Edward T Hall Study

The silent language of culture

Presented by:
Dr. Vaishali Sharma
About Edward T Hall
• The anthropologist Edward T.
Hall was born in Missouri in
1914 and died in 2009.

• Hall is most associated with

proxemics, the study of the
human use of space within the
context of culture
 The silent language of culture
• The language of Time

• The language of Space

– e.g., social Distance

• The language of Material goods (to signal status and power)

• The language of Friendship

• The language of Agreement

 The language of time
• Monochronic cultures like to do just one thing at a time. They value a
certain orderliness and sense of there being an appropriate time and
place for everything. They do not value interruptions. United States,
Canada, or Northern Europe

• Polychronic cultures like to do multiple things at the same time. Latin

America, the Arab part of the Middle East, or sub-Sahara Africa.

• Americans are strongly monochronic whilst the French have a much

greater polychronic tendency -- thus a French person may turn up to a
meeting late and think nothing of it (much to the annoyance of a German
or American co-worker).
Polychronic cultures like to do multiple
things at the same time.

A manager's office in a polychronic culture

typically has an open door, a ringing phone
and a meeting all going on at the same
time.
Though they can be easily distracted they
also tend to manage interruptions well
with a willingness to change plans often
and easily.

.
 Interactions between the two types can be problematic.

Monochronic businessmen cannot understand why the person they are

meeting is always interrupted by phone calls and people stopping by. Is it
meant to be insulting? When do they get down to business?

Polychronic businessmen cannot understand why tasks are isolated from the
organisation as a whole and measured by output in time instead of part of
the overall organisational goal. How can you separate work time and personal
time? Why would you let something as silly as a schedule negatively impact
on the quality of your relationships?
An event is scheduled at 4 P.M. There is an Indian, an American, and a
Japanese attending. Can you guess who will arrive when, and what they
perceive as “late”?
And according to the Indian, life is to live fully, and not to be counted in minutes
I was working for the clothing company in Finland which did business Italian company and ordered
cloths from Italy there were several problems in communication and concepts.

The Intercultural management problem: When thinking about all the cultural differences mentioned
above and acknowledge the situation; The Finnish Company ordered clothes from Italy in their
strict deadlines, ordering dates and expectations that the goods will be delivered on time. The
manager told to two of our employees to make sure that the orders are done and delivered. The
employees contacted the persons in Italy and agreed on the deadlines, due dates of the payments
and delivery dates.
But when the delivery date came, no goods were delivered or even sent from Italy yet, even we in
Finland already had promised the goods to be in the boutique for customers. The manager in
Finland blamed the two employees for not doing their task well and contacted the people in Italy.
getting
The same chain of events happened often always missed deadline, phone meetings were late,
and if there was a meeting organised in Italy or Finland, it didn’t go well. Our Finnish manager
wanted to go straight to Business and talk about the orders when the Italians wanted to have a
dinner and take the time for get together first. Our manager explained to his employees how rude
the Italians were because they came physically very close in the meetings and didn’t stick to the
point, and was overwhelmed even from his employees that why the wanted to continue the
meeting. All in the entire situation was chaotic and the cultural differences were too much for our
Finnish manager. He had been used to do business only in Finland before and didn’t have a clue
how different the business between two different countries can be. This situation kept on going
because the Finnish manager didn’t want to change his habits and the Italians didn’t even know
that something was wrong. When I started my job in this company the situation was very bad, and
in the end, our manager quit his job. We got a new manager, and after that everything started to
go well and the connections and communications between our employees in Italy and Finland was
improved.
 Finnish Perspective
• Finland is a monochronic culture. In Finnish culture, it is common to do
one thing at a time, and concentrate your actions on only that.

• Everything that is done is well considered. The attention to the time is

structured and everything must be done on time.

• Being late or finishing something, not on time is considered rude and

impolite.

• For example, when there is a business meeting the issue is spoken

professionally and there is always a conclusion for the meeting. The topic
is solved first in the meeting and after that, there is time to have dinner.
 Italian Perspective
• Italy is a Polychronic culture.

• There are plenty of things at the same level of importance and therefore these
things are done at the same time. Several overlapping work tasks are being
completed.

• The Italians do not set meetings in order to reach decisions but to exchange
information and discuss a variety of factors influencing the case. The
importance of a case is expressed by inviting parties over business lunch which
is considered as the “real” negotiation environment. It is also important to
know that only written agreements are valid: oral agreements are more like
guidelines that can be followed or ignored.

• Polychronic people are also said to have a tendency to change their minds
quite easily and float from one situation to another.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4ddq0pkCcQ
 Proxemics –
The language of space
• Proxemics is the study of "perception and use of space".

• Personal Space:
– “the physical space immediately surrounding someone, into which encroachment can
feel threatening or uncomfortable” (invisible boundary around an individual )

• Space between two person plays a significant role in communication.

• It includes an area, or objects.

• A Japanese person who needs less space thus will stand closer to an
American, inadvertently making the American uncomfortable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9lPLvnCmYs
 Intimate distance: 1.5 feet (Close Friends, Lovers, Family)

Personal distance: 1.5-4 feet (friends, close acquaintances, and significant

others)
Social distance: 4'-12 Feet (professional or casual interaction)
Public distance: 12‘ feet and more
 Result
• Distance between people
• North Americans: stand 5 1/2 to 8 feet apart
• Latin American cultures: people stand much closer

• Reactions
• Latin American moves close to the North American
• North American backs away
• Latin American might perceive the North American as cold and
distant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgJ24hknbHs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GYoAtwcEQw
 • Communicating through body movements,

• Facial expressions, and

• Body posture.

• Paralinguistic- Paralinguistics is concerned with

how words are spoken, i.e. the volume, the
intonation, the speed etc.

KINESICS • Americans are talking "too loud" is often

interpreted in Europe as aggressive behaviour or
can be seen as a sign of uncultivated or tactless
behaviour.

• Amount of silence during a conservation- A

Japanese proverb says "Those who know do not
speak - those who speak do not know"
Yes, I understand you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvEci5Bjgd4
The language of Material goods
• Asians give importance to materialistic world/goods, status, power.

• Person at higher position is valued more.

• Vertical vs Horizontal organisation

 The language of friendship
• US people complete the business first and then friendship.
– The emphasis is on getting a contract signed rather than building
a relationship.

• In Turkey “Let us make friends first and then see, if we can conduct
business”.

• Good friends may greet each other with a handshake and a kiss on
each cheek in Saudi Arabia (man-man).
 The language of Agreement
• Americans are very specific and explicit in terms of agreement.

• Asians considers a contract as

– Loosely structured statement.

– Allows flexibility and adjustments.

 High and low context Culture
• It refers to how a message is communicated.

• In high-context cultures, such as those found in Latin America, Asia, and Africa,
the physical context of the message carries a great deal of importance.

• People tend to be more indirect and to expect the person they are
communicating with to decode the implicit part of their message. While the
person sending the message takes painstaking care in crafting the message,
the person receiving the message is expected to read it within context.

• The message may lack the verbal directness you would expect in a low-context
culture. In high-context cultures, body language is as important and
sometimes more important than the actual words spoken.
 Low Context Culture
• United States and most Northern European countries, people tend
to be explicit and direct in their communications.

• Satisfying individual needs is important

• “Say what you mean” and “Don’t beat around the bush.”

• The guiding principle is to minimize the margins of

misunderstanding or doubt.

• Low-context communication aspires to get straight to the point.

 Japan is considered one of the highest context cultures in the world.
However, while the Japanese primarily use polychronic time, they use strict
monochronic time when dealing with foreigners and in their handling of
technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oYfhTC9lIQ
 High-context culture

Japanese
Arab
Greek
Spanish
Italian
English
French
American
Scandinavian
German

Low-context cultures
32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMwjscSCcf0
Thank you