Historic Philadelphia is a booming travel destination. Among the many sites tourists visit while in one of the nation’s oldest cities is the Granovetter Church, a partially restored building nearly 300 years old, noted for being a secret meeting place of the early founders of the United States. In 2017 alone, nearly 1.5 million people visited the political and religious landmark, with an estimated one in five hailing from a foreign country. The sheer number of visitors, as well as the number of tourists who spoke languages other than English, combined to create significant challenges for the volunteers who provide guidance and interpretation to visitors. Unlike the nearby Independence National Park, which is run by the National Park Service, the Granovetter Church is still a congregation of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. All touring is done in coordination with a group of volunteers, who are managed by an oversight committee of the Philadelphia Presbytery.
During a general meeting of volunteers, it became apparent the volunteers were having increasing trouble with meeting the needs of international visitors, particularly with Japanese visitors to the park. Volunteers had difficulty with explaining the general concerns and rules for behavior in what was, in essence, a place of worship.
Further conversation among the volunteers implied that aggressive tour leaders were often the root of the problem. Such was the case with many tour leaders from an organization called Marzu Tours.
Marzu Tours frequently burst into the church with bullhorn in hand, talking in Japanese while an Englishspeaking interpretive presentation was in progress. The group would push and shove to remain together throughout the presentation, interrupting, and interfering with existing tour groups. Moreover, the Marzu Tour leaders would wander through the building on their own, often requiring a volunteer to run to prevent the tour from entering a sacrosanct area. Other tour operators and visitors frequently complained about these groups.
After years of avoiding the problem, Mark Hastings, the chair of the oversight committee, determined direct confrontation of the problem was inevitable. He began the process of trying to contact the director of Marzu Tours. His efforts led him to Yushiko Sato, a female employee of the company. Mark decided the best approach would be to present his complaint in a straightforward manner, even though he was actually quite frustrated and angry after wasting so much time with bureaucracy and red tape while trying to find the right person to talk with.
“Ms. Sato, we at Granovetter Church are having trouble with some of your tour guides,” Mark began. “They do not wait their turn for admittance, they do not follow our rules for where they can go, and they seem to push their groups in front of other groups during the tours.”
“I am so sorry,” Yushiko replied with a great deal of sincerity. “I will bring this to the attention of our director.”
Mark hung up the phone, satisfied that the problem would be resolved and impressed with the service he had received from Yushiko. However, several months later he was still receiving complaints about the company from the volunteers. He retraced his steps and called Yushiko Sato again. This time, he asked to speak to her director.
“That is a little difficult,” Yushiko replied.
Mark was frustrated by the stonewalling. “This is a problem with a fairly simple solution!” he shouted.
“Mr. Hastings, you cannot change the Japanese. The Japanese are different,” Yushiko calmly explained, with just a touch of condescension.
Mark refused to take the bait. “All of our visitors are important to us; the Japanese are not more important than others, I just want to level the playing field,” Mark responded with what he thought was great patience. “Can we perhaps set up a meeting to discuss this in person?”
“I will see what we can do,” Yushiko replied.
Two weeks later, Mark still had not heard back from Yushiko, so he called her yet again. He was as clear and firm as he could be. She agreed to have an in-person meeting the following week. Mark was a little bit late for the meeting due to an unexpected road closure leading out of the city to the Marzu Tours office in the suburbs. He was shocked when he actually met Yushiko, who appeared to be very young and immature. The contrast between her innocent appearance and her clear distaste for his late arrival was intriguing. It was also very obvious she was a low-level employee. He realized the issue wasn’t that she would not address the problem of her company’s tour guides but that she could not do so; she didn’t have the authority.
Mark concluded the meeting by thanking Yushiko for her concern. He had given up on working with the company and decided his volunteers would simply need better training to deal with Japanese tourists. To his bewilderment, Yushiko suggested Mark meet the local director of the company. “Finally!” he thought. “Maybe now we’ll get somewhere!”

Questions for Consideration
1. How might the troubles with the tourism company be explained by Hofstede’s dimensions of culture?
Make sure to look at both Japanese and American cultures.
2. Did either Yushiko or Mark ever accommodate? How? With what effect?
3. Relate AUM’s seven predictors of anxiety and uncertainty to the case. Which predictors seem to be the greatest contributors to the problem at Granovetter Church? How might Gudykunst advise both Mark and Yushiko so they can engage in more mindful communication?
4. To what extent did Mark and Yushiko recognize each other’s face needs during the conflict? What conflict strategies did they use? Were the strategies consistent with the predictions of face negotiation theory?
5. What ethical challenges arise when interacting with members of another culture, such as in the case study? Which theory or theories might help mitigate these challenges?
6. Do any of the theories emerge as better than the others? Why do you believe this to be the case? What situations might surface that would make a different theory or theories better at explaining the situation?