Journal Entry #2 - Cultural Patterns

Intercultural Communication and Global Understanding

3. The Deep Structure of Culture: Key Elements of Intercultural Communication

Subsections: Deep structure of culture Cultural patterns and communication Different cultural pattern models/taxonomies Individualism vs. collectivism Uncertainty avoidance Power distance Propensity to problem-solving Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck's value orientations Hall's High and Low Context—Communication Deep structure of culture

The following elements constitute the “deep structure of culture,” which refers to the foundation of every cultural system. This deep structure of culture is crucial to understand as it forms the backbone of all intercultural communication encounters. Cultural members speak from and experience the world through these elements.

A. Social Perception: the way we make sense of the world; the process of understanding reality by attributing meaning to the social objects and events we encounter in our environments.

The way we see, select, evaluate and organize stimuli from the external world, refers to our social perception. We act based upon what we perceive and we learn these perceptions through cultural experiences. For example, you may notice that you always highly value directness and assertiveness; that is a social perception that is

shaped by your cultural position. Social perception involves the unconscious processing that takes place when we look around ourselves and immediately start to interpret and evaluate what has taken place. Individuals have different filters of social perc

Assertive and driven business culture Courtesy of Commence Technology Partners http://www.commencepartners. com/pages/projects.html

eption.

B. World View: the orientation we hold towards religion, nature, life, death, and the universe

World view refers to the larger philosophies we hold about the world around us. For example, when does life begin and end for you? Does life end for you? Do you believe in an afterlife? What is your view of the role of nature in relation to human society? What is the meaning of life? World views usually stand as broader, larger perspectives on the world and society.

C. Beliefs: convictions in the truth/value of something

Our beliefs refer to our own held declarations that something exists or does not. This could be with regard to a religion (what is a God) to specific events, and or people. Beliefs are more specific than world views in that they specify what we hold as true and real.

D. Values: principles or guidelines (normative) informing a member of what is good, bad, right, wrong, true and false.

On an even more specific level than beliefs, values reflect the priorities of a culture; these provides standards and norms for behavior and a set of rules for interaction in that culture.

E. Attitude: learned tendencies to respond in a consistent manner to people, objects and events in our environment.

If we strongly believe that taking care of our elders is important for our culture, and this is right and good, we are likely to act in this regard. Thus, attitudes stand as the behavioral components and represent the learned disposition from beliefs, values, and world views. Cultural groups that have a strong value for respecting one’s elders, will engage in behavior consistent with this value.

Cultural patterns and communication

Cultural Patterns consist of integrations of world views, beliefs, values, and attitudes that contribute to the way in which a people approach life.

Cultural patterns refer to a culture’s assumptions about what the world is, the shared judgments about what it should be, and the widely held expectations about how people should behave. These are the unseen, unconsciously enacted, shared expectations which become stable over time but can change in specific historical moments (although rare). Cultural patterns guide individuals’ thought

Islam - One cultural pattern affecting the way in which people approach life Courtesy of Brazilian Government http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image :Mosque.Qibla.01.jpg

processes and orientations to the world. Scholars argue that cultural patterns represent shared mental programs that govern specific behavior choices in cultural groups.

It is critical to understand differences in cultural patterns if you wish to be a better intercultural communicator. These cultural patterns will provide you with systems of culture knowledge and interpretive skills for symbols used in communication. No common set of behaviors can be completely and universally interpreted in the same way nor regarded with the same degree of favorability. Some of these patterns are context-bound and others bear similarities across specific national cultures.

Different cultural pattern models/taxonomies

Geert Hofstede developed another approach to cultural patterns and communication that he labeled “value dimensions.” His research consisted of:

• He studied cultural differences in terms of work-related value orientations. • Asserted that people carry mental programs that are developed during childhood and are reinforced by their culture. These programs contain the ideas of one’s cultures and are expressed through its dominant values. • Conducted survey research with 88,000 employees of a large multinational business (IBM) that has branches in 66 countries. • He found 4 patterns along which dominant patterns of a culture can be ordered. Can be used to understand cultural and work-related values. • Limitations of study: most of the respondents were male, mid-level managers, higher level of education, countries did not include Africa, Arab countries, or any from the Soviet Bloc, was conducted over 20 years ago. • All cultural patterns are mere indications; these are continua and not extreme poles; most cultures have different degrees of both individualism and collectivism. • Think of these cultural patterns as being in terms of degrees.

He chose subjects from middle managers in 50 IBM subsidiaries spanning forty countries. After analysis, he ranked countries 1-40 in different categories.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Individualism:

• the individual is the imp. unit as well as the uniqueness of the individual

• priority of personal interests over group interests

• "I" is stressed

• competition over cooperation -- achievement-based

• personal privacy is valued

Collectivism:

• the group is the important unit (in-group)

• group includes relatives, extended family, loved ones, and organizations

• prioritizes loyalty to group

• cooperation/collaboration over competition

• "We" is emphasized; belonging, groupwork, group dec. making

Uncertainty avoidance

Uncertainty avoidance is the degree to which a culture is adaptable to uncertainty, change, and the unknown. Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, and Sweden, for example, have a high tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity— these believe in minimizing the number of rules and rituals that govern social conduct, are more tolerant of dissent and socially deviant behavior, and in taking risks.

Belgium, Greece, Japan, and Portugal prefer to avoid uncertainty (and establish more structure)(are advanced, adopt Buddhism and

Unitarianism)—they desire consensus about goals, do not tolerate dissent, or allow deviation in the behaviors of cultural members, try to ensure security and uncertainty through an extensive set of rules (are beginning to modernize, embrace religions like Catholicism, and Islam.

Stamps of Great Britain showing diversity being embraced Courtesy of Norvic Philatelics http://www.norphil.co.uk/2005/food. htm

Predictors of uncertainty avoidance vary. High uncertainty avoidance cultures are the ones beginning to modernize, characterized by a high rate

of change—extensive systems of laws—embrace religions such as Catholicism and Islam; low uncertainty avoidance cultures tend to be advanced in modernization and more stable/predictable—have fewer rules and laws— prefer negotiation and resolution to conflict— adopt Buddhism and Unitarianism which emphasize relativity.

Consequences of high uncertainty avoidance include worry about the future, lots of anxiety,

and rules to control behaviors. Consequences of low uncertainty avoidance are living day-by-day, willingness to change, taking risks, accepting deviance, accepting individual achievement, few rules to control social behaviors, and religious rituals that require precise patterns of enactment.

Portuguese Uniform Fashion Source: Euro 2008 http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/cou ntries/organisation/sa/kind=3276 8/newsid=365596.html

The United States ranks moderate on uncertainty avoidance, while Japan and France have high uncertainty avoidance.

Power distance

Contrary to what we think in the U.S. culture about equality, all people in a culture do not have equal levels of social status or social power. Some may be more superior in terms of education, age, wealth, gender, birth order, family background, occupation, personal achievements.

Cultures also differ to the extent to which they view such status inequalities as good or bad, just or unjust. All cultures have particular value orientations about the appropriateness or importance of status differences.

Low power distance cultures, like Austria, Denmark, Israel, and New Zealand, prefer small distances as cultural value, believe in the importance of minimizing social or class inequalities, questioning or challenging authority figures, reducing hierarchy. Organizational structures and using power only for legitimate purposes.

High power distance cultures, such as India, Mexico, Philippines, and Venezuela, believe in a social order in which each person has a rightful and protected place, the actions of authorities should not be challenged, hierarchy and inequality are appropriate and necessary and those with status have a right to use their power for whatever purposes.

Latin America - mum and dad work on rich poor gap. http://bakedpanda.blogspot.com/2008/10/rich-poor-gap-widens-in-europe-and.html

Population Density Map

ata_products/OurChangingPlanet/PDF/Page_253_new.pdf

Courtesy of NASA http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_homepage/for_scientists/ d

Predictors of power distance cultures include climate, population size, and wealth. Cultures found in high latitude climates that are far from equator and have moderate to cold climates tend to have low power distance culture scores. Those in low latitude climates that are near the equator and have tropical climates have high power distance cultural scores. In colder climates, human survival requires more protection. Survival can occur only if the culture can develop solutions that counter act the extreme forces.

Propensity to problem-solving

tech solutions is low, more traditional approaches are preferred, independent

The need for solutions predisposes the culture to seek less traditional and more innovative answers to its common problems, which in turn means a greater need for modernization, mass literacy, independent thinking, decentralization of political power, tech, and a general questioning of authority. Other hand, warmer climates depend far less on these. Need for

thinking is not as necessary. People learn from their elders, which means there is less questioning of authority.

Population size is also important. The larger the group, the greater the power distance cultures. With large numbers it must develop more rules and formal procedures for coping with issues and will need more centralized concentrations of political power.

Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck's value orientations

Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodtbeck wanted to focus on cultural patterns. Cultures differed from each other but within every culture there were individuals who varied from the cultural patterns most often associated with it.

To explain this, concluded that a) people in all cultures face common human problems for which they must find a solution; b) the range of alternative solutions to a culture’s problems is not limitless; c) within a given culture, there will be preferred solutions which most people within the culture will select but there will also be people who will choose other solutions, an apparent contradiction, there is a preferred set of solutions which will be chosen by most people but not all will exactly the same choices.

The common problems all culture face are the following:

What is the nature of human beings?

What is the relationship of humans to nature?

What is the orientation of humans to time?

What is the human orientation to activity?

What is the relationship of humans to each other?

Hall's High and Low Context—Communication

Edward T. Hall, an anthropologist, closely examined the relationship between the type of context and communication. Hall explored how in some cultures, the amount of information was implied by the setting or the context itself, regardless of the specific words that were spoken while in other cultures, the meanings were directly based on the words spoken.

In a situation Hall labeled high context, information is implicit and resides in the person. Little is coded and transmitted in verbal messages. Indirect

communication/silence is valued, as are homogeneous information that changes little over time (e.g., Korea, Japan, Venezuela).

In low context situations, information is made specific and explicit in verbal messages. Information is more heterogeneous and direct communication is valued (e.g., United States, Australia, Great Britain).

Cultures differ from high to low context. High context cultures prefer to use messages in which most of the meaning is either implied by the physical setting or is presumed to be part of the individual’s internalized beliefs, values, and norms; very little is provided in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message, so people may rely on nonverbals. Examples of high context cultures are: Japanese, African American, Mexican and Latino. Low context culture messages have the majority of the information in the explicit code. Examples are: German, Swedish, Euroamerican, and English cultures.

Edward T. Hall Courtesy of Kathryn Sorrells http://www.csiss.org/classi cs/content/13

Hall believed that some cultures have messages that are high context, others have messages that are mostly low context and some have mixtures.

Endnotes

Hall, E.T. (1959). The silent language. New York: Doubleday.

Hall, E.T. (1966). The hidden dimension. New York: Doubleday.

Hall, E.T. (1976). Beyond culture. New York: Doubleday.

Hall, E.T. (1983). The dance of life, the other dimension of time. New York: Doubleday.

Hall, E.T. (1985). Hidden differences: Studies in international communication. Hamburg: Grunder & Jahr.

Hall, E.T. (1987). Hidden differences: Doing business with the Japanese. Garden City, NY, Anchor Press/ Doubleday.

Hall, E.T. (1990). Understanding cultural differences, Germans, French and Americans. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press.

Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.

Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications.

Kluckhohn, C. K. (1951). Values and value orientations in the theory of action. In T. Parsons and A. Shils (Eds.), Toward a general theory of action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kluckhohn, F.R. & Strodtbeck, F.L. (1961). Variations in value orientations. Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson.

Samovar, L.A., & Porter, R.E. (1995; 2nd edition). Intercultural communication: A reader. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.

Samovar, L.A., & Porter, R.E. (2000; 9th edition). Intercultural communication: A reader. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.

, the greater power distance cultures.