Most of the courses that I took in the last semester were brilliant. Sagiv’s Cultures and Organizations was an in depth analysis into the complications of cross-cultural psychology, Kogan’s Urban Society in Contemporary China - Changes was a unique journey through modern China, Pinnes’ China 1917-1978 was an extraordinary overview of the most amazing political happenings of the 20th century China, and Mandarin Chinese, well, you know - it still is a frustrating fun challenge.
As the new semester at the Hebrew University is starting on the 25th, I’ve browsed through the selection of courses available for this semester to pick some what might be interesting for me to attend. I’m currently registered as …

What makes “the East” different from “the West” and how? how similar and closely related are national cultures? Is there a way to measure cultural differences and investigate how cultures “behave” and interact?
In a previous post "National Cultures : Differences and similarities between East and West" I described the leading theory for national cultures suggested by one Greet Hofstede, describing 5 scales on which national cultures could be measured - Power-Distance (hierarchy), Uncertainty Avoidance (tolerance towards ambiguity), Masculinity (assertiveness and no distribution of roles), Individualism, and Long-Term Orientation, and then comparing China, Taiwan, Japan, the US, and Israel.
Hofstede theory has been in debate for almost 3 decades, but few have offered an alternative view. Luckily, I was fortunate to …

In Cross Cultural Psychology there are many sample cases for cross-cultural difficulties and misunderstandings, some of which have become classics. Last week I participated in Dr. Sagiv’s simulation about the some of those classics testing our cross-cultural knowledge and openness.
 
First, we were separated into two groups, each group with its own different ‘culture’ for performing a quiz, and each group had to come up with a name and a symbol that represents it. In one group everybody was equal and all decisions had to be agreed upon with all members and no one can become a leader. In the other group a group leader has been appointed who had to control the interaction where no one was allowed to speak or …