Intercultural Communication

Intercultural Communication

1. PAGES 116 -142

2. Intercultural communication is the management of messages for the purpose of creating meaning across cultures. "Intercultural communication is the interaction between members of different groups that differ from each other in the knowledge shared by their members and in their linguistic forms of symbolic behaviour.

3. Hall's High Low Context Theory

   • In a low context culture, the context of communicated messages is not as important as the communicated message itself. There is a single meaning, a direct source and no other information is required to understand the message.
     • Australian culture -1) Sensory involvement is low, with: low-contact touch behaviour and high personal space needs 2) The message: words convey explicitly most of the meaning in the communication and nonverbal cues of body language have less impact and the status of the speaker is less important in interpretation of the meaning 3) Time is monochronic: things happen one at a time and in sequence; time is linear and planning and punctuality are a priority.
   • In a high context culture, the context of communicated messages is as important as the communicated message.
     • Chinese culture - Sensory involvement is high, with: 1) high-contact touch behaviour and close proximity due to low personal space needs 2) The message: conveys only a limited portion of the meaning in what is said and must also be interpreted in terms of: – – – how it is being said where it is being said the body language of the speaker 3) Time sense is polychronic: things happen simultaneously; time is circular and things proceed at their own pace.

4. Stereotyping

   • "Stereotypes come from the natural linguistic tendency to organise phenomena into meaningful categories. In a human social context, stereotyping involves accepting widely held belief systems about particular groups that are usually detrimental to intercultural understanding and communication. Prejudice is pre-judging with little or no information and creates a negative attitude towards a cultural group. Discriminatory behaviours result from stereotyping or prejudice. Discrimination involves overt actions by nations, institutions, groups or individuals to exclude, avoid or distance another cultural group.

5. Intracultural Communication

   • "Sharing common beliefs, values, customs and behaviours helps to facilitate communication among the members of a culture.

6. Culture

   • Definitions of culture - 1) Hofstede says: ‘Culture consists of the unwritten rules of the social game. It is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another’. 2) Hoebel and Frost define culture as an ‘integrated system of learned behaviour patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not the result of biological inheritance’. 3) Ferraro offers a definition of culture as ‘everything that people have, think, and do as members of their society’.
     • 4) Samovar and Porter focus on the specific areas of cultural grooming in their definition of culture ‘as the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving’. 5) In contrast, Hill views the determinants of a society’s culture as being the social structure, political system, economic philosophy, religion, language and education. 6) DeVito refers to culture as ‘the relatively specialized lifestyle of a group of people— consisting of their values, beliefs, artifacts, ways of behaving, and ways of communicating. Included in culture would be all that the members of a social group have produced and developed—their language, modes of thinking, art, laws and religion.
   • "The broad culture, or macro-culture, comprises all the arts, beliefs and institutions (legal, governmen- tal, business, educational and social) that characterise an ethnic group, race or nation, while a narrower "micro-culture exists within the macro-culture. The micro-culture includes the characteristic attitudes and behaviour operating within a group, an organisation or a nation.
   • 3 levels of culture - "1) The first level is visible. It encompasses the patterns and behaviour visible in the culture, including technology, buildings, artefacts and behaviour patterns. 2) The second level is less visible than the first level. It is made up of cultural communication and describes how people communicate (verbally and nonverbally) as they explain, rationalise and justify what they say and do as a society or group. 3) The third level is almost invisible and comprises the ideas, basic assumptions, values and beliefs held by a society. Internalised beliefs and values are assumptions shared by the members of a society. Values evolve from personal experiences and the society’s internalised beliefs about what ideals are desirable. Beliefs are derived from personal experience and influenced by the judgement and expertise of trusted others in the culture.

7. "‘the world of communication can be divided into three parts: words, material things and behaviour. Words are the medium of business, politics and diplomacy. Material things are usually indicators of status and power. Behaviour provides feedback on how other people feel and includes techniques for avoiding confrontation.’"

8. Enculturation

   • Enculturation is the socialisation process that we go through as we learn about and adapt to our society. "As part of our socialisation, or enculturation, we internalise the rules of interaction within our culture. This is the third, almost invisible, level of culture. "background experience consists of values, attitudes, life concerns, cultural conditioning, skills and other factors. Internalised rules surface in a range of intercultural contexts including business, social and interpersonal contexts.
     • "Some of these internalised rules are about: courtesies in speech, such as when to say ‘please’, ‘thank you’ or ‘excuse me’; politeness—who can speak to whom and who can begin a conversation; the meaning of ‘yes’ and ‘no’; humour and irony and their use; appropriate use of space in terms of proximity; appropriate use of eye contact; nonverbal behaviours and their meaning; deference to others; use of time.
   • "conscious or unconscious conditioning occurring within that process whereby the individual, as child and adult, achieves competence in a particular culture’. Learning about culture can be: 1) unconscious (as we absorb and imitate the daily habits, speech patterns and roles of our parents from infancy) or 2) deliberate (as we are taught specific manners for greeting people, religious rites and rituals, and reading the Bible, Koran, Torah or other literature).

9. Accultuartion

   • Acculturation- "the process by which people adjust to the host culture by adopting its values, symbols and behaviour. Acculturation is a multidimensional process involving the adaptation of language, cultural beliefs and values of one group (usually the minority group) to the norms and structures of another (usually the majority group).

10. Ethnocentrism

    • Ethnocentrism - "the use of one’s own culture to interpret all other cultures. Ethnocentric people tend to interpret the actions, customs, values, religion, codes and behaviours of other people using their own culture as a guide.

11. Cultural relativism

    • "The concept of cultural relativism is the opposite to that of ethno- centrism. It is acceptance of the belief that each cultural group has its own set of values, behaviours and symbols and its own code of right and wrong, which are relative to that group.

12. "Boundary spanners work at the interface of the organisation and in their work cross organisational and/or national boundaries.

13. See page 122 for notes on Chinese courtesies.

14. Non verbal commuication- "Some of the many aspects of nonverbal communication influenced by culture are tone of voice, inflection, rate of speech, facial expression, touching, use of space, body movement and dress. "Nonverbal communication can be classified as: 1) relational nonverbal, to explain our relationship to others 2) status messages, indicating our power position to others 3) deceptive nonverbal, whether a person’s nonverbal cues reflect lying or deception."

    • "When deception is involved, the nonverbal part of a message is often more compelling than the contradic- tory verbal part of the message. The following nonverbal codes may have different interpretations across cultures: n Body movements—use of body language may be personal, cultural or universal. 1) Eye contact is more cultural than universal. 2) Facial expression is emotive and more universal than personal or cultural. 3) Paralanguage—vocal qualities such as accent, intonation, placement of phrases and tempo are more cultural than universal. 4) Proxemics—use of space to communicate varies between cultures. 5) Chronemics—use of time is more cultural than universal. n Silence conveys meaning and is more cultural than universal. 6) Artefacts are more personal and cultural than universal.

15. Power division - the power differential within a culture or society into two dimensions. The first is the primary, more permanent dimension of gender, race, age and sexual orientation. The second, more changeable dimension encompasses educational background, socioeconomic status and marital status. In intercultural interactions, power in either of these two dimensions may be perceived differently.

16. "Research conducted by Gudykunst led to the Anxiety and Uncertainty Management Model. The model suggests that intercultural encounters are characterised by high levels of uncertainty and anxiety, especially when cultural variability is high. "Three key issues impact on the pace and success of adaptation to a new culture: 1) how much the person wants to become part of the new culture 2) the extent to which the person wants to interact with the new culture 3) ownership of political power.

17. Barriers - stereotypes, prejudices, cultural practices, social institutions, value systems (religion), ambiguity and conflict.

18. Hofsted's four dimensions of culture - 1) "Power distance (PD) is the extent to which less powerful members of a society accept inequality in power and status as normal. A high score indicates a country or culture that accepts inequality in power and status as normal. 2) "Individualism (IDV) refers to the extent to which cultures differ on the bipolar individualism/ collectivism continuum. Australia and Western countries such as the US, the UK and Canada are highly individualistic cultures, while many South American and Asian countries are more collectivist." 3) "Uncertainty avoidance (UA) defines the extent to which members of a culture feel nervous about, or are threatened by, situations they perceive as ambiguous, unclear or unstructured. 4) "Masculinity (MAS) refers to the extent to which a society adopts male-oriented work values that differ from feminine values. Japan has high masculine values; Sweden and Norway have high feminine values. See page 128

19. "Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner "study identified five main dimensions on which cultures differed: universalism versus particularism; individualism versus commu- nitarianism; neutral versus affective; specific versus diffuse; and achievement versus ascription. Universalism is about finding broad and general rules: "Particularism is about finding exceptions.

20. "Hofstede (1991) identifies two different approaches to culture learning in the form of culture-specific and culture-general approaches. Traditionally, the culture-specific approach focuses on acquiring specific knowledge about the ‘other’ culture.

    • "A culture-general approach to achieving intercultural communication competence adopts a much broader approach to culture learning and focuses on the following priorities: Intercultural competency is developed through understanding how we perceive and react to cultural rules— not only those of others, but also our own. 1) The development of cultural awareness and sensitivity, which requires being aware of one’s own culture or ‘mental software. 2) "The development of cultural and communication sensitivity through being alert to differences in communicating styles and intentions, in verbal, nonverbal and interpersonal communication, and in the interpretation of meanings. 3) "The development of behavioural flexibility, which requires moving away from cultural ‘mindsets’ and fixed ways of thinking. 4) "The development of an ‘other-orientation’, which requires the ability to empathise with people from cultures other than your own. 5) "Taking responsibility for the communication.

21. "The pyramid model of intercultural competence - "The four dimensions of intercultural competence identified in the model are requisite attitudes that form the basis of knowledge, comprehension and skills that lead to the desired internal outcome of an informed frame of reference and the desired external outcome of appropriate behaviour and communication. 1) "requisite attitudes of respect, openness, curiosity and discovery that allow people to communicate appropriately in intercultural situations" 2) the knowledge, comprehension and skills to behave appropriately and effectively in intercultural situations 3) an informed frame of reference that enables behaviour to be adapted to the cultural context and different communication styles 4) effective and appropriate communication and behaviour in intercultural situations