Communicating Effectively in Multicultural Contexts – serie

9/11. Tornadoes. Emergency preparedness. Whether explaining parts per million to a community exposed to contaminated groundwater or launching a campaign to encourage home carbon monoxide testing, an effective message is paramount to the desired result: an increased understanding of health risk.

How people interpret and respond to risk messages related to potential immediate or long-term environmental danger is largely influenced by such factors as age, ethnicity, community, and proximity to the health risk in question. Communicating Environmental Risk in Multiethnic Communities is the first book to address the theory and practice of disseminating disaster warnings and hazard education messages to multiethnic communities. Authors Michael K. Lindell and Ronald W. Perry introduce theory-based reasoning as a basis for understanding warning dissemination and public education, devoting specific attention to the community context of emergency warning delivery and response. Through these principles of human behavior, readers can apply risk communication information to virtually any specific disaster agent with which they may be concerned.

The authors review a variety of theories of emergency decision-making and develop a Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) as the foundation for understanding citizen response to both emergency and educational communications. Combining risk theory with practical application, Communicating Environmental Risk in Multiethnic Communities examines the research literature and identifies the important factors that affect people's decisions to comply with warnings. The authors present a review of a range of public education campaigns for different types of hazards.

This volume is recommended for practitioners in private emergency management and federal, state, and local governments, as well as students studying risk communication, health communication, emergency management, and environmental policy and management. 

9/11. Tornadoes. Emergency preparedness. Whether explaining parts per million to a community exposed to contaminated groundwater or launching a campaign to encourage home carbon monoxide testing, an effective message is paramount to the desired result: an increased understanding of health risk.

How people interpret and respond to risk messages related to potential immediate or long-term environmental danger is largely influenced by such factors as age, ethnicity, community, and proximity to the health risk in question. Communicating Environmental Risk in Multiethnic Communities is the first book to address the theory and practice of disseminating disaster warnings and hazard education messages to multiethnic communities. Authors Michael K. Lindell and Ronald W. Perry introduce theory-based reasoning as a basis for understanding warning dissemination and public education, devoting specific attention to the community context of emergency warning delivery and response. Through these principles of human behavior, readers can apply risk communication information to virtually any specific disaster agent with which they may be concerned.

The authors review a variety of theories of emergency decision-making and develop a Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) as the foundation for understanding citizen response to both emergency and educational communications. Combining risk theory with practical application, Communicating Environmental Risk in Multiethnic Communities examines the research literature and identifies the important factors that affect people's decisions to comply with warnings. The authors present a review of a range of public education campaigns for different types of hazards.

This volume is recommended for practitioners in private emergency management and federal, state, and local governments, as well as students studying risk communication, health communication, emergency management, and environmental policy and management. 

In this volume, Ting-Toomey and Oetzel accomplish two objectives: to explain the culture-based situational conflict model, including the relationship among conflict, ethnicity, and culture; and, second, integrate theory and practice in the discussion of interpersonal conflict in culture, ethnic, and gender contexts. While the book is theoretically directed, it is also a down-to-earth practical book that contains ample examples, conflict dialogues, and critical incidents. Managing Intercultural Conflict Effectively helps to illustrate the complexity of intercultural conflict interactions and readers will gain a broad yet integrative perspective in assessing intercultural conflict situations. The book is a multidisciplinary text that draws from the research work of a variety of disciplines such as cross-cultural psychology, social psychology, sociology, marital and family studies, international management, and communication.

"The book is clearly written and includes many examples and analogies to illustrate the authors' main points. . . .The collaboration presents information useful for setting up an intercultural training program but also helpful for those attempting to ascertain the elements of a good program as well as for those interested in the general subject matter. This work will enhance the collections of libraries that support communication and business programs in particular."

--The Journal of Academic Librarianship

As societies become more global, acquiring an understanding of other cultures and customs becomes a necessity. It is essential to provide effective training programs whether the association is with culturally diverse people within the same city or country, other countries, or across hemispheres. The only comprehensive guidebook of its kind, Intercultural Communication Training provides an organizational framework for planning and establishing intercultural communication training programs. Drawing from intercultural communication and cross-cultural training, this guide emphasizes those aspects of training that explicitly involve face-to-face communication. The approaches this volume covers, such as assessing needs, establishing goals, and building positive attitudes, apply to any situation where good personal relations and effective communication need to be established with people from different cultural backgrounds.

This guidebook is an essential tool in designing a training program for scholars, students, counselors, diplomats, social workers, business people, and anyone who needs to increase their knowledge and skills for communication across cultures.