The development of mankind history requires international, thus intercultural communication. Among such communication, Power distance, one of six cultural dimensions introduced by Hofstede, has been playing the role in showing how societies handle unequal distribution of power. Since there has been little research on this in Vietnam, this paper was carried out to investigate power distance manifestation in the university environment, taking undergraduate students from Vietnam and Australia as research participants. Hopefully, the research would be a source of reference for students and teachers of English in general and cultural studies in particular. Qualitative research design was applied to discover the manifestation of power distance by students from University of Languages and International Studies VNU (Vietnam) and Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne (Australia). Fifty students from both countries were chosen to take part in the research, which purposive sampling method was utilized. Structured questionnaire of 20 questions and semistructured interview were employed to collect data, studying two main aspects namely group work and classroom environment; meanwhile, content analysis was the main data analysis method. The findings indicated that Australian students were likely to behave in low power distance way in both group work and classroom atmosphere; whereas, Vietnamese students only followed high power distance behaviors in classroom environment while they manifested low power distance behaviors in group work. This finding suggests that students who schedule for overseas study should understand beforehand the working style of targeted environment. In addition, teachers are also advised to be careful with their foreign student evaluation, and should also negotiate working style with their students in the first lesson.
ABSTRACT The development of mankind history requires international, thus intercultural communication. Among such communication, Power distance, one of six cultural dimensions introduced by Hofstede, has been playing the role in showing how societies handle unequal distribution of power. Since there has been little research on this in Vietnam, this paper was carried out to investigate power distance manifestation in the university environment, taking undergraduate students from Vietnam and Australia as research participants. Hopefully, the research would be a source of reference for students and teachers of English in general and cultural studies in particular. Qualitative research design was applied to discover the manifestation of power distance by students from University of Languages and International Studies VNU (Vietnam) and Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne (Australia). Fifty students from both countries were chosen to take part in the research, which purposive sampling method was utilized. Structured questionnaire of 20 questions and semi- structured interview were employed to collect data, studying two main aspects namely group work and classroom environment; meanwhile, content analysis was the main data analysis method. The findings indicated that Australian students were likely to behave in low power distance way in both group work and classroom atmosphere; whereas, Vietnamese students only followed high power distance behaviors in classroom environment while they manifested low power distance behaviors in group work. This finding suggests that students who schedule for overseas study should understand beforehand the working style of targeted environment. In addition, teachers are also advised to be careful with their foreign student evaluation, and should also negotiate working style with their students in the first lesson. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 44 LIST OF REFERENCES 49 APPENDICES 57 ii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The differences between a large power distance marketing department and a small power distance one 9 Table 2: Power distance differences in general norms, family, school and workplace issue 11 Table 3: Power distance in classroom environment 12 Table 4: Construction of data instrument 20 Table 5: Data analysis units 26 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: A comparison of cultural dimension index between Vietnam and Australia (Hofstede, n.d.) 13 Figure 2: Data collection procedure 25 Figure 3: Vietnamese students’ perceptions of group work 29 Figure 4: Vietnamese students’ perceptions of classroom environment 32 Figure 5: Australian students’ perceptions of group work 34 Figure 6: Australian students’ perceptions of classroom environment 37 iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Exp. Explanation HPD High power distance LPD Low power distance MOET Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam Q. Question No. ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This initial chapter justified the reasons for this research to be carried out. Research questions, significant of the research, scope of the study and the thesis structure would be presented. 1. Statement of research problem and rationale “Our entire repertory of communicative behaviors is dependent largely on the culture in which we have been raised” (Zhang & Zhou, 2008:1). In addition, to achieve any goals, no matter public or private, it is a must for everyone to “communicate with each other verbally” and in many circumstances people come from a variety of cultural backgrounds (Tannen, 1985:280). Therefore, in the modern time, the appropriate behaviors in many situations require not only suitable domestic-cultural but also fitting cross-cultural comportments. In such circumstance, thanks to the comprehensive studies of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture, Hofstede cultural dimension analysis plays the role as an effective tool for researchers and communicators to behave interculturally well. There are six dimensions in Hofstede’s view, namely power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term versus short-term orientation, and indulgence versus restraint. Of the six dimensions, Power distance seems to be a worth-investigating one since it discusses fundamental issue of how the society handles inequalities between people (Hofstede, n.d.). Especially in modern university environment, since student-student and student-teacher communications present as an important aspect, power distance ascertains its significance in research purpose. 2. Research questions The research was carried out with the hope of setting up tentative answers to the two following questions: 1 What are the manifestations of power distance in university environment perceived by Vietnamese students? What are the manifestations of power distance in university environment perceived by Australian students? 3. Significance of the research There are some reasons that urge this research to be conducted. Firstly, in Vietnamese context, it is seen that there has been little research and few articles and/or journals distinctly discussing this dimension in university environment. In addition, studying the similarities and differences in accordance with power distance dimension between the perceptions of Vietnamese and Australian students is hoped to be one of the useful information resources for students who are going to schedule overseas study in these countries. Moreover, this research also plays an important role as a reference material for teachers in both countries since it investigates university environment, especially the classroom atmosphere. Last but not least, this study is carried out to help researchers investigate the cross-cultural dimensions of the two societies. 4. Scope of the study Since manifestations of Power distance stretch in a large social area, this study concentrates only on its manifestation in university environment. Since in university environment, there are a lot of communication and relationship types, this research concentrates only on the manifestations of Power distance between students and students (group leader – group members) and between students and teachers. Meanwhile, the research has the characteristics relatively similar to a case study, carried out with just a small number of 50 participants from both countries; hence, no generalization to any bigger scope would be made, as the researcher would like to investigate to see whether in that small-sized group of students there are any differences between the findings of this research and the reviewed literature. Moreover, 2 the study would likely to focus on the two aspects that relate directly to the research purpose, namely group work and classroom atmosphere. 5. Thesis structure This research consists of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter aims at stating the research problems, the significance of the study and proposing questions to answer. Chapter 2: Literature review This includes the explanation of key definitions as well as the review on different previous works on the definition of culture and communication, an overview of Hofstede’s cultural dimension and Power distance – definition & manifestations. Chapter 3: Methodology This chapter comprises of the description of research participants, population and sampling method; data collection method and data analysis method. Chapter 4: Findings and discussion In this chapter, research findings will be presented. Also, discussion on comparison between two groups of participants (Australian and Vietnamese students) and between the findings and reviewed literature will be delivered in this chapter. Chapter 5: Conclusion Summary of the research, implication of the findings, the limitation of the study and suggestion for further research will be presented in this chapter. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter was constructed to set the theoretical background for the whole research. In this chapter, key concepts of culture, communication and a review on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions would be thoroughly discussed. Most importantly, previous related studies on definition and manifestation of Power distance would be conferred; hence, the gap for this research to fill in would be indicated. 1. Definition of key concepts 1.1 Culture There are many different definitions and perceptions of cultures. Mulholland (1991, cited in Belshek, 2006) views culture as a complicated concept and states that there is hardly a definition that is commonly agreed among researchers. As defined by Tylor (1871, cited in Kipuri, 2008:52), culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” He also notes that culture is an efficient tool for people to survive, but this tool is fragile, which culture is “constantly changing and easily lost because it exists in our mind” (p.52). Zhang & Zhou (2008) adapts a more specific perception of culture in which culture is defined as a set of beliefs, habits, living patterns, and behaviors commonly agreed by people who settle at a certain geographic region. Hofstede (1980, cited in Belshek, 2006:21) understands culture in a broader and more abstract sense, as in his opinion, culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from another.” No matter concrete or abstract, these above definitions all forward to a common idea, which culture is a set of standard that helps behave appropriately in a society and to distinguish different communities. Moreover, the specific culture can be inherited by later generations from previous ones via education. In agreement with these remarks, Sue & Sue (2003:9) summarize and give out the following definition of culture, which will be adapted and used in this paper as: 4 Culture is the system of shared beliefs; values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society embrace. Culture is transmitted from generation to generation through learning, a process known as enculturation. Our culture helps to shape and influence our perceptions and behaviors. 1.2 Communication Communication, as defined by the online Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th edition, is the activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or of giving people information. Anaeto et al (2008) perceive communication as an exchange of meaning, which each person comes into the communication situation with his or her own experiences which he or she is going to exchange with other communication participants. Whereas, Savic (2002) sees communication the transference of information to other people who are interested in the situation. According to this opinion, communication is only limited to the scope of the people interested in the conversation, not the others, which is quite more narrow view in comparison with the definition given out by the Oxford dictionary or Anaeto et al. On the other hand, Micheal (2012) introduces a broader and more general description of communication, in which “communication is giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions” (para. 10). He also emphasizes that this broad definition also includes body language, skills of speaking and writing and stresses on listening as a significant part of communication. This research uses definition stated by Micheal (2012), as the definition is systematically presented in details and moreover, harmonious with the previous introduced definitions. There are a number of different ways to classify communication. Aarti (2011) categorizes communication into four types, namely verbal communication, non-verbal communication, written communication and visual communication. Verbal communication regards spoken language as its outstanding feature, which concerns sounds, words, language and speaking. Non-verbal communication involves physical 5 ways of communication, for example, smell and body language. Written communication receives written language for its highlighted feature, while visual communication is of visual display of information. Of these four types, verbal communication and non-verbal communication are the main ones. Unlike Aarti, Dubey & Burman (n.d.) have a different method to classify communication, which bases on the number of communication participants, namely intra-personal communication, interpersonal communication and mass communication. The first type implies individual reflection, contemplation and meditation. The second one is commonly agreed as direct communication between two or more people, while the last one deals with communicating with a large number of people, often a community or populace; and is generally identified with tools of modern mass media. Regarding intercultural communication, there are a number of different definitions and perceptions for the term. Ting-Toomey (1999) claims that intercultural communication is the communication of people from different cultural communities. This definition is narrowed down by Gudykunst (2003), as the scholar views intercultural communication only in the sense of interaction between people from different nationalities. On the other hand, Martin & Nakayama (2007) broaden the definition introduced by Ting-Toomey (1999) into the sense of interaction between individuals from ethnic, religious and/or regional background. Despite having different approaches to the term, all definitions above commonly mention the interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Arent (2009:2), therefore, defines intercultural communication in a more holistic way, thus will be adapted in this research as “Intercultural communication is the sending and receiving of messages across languages and cultures. It is also a negotiated understanding of meaning in human experiences across social systems and societies.” 1.3 Hofstede’s cultural dimensions 6 [...]... publicly contradicted or criticized (HPD) c Title (Mr., Mrs., a “Teacher” + first Ms., etc) + teacher’s name of teacher last name b Teacher’s first name Exp.: Students never call teachers by first name (HPD) / Teachers encourage a firstname basis (LPD) a Raise hands, wait b Call teacher’s until you’re called name and go straight and raise question into question Exp: Similar to question 14 b They are highly... Titles, status, and formality are very important in Vietnamese society Nguyen (2010) adds more details and indicates Vietnam’s special situation The scholar sees that the combination between Communist philosophy and traditional values makes up the specialty of Vietnam Communism views everyone to be equal in every walk of life, while traditional values, strongly influenced by Confucianism (Hoang & Dung, 2009,... comprehend 3 Power distance index of Vietnam and Australia Figure 1: A comparison of cultural dimension index between Vietnam and Australia (Hofstede, n.d.) No 1 2 3 4 5 Abbreviation PDI IDV MAS UAI LTO Explanation Power distance Individualism Masculinity vs Femininity Uncertainty avoidance Long-termed vs short-termed orientation 13 As can be seen from the chart, Vietnam scores 70 for power distance index... power distance index, thus places Vietnam into the group of HPD countries On the other hand, Australia scores just 36, which, according to Hofstede, is a low power distance country In Vietnamese context, Truong & Nguyen (2002) study thoroughly on the power distance aspect According to them, the HPD characteristic manifests in the daily life as well as in business of Vietnamese people In family, children... In each of the following sections, these two aspects would be presented distinctively 1.1 Vietnamese students’ perceptions of Power distance 1.1.1 Group work Vietnamese students’ perceptions of Power distance in terms of group work were demonstrated as the following figure (See Figure 3) 28 Figure 3: Vietnamese students’ perceptions of group work No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Code All GW1 GW2 GW3 GW4 GW5 GW6 Meaning... certain criteria of hierarchy which can be identified, namely gender (male/female), age (older/younger, parents/children), qualification (teachers/ students, superior/subordinates), and money status (rich/poor) These criteria are important, in Heymer’s opinion, as each position is associated with specific roles, norms and expectation, which Vietnamese people always find a way to display Whereas in Australian... on the symptom of high and low power distance societies, especially in working environment Since previous Hofstede studies have shown that Vietnam scored 70 for Power distance index while Australia scored 36, the researcher situated a hypothesis here that Vietnamese students would behave in a way that a typical high power distance environment would follow, whereas Australian students would be likely... environment perceived by Vietnamese and Australian students were investigated; therefore, students from both countries were chosen to participate in research In order for the comparison between the two nations to be balance and to enhance the reliability of the research, students chosen in Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne was Australian-European native speakers; while in Vietnam, the researcher... in an active participatoryinteractive environment Students never call teachers by first name The education process is teachercentered In other words, teachers “outline the intellectual paths to be followed.” In some lessons, students are selected to ask questions which are very structured Teachers encourage a first-name basis In modern education, the idea of communicative language teaching and learning... long-term orientation dimension can be interpreted as dealing with society’s search for virtue”, while “societies with a short-term orientation generally have a strong concern with establishing the absolute Truth” He called this cultural value “Confucian dynamism” (cited in Bassett, 2004:3) Last but not least, the pair of indulgence versus restrain is the sixth and newestintroduced dimension In Hofstede’s opinion . dimension index between Vietnam and Australia (Hofstede, n.d.) 13 Figure 2: Data collection procedure 25 Figure 3: Vietnamese students’ perceptions of group work 29 Figure 4: Vietnamese students’ perceptions. research on this in Vietnam, this paper was carried out to investigate power distance manifestation in the university environment, taking undergraduate students from Vietnam and Australia as research. distance MOET Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam Q. Question No. ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This