Culture ValuesThere are several of the different aspects of culture to explore. This lecture will begin
with a consideration of dimensions of culture, then look at how the US culture compares
to other cultures, how cultures view women, families, and children and then look at
contact between cultures. This session addresses the study of values in our various
cultures and how they determine what and how we communicate to others in our
personal, public, and corporate communications. Because our values are generally
formed in our subconscious through the process of enculturation, we are largely
unaware of them until we are confronted with a reason to reflect on them. These
confrontations come about through being exposed to situations where either they no
longer seem to work, or when other people do those same things differently, which we
usually interpret as wrong, due to our internalized ethnocentrism. The resource for
some of this material is from the book, An Introduction to intercultural communication:
Identities in a global community by Jandt, 2010.
These values are cultural characteristics. There are individuals in every culture who do
not conform to the norms or expectations of their culture.
Communication Style
An important aspect of intercultural communication is communication style. In the direct
communication, style people verbally express their wants, needs, desires. People who
use this style may be more confrontational.
The indirect communication style can be seen when people express their wants, needs,
and desires indirectly, through hints, comments, suppositions, etc. People using this
style tend to avoid confrontation, working through an intermediary instead.
Dimensions of Culture
Geert Hofstede, a Dutch management researcher, conducted a study of over 100,000
IBM employees in over 50 countries (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005; Jandt, 2013),
beginning in the 1980s. Hofstede was trying to identify what dimensions of culture are
most variable, particularly in an international or multinational workplace. This extensive
study has been used frequently in the intercultural communication literature to describe
cultures (Jandt, 2013).
Hofstede’s original work identified four dimensions of culture – his research was carried
out in a long study spanning more than 25 years. These four dimensions are largely
structured as continua which can be used for categorizing cultures.
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Individualism versus collectivism
Masculinity versus femininity
Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Individualism versus Collectivism
Hofstede’s first continuum is individualism versus collectivism. This continuum describes
cultures ranging from loosely structured to tightly integrated; it refers to how people
define themselves and their relationships with others.
In an individualist culture, the interest of the individual prevails over the interest of the
group. Ties between individuals are loose. People took after themselves and their
immediate families. People preferring this style tend to be competitive defined by what
they do (their accomplishments), the status or position they have achieved, and their
possessions (what they own).Their employment is based on skills and
accomplishments, rather than on whom they know. Individualists tend to prefer a direct
communication style.
In a collectivist culture, the interest of the group prevails over the interests of the
individual. People are integrated into strong cohesive groups that continue throughout a
lifetime to protect in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. This style emphasizes
relationships among people, focuses on cooperation, and defines people in terms of
their relationships (who they are related to). Employment is based on family or other
social network connections and their communication style tends to be indirect.
One difference in the dimension of individualism versus collectivism is reflected in who
is taken into account when one sets goals. In individualist cultures, goals are set with
minimal consideration given to groups other than perhaps your own immediate family. In
collectivist cultures, other groups are taken into account in a major way when goals are
set. Individualist cultures are loosely integrated, but collectivist cultures are tightly
integrated.
Masculinity versus Femininity
Hofstede’s second continuum Is masculinity versus femininity, which describes how
culture’s dominant values are either assertive or nurturing. This is probably the most
controversial of Hofstede’s dimensions, most likely because of its name, rather than the
concept itself. Hofstede’s study found that women’s social roles varied less from culture
to culture than men’s social roles.
The so-called masculine cultures are those that try to create the greatest difference
between what men and women are expected to do. These cultures emphasize
assertiveness, competition, and material success. Feminine cultures, on the other hand,
permit more overlapping social roles for the sexes. They place a high value on
nurturing-quality of life, interpersonal relationships, and concern for the weak.
Power Distance
Hofstede’s third continuum refers to power distance, which is the distribution of
influence within a culture. This dimension refers to the way the culture deals with
inequalities. Hofstede (1997) defines power distance as “the extent to which less
powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept
that power is distributed unequally” (p. 28).
In high power distance cultures, children are expected to be obedient to their parents,
rather than being treated more or less as equals. People are expected to display
respect to those of higher status. Power distance also refers to how power, prestige,
and wealth are distributed in a culture. In cultures with high power distance, power and
influence are concentrated in the hands of a few rather than distributed throughout the
population. These cultures tend to be more authoritarian, and they may communicate in
a way that limits interaction and reinforces the differences among people. Superiors and
subordinates do not consider each as equals.
In the workplace, cultures with high power distance have centralized power, a wide
salary gap between the top and bottom of the organization, and an acceptance of
luxurious offices and limited access to the corporate presidents’ offices. Company
leaders are kings, and employees are loyal subjects who don’t speak out. In cultures
with low power distance, subordinates expect to be consulted; ideal bosses are
democratic. In more democratic organizations, leaders are physically more accessible.
Uncertainty Avoidance
Hofstede’s fourth continuum is uncertainty avoidance. This continuum reflects a
culture’s tolerance of ambiguity and acceptance of risk, and refers to the extent to which
people in a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations. Uncertainty is
“expressed through nervous stress and in a need for predictability or a need for written
and unwritten rules” (Hofstede, 1997). Uncertainty is avoided by maintaining strict codes
of behavior and a belief in absolute truths. “Cultures strong in uncertainty avoidance are
active, aggressive, emotional, compulsive, security seeking, and intolerant; cultures
weak in uncertainty avoidance are contemplative, less aggressive, unemotional,
relaxed, accepting of personal risks, and relatively tolerant” (Jandt, 2013, p. 180).
“Students from high uncertainty avoidance cultures expect their teachers to be experts
who have all the answers. In the workplace, there is an inner need to work hard, and
there is a need for rules, precision, and punctuality …. Students from low uncertainty
avoidance cultures accept teachers who admit to not knowing all the answers. And in
the workplace, employees work hard only when needed, there are no more rules than
are necessary, and precision and punctuality have to be learned” (Jandt, 2013, p. 180).
Long – versus Short-Term Orientation
Hofstede’s later research added a fifth dimension based on studies of Chinese culture,
specifically Confucian philosophy. This dimension is that of long-term orientation versus
short-term orientation to life. It “describes cultures that range from short-term values
with respect for tradition and reciprocity in social relations to long-term values with
persistence and ordering relationships by status” (Jandt, 2013, p. 163).
“This dimension includes such values as thrift, persistence, having a sense of shame,
and ordering relationships. Confucian work dynamism refers to dedicated, motivated,
responsible, and educated individuals with a sense of commitment and organizational
identity and loyalty” (Jandt, 2013,p.180).
A long-term orientation encourages thinking and planning for the future, emphasizing
thrift, savings, working persistently to get, and subordinating yourself for a purpose. A
short-term orientation, on the other hand, focuses on quick results and personal respect
(face), and spending to keep up with social pressure, resulting in less savings.
The long-term orientation also thinks about environmental sustainability, a complex,
multidimensional construct, which “The Oxford Commission on Environment and
Development (1987) defined … as ‘development which meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'”
(Jandt,2013, p.183).
Value Orientation Theory
Value orientation theory is a research tool and a theoretical approach to comparing and
contrasting two or more cultures on the basis of particular theoretical constructs .Here
are some key definitions.
Rokeach and Ball-Rokeacg (1989) state that a value is “a central and basic motivating
belief that shapes our goals and motivations” (as cited in Jandt, 2013, p. 187). An
attitude is an outgrowth of a value. Our attitudes toward issues often depend on the
larger values we hold.
Stewart (1982) states, “We learn values, what is competent, and what is desirable
behavior from our culture. This type of learning is called emic knowledge, or knowledge
of the culture learned from the inside. Emic knowledge constitutes the rules known from
inside the culture and as such are seldom organized or consciously discussed” (as cited
in Jandt, 2013, p. 187).
Etic knowledge, on the other hand, is learned by an outsider or trained observer. This
can be thought of as careful, raw data observed and recorded without the benefit of its
function within a cultural system. “Dominant cultural values or patterns of behavior can
be identified that make it possible to compare cultures in a meaningful way. lntercultural
communication competence requires understanding dominant cultural values and
understanding how our own cultural values affect the way we perceive ourselves and
others” (Jandt, 2013, p. 187).
Cultural patterns can be studied in many ways-origins, differences, aspects of culture
(religion, philosophies and ideologies, geography and environment, science and
technology, work and motivation, human nature, social organization, relationships
among individuals).
Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) argue that all human cultures are confronted with
universally shared problems emerging from relationships with fellow beings, time,
activities, and nature.
These five basic problems are as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What is a human being’s relation to nature? (man-nature orientation)
What is the modality of human activity? (activity orientation)
What is the temporal focus of human life? (time orientation)
What is the character of innate human nature? (human nature orientation)
What is the relationship of the individual to others? (relational) (as cited in Jandt,
2013, p. 192)
In answering these questions, cultures develop their own unique positions. However,
the questions create a framework for describing and comparing the perspectives that
different cultures may use as solutions.
Women, Families, and Children
Our next cultural category involves the cultures view of women, families, and children.
In an academic context, the terms sex and gender refer to different concepts. Sex refers
“to the biological features that distinguish men from women,” while gender refers “to the
learned behaviors and attitudes associated with the words feminine and masculine”
(Jandt, 2013, p. 233). Most cultures have some notion of feminine traits, which would
include affection, compassion, nurturing, and emotionality; these are in contrast with
masculine traits, which typically include attributes such as strength, assertiveness,
competitiveness, and ambitiousness. ”These differences are consistent with cultures
that divide family, work, and social interaction roles along sex-linked lines” (Jandt, 2013,
p.233).
Sexism refers to “limiting women to traditional women’s roles and men to traditional
men’s roles” (Jandt, 2013, p. 233).
We can learn a great deal about the culture of a country by examining how they view
the status of women, families, and children. When we consider the role of women in a
society, an important perspective is provided by feminist theory; however, feminist
theory is not a unitary theory.
“Feminist theorists contend that many aspects of life are experienced in terms of
feminine and masculine. Furthermore, feminist theorists assume that gender is socially
constructed and dominated by a male perspective that is oppressive to women in
economic development, education, health care, family roles, and political participation”
(Foss & Foss, 1994, cited in Jandt, 2013, p. 249).
Feminist standpoint theories assume women’s experiences enable women to see
privilege and power in ways men cannot. Some examples include such things as
wages, exclusion from power, and decision making (the glass ceiling in organizations); it
also includes ways in which society itself is socially constructed (Hallstein,1999).
One primary focus of feminist theories has been on the relationship between language
and power. “Muted-group theory contends that men created the meanings for a group
through its language, which suppresses women. One result is that women develop
unique forms of expression” (Jandt, 2013, p. 234).
Many cultures distinguish between women’s languages and forms of speech and those
of men. For example ,American soldiers interacting with Japanese men after WWII were
often taught Japanese by women, so they sounded “weak” when speaking to Japanese
men.
The status of women
The status of women varies considerably around the world. The United Nations created
a Human Development Index that analyzed life on a variety of parameters-life
expectancy, education, per capita income. The status of women varies considerably in
several key areas:
• Violence: women (and children) often suffer violence from men.
• Political Participation: through much of history, women have not been considered
citizens, nor had any political participation.
• Laws: with little political participation, women often are not equal under the laws of
various countries.
The status of families
The status of families also varies greatly from culture to culture. “The family unithowever defined-remains the organization in which the majority of human beings
continue to exist” (Jandt, 2013, p. 258).
According to Murdock (1949), several key terms are important when discussing the
notion of the family:
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Nuclear family: composed of one married pair and their unmarried offspring
Extended family: composed of two or more nuclear families joined by an
extension of the parent-child relationship (as cited in Jandt, 2013, p. 258).
A key part of the notion of “family” is how a culture defines marriage: “Cultures regulate
how many spouses a person can have, which partner has more authority and
dominance in the union, and from what group a person can choose” (Jandt, 2013, p.
258). This is an important topic for American culture today, as we wrestle with whether
this concept refers only to a union between a man and a woman, or whether it also
includes two or more people of the same sex.
The status of children
Just as the role of men and women varies in a culture, the concept of “child” varies
worldwide. In some places, children are considered assets to work the farm or the
family business, while in the West, they are viewed as dependents of the family.
“In 1989, the United Nations unanimously adopted the Convention on the Rights of the
Child. [This Convention] asserts that every child has a legal right to a name, a family,
health, and education. It also aims to limit and regulate child labor… Child labor has
become the major form of child abuse, with children forced to work in debt bondage or
even in conditions of slavery-particularly as child prostitutes” (Jandt, 2013, p. 260).
The topics of this section are the theme of the blog maintained by a missionary in Asia:
http://speak4justice.wordpress.com/
Contact Between Cultures
We live in a world of increasing contact between cultures. What happens when people
from diverse cultures interact with one another? A number of important concepts apply
to this situation:
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Colonialism: one group dominates or colonizes another.
Cultural Imperialism: “The cultural imperialist approach to communication
recognizes that mass media is not value free-the media also carry important
cultural values (Nordenstreng & Schiller, 1979; Schiller, 1976). Countries with
media able to capture and dominate international markets in this theory serve the
originating country’s intentions” (Jandt, 2013, p.266).
Cultural Icons: “Products can also carry cultural values, and many products that
are seen to represent a culture have both been widely popular and resisted ….
An icon is a special symbol that tends to be idolized in a culture” (Jandt, 2013, p.
267).
Cultural Hegemony: “the fear of the predominant influence that one culture can
develop over another. It is believed that what is being transmitted are the values
of the culture” (Jandt, 2013, p. 267), such as Japanese cars or American movies
and the values they portray.
Diffusion Model: mutual influence in both directions of contact.
“One result of contact between cultures is that through interaction, one culture may
learn and adopt certain practices of the other culture. Perhaps the most significant
example of adopting new practices resulted from Columbus’s sailings linking two
separate worlds into one. The Old World brought horses, cows, sheep, chickens,
honeybees, coffee, wheat, cabbage, lettuce, bananas, olives, tulips, and daisies. The
New World provided turkeys, sugarcane, corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins,
pineapples, petunias, poinsettias, and the practice of daily baths-a practice abhorred by
Europeans. This is the process of diffusion” (Jandt, 2013, p. 280).
In the diffusion model, several important roles should be noted:
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Opinion leaders: “individuals who are able to influence informally other
individuals’ attitudes or even behavior in a desired way with relative frequency”
(Jandt, 2013, p. 280).
Change agent: “a person who influences innovation decisions in a direction
deemed desirable by a change agency” (Jandt, 2013, p. 281).
Convergence Model: “In the convergence model, communication is defined as a
process in which information is shared by two or more individuals who converge
over time toward a greater degree of mutual agreement. Whereas the diffusion
model focuses on what one individual does to another, the convergence model
focuses on the relationship between those who share information. Thus, the level
of analysis shifts from the individual to the dyad or on the macro level to groups
and cultures” (Jandt, 2013, p. 283).
References and Resources
American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC.
Cheney, G., Christensen, L. T., Zorn, T.E., & Ganesh, S. (2011). Organizational
communication in an age of globalization: Issues, reflections, practices (2nd ed.).
Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Foss, S, K.,& Foss, K. A. (1994). The construction of feminine spectatorship in Garrison
Keillor’s Radio Monologues. Quarterly Journal of Speech, BO, p. 410-426.
Griffin, E. (2012). A first look at communication theory, 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Hallstein, D. L. O. (1999). A postmodern caring: Feminist standpoint theories, revisioned
caring, and communication ethics. Western Journal of Communication 63, p. 3256.
Hofstede, G.,& Hofstede, G. J.(2005). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind,
intercultural cooperation and its importance for survival (2nd ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Jandt, F. (2010).An Introduction to intercultural communication: Identities in a global
community (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Otyp
Session two emphasizes two key points: communication and the relationship between communication
and culture.
Communication is defined as an interactive process. The process comprises eight interrelated activities:
sources, encoding, verbal/nonverbal, messages, decode, response, feedback, and noise. Communication
moves in one direction. The sender encodes a Message, then uses a certain Channel (verbal/nonverbal
communication) to send it to a receiver who decodes (interprets) the message. Noise is anything that
interferes with, or changes the original encoded message.
Communication has many characteristics: dynamic, symbolic, contextual, complex, etc. The purpose of
communication is to learn about the other person’s feelings, emotions, and thoughts to understand
them better and make human connections by collecting data about other people through
communication. Communication is also a complex process in various contexts, such as interpersonal
communication, intercultural communication, or mass communication. Therefore, to understand and
have effective communication, we need to understand the place of communication in culture.
It is difficult to define what culture is. According to Triandis (1994), culture is a set of human-made
objective and subjective elements that in the past have increased the probability of survival and resulted
in satisfaction for the participants in an ecological niche, and thus became shared among those who
could communicate with each other because they had a common language and they lived in the same
time and place. Culture is composed of the elements such as worldview, religion, history, values, social
organization, and language. We should remember that culture is always changing, but a culture’s deep
structure is resistant to change.
With social media evolving, we can see that culture and communication are not separable from each
other in our globalization era. Culture and communication are so intertwined that it is easy to think that
culture is communication and that communication is culture. To communicate effectively in every
aspect of our life, we should develop our intercultural competence by learning about different cultures.
Our lesson two also concerned the media; I have a question that we are living in a society that is trapped
in social media. Is media shaping our culture? And how does the media shape our culture?
Reference:
H. Triandis, Culture and Social Behavior (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994)
Larry A. Samovar et al. (2017) Chapter 2: Communication and Culture: The Voice and The Echo.
Communication Between Cultures. Cengage Learning. 978-1-285-44462-8