Topics:

Local and Global Communication in Multicultural Settings

Varieties and Registers of Spoken and Written Language
Learning Outcomes:
A- Internalize cultural and intercultural awareness and sensitivity in communication of ideas
Value the differences of the varieties of spoken and written language
S- Articulate ideas persuasively using appropriate language registers, tone, facial expressions, and gestures
K- Specify culturally appropriate terms, expressions, and images

LOCAL AND GLOBAL COMMUNICATION IN MULTICULTURAL SETTINGS

You’d think it would be even easier now -- in today’s “socialized” world -- to communicate with
colleagues and clients in other countries.  But too often, we are careful about what we say and are far
less attuned to how our words can be misunderstood because of cultural biases.

In a recent article on the Harvard Business ReviewBlog Network, author Erin Meyer demonstrates how
business language is filled with nuance and thus is subject to misinterpretation…even by well-informed
and thoughtful speakers who are all fluent in English.  For example, when, in a meeting, a Brit says slowly
and thoughtfully, “Very interesting,” he likely means, “I don’t like it.”  If a Dutch businessman is present,
he will understand the Brit’s communique as “We’re impressed.”

The Relationship Between Communication and Culture

The relationship between communication and culture is a very complex and intimate one. First,
cultures are created through communication; that is, communication is the means of human
interaction through which cultural characteristics— whether customs, roles, rules, rituals, laws,
or other patterns—are created and shared. It is not so much that individuals set out to create a
culture when they interact in relationships, groups, organizations, or societies, but rather that
cultures are a natural by-product of social interaction. In a sense, cultures are the "residue" of
social communication. Without communication and communication media, it would be
impossible to preserve and pass along cultural characteristics from one place and time to another.
One can say, therefore, that culture is created, shaped, transmitted, and learned through
communication. The reverse is also the case; that is, communication practices are largely created,
shaped, and transmitted by culture.

Multiculturalism refers to the presence of people with several cultures in a specific setting. It is
the co-existence of diverse cultures, where cultures includes racial, religious, or cultural groups
and is manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking,
and communicative styles.

Culture is, basically, a set of shared values that a group of people holds. Such values affect how
you think and act and, more importantly, the kind of criteria by which you judge others. 

It is very important to recognize cultural and personal values and norms in communication.

The two concepts – values and norms – are largely intertwined.

Values refer to what an individual or group of people hold to be important, either as a desired
end-state or as a characteristic of a person.

Norms are the “guidelines of how we should or should not behave that have a basis in morality”
(Gudykunst, 2004, p. 43). Norms refer to attitudes and behaviors that are considered normal,
typical or average within the group.

Values are the evaluative and judgmental facet of a culture’s ‘personal orientation system,’
helping its members determine what is right or wrong, good or bad, important or
unimportant.”

While values constitute what should be judged as worthwhile or worthless, norms provide rules
for behavior in specific situations. Values are abstract notions of what is important and
respectable, while norms are specific behavioural patterns, rules and guides. It can also be said
that values are expressed or manifested through norms.

It is also well known that values are relative from one society to another. The values which are of
primary importance to citizens of a particular country may be of only secondary or tertiary
importance to citizens of another country, a difference which can lead to problems in
international communication.” Care must be taken to avoid unnecessary stereotyping because
individuals and professional groups may have different values based on their upbringing and
innate psychological make-up.

Cultures are either high-context or low-context

Every aspect of global communication is influenced by cultural differences. Even the choice of
medium used to communicate may have cultural overtones. For example, it has been noted that
industrialized nations rely heavily on electronic technology and emphasize written messages
over oral or face-to-face communication. Certainly the United States, Canada, the UK and
Germany exemplify this trend. But Japan, which has access to the latest technologies, still relies
more on face-to-face communications than on the written mode. The determining factor in
medium preference may not be the degree of industrialization, but rather whether the country
falls into a high-context or low-context culture.
In some cultures, personal bonds and informal agreements are far more binding than any formal
contract. In others, the meticulous wording of legal documents is viewed as paramount. High-
context cultures (Mediterranean, Slav, Central European, Latin American, African, Arab, Asian,
American-Indian) leave much of the message unspecified – to be understood through context,
nonverbal cues, and between-the-lines interpretation of what is actually said. By contrast, low-
context cultures (most of the Germanic and English-speaking countries) expect messages to be
explicit and specific. The former are looking for meaning and understanding in what is notsaid –
in body language, in silences and pauses, and in relationships and empathy. The latter place
emphasis on sending and receiving accurate messages directly, and by being precise with spoken
or written words.

Cultural Barriers

Challenges in Intercultural Communication

Problems of communication in intercultural dialogue typically arise when the communicators

understand concepts of meaning and identity in strikingly different ways.

Problems of communication and poor dialogue typically arise when persons from different social
and cultural contexts fail to understand each other properly. Even if a speaker is genuinely
interested in communicating with another person, it is difficult to secure successful
communication if the other person’s beliefs about the world are very different from the speaker’s
beliefs, and if the speaker knows little about the other’s beliefs.

Obviously, knowledge of another person’s cultural context does not constitute a guarantee for
successful communication. Sometimes a speaker is aware that an audience has certain beliefs and
experiences shaped by a specific social and cultural history but nevertheless chooses, more or
less consciously, to ignore this fact. Furthermore, a speaker might ascribe to his audience beliefs
without having a good reason why they would hold them. In such cases, however, the problem is
not really one of meaning (Burge 1979; Bach 1994) but rather one involving the lack of
sympathetic attitudes. Being neither ignorant of nor prejudiced towards another person’s socio-
cultural context is thus a necessary condition for successful communication.

Values are properties we ascribe to actions we think of as ethically good or wrong.

Example #1: I ascribe the positive value of goodness to actions involving the donation of money
to charity if I say, ‘It is a good thing to donate money to charity’. I ascribe a negative value to the
same actions if I say ‘One should not donate money to charity’. We may note that not all
ascriptions of values to actions are ethical statements. I might say, ‘The goalkeeper made an
excellent save’, and talk about an action made by a goalkeeper in a football match. But I do not
normally mean that the goalkeeper made an ethically excellent save. What I mean is that the
goalkeeper made an excellent save in relation to the rules and aims of football as an invented
game.
Example #2: Justice, democracy, fairness and equality  are examples of values that most people
endorse. If I genuinely believe that democracy is an important value, then it is difficult for me to
accept that someone could be entitled to hold that democracy is wrong. In fact, were I to try to
imagine another person in my own position, in my specific social and cultural context, I should
find it almost impossible to imagine how he could be justified in thinking that democracy is not a
fundamental value. 

Disagreement and problems in intercultural interaction can often be explained by showing that
people have different concepts of value that they believe are fundamental to society.

Now we will go on to talk about how these cultural values affect the way we communicate. Let’s
start then by looking at how communication should take place depending on how a culture or
community values power distance.

POWER DISTANCE

Each culture, and all people within cultures, develops ways of interacting with different people
according to the status differential that exists between the individual and the person with whom
he or she is interacting.

Power-distance (PD) refers to the degree to which different cultures encourage or maintain
power and status differences between interactants.

Cultures high on PD develop rules, mechanisms and rituals that serve to maintain and
strengthen the status relationships among their members.

Cultures low on PD, however, minimize those rules and customs, eliminating, if not ignoring,
the status differences that exist between people.

Small power distance culture/workplace- people are more equal so there is less emphasis on
the ranking. When that happens there is less distance between those at the top and those down
the bottom, so people are able to be more direct. People are therefore in the communication more
able to express their emotions and their opinions.

Last power distance culture/workplace- people are more concerned about the hierarchy. So
those up the top and those at the bottom are more highly emphasized. So people will be more
distanced and are more indirect. So in terms of communication then, people will be less able to
express their emotions openly and they are less able to express their opinions openly.

Communication also differs very much on depending on whether the culture values
individualism or collectivism.

Individualism refers to ‘the subordination of the goals of the collectivities to individual

goals,
and a sense of independence and lack of concern for others’, and collectivism refers to ‘the
subordination of individual goals to the goals of a

collective and a sense of harmony, interdependence, and concern for

others’

Individualized culture of workplace- people tend to focus more on self, and so therefore they
are less concerned about others. Maintaining more distance between each other is the norm in
such a society. And so therefore, when people come to communicate, they could be more direct
as they only have to be concerned about expressing their own opinion, instead of giving face to
others.

- the subordination of the goals of the collectivities to individual goals,and a sense of

independence and lack of concern for others
- Western Societies like US and Britain

Collectivist culture or workplace- people tend to focus more on group. So maintaining group
harmony is very important. And so therefore, giving face to others that means being concerned
about how other people feel would be more crucial and so because there is less so because there
was less distance between people within the group. People have to be more indirectly and be
more cautious about expressing their own opinions because they have to be concerned about
other people's feelings as well.

- the subordination of individual goals to the goals of a collective and a sense of harmony,
interdependence, and concern for others’
- partly high among Asian and African countries