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Today, undergraduate students are more familiar with others cultures than ever before because of the media, Internet, local diversity, and their own travels abroad. As such, traditional intercultural communication textbooks- which focus solely on the "differences" approach-aren't truly effective for today's students, nor for this area's growth. By including a social constructionist approach-which explores how culture is constructed and produced in the moments in which it is experienced-Inter/Cultural Communication: Representation and Construction of Culture in Everyday Interaction provides today's undergraduate students with a fuller understanding of how culture and communication affect and effect each other. Inter/Cultural Communication improves upon current textbooks in four significant ways: (1) provides a differences approach and a social constructionist approach; (2) explores the consequences of cultural moments on immediate communication ...

The role of the male as breadwinner is a common construction in society. However, there are families with certain agreements with particular conditions that require the husband to stay at home with domestic roles. This condition usually addressed the husband as a househusband. This research analyzes signs identified in The Intern film (2015) that portrays the househusband which further interprets the characteristics and roles of the househusband. Roland Barthes' semiotics method is applied in order to be able to analyze both the denotative and connotative meaning of the identified signs regarding the househusband. From the study, it is identified that there are two roles of househusbands constructed in the film 1) caregiving, and 2) act of service. Househusband duties are identified as everything domestic affairs outside of the public domain. The term househusband is not meaningfully accepted based on the preferences of men carrying out domestic duties, therefore, the term stay-at-home dad is preferred because it constructs the role of the father as a whole.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of inter-organizational conflicts on the project added value in the Chinese construction industry, and also to examine the mediating effect of conflicts on project added value and the moderating effect of conflict management strategies.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual model was developed, and a structured questionnaire survey was conducted with 667 professionals. The structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe results showed that task conflict, relationship conflict and process conflict were influenced by subject characteristics of project participants, bilateral relationship characteristics and project characteristics. Similarly, these three types of conflicts interact with each other. Meanwhile, these three types of conflicts influence the added value in construction projects, which are moderated by conflict management strategies. Under a collaborating strategy, task conflict and process conflict were positively associated with project added value, and relationship conflict was negatively associated with project added value. Under a competing strategy, task conflict, process conflict and relationship conflict were negatively associated with added value in construction projects. Therefore, the constructive and destructive effects of conflicts on project added value under different conflict management strategies are verified in Chinese construction projects.Research limitations/implicationsThe variables may not be exhaustive for construction projects and most of them were applied in construction projects for the first time. As a result, their rationality and effectiveness could be further improved. The results implied that inter-organizational conflicts had a constructive effect on project added value and should attract broad attention for future research. Additionally, different driving factors had different influences on these conflicts, and even the driving factors can be divided into different dimensions.Practical implicationsThis study provides a better understanding of the relationship between inter-organizational conflicts and added value in construction projects, and a reliable reference for the project manager to effectively deal with these conflicts. In addition, this research reveals the effects of conflicts on project added value and the path of conflicts transformation. This provides a useful reference for project managers to take advantage of the positive effect of task conflict and process conflict, and to avoid the negative effect of relationship conflict.Originality/valueVery few studies attempted to examine the effects of inter-organizational conflicts on project added value in construction projects. Therefore, this research makes significant theoretical and practical contributions to the existing body of knowledge on the conflict management and project added value. This research provides an empirical evidence to support the viewpoint that different types of conflicts can be mutually transformed. Similarly, this study explains how conflicts present functional and dysfunctional effects in construction projects. Both of them are potential theoretical contributions to the existing body of knowledge.

Based on qualitative research conducted in the construction sector in Douala, Cameroon, this article analyses the contractual practices that underpin employment relationships between construction actors. The aim is to provide an account of the social dynamics that lead to the differentiation of employment conditions in the construction sector beyond the binary categorisations that set formal against informal in analyses of African labour markets. The central argument here is that, beyond formality, the relationship between stability/protection and uncertainty/precariousness is based on the category of status, defined as the "perceived quality" of workers. Employment relationships based on status are organised through interrelated legal, social, and moral norms (inter-normativity) that contribute to differentiating socio-professional experiences. This is illustrated through a series of case studies, ranging from the salaried segment of the construction sector to the large market of auto-construction dominated by micro-entrepreneurs.

IntroductionAmong the nationalist revolutions that spread across Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Latvia seceded from the Soviet Union through a relatively benign process marked by the virtual absence of violent conflict. Several issues were conflated in this movement. Latvia's independence was about democracy, historical redress, and national autonomy. Yet, each of these areas included an ethnic component. Would a Latvian democracy make room for Russians? Would Latvians seek revenge against Russians for the Soviet annexation of the Baltic republics? In the event of conflict between Moscow and Riga, whom would Russophone residents of Latvia support? The demographic situation of Latvia—featuring a near balance of Latvians and mostly Russophone non-Latvians at the time of independence—suggested the potential for ethnic conflict. The forecast of conflict, though, oversimplified the roles that ethnicity and national identity play in affecting political actions. The potential for conflict was predicated on the assumption that individuals naturally identify primarily with others within their ethnic group and act competitively against members of the ethnic "other." The fact, then, that Latvians and Russians did not clash violently during Latvia's "Singing Revolution" begs the question why inter-ethnic conflict did not occur in this case. This article explains this lack of conflict by focusing on the formation of Latvian identity in the period immediately preceding independence. I argue that individuals in nationalizing states intentionally act with reference to their national identity, and this sense of national identity is not some fixed, exogenous variable. Instead, it is socially constructed. We cannot hope to explain ethnic conflict processes without first understanding the factors that drive ethnic and national identity during chaotic times of change.

Although public inter-organizational collaborations can offer better public services, their management is a complex endeavour and they often fail. This paper explores identity construction as a key aspect that assists in managing successfully these collaborations. The study draws upon a longitudinal ethnographic study with a Greek public inter-organizational collaboration. The research illustrates that managers should encourage partners to construct collaborative and non-collaborative identities in order to achieve the collaboration aims. It also suggests that managers should seek both stability and change in the collaborative process and offers four collaborative patterns for the effective management of public inter-organizational collaborations.