Question

Effective persuasive techniques in one culture may not work in another culture. Do a web search on “intercultural communication” and locate a topic that is important for technical communication. Find an example of persuasive techniques effective in one culture that are not effective in another. Write a short summary of your findings.

Answer 1

In their study of persuasive techniques across cultures, researchers Michael Morris, Joel Podolny, and Sheira Ariel assessed factors that would most likely persuade employees to voluntarily comply with a colleague's request. The study found that in westernized cultures such as the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom, employees were likely to comply, only if that colleague had done something for them first. However, in Asian cultures including China and Korea, it wasn’t necessarily the request itself that that influenced their willingness to comply but more to do whom the requester was connected to, especially someone of a high rank. A similar pattern was observed in the Mediterranean and South American cultures, but requests for help were more likely to be successful if the person making the request was connected to the requestee’s network of friends. In the German, Austrian and Scandinavian countries, it was found that requests were most successful when the person showed how compliance to their request was consistent with the organization’s official rules and policies.