Power distance权力距离在学术邮件中的体现

Power Distance in Chinese and English Academic Emails Abstract: Email plays a very important role in the modern society and has become a necessity in communication, and the academic emails are no exceptions.Power is one of the most important factors of human activities in the society since the moment human came into being. And people from different cultural backgrounds tend to show different attitudes towards such unequal distribution of power. This thesis will make an analysis on English and Chinese academic emails from the perspective of power distance, aiming at finding out how power distance is incarnated in the emails and the reasons for forming the distances. Meanwhile, some suggestions for writing emailes and enhancing awareness of the differences for better communications between the two cultures are offered.Key Words: power distance academic emails reasons suggestions中文摘要Chapter 1 IntroductionResearch BackgroundEmail, the abbreviation of electronic mails, refers to the system of worldwide electronic communication in which a computer user can compose a message at one terminal that is generated at the recipient’s terminal when he logs in, and now it is chiefly used to refer to messages sent via this system. (Crystal, 2001) Compared to a paper mail, email comes lower-cost and time-saving, more moderate than a phone call and more convenient than a FAX.For the majority of people, email, which plays an important role in their daily life and work, has become a necessity in communication, and the academic emails are no exceptions.The famous “Culture Dimension Theory” which is put forward by the social psychologist Hofstede(1980,1991), is one of the most influential theories in the field of cultural values. Based on the results of survey on IBM employees,he generalized four dimensions for the study of cultural differences namely power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism, and masculinity and femininity. And many scholars have conducted further studies on the cultural differences of multinational organizations or groups. In addition, through statistical analysis of the data, he gave each dimension an index to quantify the cultural differences of the 53countries and regions. His theory made great contribution to the study of values differences. This thesis will make an analysis on English and Chineseacademic emails from the perspective of power distance.The Significance of the StudyAccording to Hofstede, he derived power distance index to measure powerdistance numerically. China is considered to be a country of high powerdistance with the PDI of 80, while America is of low PDI of 40. Throughcollecting 40 Chinese and English academic emails, 20 each, the study aims to finding out how power distance is reflected in the emails through the wordsused in both kinds of the emails. In addition, the reasons for forming suchdistances are put forward and some suggestions to make people from different culture background gain more awareness and also benefit the teaching of writing.The Structure of the ThesisThe thesis is organized as follows:In chapter 1, the research background, significance of the study as well asthe overview of the thesis are offered. Chapter 2 gives a detailed review ofthe theoretical background of the study and the related researches. The methodology of the study is introduced in chapter 3. And chapter 4 gives a thorough analysis toward power distance including its definition, the classification and the features of power distance at different places in both of the countries. In chapter 5, the result of the study and how power distance is reflect in English and Chinese academic emails is revealed. Chapter 6 comes to the discussion, showing the reasons for such distances and suggestions to narrow the gap. Chapter 7 comes to the conclusion and the limition of the study.Chapter 2 Literature ReviewDefinition of Power DistanceAs a national cultural characteristic, power distance is originally invented by a Dutch social psychologist Mauk Mulder. Mulder (1976, p76) defines power distance as“the degree of inequality in power between a less powerful Individual (I) and a more powerful Other (O), in which I and O belong to the same (loosely or tightly knit) social system”. And Hofstede (1994, p28) defines it as “th e extent to which inequality in power is accepted and considered as normal by less powerful peopl e in a society”. Power distance can be found everywhere in different areas of a society: between children and parents, students and teachers, or between bosses and subordinates.Cotta (1976, p95) believes that power distance is necessary for an organization because such“inequality of power in organization is essential forcontrol and for temporarily overcoming the law of entropy, which states that disorder will increase”.Generally, Hofstede’s definition of power distance is the most seemingly authoritative and widely adopted when a research is conducted. And Hofstede divided power distance into two extents: high power distance and low power distance. Meanwhile, he derived power distance index to measure PD numerically:Power Distance Studies AbroadWith regard to other researches on power distance, especially on power distance within corporations and companies, the following works are worth of attention. From Pavett and Morris's "Management styles within a multinational corporation: A five-country comparative study", it can be shown that there was a negative correlation between power distance and participation: the larger the power distance, the less participative the management system (Pavett and Morris, 1995: 1171-1191).Wong and Birnbaum-More conducted another research on tolerance of unequal distribution of power. From 1981 to 1984, they collected data from 39 multinational banks of 14 different countries in Hong Kong. They found that “the acceptance of unequal power distances in the bank's home society" can explain the centralization degree of authority in the Hong Kong subsidiaries (Wong and Birnbaum-More, 1994: 115).As to power distance between teachers and students, Spencer-Oatey reported on a comparative survey study of students and their tutors in Great Britain (low-PDI) and China (high-PDI) about their mutual relationships. Chinese respondents (students and tutors) described the relationship as both closer and more unequal than did the British respondents (Spencer-Oatey, 1997).Power Distance Studies at HomeSome scholars in China have begun to make extensions and additions to thecultural value theories. New cross-cultural dimensions proposed by Chinese scholar were based on the researches of eastern and Asian culturebackground in the hope that they can better explain eastern and Asian cultures.Li Ping (李平, 2006) compared power distance in HSCB (The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited) and Bank of China, and proposed suggestion for the Bank of China to prompt its management. And Yu Jie, Zhang Liping (于洁,张丽萍, 2008) tried to find out reasons for power distance differences between China and America from the view of cultural origin. They gave reasons from religion and history aspects to promote culture understanding and better communication between the two countries.Kong Guannan( 孔冠男 ,2005) conducted a survey in both American and Chinese multinational companies to find out the relationship between power distance and conflict resolution styles. The research found that although power distance did not work as an efficient predictor on choosing different conflict styles, Chinese and Americans presented different preference for conflict styles.To do something new, the present study is attempting to make an analysis of English and Chinese academic emails from the perspective of power distance and find out how high and low power distances are reflected in Chinese and English academic emails and find out whether the findings will be in accordance with Hofestede’s. Meanwhile, the reasons for forming such power distances and some suggestions to reinforce people’s culture awareness and benefit the teaching of writing are also found.Chapter 3 MethodologyThe main task of the present study is to collect both English and Chinese academic emails to reveal power distances. What’s more, the author takes a further step to explore the reasons for forming such power distances and also offers some helpful suggestions to narrow the gap between the two cultures. Some of the emails collected are from my friends, and the others are collected from the net. As for the websites, they will be shown as an appendix at the end of the thesis.Chapter 4 Power Distance in Chinese and English Academic Emails The Incarnation of Power Distance in Academic EmailsIn order to do the research, the author collected 40 English and Chinese academic emails, 20 respectively. In addition, the author tries to find out whether they can show high or low power distance according to the featuresof Hofstede’s proposed from the several perspectives as salutation, body(from length, voice, and the frequency of simileys) , closing and also signature.SalutationFrom the form above, it is easy to see that “尊敬的” and “敬爱的” which are expressions that can show high power distance take a high percentage up to 85%. And Chinese students seldom address their teachers directly, only 15% of the emails collected adress their supervisors without certain attributes to show politeness. While in English emails, things are quite different. “Dear”, a word can show low power distance is involved in 85% of the emails collected. Also they call their teacher directly.The reason why the addressings are different is due to the different ethicsbetween the two cultures. The Confucianism is the core concept of Chinesetraditional culture. There were many famous Confucian theories helping standardize people’s behaviors. One of Confucius’ proverbs is the “Three relations：ruler/subject, father/son, husband/wife”. This proverb shows different relations between people. The people in the first place had higher status in society or family. Moreover, under the impact of Confucian ethics, everyone was required to obey the graded system and found his own position so that everything would be in good order. But the essence of the graded system is inequality. People with higher status could infringe on the rights of those with lower status. Little by little, common people formed the habit of resigning themselves to fate.American culture belonged to protestant culture which originated fromAncient Greek Civilization. During the Ancient Greek times, people did research on man and nature independently. (Yu & Zhang, 2008) They paid more attention to individualism, which provided origin for the theory of “everyone should be equal”. Furthermore, in the doctrine of Protestant, people thought that they could relate themselves with God and their own belief became the only way to save them. Since then, Americans havedeveloped independently centering on themselves. So they formed the value of being free and equal.Bodyperspectives namely length, voice and the appearing of simileys. It can be seen apprently that most of the Chinese academic emails are long, which takes a high percentage to 85, while only 20% of the English emails are long. What ’s more, Chinese students express their ideas more indirectly than those of American students, which is shown evidently in the form above. Besides, when it comes to simileys, there is 30% of the English emails that contain such signs to express a sense of humor and easiness, while none of the Chinese emails has simileys at all.As for the length of texts, most of the Chinese emails are long, which results from the way of thinking. People in China are used to getting to the point step by step with some phatic expressions at first. Only in this way do they think they show great politeness and respect to others. Teachers were treated as fathers (as we are familiar with the saying “一日为师，终生为父”). In traditional Chinese culture, fathers are always with high status and it is our offsprings ’ responsibilty to be filial and obedient to whatever they asked to do. In addition, indirect speech was more suitable to show the knowledge and virtue, and simileys are signs of unseriousness.While America is a big immigration country and the immigrants from Europe came to America with the liberal thought of being independent and strong. With this thought, America formed the citizen civilization with the feature of individualism. Individualism is against privilege and inequality but for individual liberation. The relation between teachers and students should also be based on equality. This view for power also helps to minimize the mower distance between people in America.ClosingAccording to form, both of the ways of closing are revealed. Chinese students usually end their emails with some blessings to convey best wishesfor the receivers, which takes quite a high percentage to 85. However, only 45% of the English emails contain blessings. 70% of the students write “此致/敬礼” to show their respect, while only 15% of the English students end their emails with the formal expressions such as “Yours sincerely” and “Faithfully”. Reversely, “Yours” as a sign to show intimateness takes 85% of the English academic emails.SignatureThis form displays the rates of signature in both kinds of the emails. Allthe Chinese students sign their names at the end of the emails, while only 65% of American students end their mails with sigatures. As for the exceptions, itis better to think dialectically.Thinking Dialectically About the ExceptionsThere are six dialectics that should be taken into consideration when intercultural communication is under discussion. They are Cultural-Individual Dialectic, Personal-Contextual Dialectic, Differences-Similarities Dialectic, History/Past-Present/Future Dialectic, Static-Dynamic Dialectic and Privilege-Disadvantage Dialectic respectively.As for the exceptions above, the following two dialectics can be very convincing: Cultural-Individual Dialectic and Personal-Contextual Dialectic. (1)Cultural-Individual DialecticIntercultural communication can be both cultural and individual, or idiosyncratic. That communication is cultural means people share communication patterns with members of the groups to which they belong; and also being individual is another characteristic. For example, “此致/敬礼”as a kind of closing can incarnate the respect to the supervisors, however, not all the Chinese students end up their emails with it.(2)Personal-Contextual DialecticThis dialectic involves the role of context in intercultural relationships and focuses simultaneously on the person and the context. Although people communicate as individuals on a personal level, the context of thiscommunication is important as well. When it comes to academic matters, theemails that convey such information will not show much subjectivity. Here isnot much explanation on this part because it’s difficult to do the statisticsfrom this perspective and make it concrete.As for the reasons resulting in the different views on power, there are stillmore of them that are rooted in the depth of both cultures such asagricultural civilization vs. business civilization and official civilization vs.citizen civilization.Since the ancient times, China has been famous for farming. The characteristic of agricultural civilization is patriarchal clan system. Under such a system, everything should be in good order and descendents showed great esteem for their ancestors. Although the patriarchal clan system has been disintegrated, its influence can’t be neglected. Then agricultural civilization reflected the characteristics of striving for stability and being conservative. (Wang, 2010) Farmers took a large part of the population at that time and they were born to be simple and honest. Gradually, those common people got used to the oppression from landlords.While America’s relatively advanced business civilization required America tobe a society filled with contracts. Most joint activities were related with contracts to guarantee every participant’s equality. The relation between God and people and the relation among people are based on laws. All of them strived for equality. Step by step, low power distance became a cultural value in America.In traditional China, the mainstream culture reflected the official civilization which concentrated in centralization of state power. Citizens at that time wanted to be officials. They believed that they could discover treasures from the books because they would become officials with the help of books. Moreover, officials were related with power. Being officials meant attaining power. Then people could get more power, rise in social rank and get more resources. This phenomenon led to the increasing concentration on power.While Americans concentrate more on themselves, they are against privilege and dependence. The officals are treated as public servants which include teachers as well. Every one are born to be equal. This view for power also help minimize the power distance among the people in America.Due to the differences between the two cultures, it is of great importance toget a better understanding of them in order to communicate well. Therefore,some suggestions will be given next.Suggestions for Better CommunicationThe reasons for forming the distances have been analysed above, but what should we do to communicate well between the two cultures. Here are somesuggestions:(1)Email WritingEmail is of great vitality in our society now and there are also some rules tofollow: firstly, the rules of grammar and punctuation should be kept whencomposing emails. Avoid slang, acronyms and short forms as much aspossible. Secondly, don't send emails without a spell check. Avoid exclamation marks, as that may seem immature. Also writing in capital letters should beavoided, since in writing this can be interpreted as the equivalent ofshouting.Meanwhile, the addressee’s name should be right, or the recipients can get angry if the body of the email has the wrong spelling of their names or, even worse. Double-check spellings and titles before sending emails are always needed. If the recipient’s gender is obsured, either use the person's first name or the full name.Thirdly, due to the flood of email people get daily, it's best to keep emails short and to-the-point. 'Sentences that tend to be never-ending' says Mr. Venkataramana should not be adopted. If it is of necessity to make a number of points, bullets to cover all the points briefly can be applied. Fourthly, it's a good idea to add a signature at the end of the emails, which includes phone number and other contact details. This would be particularly useful for emails sent to supervisors, or other people outside your organization. Before hitting 'Send', emails can be easily forwarded and thus be read by more people than we think. So re-read the emails carefully before sending it, to make sure that it is not offensive and that it doesn't say anything that could get us into trouble. As for the subject line, it is of great importance. The lack of a subject line or a vague subject like 'Hello' or 'I have a question' can be annoying to busy people. They also make it harder for the receiver to search for your email in their inbox. Meanwhile, it is a need to mention if the matter is urgent in the subject line, instead of saying 'I have a question', but 'My holiday plans; not urgent'. At the same time, too long or too detailed subject line should be avoided. Also, starting discussing a new topic under the same subject line is not that appropriate. This also makes it difficult to identify mails about specific queries. It's best to send separate emails for separate topics. In addition to these, the attachments should also be paid attention to. In general, avoid sending large files as attachments since they clog up the recipient's inbox. If the recipient is close to filling up the inbox capacity, the large files may even get deleted. If you are sending pictures, resizing them to a smaller resolution . If a large file is a must, a call to the recipient to check first is of great importance.As for the other aspects, the author also proposes some suggestions from the whole culture perpective:(2) Paternalisma. The parents should learn the adversities brought by paternalism.b. School education should also propagandize the advantages of being independent among students.(3)At WorkplaceColleagues from different cultures should learn more about others’ senses of value, make good use of their advantages, and cooperate so as to have cultural integration.(4) Relations Between Teachers and Studentsa.Chinese teachers---American studentsChinese teachers should give enough freedom to the Americanstudents to discover by themselves and should not give privilege tosome special students. Students should show respect to the teacherthough they are free in classrooms.b. American teachers---Chinese studentsAmerican teachers should guide Chinese students to be independent and offer opportunities to experience on their own. Chinese studentsshould take initiatives to get along with their teachers and be brave to ask or answer questions.Chapter Five Conclusion and LimitationsPower distance, as one of the four dimensions in Hofstede’s “culture dimension theory”, exists everywhere in the world. Hofstede derived power distance into two extents and analysed it numerically. According to the findings, China is a country of high power distance, while America is the opposite. This essay reproved the result by 40 English and Chinese academic emails and gave the reasons for forming the power distances, such as agricultural civilization vs. business civilization, official civilization vs. citizen civilization and Confucian ethics vs. Protestant ethics. Meanwhile, the theis is of great significance as some suggestions for reinforcing the awareness between the two cultures and the techniques of writing emails are offered in order to get a better understanding and communication. However, there are also some limitations:①There were not adequate emails to be analyzed for the research;②Most of the English emails collected were written by Chinese studentsinstead of native speakers;③The contrast can not be showed sharply by the charts, because it isdifficult to find the English counterparts for the Chinese versions andvice versa.④Most of the emails collected are from the students to teachers, whichmakes the research less reliable than expected.Works Cited[1] Hofstede,G. (1991).Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations(Second Edition)[M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.[2] /wiki/Geert_Hofstede. 2009 年 1 月 20 日[3] Judith N. Martin & Thomas K. Nakayama, (2009) Intercultural Communication in Contexts (4th Edition). Foreign Language And Research Press.[4]Mulder, M., Ritsema van Eck, J.R., & De Jong, R. D. 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