Cross Cultural

Communication 1
Culture shock
• we may experience anxiety when these familiar aspects of
communication are disrupted. This occurs frequently when we
interact with people from different cultures. Culture shock is the
psychological discomfort you may feel when you attempt to adjust to
a new cultural situation. Because culture shock is caused by an
absence of shared meaning, you are likely to feel it most profoundly
when you are thrust into another culture through travel, business, or
studying abroad.
What is Intercultural Communication
• Intercultural communication refers to interactions between people
whose cultural assumptions are so different that the communication
between them is altered . When we interact with people whose
attitudes, values, beliefs, customs, and behaviors are culturally
different from ours, we are communicating across cultural
boundaries, which can lead to misunderstandings that would not
commonly occur between people who are culturally similar.
Major contributor to Co-Culture
1.Race
2. Ethnicity (as nationality, geographic origin, language, religion,
ancestral customs, and tradition)
3. Sex and gender
4. Religion
5. Sexual orientation
6. Social class (Social class is a level in the power hierarchy of a society)
7 . Age
Identifying Cultural Norms and Values
• In individualistic cultures (for example, the United States,
Australia, Great Britain, Canada, as well as northern and eastern
European countries), people place primary value on the self and
personal achievement. In an individualistic society, people tend to
consider the interests of others primarily in relationship to how they
affect the interest of the self. If you come from an individualistic
culture, you may consider your family and close friends when you act,
but mainly because your interests and theirs align. People in
individualistic cultures view competition between people as desirable
and useful. Because of this, individualistic cultures emphasize
personal rights and responsibilities, privacy, voicing one’s opinion,
freedom, innovation, and self-expression .
Collective Culture
• In contrast, collectivist cultures (for example, countries in South and
Central America America, east and Southeast Asia, and Africa) place
primary value on the interests of the group and group harmony. In a
collectivist society, an individual’s decision is shaped by what is best for the
group whether it serves the individual’s interests or not. Collectivist
societies are highly integrated, and maintaining harmony and cooperation
are valued over competitiveness and personal achievement. As a result,
members of collectivist societies will probably have stronger bonds within
the groups to which they belong (family, workplace, and community).
Collectivist cultures emphasize
• community, collaboration, shared interest, harmony, the public good, and
avoiding embarrassment.
Uncertainty Avoidance
Low uncertainty-avoidance cultures (such as the United States,
Sweden, and Denmark) are more tolerant of uncertainty in how people
behave in relationships and in events, and so put little cultural
emphasis on reducing unpredictability. People from cultures with low
uncertainty avoidance more easily accept the unpredictability and
ambiguity in life. They tend to be tolerant of the unusual, prize
initiative, take risks, and think that there should be as few rules as
possible
Continued….
. People who come from high uncertainty-avoidance cultures have a
lower tolerance for unpredictable people, relationships, and events.
These cultures create systems of formal rules and believe in absolute
truth as the way to provide more security and reduce the risk. They
also tend to be less tolerant of people or groups with deviant ideas or
behavior. Because their culture emphasizes the importance of avoiding
uncertainty, they often view life as hazardous and experience anxiety
and stress when confronted with unpredictable people, relationships,
or situations.
Uncertainty Avoidance and Communication
1. It shapes how we use language, develop relationships, and negotiate
with others. People from high uncertainty-avoidance cultures use and
value precise language because they believe that careful word choice
makes the meaning of a message easier to understand.
2. people from high uncertainty-avoidance cultures are wary of strangers
and may not seek out new relationships or relationships with others they
perceive as different (unpredictable). They generally prefer meeting
people through friends and family and refrain from being alone with
strangers. Members of low uncertainty-avoidance cultures, on the other
hand, are likely to initiate relationships with people who differ from
them, and enjoy the excitement of disclosing personal information in
earlier stages of relationship development
Power Distance
In cultures characterized as having high power-distance, inequalities in
power, status, and rank are viewed as natural and these differences are
acknowledged by all members of the culture. These cultures believe
that everyone in the culture has a rightful place and that members who
have higher power, status, and rank should be deferred to by those
with less power, status, and rank.
Continued….
In cultures characterized as having lowpower-distance, inequalities in
power, status, and rank are muted. People know that some individuals
have more clout, authority, and influence, but lower-ranking people are
not in awe of, are not more respectful toward, and do not fear people
with more power. Even though power differences exist, these cultures
value democracy and egalitarian behavior.
Power distance and Communication
If you were a student, unskilled worker, or average citizen in a high
power-distance culture, you would not challenge a person in authority,
because you would expect to be punished for doing so. You would
expect the more powerful person to control the interaction and would
listen to what that person said and do what was ordered without
question. When talking with more powerful people, you would address
them formally by using their title as a sign of respect. Formal terms of
address like Mr. or Mrs., proper and polite forms of language, as well as
nonverbal signals of your status differences would be evident in the
exchange.
Continued…..
• If you come from a low power-distance culture, you would be more
comfortable challenging those in authority because differences in
status are muted. When interacting with a more powerful people, you
would feel comfortable directing the course of the conversation and
would question or confront them if you needed to. You would not feel
compelled to use a formal title when addressing a more powerful
person
Masculinity–Femininity
masculine cultures expect people to maintain traditional sex roles and
maintain different standards of behavior for men and women. Hofstede
called these cultures “masculine” because, for the most part, groups
that maintain distinct sex-based roles also value masculine roles more
highly than feminine ones. If you come from a masculine culture like
the ones that are dominant in Mexico, Italy, and Japan, you are likely to
value men when they are assertive and dominant
Continued….
• Feminine cultures expect that people, regardless of sex, will assume
a variety of roles depending on the circumstances and their own
choices; they do not have any sex-role expectations. If you are from a
feminine culture, like the national cultures of Sweden, Norway, and
Denmark, not only will you feel free to act in ways that are not
traditionally assigned to people of your sex, but you will also value
traits that have traditionally been associated with feminine roles.
Barriers to Effective Intercultural
Communication
1. Anxiety
It is normal to feel some discomfort or apprehension when we
recognize that we are different from most everyone else or when we
enter a cultural milieu that has unfamiliar customs. Most people
experience fear, dislike, and distrust when first interacting with
someone from a different culture.( Marissa attending liberal arts
college in New England)
2. Assuming Similarity or Difference
When people cross into an unfamiliar cultural environment, they often
assume that the norms, values, and traditions that applied in their
familiar situation match those that apply in the new one. When
traveling internationally from the United States, for example, many
people expect to eat their familiar hamburgers and fries, provided with
rapid and efficient service. Likewise, they may be annoyed when shops
and restaurants closing during midday in countries that observe the
custom of siesta. It can be just as great a mistake to assume that
everything about an unfamiliar culture will be different.
3. Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own culture is superior to others.
The stereotype of the immigrant in the host country, loudly
complaining of how much better everything is back home, is the classic
example of ethnocentrism. In varying degrees, ethnocentrism is found
in every culture is the belief that one’s own culture is superior to
others. The stereotype of the immigrant in the host country, loudly
complaining of how much better everything is back home, is the classic
example of ethnocentrism. In varying degrees, ethnocentrism is found
in every culture. An ethnocentric view of the world leads to attitudes of
superiority and messages that are directly and subtly condescending in
content and tone. As you would expect, these messages are offensive
to receivers from other cultures or co-cultures.
4.Stereotypes and Prejudice
• Stereotypes are the attributions that cover up individual differences
and ascribe certain characteristics to a group of people. Basing our
interactions on stereotypes can lead to misunderstandings and can
strain relationships.
• Prejudice is defined as a rigid attitude based on group membership
that predisposes us to think, feel, or act in a negative way toward
another person or group
5. Incompatible Communication Code
At times we misunderstand one another because the language or other
communication behavior of our culture or co-culture differs from that
of another cultural group. For example, Zeke could not understand why
those Chinese guys who were continually fighting—screaming at each
other and waving their arms—always sat together in the dining hall.
Zeke had no idea what they were saying but he from his standpoint
they looked pretty angry.
6. Incompatible Norms and Values
All cultures base their communication behaviors on cultural norms and
rules and on personal values based on those cultural norms and rules.
Sometimes the norms and values of two people of different cultures
create barriers that make it diffi cult for them to understand each
other.
Intercultural Communication Competence
Adopt Correct Attitudes
1. Tolerate ambiguity
People binning intercultural relationships must be prepared to tolerate
a high degree of uncertainty about the other person and to tolerate it
for a long time. If you enter an intercultural interaction believing that it
is OK to be unsure about how to proceed, you are likely to pay closer
attention to the feedback you receive from the other person, and you
can then work to adjust your behavior and messages so that together
the two of you can achieve understanding
Continued…
2. Be open-minded
An open-minded person is willing to dispassionately receive the ideas
and opinions of others. Open-minded people are aware of their own
cultural values and recognize that other people’s values are different.
3. Be altruistic. Altruism is a display of genuine and unselfi sh concern
for the welfare of others. The opposite of altruism is egocentricity, a
selfi sh interest in one’s own needs to the exclusion of everything else.
Egocentric people are self-centered, whereas altruistic people are
other-centered.
Acquire Knowledge About Other Culture
1. Observe. You can simply watch as members of another culture
interact with each other. As you watch, you can notice how their
values, rituals, and communication styles are similar to and
different from your own and other cultures with which you are
familiar.
2. Formally study. You can learn about other cultures by reading
accounts by their members and ethnographic research studies, by
taking courses, and by interviewing members of the culture about
their values, rituals, and so on
Continued….
3. Immerse yourself in the culture. You can learn a great deal about
another culture by actively participating in it. When you live or work
with people whose cultural assumptions are different from yours, you
not only acquire obvious cultural information, but you also learn
nuances that escape passive observers and are generally not accessible
through formal study alone
Develop Culture-Specific Skills
1. Practice listening. By carefully listening and demonstrating you’re
listening, you can improve your communication with people from other
cultures. Because language and nonverbal communication vary across
cultures, it is vitally important that you focus closely on the other and
listen attentively.
Continued..
2. Practice intercultural empathy. Intercultural empathy means
imaginatively placing yourself in the other person’s cultural world to
attempt to experience what he or she is experiencing (Ting-Toomey,
1999). The saying “Don’t judge a person until you have walked a mile in
his shoes” captures this idea. By paying close attention to the other
person and focusing on the emotions displayed, we can improve our
empathic skills.
Continued….
3. Develop flexibility. We discussed the concept of flexibility as part of
an appropriate attitude toward intercultural encounters, but we can
also provide concrete strategies for becoming more flexible in
communication. Flexibility is the ability to adjust your communication
to fi t the other person and the situation. With flexibility, you can use a
wide variety of communication skills during an interaction and modify
your behavior within and across situations. Being flexible means
analyzing a situation, making good decisions about how to
communicate in that situation, and then modifying your
communication when things are not going well.