Cross Cultural Communication Flashcards
What has been the outcome of globalisation?
- Has resulted in diverse societies and workplaces
- Increasing diversity - need to develop cross-cultural communication competence
What is culture?
- Learned social behaviours that develop over time
- Hofstede - The collective programming of the mind
What is the consensus of the definition of culture?
- Culture is learned
- Culture is shared
- Culture changes continously
- Every exchange with others is inter/cross cultural
What is enculturation?
the socialisation process that we through as we learn and adapt to our society
What is acculturation?
the process of cultural adjustment and adaption people experience as they move form one culture to another
What is cultural relativism?
the recognition of cultural differences and acceptance that each social group has its own set of cultural norms
What are the iceberg and three levels of culture?
- Tip
- Visible cultural aspects (1st level)
- Language, customs, food, clothing (2nd level)
- Acquired through observation, educaiton/training
- Underlying values and beliefs (3rd level)
- Value systems of societies that influence thoughts and perceptions
- Motivates the behaviours of individuals
What are Hofstede’s dimensions?
- Power distance
- Individualism/collectivism
- Masculinity/Femininity
- Uncertainty Avoidance
What is power distance?
- The extent to which less powerful members of a society accept inequality in power and status
- High: hierarchies in organisations, power and privilege not challenged
- Low: flatter organisations, greater equity
What is Individualism/collectivism?
- Individualist cultures are those where the members are concerned with their own interests and those of their immediate family
- Collectivist cultures emphasis the importance of the group such as the extended family and society
What is Masculinity/Femininity?
- Masculine cultures have a preference for assertiveness, achievement, competition and material acquisition (Japan)
- Feminine cultures prefer nurutrence, nonmaterial values and quality of life (sweeten)
What is uncertainty avoidance?
- The extent to which members of a culture are comfortable in accepting ambiguous or unclear situations
- High: strict codes of behaviour, risk averse, resistent to change (China)
- Low: risk taking, willing to accept change, fluid codes of behaviour (US)
What are high context cultures?
- Not everything is said or signaled
- Reading between the lines necessary for interpretation
- Contextual understanding needed in interpretation
How do high context cultures exist during business negotiations?
- Formal and often long sessions of greetings
- Longer discussions on family and business networks
- The context/history of the two parties or organisiotns discussed in depth
- Individuals rarely ever get straight to the point
- Overt expression or disapproval or assertiveness during negotiations not acceptable
What are low context cultures?
- Large part of the message is verbally transmitted
- Less contextual information needed in interpretation
How do low context cultures exist during business negotiations?
- Brief greetings are exchanged
- Brief ice-breakers
- Individuals get straight to the point
- Not much of the context/history of the two parties or organisations discussed
- Expression or disapproval or assertiveness during negotiations considered ok
How is power perceived in different cultures?
- Primary
- More permanent dimension of gender, race, age and sexual orientation
- Secondary
- More changeable dimension encompassing educational background, socioeconomic status and marital stauts
- In intercultural interactions, power in either of these two
dimensions may be perceived differently
What were Trommelaars and Hampden-Turner’s Findings?
- Universalism vs particularism
- What is good and right can be applied everywhere vs a case is judged on its own merits
- Individualsim vs Communitarianism
- Neutral vs affective
- Expression of emotion and objectivity
What are the purposes of communication in different cultures?
- Communication is expressive
- Emotional and demonstrative and is centred on relationships
- Communication is instrumental
- Problem-centred, pragmatic, impersonal and goal-oriented
- Communication is formal
- Formal cultures place high emphasis on following business protocol and social customs
- Communication is informal
- Informal cultures feel more comfortable dispensing with ceremony and conducting business more casually
What is cross-cultural communication?
Focus on comparison of communication styles
What is intercultural communication?
- Social interaction, sharing of meaning between people form diverse cultures
- Focus on understanding and sharing rather than comparing
What are the differences between cross cultural and intercultural communication?
- Cross cultural communication needed in international business context
- Interculutral communication needed in multicultural societies
What is ethnocentrism?
The use of one own’s culture to interpret all others
