scout wants to fight him. Scout says, â€Å"I stomped at him to chase him away, but Jem put out his hand and stopped me†. By also having a sense of initiative and good morals, Jem knows to invite Walter back to the house with them for dinner to apologise and show courtesy towards him. Also, Jem knows that Walter will have no dinner that day and that the Cunninghams would not accept anything they couldn’t pay back. He also knows that his family couldn’t afford to eat as  well as the Finches. By empathising with Walter, he sees how hungry he must be and so invites him to eat with them. Scout shows empathy for Jem by voluntarily accompanying him to read to Mrs Dubose when he is made to do so after destroying her flowers because she said horrible things about Atticus. For Scout, Mrs Dubose is a distressing object who then becomes the power over her afternoons forcing her and Jem to read to her. Scout decides to go with Jem a she knew he didn’t want to do it as Jem says, â€Å"Atticus, it’s all right on the sidewalk but inside it’s – it’s all dark and creepy. There’s shadows and things on the ceiling†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She goes with him even though she doesn’t like Mrs Dubose because she knows that Jem wouldn’t want to be alone reading to her and so Scout thinks it would be better if she goes along. Scout also sympathises and shows empathy for Mrs Dubose, despite her feelings toward her. She says, â€Å"I felt sorry for her. She was lying under a pile of quilts and looked almost friendly.† This shows Scout empathising with Mrs Dubose as she sees that she is ill, and can see how much pain she must be in. However, it’s not until after she dies that both Scout and Jem fully understand how Mrs Dubose must have been feeling: Mrs Dubose was a morphine addict who was determined to kick the habit before she died and so enlisted Jem and Scout to help keep her off of the morphine for longer and longer periods of time (without them knowing). Atticus wants them to empathise with her so they can see how much courage she had and learn â€Å"what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.† They both begin to understand why she was the way she was and see that she was actually a â€Å"great lady†, â€Å"had her own views about things† and died â€Å"beholden to nothing and nobody.† The reader sees that Jem in particular empathises with her at the very end of the chapter when Scout says, â€Å"He picked up the camellia, and when I went off to bed I saw him fingering the wide petals.† This shows that Jem was now beginning to understand and think about Mrs Dubose in a new light and he could now see her perspective. She was not just a bitter old lady. She was a courageous woman who stuck to her opinions right to the end and was determined to be rid of her morphine addiction before she died. Later in the novel when both the children have matured since the beginning, Scout has found herself involved in the ladies meeting by Aunt Alexandra and realises what it is like to be a lady. After hearing the horrid announcement of Tom Robinson’s death, Scout sees how affected by the news Aunt Alexandra is she till retains her lady-like manners as she has company. Scout thinks, â€Å"After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.† Scout allows herself to place others’ problems and emotions into her own perspective and as a result enhances her own actions with those who were affected. Jem not only learns to empathise with people throughout the novel but also other living beings. When Scout is about to kill a roly-poly (an insect), Jem says, â€Å"Don’t do that, Scout. Set him out on the back steps.† He does this because â€Å"they don’t bother you† so Jem knows that they are no harm and killing them would be wrong. This shows that his understanding of empathy has deepened. Finally, Scout empathises with Boo Radley by the end of the novel. Even before Boo Radley saves them, Scout begins feeling guilty about the way they had treated Boo Radley in the past summers; â€Å"I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse when passing by the old Radley place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur Radley – what reasonable recluse wants children peeping in through his shutters, delivering greetings at the end of a fishing pole, wandering in his collards at night.† She understands how Boo Radley feels. After being rescued, she begins to start empathising with Boo without even realising; â€Å"Feeling slightly unreal, I led him to the chair farthest from Atticus and Mr. Tate. It was in a deep shadow. Boo would feel more comfortable in the dark.† She is thinking about what Boo Radley would like and feel more comfortable with, rather than thinking about things just from her view. After standing on Boo Radley’s porch after walking him home, Scout mentally imagines what Boo had seen all these years through the window. She realises she understands that â€Å"Atticus was right. One time he said, you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.† Boo Radley’s  world was everything outside his four walls. With this final insight of human nature, Scout has learnt what Atticus had been teaching her throughout the novel. Harper Lee’s novel ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ illustrates how to â€Å"walk about in someone’s skin† through the protagonists Scout and Jem as they learn this lesson along with the reader. As their understanding grows – in particular Scout’s as she is the narrator – the reader’s understanding also grows as when the children learn and understand something, we also do. If we could get more people to empathise with others like both Scout and Jem in the novel, we could eliminate the prejudice that still exists in the modern world. Having Jem and Scout grow up during the book make them characters that we can empathise with and so helps enforce the lesson that Harper Lee wanted to communicate to the reader. If everybody did finally â€Å"climb into his skin and walk around in it† then maybe we could understand that we have more in common with all types of people regardless of race, nationality, gender etc. Referring to what Atticus says at the end of the book, most people are nice â€Å"when you finally see them†.

Differences between References to High Performance, High Commitment and High Involvement Practice Free Essay Example, 2750 words

First is to give power to the employees in the making decisions that are relevant to their performance and the organization as well. Organizations can take full advantage of the involvement when they accord a strong sense of empowerment to their employees and allow these workers to carry out decisions. For example, to create forums and discussions between employees so they can share and develop their suggestions for enriching organizational performance has been proven effective; however, this step can only be successful when good ideas are used and applied (Lawler 2008). The second component is information such as providing as many facts and details as possible about how the organization is doing. These may come in the form of short reports on overall outputs, earnings, and customer responses. The more that employees know about where their efforts are going and how they are doing, the more that they will be able to effectively contribute to the organization. Coming up with a compreh ensible information system that shows their work process and results will greatly influence their efforts and actions. When managers are transparent regarding the organization s processes, it will give employees an easier time in recognizing the connection that exists between their own productivity and performance of their organization (Lawler 2008). We will write a custom essay sample on Differences between References to High Performance, High Commitment and High Involvement Practice or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page Finally, the last component is a reward. Edwards and Wright (2001) believe that in a high involvement organization, employees are rewarded when they contribute flexible efforts and a compliant behavior for the improvement of organizational performance.