ABSTRACT
In more than two hundred interviews with German and Chinese managers, language teachers and students, many so called “critical incidents” were collected and analysed by German and Chinese researchers. As one part of the research project, the paper will present prototypical examples for two fields of cooperation in research and business. The analysis will show that there are similarities between the effectiveness of German and Chinese cultural standards (e.g., fact orientation vs. social harmony orientation or individual vs. social conformity orientation) and the styler of managing cultural diversity. Consequences of intercultural trainings especially in regard to use of culture assimilator, negotiation, and conflict resolution will be discussed. Interview methods and questionnaires used to analyze critical incidents will also be presented as a way to examine how data collection and research methodology can be culturally adapted.
