Cultural Issues in Communication

By Elaine Winters

Elaine Winters gave a presentation based on the following article at the EBSTC meeting in March. She says she is a work in progress and still under construction. She is a Cross Cultural Educator and Instructional Designer, and is the co-author (with Rob Sellin) of Cultural Issues in Business Communication. More of her writing and information about how to order her book is available on her website.

Communication is more than just speaking, writing, and editing; it also involves information gathering and teamwork. In the economy of the new century, this means communicating cross-culturally. There are three main components to any communication:

• Subject matter
• Medium of delivery
• Cultural considerations

Of the three, the third is generally ignored. While fashionable phrases get uttered— mostly, celebrating cultural diversity—what results are mostly exercises in politically correct language or attempts at controlling personal irritation. (Few people seem to feel the need to truly face the underlying issues that cloud even the simplest of delicate, and frequently confusing, cross-cultural interactions.)

Icebergs

Culture? People have characterized the idea to death. For our purposes let's define culture as the way in which each of us is programmed to behave in the environment. Cultures are like icebergs: some features are apparent to anyone not in a fog, while others are deeply hidden.

Above-the-surface features include overt behaviors: how people dress, eat, walk, talk, relate to one another, and conduct themselves during public ceremonies such as weddings or funerals.

Other aspects are so far below the surface that they are hard to recognize. We may see evidence of these aspects, but we usually cannot pinpoint them precisely and do not have a clue where they came from. They are hard to define even for our own culture because we take them in with our mother's language.
This might include such things as:

• How do we encode and retrieve information?
• What is justice?
• What is music?
• What is proper parenting?
• How do we define beauty or ugliness?
• What meaning is attached to "teaching" stories?
• What does being well-educated mean?
• What constitutes status?

High- And Low-Context Cultures

One of the deep or hidden aspects that differentiate cultures is the amount of context a culture's members expect in social interactions. People who study such things divide cultures into those that are high context, and those that are low context.

In general, high context cultures place great importance on ambience, decorum, the relative status of the participants in a communication, and the manner of a message's delivery.

Low context cultures tend to want to ignore such things and emphasize the content of a communication, an attitude that might be expressed in the phrase "cut to the chase."

A Very Expensive Mistake

Imagine a business environment where participants are meeting face-to-face for the first time, and are expected to make key decisions that will affect corporate goals and objectives. Included on the new team are people from Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Mexico, Chile, Germany, Denmark, and Canada. Formal introductions are made during a preliminary meeting while the team members eat breakfast.

After a while they move into the conference room where the tables and chairs are arranged facing the front of the room in traditional classroom style. The Canadians, the Germans, and the Danes look rather unhappy, and with a few disapproving words about this making for poor interaction, begin rearranging the furniture. The host Koreans look confused and make no comments. Neither do the other Asians or those from Latin America.

The meeting begins; the agenda is announced; issues are raised, discussed, and decided upon. At the end of the morning session, the Germans comment to the Danes that the Koreans, Chileans, Mexicans, and Malays have not said much. The Canadians and the Danes nod in agreement, and shrug.

After lunch a Mexican colleague takes the Canadian team leader aside and expresses very strong reservations about one of the decisions. The Canadian is aghast; the morning meeting has been wasted; the discussion will have to begin again. "Why didn't you say so during the meeting?" he fairly shouts.

What Happened?

For the Asians and Latin Americans, members of high-context societies, issues, circumstances, and relationships are as important as the work. Interpersonal relationships were not developed well enough in this fledgling team for an objection to be raised publicly. Also, team members with higher status in the organization were present. The cultural orientation of those from high-context societies insisted that comments be made at a more private (appropriate) time.

The others, coming from low-context cultures, just wanted to get the job done. The furniture was rearranged because they were interested in the task and in getting it accomplished as efficiently as possible.

Building Understanding

Start by understanding the cultures you are attempting to communicate with. Begin by looking for "rich points" such as those found in a culture's rituals. Rich points provide a web of associations. By analogy they may give you insights into the culture.

Reading rich points is similar to learning a new language. You're traveling and you notice such things as food and articles of clothing that are different, yet similar to things in your own culture. Your language skills say: replace this old word with this new one. (A serape is a blanket that is worn like a coat.)
Eventually you acquire a simple vocabulary in the new language.

Similarly, you are somewhat familiar with various rites and rituals—weddings, funerals, and rites of passage—that occur in every culture. Your cultural skills say: replace this idea with that one. Eventually, you begin to understand (superficially and overtly) the new cultural environment. A web of understanding begins to develop based on prior experiences.

Sometimes, the language and cultural cues are such that you have no experience with the situation or any clues at all. It is nearly impossible to develop a "web" in such a situation. At such times you need a cultural guide, someone to provide you with the clues you will need to develop understanding.

Common Denominators

Know your audience(s) well enough to be able to anticipate their reaction to your communication. It is impossible to learn all the cultures you must communicate with, especially if you are developing something for export to many countries. The best you can do is try to find a common denominator and work from there.

Conclusion

Remember, above all: reality is only an opinion—yours and everyone else's. Your special reality is formed in the cultural environment in which you were born, raised, and spent most of your life.
Your reality will never completely match someone else's. Find commonality, and work from there. Look for rich points and try to understand and use them. Create webs.

With hard work, and luck, you will find common denominators and achieve a high factor of mutuality in your cross-cultural communications.

The Devil Mountain Views -- May/June 2002
(ebstc.org/newsletter/front.html)
For  suggestions, complaints, or (especially) compliments, contact dmvashwini@yahoo.com