Cross cultural research projects are becoming a norm in our global world. More and more projects are being executed using teams from eastern and western cultures. Cultural competence might help project managers to achieve project goals and avoid potential risks in cross cultural project environments and would also support them to promote creativity and motivation through flexible leadership. In our paper we introduce an idea for constructing an information system, a cross cultural knowledge space, which could support cross cultural communication, collaborative learning experiences and time based project management functions. The case cultures in our project are Finnish and Japanese. The system can be used both in virtual and in physical spaces for example to clarify cultural business etiquette. The core of our system design will be based on cross cultural ontology, and the system implementation on XML technologies. Our approach is a practical, step by step example of constructive research. In our paper we shortly describe Hofstede's dimensions for assessing cultures as one example of a larger framework for our study. We also discuss the concept of time in cultural context.
The Internet and ubiquitous technology have opened up new possibilities for us to promote research and development projects as well as our business activities to new geographical locations and cultures. It is almost as easy to work with people remotely as it is to work face-to-face. Cross-cultural communication is more and more the new norm for our collaborative operations.
Increasingly, businessmen, project managers, researchers and other professionals are becoming involved in international negotiations and meetings. The meetings can for example be international business meetings or international research project meetings. In addition to meeting agenda, participants also share culturally integrated space. Sometimes it can be difficult to understand culture dependent behavior of other parties during a meeting. By understanding some of the main cultural dimensions and by adjusting to cultural differences, people can face the challenge and become better negotiators and project managers on behalf of their companies and research organizations.
The objective of our research project is to design and implement an information system -a cross-cultural knowledge space -that provides cultural assistant for people attending in cross-cultural meetings or for people working in cross-cultural projects [8]. The system can be used personally or collaboratively both in virtual spaces and in physical spaces.
The contribution of the paper is to:
• introduce a cultural ontology based approach to construct an information system that could promote communication and mutual understanding in cross-cultural collaborative research project environments, especially between eastern and western cultures • describe Hofstede’s framework for cultural dimensions which is based on questionnaire study in 74 countries and on statistical analysis of the survey data • discuss the concept of time in cultural context as an essential issue of timebased project management functions. The term “culture” is used in our paper as it is defined in [11]: “Culture is a collective phenomenon, because it is shared with people who live or lived within the same social environment, which is where it was learned. Culture consists of the unwritten rules of the social game. It is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the member of one group or category of people from others”. The concept “cross-cultural” is used in the paper to describe comparative knowledge and studies of a limited number of cultures. For example, when examining negotiation manners or attitudes towards time in Finland and in Japan than that is a cross-cultural study. The concept “knowledge space” in cross-cultural context is used to describe personal and collaborative information systems both in virtual worlds on the fixed or ubiquitous Web and in physical worlds like in meeting rooms.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we describe a framework for assessing cultures with five cultural dimensions. In Section 3 we discuss the concept of time in cultural context. In Section 4, we introduce an idea for constructing an information system that supports cross-cultural communication in virtual and/or in physical space. The system is based on cultural ontology. We also present technological tools for and their roles in the implementation. Section 5 is reserved for conclusions and issues for further steps.
All of us, who are working, for example in international research projects, are involved -in addition to the subject of the project itself -in another kind of development process. Cultural competence [15] is a developmental process that evolves step-by-step over an extended period. Both individuals and organizations are at various levels of awareness, knowledge and skills on the cultural competence continuum. Cultural competence is about respecting cultural differences and similarities.
There exist several studies for assessing cultures [11,15]. These studies consider relations between people, motivational orientation, orientation towards risks, definition of self and others, attitudes to time, and attitudes to environments. Hofstede’s framework for assessing cultures is one of the widely used frameworks [10,11]. Hofstede’s approach proposes a set of cultural dimensions along which dominant value systems can be ordered. These value systems affect human thinking, feeling, and acting, and the behavior of organizations and institutions in predictable ways. The framework consists of five dimensions: individualism/collectivism, power distance, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation/short-term orientation (Table 1). All dimensions are generalizations and individuals may vary from their society’s descriptors.
Hofstede’s metrics provides on interesting, larger framework for our study. In addition to this larger framework there are several culture dependent characteristics which persons can face in their everyday working life
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