An Intercultural Business Practitioner as ＂Ethnographer＂: Working with ＂Similar Others＂ throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

The ability to communicate interculturally is considered a primary attribute in people conducting business globally. Recent studies suggest that training in ethnographic techniques helps people develop intercultural communication competence. Ethnographers are trained to observe and attempt to understand cultural ＂others＂ carefully. However, few studies demonstrate how business practitioners use ethnography for intercultural communication. This study analyzes data collected by longitudinal engagement with people who work in China-Japan intercultural workplaces. Chinese and Japanese share commonalities as well as differences. The relationship of the two cultural groups is not easily understood by applying ready-made cultural dimensions. To examine the participants' behavior in this complex interculturality, in-depth unstructured interviews were conducted periodically over three years. Since the data collection period included the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the data also illustrate how the pandemic-induced constraints influenced the ethnographer-business practitioners. Two research questions were posed: ＂How do the business practitioners use ethnographic techniques to understand the ＂culturally similar＂ others? Moreover, ＂How does the pandemic situation influence their efforts?＂ The data demonstrate the participants' use of persistent observation, working hypotheses building, data validation by peer debriefing and triangulation, and their application of the findings to their practice.

關鍵字

China-Japan intercultural communication ； ethnography ； pandemic-induced constraints ； longitudinal research ； business communication

並列摘要

跨文化交際的能力被認為是在國際化環境下工作的人應具備的基本特質之一。最近的研究表明，培養民族誌技能會幫助員工提高跨文化交際能力。民族誌學者接受過專業訓練，通過仔細觀察來理解“他人”的文化。然而，很少有研究揭示商務實踐者如何應用民族誌的手法進行跨文化溝通。本研究的數據取自長期在日中跨文化環境下工作的研究參加者。中國人和日本人既有許多共同點也同時存在很多差異。兩者之間的文化差異用現有的文化差異緯度模式是不容易解釋的。為了探究研究參加者在這種複雜的跨文化環境下的行為，筆者進行了三年以上的定期深入採訪。由於採訪期間經歷了COVID-19的大流行，收集的資料也體現了COVID-19的制約給研究參加者帶來的影響。本研究提出兩個研究問題：其一，“商務實踐者如何使用民族誌手法去理解文化相近的他人？”其二，“COVID-19的大流行對研究參加者的努力有了怎樣的影響？”研究結果表明，研究參加者使用持久觀察，建立暫定假說，同事和第三方驗證，以及自己的實踐應用等手法來解決他們遇到的跨文化障礙。

並列關鍵字

中日跨文化溝通；民族誌； COVID-19大流行引起的限制；長期縱向研究；商務溝通

參考文獻

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