Culturally Mindful Communication: Essential Skills for Public and Nonprofit Professionals

217 Pages·2017·11.393 MB·English

by  Masami Nishishiba

CULTURALLY MINDFUL
COMMUNICATION
Intercultural communication is a necessary skill for those who work in
the public and nonprofit sectors, and yet there is a dearth of literature
available to help public and nonprofit professionals to effectively
communicate,interact,andleadinamulticulturalsociety.Drawingon
research in intercultural communication, psychology, and public and
nonprofit administration, Culturally Mindful Communication provides
practical strategies for students and practitioners of public service to
improve their intercultural communication skills. Topics include:
(cid:1) Expectations for public and nonprofit professionals in today’s
multicultural society
(cid:1) Frameworks to assess cultural differences and similarities
(cid:1) Verbal and nonverbal communication in intercultural contexts
(cid:1) Stereotyping, prejudice, ethnocentrism, microaggression, and
socialprivilegeasbarrierstoeffectiveinterculturalcommunication
(cid:1) Key considerations for effective multicultural teams
(cid:1) Approaches for effective multicultural community engagement
(cid:1) Leading with cultural mindfulness
Masami Nishishiba is Chair and Associate Professor in the Depart-
mentofPublicAdministration,andAssociateDirectoroftheCenterfor
PublicServiceattheMarkO.HatfieldSchoolofGovernment,Portland
StateUniversity.
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CULTURALLY
MINDFUL
COMMUNICATION
Essential Skills for Public and
fi
Nonpro t Professionals
Masami Nishishiba
Firstpublished2018
byRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
andbyRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninforma
business
©2018Taylor&Francis
TherightofMasamiNishishibatobeidentifiedasauthorofthis
workhasbeenassertedbyherinaccordancewithsections77
and78oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedor
reproducedorutilizedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,
mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafterinvented,
includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformation
storageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfrom
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Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarks
orregisteredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationand
explanationwithoutintenttoinfringe.
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ISBN:978-0-7656-4400-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-7656-4401-5(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-27734-9(ebk)
TypesetinStoneSans
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
To my parents
Akiko and Tetsuo Kawai
For letting me be me
碧き眸の少女も引くや初みくじ
New Year’s day,
a girl with blue eyes asks her fortune
to the Japanese god.
異国にて十年（ととせ）過ぎし娘（子）雲の峰
Summer clouds,
Ten years in foreign land
Floats by with my daughter. –
河合哲朗　　句
By Tetsuo Kawai
(Translation by Masami Nishishiba)
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CONTENTS
List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgment xi
About the author xiii
1 Introduction: Why do public and nonprofit
professionals need to be culturally
mindful communicators? 1
2 Understanding cultural differences 12
3 Understanding the intercultural
communication process 32
4 Verbal communication 50
5 Nonverbal communication 67
6 What hinders culturally mindful communication?
Stereotyping, prejudice, and social privilege 104
7 Working in a multicultural team 127
8 Working with multicultural stakeholders in
the community 151
9 Leading with culturally mindful communication 169
Index 190
vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1.1 Breakdown of non-white American: 1960, 2010 5
1.2 Projected change in the US
workforce demographics 7
2.1 Illustration of individualism vs. collectivism 20
2.2 Illustration of high vs. low power distance 23
2.3 Key contrasts between high vs. low
uncertainty avoidance 24
2.4 Schematic illustration of the high- vs.
low-context orientation 25
2.5 Key contrasts between monochronic vs.
polychronic time orientation 27
3.1 Schematic illustration of intercultural
communication process 35
3.2 The intercultural communication process 37
3.3 Differences in attribution between ingroup and
outgroup for positive and negative outcomes 43
4.1 Books (collections of printed pages bound
together along one side) 52
4.2 Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph 59
5.1 OK sign 70
5.2 Bowing 70
5.3 Handshake 71
viii
Listofillustrations
5.4 “Don’t know” 75
5.5 “Stop!” 75
5.6 “Be quiet” 76
5.7 Japanese seal 76
5.8 Turn-requesting signal 82
5.9 Turn-yielding signal 82
5.10 Turn-maintaining signal 83
5.11 Back-channel signal 83
5.12 Ritualistic touch – handshake 85
5.13 Ritualistic touch – hug 86
5.14a Physical appearance that is appropriate for a
professional setting 94
5.14b Physical appearance that is inappropriate for a
professional setting 95
6.1 Proportion of Mexican immigrants in
different occupations 108
6.2 Comparison of household income and
personal earnings between Mexican, Asian,
and all immigrants 108
6.3 Proportion of Mexican, Asian, and other
immigrants at different educational
attainment levels 108
6.4 World map commonly seen in Japan 111
6.5 World map commonly seen in the United States 111
7.1 Leo’s note 128
7.2 Five conflict-handling styles 141
8.1 T-Horse 160
9.1 Process and components of culturally mindful
communication 178
9.2 Lavita’s analysis of her interaction with Marilyn 184
9.3 Continuous improvement cycle for culturally 185
mindful communication process
Boxes
2.1 Cultural moments: I’m just an intern 21
2.2 Cultural moments: I thought I
was monochronic 27
ix