Book/Web Site Reviews
Editor's Note: Several IEEE members have written books of interest to PCS members. If you would like to have it reviewed by a newsletter volunteer, please contact Kit Brown at pcsnews.editor AT ieee.org.
TC World
TCWorld, published by tekom, is a must-read for technical communicators working internationally. The articles are consistently well-written and focus on aspects of technical communication in an international environment. Many of the articles also discuss localization and translation issues.
Here's the most recent issue:
http://www.tekom.de/upload/alg/tcworld_607.pdf
Tekom is the German professional organization for technical communicators. TCWorld is tekom´s magazine for international information management. TCWorld focuses on how companies face up to challenges of communication with customers, partners and employees in an increasing number of international target markets. For a free subscription, please click here: http://www.tekom.de/abo_tcworld.jsp. (This magazine is published in German and English.)
The Scientific Literature: A Guided Tour
FRom WeB wire, April 19, 2007
The University of Chicago Press has published The Scientific Literature: A Guided Tour by Joseph E. Harmon of Argonne National Laboratory and Alan G. Gross of the University of Minnesota.
The book is an overview of scientific communication from the first research articles and how they have changed over time. The collection of short excerpts from more than 100 scientific articles was chosen to represent the broad sweep of discoveries in modern science, from Newton's theory of light to the decoding of the human genome. Also reproduced are 60 tables and illustrations. Read more...
Nature also reviewed this book in August 2007 (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v448/n7155/full/448751a.html).
Understanding Culture Through Cultural Dimensions
By Meghashri Dalvi
From: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/index.shtml
With the accelerated globalization phenomenon, the audience profile is so varied; a communicator needs to remember all the time that the content is more far reaching than ever.
Since the original content may get translated or localized without the original communicator's involvement, the content design for the global audience is becoming a great concern. Words, phrases, and graphics certainly pose as possible traps, and many resources are now available to ensure that we successfully avoid these traps.
But communicating to the diverse global audience goes beyond this first line of defense. To successfully deliver to the global audience, it is necessary to first understand their cultural differences and preferences.
That is where Prof. Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions can be a great help. This is not the first time researchers have tried to define and quantify "culture". However, the concept of cultural dimensions makes measuring culture very convincing and practical.
Prof. Hofstede analyzed a large database of employee values scores collected by IBM between 1967 and 1973. These employees came from more than 70 countries. From the initial analysis and subsequent detailed research, Hofstede developed a model with five dimensions to different cultures:
- Power Distance – PDI: the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.
- Individualism (IDV): the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups.
- Masculinity (MAS): the distribution of roles between the genders.
- Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI): deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.
- Long-Term Orientation (LTO): specific values associated with a long-term orientation are thrift and perseverance; while values associated with a short-term orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one's 'face'.
On these dimensions, referring to a specific country provides some interesting observations. For example, Australia has an IDV score of 90, very close to the leader in this category, the USA with a score of 91. Greece surprisingly shows the highest score in UAI (112), way beyond the expected candidates like USA. Masculinity is high in Japan, while it is very low in Netherlands. Many more fascinating differences are worth a look. You can also graphically compare the scores of any two countries. (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php)
The insights of these dimensions have practical business applications, especially in negotiating and establishing partnership across cultures. For technical communicators, these dimensions can provide some definitive pointers about the cultures we are expected to address.
Prof. Hofstede's dimensions are not accepted whole-heartedly by several scholars. He answers to some objections in this paper "Dimensions do not exist: A reply to Brendan McSweeney" (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/dimBSGH.pdf)
His personal website (http://feweb.uvt.nl/center/hofstede/index.htm) provides access to some follow-ups and some musings on the same subject.
Overall a remarkable viewpoint making significant contribution toward understanding cultures.
**********************
Meghashri Dalvi has combined her love of writing with engineering and management background to create a successful career in technical communication. She currently works as a Consulting Technical Communicator in India, and is pursuing her doctoral research in Management.