Reference no: EM133268834

PART 1 (cross-cultural incident)

On a summer vacation trip, James was introduced to Rosmah by a friend. They are all studying in the same university in Brisbane. James is from United States. He's Christian and he comes from a more openly minded family culture which are more accepting of physical contact as a form of greeting. James are accustomed to giving hugs as a greeting when he sees family or friends. Meanwhile, Rosmah is Malaysia native. She comes from a Muslim family and a country with a more conservative culture than James, which gives her a very different cultural background. During the trip meet up, James attempted to greet and hug every friends as usual. Apparently, Rosmah was being introduced to James by a friend. James tried to friendly greet hugging Rosmah. However, Rosmah rejected the hug and criticized James. She was shocked and agitated since the manner of greeting never had occurred in her culture before. She felt uncomfortable and offended by James's action. Technically, James apologised to Rosmah for his actions and responded in a humiliating manner. He was genuinely shocked and confused as to why Rosmah had been triggered though he believed that this was a relatively common way to greet others in social situations. Ironically, he couldn't think of any valid cause of reasons for this situation. He assumed that Rosmah wasn't personally interested to be friend with him. As soon as the incident occurred, James became depressed and stopped speaking to Rosmah.

PART 2

Four possible explanations will be provided following regarding to the clash incident happened. First explanation, Rosmah doesn't personally like James. This reason is plausible due to different cultural background from both James and Rosmah's perspective. Rosmah might feel uncomfortable interacts with James since she comes from a totally opposite culture norms as comparing to James. In another term, when an individual is feeling uncomfortable with someone, it makes sense that the individual might personally dislike the other person. Second explanation, Rosmah has prejudice towards male. The explanation is plausible since she comes from a more conservative culture family background. Her parents might have taught her to always have a sense of precaution against random male as some of the dishonest guy might take malicious advantages from women through verbally or physically. Thus, this brings to the reason that Rosmah's prejudice is what led to the clash incident.

Third explanation, Rosmah could be allergic to perfume. This explanation makes sense given that James frequently applies a significant amount of body perfume prior to meeting someone. Apparently, it appears that direct physical contact with a person who has perfume on sets off the allergic reaction. If Rosmah accepted James's method of greeting with a direct physical contact, she realised James's body perfume might put her at a high risk of allergic reactions. She therefore declined James's offer of a friendly hug. The fourth final explanation, Rosmah social culture forbade any direct physical contact between unmarried male and female. She comes from a conservative muslim family that might consider those action as a culture sin. Therefore, the cross-cultural clash happened. 

Question

Part 3) Based on academic research and facts provide a comprehensive cross-cultural analysis of the incident, which explains the behaviours you described from both person's perspectives (briefly from James's perspective and more detailed from Rosmah's perspective). Use appropriate cross-cultural management theories and/or frameworks relevant to the course and/or from other fields to explain why the cross-cultural clash occurred, and why all four possible explanations are plausible. you may want to allocate the largest portion of the research to the most probable explanation.