An Examination of the Effects of Cultural Training on the Interaction of Heterocultural Task Groups.

摘要

In a heterocultural task group, the favorableness of the leader-to-member behavior, as rated by an observer, increases when the leader is trained in the interpersonal norms of the culture of another group member. The effect of training decreases systematically as the relation of variables to the leader-member interaction decreases. Sixteen Americans were trained in the Thai culture and sixteen received control training. Groups engaged in a construction task and were composed of an American, as leader, and two Far Eastern members, one of which was a Thai. Each participant and an observer rated the group effectiveness on five variables. The intercorrelation pattern among variables and raters is described. For each variable, the size of the mean difference between trained and control groups varies according to the position of the variable in the intercorrelation pattern. (Author)