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Lecture Notes
Chapter 2: The Cultural Context
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Recognize that no culture is purely individualistic or purely collectivistic
2. Discuss the research behind the notion of a pancultural self
3. Identify some cultures that are high context and some that are low context
4. Compare value orientations among cultures
5. Compare and contrast large and small power distance cultures
6. Identify some cultures that are weak uncertainty avoidant and some that are strong
uncertainty avoidant
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
The cultural context in which human communication occurs is perhaps the most defining
influence on human interaction. Culture provides the overall framework wherein humans learn
to organize their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in relation to their environment. There is a
cognitive, affective and behavioral component to culture. In any particular culture there is an
order, or a pattern, or a regularity to how people think, feel, and behave. Although people are
born into a culture, it is not innate. Culture is learned. Culture teaches one how to think,
conditions one how to feel, and instructs one how to act, especially how to inter-act with
others; in other words, communicate.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Individualism Collectivism
1. The most relevant feature of individualism is valuing personal independence. Valuing
personal independence involves putting an emphasis on personal responsibility and
freedom of choice, personal autonomy and achieving self-fulfillment. Moreover,
individualists strive to maintain distinctive personal attitudes and opinions and prefer
self-directed behavior and independence of groups. Individualists tend to see
themselves as unique from others. Emphasis is placed on individuals’ goals over group
goals. In individualistic cultures, social behavior is guided by personal goals, perhaps at
the expense of other types of goals. Individualistic cultures stress values that benefit
the individual person. The self is promoted because each person is viewed as uniquely
endowed and possessing distinctive talent and potential. Individuals are encouraged to
pursue and develop their abilities and aptitudes.
2. The central ingredient of collectivism is the assumption that groups bind and mutually
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obligate individuals. Collectivism is linked to a sense of duty to group, interdependence
to others, harmony, and working with the group. In collectivistic societies group goals
have precedence over individual goals. Collectivistic cultures stress values that serve the
ingroup by subordinating personal goals for the sake of preserving the ingroup.
Collectivistic societies are characterized by extended primary groups such as the family,
neighborhood, or occupational group in which members have diffuse mutual obligations
and expectations based on their status or rank. In collectivistic cultures people are not
seen as isolated individuals. People see themselves as interdependent with others (e.g.,
their ingroup) where responsibility is shared and accountability is collective.
a. Intercultural Conversation Between Individualist and Collectivist Cultures
b. In this exchange, Mr. Patterson, an American manager working in Korea, is
meeting with his supervisor Mr. Wyman, who is also American. The United
States is considered more individualistic than Korea. Mr. Patterson reports to
Mr. Wyman about some changes he has made within several of his sales teams.
Later, Park Young Sam, their Korean counterpart, enters into the dialogue.
3. The Pancultural Self. Yet there is a growing body of literature that suggests that the
individual self is pancultural. That is, that the individual self is more fundamental to self-
definition than the collective self across all cultures. In other words, people in all
cultures strive to maintain and achieve positive self-regard as a primary motivation.
Current research suggests that both individualistic and collectivistic cultures sanction
and even endorse self-enhancement, but via different means. In individualistic and
collectivistic cultures, a person’s motivations for behavior and self-definition stem
primarily from one’s personal identity and an independent sense of self. In both
individualistic and collectivistic cultures, self-enhancement is sanctioned through
upward mobility, status seeking and general promotions of the self. In both types of
cultures, people engage in strategic efforts to self-enhance
II. High and Low Context Communication
1. The degree to which interactants focus on these contexts while communicating varies
considerably from culture to culture. For example, some persons choose to focus more
on the verbal codes than on the nonverbal elements while others will actively monitor
the nonverbal elements of the context. Edward Hall describes the former as low context
and latter as high context.
2. High context cultures generally have restricted code systems. Users of a restricted code
system rely more on the contextual elements of the communication setting for
information than on the actual language code. Within a high context transaction, the
interactant will look to the physical, socio-relational, and perceptual environment for
information. Of particular importance is the social relationship between the
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interactants, especially their status. Because interactants in a high context culture
know and understand each other and their appropriate role, words are not necessary to
convey meaning.
3. In a low context transaction, the verbal code is the primary source of information. Low
context cultures generally rely on elaborated codes. Unlike users of restricted codes,
users of elaborated codes rely extensively on the verbal code system for creating and
interpreting meaning. Information to be shared with others is coded in the verbal
message. Although persons in low context transactions recognize the nonverbal
environment, they tend to focus more on the verbal context. Moreover, the rules and
expectations are explicitly explained. Users of elaborated codes are dependent upon
words to convey meaning and may become uncomfortable with silence. In low context
transactions, the communicants feel a need to speak.
4. An Intercultural Conversation Between High and Low Context Cultures
a. In this exchange, Mr. Hutchinson is the head of Information Technology (IT)
within his organization. Mr. Wong is the lead computer programmer. Mr. Wong
was born and raised in Malaysia, a high context culture. The two are discussing
when Mr. Wong will put a computer program into production. Note that Mr.
Hutchinson’s speech is direct and to the point while Mr. Wong’s is indirect and
subtle. In simple frequencies, Mr. Hutchinson uses four times as many words as
Mr. Wong.
III. Value Orientations
1. Values affect intercultural communication. When people from different cultures come
together to interact, their messages are guided by and reflect their fundamental value
orientations. An understanding of cultural value systems can help to identify similarities
and differences between people from different cultures from which intercultural
communication can proceed.
2. Like culture, values are learned; they are not innate nor universal. Values guide us in
the selection and justification of social behavior. Values prescribe what is preferred or
prohibited. Values are the evaluative component of an individual’s attitudes and beliefs.
Values guide how we think about things in terms of what is right/wrong and
correct/incorrect. Values trigger positive or negative emotions.
3. Israeli Psychologist Shalom Schwartz and his colleagues have studied values across
cultures. Schwartz argues that there is a universal structure to values recognized by all
cultures. Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodbeck developed the concept of value
orientations. They argued that in every culture there are universal problems and
conditions that must be addressed. For a given culture, however, there are only a
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limited number of solutions to these problems. These possible solutions are motivated
by the values of the culture. Initially, Kluckhohn and Strodbeck created five sets of value
orientations. Several years later, Condon and Yousef extended the set to a total of 25
value orientations. Condon and Yousef organized the value orientations around six
dominant themes, including self, family, society, human nature, nature, and the
supernatural.
V. Power Distance
1. Although many cultures declare and even legislate equality for their members, all
cultures must deal with the issue of human inequality. Although some cultures, like
the United States, affirm equality for its members, some form of inequality exists in
virtually every culture. Inequality can occur in areas such as prestige, wealth, power,
human rights, and technology, among others. Issues of inequality fall within the
rubric of what Hofstede calls “power distance.”
2. Cultures with a smaller power distance emphasize that inequalities among people
should be minimized and that there should be interdependence between less and
more powerful people. In cultures with small power distance (e.g., USA, Canada,
Austria) family members are generally treated as equal and familial decisions are
reached democratically.
3. In cultures with a larger power distance, inequalities among people are both
expected and desired. Less powerful people should be dependent on more
powerful people. In larger power distance cultures (e.g., Philippines, Mexico, India)
children are expected to be obedient. In many larger power distance cultures there
is a strict hierarchy among family members where typically the father rules
authoritatively followed by the eldest son and moving down the ladder by age and
sex.
VI. An Intercultural Conversation between Large and Small PD Orientations
1. Different PD orientations manifest themselves in interaction. In the dialogue
here, Jim Neuman is a US high school exchange student in Guatemala. Coming from
a smaller power distance oriented culture, Jim is accustomed to interacting with his
teachers. Raising one’s hand in a US classroom is not only acceptable, but
encouraged. In Guatemala, a larger power distance culture, the classroom is
teacher-centered. In Mr. Gutierrez’s classroom, there is to be strict order with Mr.
Gutierrez initiating all of the communication. Teachers are to be treated with
deference.
V. Uncertainty Avoidance
1. Although uncertainty is probably a universal feature of initial intercultural
communication, one’s level of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity varies across
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cultures. Uncertainty avoidance is defined as the degree to which the members of a
particular culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations. This feeling is
expressed through nervous stress and in a felt need for predictability and a need for
written and unwritten rules. Cultures are seen as possessing either weak or strong
uncertainty avoidance orientations.
a. In cultures with a weak uncertainty avoidance orientation, uncertainty is seen
as a normal part of life, where each day is accepted as it comes. The people are
comfortable with ambiguity and are guided by a belief that what is different is
curious.
b. Cultures with a strong uncertainty avoidance orientation sense that uncertainty
in life is a continuous threat that must be fought. Life can be stressful where a
sense of urgency and high anxiety are typical. Strong uncertainty avoidant
cultures are guided by the belief that what is different is dangerous. Uncertainty
avoiding cultures evade ambiguity in most situations and look for structure in
their business organizations, home life, and relationships.
2. An Intercultural Conversation between Weak and Strong Uncertainty Avoidance
a. There are any number of ways one’s uncertainty avoidance orientation may
manifest itself in interaction. In this dialogue Kelly and Keiko are interacting
about a dinner invitation. Kelly, from the United States, possesses a relatively
weak uncertainty avoidance index while Keiko, a Japanese, comes from a culture
with a relatively strong uncertainty avoidance index.