Open Access Article Intercultural Communication

The relevance of culture-specific conceptualisation for organisational management: a cross-cultural study on the difference between German and Swedish organisational concepts

Christopher M. Schmidt (1)
1. German Department Fabriksgatan, Åbo Akademi University
https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v4i1.394

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Issue
Vol. 4 No. 1 (2004)
Submitted
2003 January 10
Published
2004 March 30
Keywords:
    culture-specific, management, organisational concepts, German and Swedish
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Abstract

The article deals with the question how culture-specific ways of conceptualising (thinking) play a role in organisational and management theory from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Not only does this paper question the widespread idea that the language of science and economics is universally the same and that communication across cultural borders can be managed just by means of a lingua franca. This paper also shows by comparison of central verbal and non-verbal image-schemata in Swedish and German organisational theory how non-propositional image schemata are used in the above mentioned cultures. It is shown how cognitive linguistics (namely metaphorological analysis) can give insights into culture-specific knowledge. This is examplified through the kind of fundamental differences in the ways in which German and Swedish management deals with questions concerning hierarchies, leadership behavior, the ways of organising work processes, and the role of the individual in the organisational whole. It is argued that through culture-specific, non-propositional basic image schemata, interculturally relevant knowledge can be obtained for multicultural management.

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Authors

Christopher M. Schmidt
christopher.schmidt@abo.fi (Primary Contact)
Author Biography

Christopher M. Schmidt

Dr. Christopher Schmidt lectures in the German Department in an interdisciplinary program of cooperational studies between the Faculty of Humanities and the School of Business at Åbo Akademi University. Dr. Schmidt is responsible for intercultural business and corporation communication and has also inaugurated international research cooperation between universities of several European countries in this field which now produce regular publications and organise annual congress activities

Schmidt, C. M. (2004). The relevance of culture-specific conceptualisation for organisational management: a cross-cultural study on the difference between German and Swedish organisational concepts. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 4(1), 1-30. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v4i1.394
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Schmidt, C. M. (2004). The relevance of culture-specific conceptualisation for organisational management: a cross-cultural study on the difference between German and Swedish organisational concepts. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 4(1), 1-30. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v4i1.394