Transcript PPT File - NewmanEducation

Intercultural
Communication
Chapter 5
Cultural Patterns and
Communication: Taxonomies
Caveats for Taxonomies
• There is no right or wrong approach
– Each approach takes the whole of cultural
patterns – beliefs, values, norms, and social
practices – and divides them in different
ways.
• B. The parts of the system are interrelated.
• C. Individual members of a culture may
vary greatly from the pattern that is
typical in that culture
Taxonomies of
Cultural Patterns-Hall
• Cultures organized by the amount of
information implied by the context of the
communication itself, regardless of the
specific words spoken.
Taxonomies of
Cultural Patterns-Hall
• High-context cultures prefer to use highcontext messages.
• Low-context cultures prefer to use lowcontext messages.
• Some cultures have a majority of messages
that are high-context, others have
messages that are mostly low-context, and
yet others have a mixture of both.
Hall
Covert and Overt Messages
• High-context culture,
– Meanings are internalized
– Large emphasis on nonverbal codes.
• Messages are almost preprogrammed
• Much more is taken for granted and assumed to be
shared
• Most messages are coded so they do not need to be
explicitly and verbally transmitted.
• Reactions to messages are likely to be reserved.
Hall
Covert and Overt Messages
• Low-context cultures
– Meaning of others’ behaviors is in the plainly
and explicitly coded messages.
• The details of the message are expressed precisely
and specifically in the words that people use.
• Little of the communication is taken for granted,
and the speaker is responsible for communicating.
• To be understood accurately, messages should be
transmitted explicitly and directly.
• Reactions in low-context cultures are very explicit.
Hall
Ingroups and Outgroups
• Communication differs when
communicating with in-group and outgroup members.
– Ingroup-a group to which a person belongs.
– Outgroup-a group to which a person does not
belong.
– In high-context cultures, it is very easy to
determine who is a member and who is not.
– Determining group membership in low-context
cultures is not as easy.
Hall
Ingroups and Outgroups
• The emphasis placed on the individual in
contrast to the group as a source of selfidentity differs in high-context and lowcontext cultures.
– In a high-context culture, the commitment
between people is strong and deep.
– In a low-context culture, bonds between
people are very fragile and the extent of
involvement and commitment to long-term
relationships is lower.
Hall
Orientation to Time
• High-context-time is viewed as more
open, less structured, more responsive to
immediate needs of people, and less
subject to external goals and constraints.
• Low-context-time is highly organized (in
part because of the additional energy
needed to understand others) and people
are forced to pay more attention to time to
complete the work of living with others.
Taxonomies of
Cultural Patterns-Hofstede
• Mental programs are developed during
childhood and reinforced by culture.
• Theycontain the ideas of a culture and are
expressed through its dominant values.
• Hofstede originally identified five
dimensions but recently added two more.
• Provides a synthesis of the relationships
between cultural values and social
behaviors
Hofstede
Power Distance
• Refers to the concerns that cultures have
regarding the issue of human inequality.
– Are “all men are created equal” or are
– Some people superior to others?
– Are inequalities good or bad, right or wrong?
– Can power be distributed unequally?
– An powerholders be challenged?
Hofstede
Power Distance
• Cultures that prefer small power distances
believe in the importance of minimizing
social or class inequalities.
• Cultures that prefer large power distances
all believe that each person has a rightful
and protected place in the social order.
Hofstede
Power Distance
• In families
– High-children obey
– Low-children seek reasons
• In schools
– High-conformity, rote learning
– Low-independence, challenge, question
• In business
– High-autocratic
– Low-participative
Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
• Addresses how members of a culture
adapt to changes and cope with
uncertainties.
– Do people prefer or tolerate change?
– What strategies are employed?
– Are people threatened by the ambiguity?
Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
• Low uncertainty avoidance cultures have
a high tolerance for uncertainty and
ambiguity.
– Minimize rules and rituals that govern social
conduct and human behavior
– Accept and encourage dissent.
– Tolerate people who behave in ways that are
considered socially deviant.
Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
• Low uncertainty avoidance cultures have a
high tolerance for uncertainty and
ambiguity.
– Taking risks and try new things.
– Tend to live day to day.
– View individual achievement as beneficial.
– They need few rules to control social behaviors
– Unlikely to adopt religious rituals that require
precise patterns of enactment.
Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
• High uncertainty avoidance cultures have
a low tolerance for uncertainty and
ambiguity.
– Avoiding uncertainty is a cultural value.
– Desire or even demand consensus about
societal goals.
– Do not like to tolerate dissent or allow
deviation in the behaviors of cultural
members.
– Try to ensure certainty and security through
an extensive set of rules, regulations, and
Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
– To cope with a world of unpredictability, they
invent rules and rituals to constrain human
behaviors.
– They tend to be worried about the future and,
thus, have high levels of anxiety and are
highly resistant to change.
– Uncertainties in life are regarded as a
continuous threat that must be overcome, so
they develop many elaborate rules and rituals
(with precise sequences) to control social
behaviors.
Hofstede
Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Involves people’s relationships to the larger
social groups of which they are a part.
– People must live and interact together for the
culture to survive.
– Addresses the degree to which a culture relies
on and has allegiance to the self or to the group.
Hofstede
Individualism vs. Collectivism
• People in highly individualistic cultures
take care of themselves and, perhaps, their
immediate family members.
– Autonomy of the individual is paramount.
– Independence, privacy, self, the all-important I.
– Good for the individual, not the group.
– Do not perceive a large chasm between ingroup
and outgroup members.
– More likely to speak out and be onfrontational.
Hofstede
Individualism vs. Collectivism
• People in highly collectivistic cultures value
a group orientation.
– Require an absolute loyalty to the group which
can include the nuclear family, the extended
family, a caste, or a jati (a subgrouping of a
caste).
– Decisions are always based on what is best for
the group.
– The groups to which a person belongs are the
most important social units.
Hofstede
Individualism vs. Collectivism
– Individuals are expected to support the group
over the self, the group is expected to take care
of its members.
– Dependent on organizations and institutions.
– Focus on a “we” consciousness.
– Emphasize belonging.
– Large distance between ingroup and outgroup.
– Ingroup requires unquestioning loyalty.
– Outgroup members are inconsequential.
– Use face-saving strategies
Hofstede
Masculinity/Feminity
• Gender expectations-the extent to which
people prefer:
– achievement and assertiveness (masculine) or
– nurturance and social support (feminine).
Hofstede
Masculinity/Feminity
• Masculine cultures believe in achievement
and ambition.
– People should be judged on their performance.
– Achievers should display material goods.
– Support ostentatious manliness and products
associated with male behavior.
– Men should be assertive and women nurturing.
– Sex roles are clearly differentiated and sexual
inequality is seen as beneficial.
Hofstede
Masculinity/Feminity
• Feminine cultures believe in the importance
of life choices that improve intrinsic aspects
of the quality of life.
– Service to others and sympathy for the
unfortunate.
– Prefer equality between the sexes.
– They have less prescriptive gender roles.
– Accept nurturing roles from men and women.
– Men are far less interested in achievement.
– Equality between the sexes is the norm.
Hofstede
Long-Term vs. Short-Term
• Focuses on how cultures relate to the
concept of time.
– A person’s point of reference about life & work.
– Categorized on a continuum from long to short.
– Cultures that promote a long-term orientation
toward life admire persistence, thriftiness, and
humility.
– Cultures that promote a short-term orientation
toward changing events have an expectation of
quick results following one’s actions.
Hofstede
Indulgence vs. Restraint
• Juxtaposes hedonism with self-discipline.
– Cultures high on the indulgence side of the
continuum encourage pleasure, enjoyment,
spending, consumption, sexual gratification,
and general merriment.
– Cultures high on the restraint side of the
continuum encourage the control of
hedonisitic gratifications, and discourage the
pleasures and enjoyment associated with
leisure activities.
Hofstede
Monumentalism vs. Self-Effacement
• Juxtaposes stability with change.
– Monumentalism encourage people to be like
the monuments or statues: proud,
unchangeable, upstanding, stable, and
resolute.
– Self-effacement encourages humility,
flexibility, adaptation to the situation, and
feeling comfortable about life’s paradoxes and
inconsistencies.
Taxonomies of
Cultural Patterns-GLOBE
• GLOBE is an acronym for Global
Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Effectiveness.
• Project GLOBE is based on Hofstede’s
work on value dimensions and on
Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s work on
value orientations.
GLOBE
Power Distance
• Degree to which cultures believe that
social and political power should be
distributed disproportionately, shared
unequally, and concentrated among a few
top decision makers.
GLOBE
Uncertainty Avoidance
• The extent to which cultures feel
threatened by the unpredictability of the
future and therefore try to establish more
structure in the form of rules, regulations,
rituals, and mandatory practices.
GLOBE
Ingroup Collectivism
• Reflects the degree to which people
express pride, loyalty, and solidarity with
their family or similar group,
• Similar to what Hofstede calls
individualism-collectivism.
GLOBE
Institutional Collectivism
• Represents the degree to which cultures
support, value, and prefer to distribute
rewards based on group versus individual
interests.
GLOBE
Gender Egalitarianism
• The extent to which a culture minimizes
differences in gender expectation for men
versus women.
GLOBE
Assertiveness
• Describes the extent to which people value
and prefer tough aggressiveness or tender
non-agressivness.
GLOBE
Performance Orientation
• Refers to the degree to which a culture
encourages and rewards people for their
accomplishments.
GLOBE
Future Orientation
• Refers to the extent to which a culture
plans for forthcoming events.
• Describes the degree to which cultures
advocate:
– long-term planning and deferred gratification
– or the deeply felt satisfaction that comes from
experiencing the simple pleasures in life.
GLOBE
Humane Orientation
• The extent to which cultures encourage
and reward their members for being
benevolent and compassionate toward
others or focused on self-interest and selfgratification.
Comparing GLOBE
Dimensions
• Helps clarify our understanding of
cultural patterns by separating:
– Cultural practices (the ways that people
typically behave in everyday communication
interactions) from,
– Cultural values (or what people regard as
important and believe is ideal).
• Also helps to explain the complex nature
of cultural patterns.
Taxonomies and
Intercultural Competence
• Taxonomies serve as useful devices for
people to understand and appreciate
cultural valuations.
– The categories help people describe the
fundamental aspects of culture and provide
mechanisms to understand all intercultural
communication events.
– The competent intercultural communicator
must recognize that cultural variations will
always be a factor in intercultural
communication
Taxonomies and
Intercultural Competence
• To improve your competence, create a
profile of a culture’s values.
– Seek out information about cultural patterns.
– Study the patterns of your own culture.
– Be willing to reflect on your preferences.
– Mentally consider your own preferences by
juxtaposing them with the description of the
typical person from another culture.