New title
The improved title of this research: a mixed-methods investigation into the embodied pedagogy of aikido for intercultural business communication training.
Abstract
In our fast-changing world that is ever-more characterised by global flows, systems and networks, intercultural communication is a dynamic field. The ubiquity of cultural and linguistic contact in a ‘flat’ globalized world (Friedman, 2006), and the commodification of language (Heller, 2010), have resulted in a strong interest in intercultural communication, both inside and outside academia.
Academic research on intercultural communication has variously focused on nations, companies and individuals. While these focal points emerged at different times, each new emphasis combined with the previous one and today all three perspectives co-exist. Not only do they co-exist, but they also overlap and inform each other (Piller, 2017: 7).
Outside academia, it is mostly the work on nations and cultural differences by Hofstede (2010), Trompenaars (1998) and Lewis (2006, 1999, 1996) which has been particularly influential and has spawned a vast body of intercultural business communication advice literature. In these popular studies, ‘cultural difference’ is often seen as one aspect of the challenges and difficulties that international companies and their employees might need to manage (Piller, 2017: 7). Mostly, the studies are about interpersonal relationships and how these are communicated verbally (for instance, through engaging in or avoiding small-talk) and non-verbally (for instance through removing or not removing shoes when entering a business associate’s home in India or China). Typically, however, they are focused on ‘culture’ as an entity, something we ‘have’ – a trait – rather than something we do – a performance – with the danger of stereotyping lurking (e.g. Germans are able to drink large quantities of beer in one evening).
If, in contrast, we treat culture as something we do, its status changes from an entity to a process: something people perform, and, crucially, compete over. It has been widely documented that one of the challenges employees are facing in intercultural relations is communicating non-violently or collaboratively (Rosenberg, 2015; d’Ansembourg, 2001).
Today, popular books, internet videos and websites increasingly promote nonviolent communication and link it to aikido. Aikido, a Japanese martial art, aims to turn opponents into partners, aims to build bridges even when the odds are against harmony (Ueshiba and Stevens, 1993). Applying aikido principles in communication and interactions has been coined verbal aikido (Smith & Smith, 2008; Archer, 2013). The advantages of translating aikido principles to another field have been researched, for instance in helping veterans reduce depression, enhance well-being, and improve memory and cognitive processing (Lukoff & Strozzi-Heckler, 2017).
It is the aim of this research to explore the potential of aikido as a strategy and tool to teach employees to perform nonviolent intercultural communication. The research questions are descriptive and exploratory, and will be subdivided into three questions:
- To what extent do the principles of aikido serve intercultural understanding and communication?
- How efficient is the use of aikido in teaching intercultural business communication skills?
- How effective is aikido-based intercultural business training for intercultural and multilingual encounters?
Research Design and Methodology
We mainly use qualitative methods to answer the research questions. The approach is essentially ethnographic, not oriented towards generating population-representative facts, but towards case-based productive hypothesis formulation reflecting on the complexities of social life. One of the studies incorporates some quantitative methods in a mixed method quasi-experiment.
Before embarking upon a pilot study and a one-year longitudinal research, we set up a benchmarking study to validate aikido principles. The benchmarking study relied on a thorough review of literature on aikido principles, intercultural communication and benchmarking. The literature review helped us to set up a highly accurate approach for a validation by experts. Semi-structured interviews with experts who have expertise in both the martial art of aikido and interculturalism revealed to what extent the principles of aikido serve intercultural understanding and communication. Semi-structured interviews refer to interviews with open-ended questions whereby the interviewer notes down a list of issues to be addressed with the respondents but the specific wording and style of questions are flexible (Patton, 2002).
Upon having answered the first research question, we set up a pilot study which aimed to investigate whether crucial components of the main study will be feasible, to avoid wasting time and resources. The pilot study is set up with employees who enrolled for a course of applied aikido (n=6). The pilot study answered a simple question: “Can the full-scale study be conducted in the way that has been planned or should some component(s) be altered?”
Next, we embark on a one-year longitudinal research project. We recruit a minimum of 100 participants and divide them into four groups. Each group attends a communication training course with a pedagogical approach based on the previous research findings. The method for data collection is threefold: semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and observations. Participants will fill in pre-test and post-test questionnaires, and a selection will be interviewed after a few months. The interview data and the observations will be subject of qualitative analysis using NVivo software. The findings will show short-term, mid-term and long-term benefits of intercultural (aikido) training, if any.
References
Archer, L. (2013). Verbal Aikido - Green Belt: The Art of Directing Verbal Attacks to a Balanced Outcome, Createspace Independent Pub.
d’Ansembourg, T. (2001). Cessez d’être gentil soyez vrai! Montréal:Les Éditions de l’Homme.
Dobson, T. & Miller, V. (1994). Aikido in Everyday Life: Giving in to Get Your Way, Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.
Friedman, T.L. (2006). The world is flat: the globalized world in the twenty-first century, London: Penguin.
Heller, M. (2010). “The commodification of language”, Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, 101-114.
Hofstede, G., Hofstede G.J. & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, 3rd edition. USA: McGraw-Hill.
Lewis, R. D. (2006, 1999, 1996). When Cultures Collide: Leading across Cultures, Nicholas Brealey International.
Lukoff, D. & Strozzi-Heckler, R. (2017). “Aikido: A martial art with mindfulness, somatic, relational, and spiritual benefits for veterans”, Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 4(2), 81-91.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. 3rd edition, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Piller, I. (2017). Intercultural Communication: A critical introduction, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
Rosenburg, M. (2015). Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, 3rd edition, Encinitas, California: PuddleDancer Press
Smith, P. & Smith, K. (2008). The Usual Error: Why We Don't Understand Each Other and 34 Ways to Make It Better, Connection Paradigm Press.
Trompenaars, F. & Hampden-Turner, C. (1998). Riding the waves of culture, USA: McGraw-Hill.
Ueshiba, M. & Stevens, J. (1993). The Essence of Aikido, Spiritual Teachings of Morihei Ueshiba, Compiled by John Stevens. Japan: Kodansha International.