The Rules of the Social Game (Hofstede)

Culture is always a collective phenomenon because it is partly shared with people who live or live within the
same social environment, which was learned. Culture consists of the unwritten rules of the social game. The
collective programming of the mind distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from
others.

Human nature is what all human beings have on a universal level. It is the inherited human ability to feel
fear, anger, joy, the facility to observe the environment and talk about it with other humans, the need to
associate with others.

An individual’s personality is a unique personal set of mental programs that needn’t be shared with any
other human being. It is based on traits that are partly inherited within the individual’s unique set of genes
and partly learned.

Intercultural communication- it is the communication exchange between people who are different culturally.
It examines how the specific cultural differences affect the interactions of the people engaged.

Cross-cultural communication- it is not about the interaction of people from different cultures
communicating, but the comparison of their difference across cultures. (not specific individuals, but the
system of behaviour itself)

International communication- involves the interaction of people from different cultures, but it focuses on
macro issues such as governmental or political influences that affect communication. Is about power,
politics and processes of one nation influencing another.

The Necessity of Intercultural Communication (Nuliep)

Benefits of Intercultural communication

 Healthy communities. Joan England argues that genuine community is a condition of togetherness in
which people have lowered their defences and learned to accept and celebrate their differences.
Individuals are working collectively for the benefit of everyone, regardless of group or culture.
 Increased commerce.
 Reduced conflict. The conflict stems from our inability to see another person’s point of view,
particularly if that person is from a different culture. We develop blatant negative generalizations
about the person, which are often incorrect and lead to mistrust. Such feelings lead to defensive
behaviour, which fosters conflict. If we can learn to think and act cooperatively by engaging in
assertive (not aggressive) and responsive intercultural communication, we can effectively manage
and reduce conflict with others.
 Personal growth through tolerance. All humans have same basic desires and need; we just have
different ways of achieving them. As we learn that our way is not the only way, we develop a
tolerance for difference. This can be accomplished only when we initiate relationships with people
who are different from ourselves. the more we learn about others and other cultures, the more we
begin to learn about ourselves.
Verbal and nonverbal symbols are meaningful only to people who have learned to associate them with what
they represent. People can allow just about any symbols they want to represent just about anything they
want.

Intentional communication, either verbal or nonverbal, is more informative than unintentional

communication. Communication is dependent on the context in which it occurs. Context refers to the
cultural, physical, relational, and perceptual environment in which communication occurs. In many ways,
the context defines the meaning of any message.

Communication is the ubiquitous, dynamic, interactive process of encoding and decoding verbal and
nonverbal messages within a defined cultural, physiological, relational, and perceptual context. culture
shapes communication and communication is culture-bound. People from different cultures communicate
differently.

Human Communication Apprehension

 Traitlike communication apprehension is an enduring general personality predisposition where an
individual experiences communication apprehension most of the time across most communication
situations
 Context-based communication apprehension is restricted to a certain generalized context, such as
public speaking, group meetings, or job interviews.
 Audience-based communication apprehension.
 Situational-based communication apprehension, experienced by virtually everyone, occurs with the
combination of a specific context and a specific audience.

Accumulated Pattern of Values, Beliefs, and Behaviors

Culture has a direct influence on the physical, relational, and perceptual contexts.
Cultures can be defined by their value and belief systems and by the actions of their members. The values of
a particular culture lead to a set of expectations and rules prescribing how people should behave in that
culture. In many cultures, history is a major component of the formal and informal education systems. To
learn a culture’s history is to learn that culture’s values.

Verbal and Nonverbal Symbol Systems

Verbal and nonverbal symbols with which the members of a culture communicate are culture-bound. But
although two cultures may share the same verbal code, they may have dramatically different verbal styles.
Nonverbal communication includes the use of body language, gestures, facial expressions, voice, smell,
personal and geographical space, time, and artefacts. Body language can communicate a great deal about
one’s culture.

Microcultural Groups
Microcultures exist within the broader rules and guidelines of the dominant cultural milieu but are distinct in
some way, perhaps racially or linguistically, or via their sexual orientation, age, or even occupation. In some
ways, everyone is a member of some microcultural group. Microcultures often have histories that differ
from the dominant cultural group. In many cases, microcultural groups are considered subordinate or treated
subordinately in some way, perhaps politically or economically.

A Contextual Model of Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication occurs whenever a minimum of
two persons from different cultures or microcultures come
together and exchange verbal and nonverbal symbols.
According to the model, intercultural communication occurs
within and between a variety of interconnected contexts,
including cultural, microcultural, environmental, perceptual, and sociorelational contexts. The term context
refers to the setting, situation, circumstances, background, and overall framework within which
communication occurs.
 The cultural context represents an accumulated pattern of values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by an
identifiable group of people with a common history and verbal and nonverbal symbol systems.
 Microcultures, are in some way different from the larger cultural milieu. Microcultures exist within a
larger culture; in the model, the microculture is within the cultural context. Often, microcultures are
treated differently by the members of the larger culture.
 Environmental context represents the physical, geographical location of the interaction. While
culture prescribes the overall rules for communication, the physical location indicates when and
where the specific rules apply. In the model, the environmental context is within the microcultural
and cultural contexts. Conceptually, this is because one’s culture and membership in microcultural
groups significantly influence how one perceives the environment.
 The perceptual context refers to the individual characteristics of each interactant, including
cognitions, attitudes, dispositions, and motivations. Specifically, the perceptual context refers to how
an individual gathers, stores, and retrieves information. Although the ability to gather, store, and
retrieve information is fundamentally human, it is also affected by culture. Many of the attitudes,
beliefs, and values you hold were taught to you by your culture.
 Sociorelational context refers to the relationship between the interactants. Whenever two people
come together and interact, they establish a relationship. Within this relationship, each person
assumes a role. Your interaction varies as a function of what role you are assuming.
 Sociorelational context is graphically represented by two circles labelled nonverbal and verbal code.
The verbal and nonverbal messages define the relationship, and the relationship connects the
perceptual contexts. The nonverbal message circle is larger than the verbal message circle because
the majority of our communicative behavior is nonverbal. Whether we are using words or not, we are
communicating nonverbally through eye contact, body stance, and space. In addition, our nonverbal
behavior is ongoing; we cannot not behave. The verbal message circle is formed by a series of dashes
to represent the digital quality of verbal communication. By digital, we mean that, unlike our
nonverbal communication, our verbal communication is made up of words that have recognizable
and discrete beginning and ending points. However, our nonverbal behavior goes on continuously.

Intercultural Communication and Uncertainty

When we interact with someone from a different culture, we are faced with a lot of uncertainty. We may not
know anything about the person’s culture, values, habits, behavior, dress, and so on. To some extent, to
effectively interact with someone from a different culture, we must be able to predict how our interaction
partner is likely to behave and, based on those predictions, select our appropriate verbal and nonverbal
messages. Berger theorizes that whenever we come together and interact with a stranger, our primary
concern is to reduce uncertainty, especially when the other person is someone with whom we will interact
again. In high-uncertainty situations, our primary goal is to reduce uncertainty and increase the predictability
of the other. This can be accomplished via specific verbal and nonverbal communication strategies such as
question asking and appropriate nonverbal expressiveness.

Intercultural Communication Apprehension

Intercultural communication apprehension—that is, the fear or anxiety associated with either real or
anticipated interaction with people from different groups, especially different cultural or ethnic groups

Successfully interacting with someone from a different culture requires a degree of communication
competence. According to Brian Spitzberg, most models of communication competence include cognitive,
affective, and behavioural components.
 The cognitive component refers to how much one knows about communication.
 The affective component includes one’s motivation to approach or avoid communication.
 The behavioural component refers to the skills one has to interact competently.
An interculturally competent communicator is motivated to communicate, knowledgeable about how to
communicate, and skilled in communicating, is sensitive to the expectations of the context in which
communication occurs, interact effectively by adapting messages appropriately to the context, understand
the rules, norms, and expectations of the relationship and do not significantly violate them.

Ethnocentrism refers to the idea that one’s own culture is the center of everything and all other groups (or
cultures) are scaled and rated with reference to it. One of the effects of ethnocentrism is that it clouds our
perception of others. We have a tendency to judge others, and their communication, based on the standards
set by our own culture. Ethnocentrism may serve a valuable function when one’s ingroup is under attack or
threatened. Moreover, ethnocentrism forms the basis for patriotism, group loyalty, and the willingness to
sacrifice for one’s own group. To be sure, however, ethnocentrism can be problematic. In not looking past
their own culture, people see little importance in understanding other cultures. At high levels, ethnocentrism
is an obstacle to effective intercultural communication.

Proficiency in a foreign language expedites the intercultural communication experience, but intercultural
communication is primarily and fundamentally a nonverbal process. The expression of intimacy, power, and
status among communicators is typically accomplished nonverbally through paralinguistic cues, proxemics,
haptics, oculesics, and olfactics. The well-known anthropologist Hall has argued that people from different
cultures live in different sensory worlds. Hall claims that people from different cultures engage in a selective
screening of sensory information that ultimately leads to different perceptions of experience.37 Regarding
olfactics (smell), most cultures establish norms for acceptable and unacceptable scents associated with the
human body.

We do not see the person—we see the groups to which the person belongs. The problem with this is that
group data may not be a reliable source on which to construct our messages. Because someone belongs to a
specific racial, ethnic, sex, or age group does not necessarily mean that he or she takes on the thoughts,
behaviours, and attitudes associated with that group. Thus, the potential for miscommunication is great. So
during initial intercultural communication, we have to be mindful that while the person with whom we are
interacting is from a different cultural group, he or she is also an individual.

The Ethics of Intercultural Communication

Ethics involve judgments about what is right and wrong in the course of human conduct. Ethics become
salient (i.e., particularly relevant) whenever human behaviour and decision-making are conscious, voluntary,
and impact others.

Approaches for Determining Which Behaviours are Ethical

 The utilitarian approach, sometimes called utilitarianism, posits that ethical actions are those that
provide the greatest balance of good over evil. Some act is deemed ethical if it provides the greatest
good for the greatest number (of people).
 The rights approach focuses on an individual’s right to choose for herself or himself. Fundamental
human rights include the right to the truth, the right to privacy, the right not to be injured, and the
right to what is agreed on. From this perspective, all humans have the right to be respected and
treated as free, rational, and capable of making their own decisions. Thus, in this view, acts are
ethical to the extent that they respect the rights of others. Acts are wrong to the extent that they
violate the rights of others
 The fairness or social justice approach is based on the Aristotelian dictum that “equals should be
treated equally and unequals unequally.” In In this case, the ethical question is whether an act treats
everyone in the same way or whether it shows favoritism and/or discrimination—that is, treats some
unequally. Advocates of this approach maintain that favoritism benefits some people without a
justifiable reason. Discrimination burdens people who should be treated equally. Hence, an act that
 shows favoritism and/or discrimination is unethical. This approach requires that people be treated
with consistency
 The common good approach is based on the idea that community life is, in and of itself, good and
that people within the community and their subsequent actions should contribute to the community
good. it emphasizes that one’s actions affect everyone’s welfare, including a society’s system of just
laws, public safety, affordable health care, an effective education system, a clean environment, and
even public recreation areas. Thus, an ethical act is one that ensures that such social policies are not
violated, especially those that may inordinately affect vulnerable members of the society. Approach
also challenges societal members to recognize and advance the goals shared by the community.
 The virtues approach asserts the idea that there are certain ideals, principles, or standards (i.e.,
virtues) toward which every individual should strive to reach his or her highest potential. Individuals
realize such virtues through conscious reflection on what kinds of people they have the potential to
become. Virtues such as truth, beauty, honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, tolerance, love,
fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence are encouraged. “What kind of person should I
be? What will promote the development of character within me and my community?”

Competent intercultural communicators possessed five qualities in common:

(a) empathy the ability to sense, accurately perceive, and appropriately respond to one’s
personal, interpersonal, and social environment.
(b) intercultural experience/training,
(c) approach tendencies involve the individual’s interest in and effort to talk, understand, and extend help.
This includes the anticipation of or actual engagement in intercultural communication.
(d) a global attitude describes individuals who are open to others, are better at communicating, show interest
in differences and are aware of them, and have a level of exposure to these differences that makes them able
to discern them.
(e) listening skills they are willing to spend time listening and learning, and they know about cultural matters
and are good at relating to different cultures.

Culture Concept (L1)

Intercultural Communication
 It is the communication exchange between people who are different culturally.
 It examines how the specific cultural differences affect the interactions of the people engaged.
 The focus is on the individualas the unit of analysis.

Cross-cultural Communication
•It is not about the interaction of people from different cultures communicating, but the comparison of their
differences across culture.
•The study of cross-cultural communication comes from anthropology and is usually comparative in nature
(Gudykunst & Mody, 2002).

International Communication
 Also involves the interaction of people from differing cultures
 It is focused on macro issues, such as governmentalor politicalinfluences that affect the
communication
  International communication is about the power, politics, and processesof one nation influencing
another.
 This form of communication originally comes from the study of international propaganda during
World Wars I and II.

Intercultural communication occurs whenever a minimum of two persons from different cultures come
together and exchange verbal and nonverbal symbols (Neuliep). Closely related to Communication,
Psychology, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Anthropologysciences

Aim –to highlight and help to perceive difficulties in communication between cultures and present ways how
to overcome them

Intercultural communication –different problems within an organization

Particularly important in international business:

–Helps to develop intercultural communication skills
–To improve cooperation
–To more efficiently use human potential

In which country should we look for origins of Intercultural Communication?

 In 1946 Foreign Affairs Institute was opened in the USA

 E.T.Hallis credited with beginning the field of intercultural communication.
 In 1959 E.T.Hallpublished his book The Silent Language

 Since 1960 Intercultural Communication as a subject was started to be taught at some universities in
the USA
 In 1970 it became a regular course in most universities
 Now it is being taught in the majority of American universities and colleges

 Interest in Intercultural Communication in Europe arose much later •Why???

 Innovations in Europe are accepted slower and more reluctantly than in the USA
 Foreign language teachers and psychologists were first to show an interest in this science
 In Lithuania Intercultural Communication started to be taught at VU in 2001

What is a culture? How many cultures are there in the world?

 There are more than 700 definitions of culture –none of them the same!
 There are some fundamental properties about culture on which most people can agree
 Culture is our collective answer to questions:
»Who am I?
»How should I live my life?
»Where do I fit in the world?
Culture is the set of values and beliefs, norms and customs, and rules and codes that socially defines a group
of people, binds them to one another, and gives a sense of commonality (Trenholm and Jensen, 2000)
Culture is an accumulated pattern of values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by an identifiable group of people
with a common history and verbal and nonverbal symbol systems (Neulip, 2018)

•The subject and the object of culture is a human-being

•Culture is “humancreated phenomenon” and never inborn or inherited
•Culture can not be felt/tasted or smelled
•It can be perceived through:
–Rituals
–Traditions
–Human behaviour
–Things

Microcultures
 Within most cultures, groups of people—or microcultures—coexist within the mainstream society.
 Microculturesexist within the broader rules and guidelines of the dominant culture
 They are distinct in some way (racially or linguistically, or via their sexual orientation, age, or even
occupation).
 In the United States, Native American/American Indian tribes might be considered microcultures.
 The Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, also can be considered a microcultural group.

Microculture is an identifiable group of people who share a set of values, beliefs, and behaviors and who
possess a common history and a verbal and nonverbal symbol system that is similar to but systematically
varies from the larger, often dominant culture

G.Hofstede
•Is that collective programming of mind?

Collective programming of mind

•Primary –infant stage, parents, institution
•Secondary –school, friends, peers
•Tertiary –becoming an adult, getting a job, adjusting, husband/wife

•G.Hofstede defined culture as “Collective Programming of Mind” separating one group of people from
another
•It is a process we all “get into” when we are born
•Japanese vs Americans
The Iceberg Model (E.T.Hall)

The Iceberg Model (E.T.Hall)

•Culture is assimilated both consciously and subconsciously
•Top part –informal culture
•It can be learned while repeating certain behaviour patterns
•It requires effort self-control
•Bottom part –formal culture
•Behaviour and actions here are performed

Hofstede’s cultural onion

•To describe and compare different cultures, Geert Hofstede developed the so
called “Cultural Onion”.
•A culture can be seen like an onion: there are several layers to it.

•When someone looks at a culture from the outside, they need to slowly work
their way past understanding each layer to get to the core.

•Cultural differences can be described in several ways –as symbols, heroes,

rituals, and values.

Symbols are words, gestures, pictures or objects that carry a particular meaning which is only recognized by
those who share the culture. The words in a language belong to this category, as do dress, hairstyles, Coca-
Cola, flags. New symbols are easily developed and old ones disappear.

Heroes are persons, alive or dead, real or imaginary, who possess characteristics which are highly prized in a
culture, and who thus serve as models for behavior. Examples are Snoopy in the USA, or Asterix in France.

Rituals are collective activities. They are not actually needed to achieve a goal, but are considered absolutely
essential and necessary by the members of a culture. E.g.: Ways of greeting and paying respect to others,
social and religious ceremonies. It is the way you shake hands (if you do), the way you serve tea, the
formula at the beginning and end of a letter, how you give a present, a business card, how you invite people
and how you visit those who invited you.
The core of a culture is formed by values. Values are ideas that tell what in life is considered important, and
they are among the first things children learn. Because they are learned so early in our lives, we are often
unaware of our values. Describing or discussing them can be difficult, and outsiders cannot directly see
them. They can only watch the symbols, heroes and rituals of a culture and try to guess what the values –the
inner core –are.

The term culture is difficult to define.

•Culture can be defined as an accumulated pattern of values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by an identifiable
group of people with a common history and verbal and nonverbal symbol system.
•Intercultural communication is essentially contextual.
•The cultural, microcultural, and environmental contexts surround the communicators, whose sociorelational
contexts are defined by the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages encoded and decoded within each
interactant’s perceptual context.

Culture classification models (L2)

Culture categories
• 200 recognized countries in the world
• Strong regional variations
• North and south of Italy, France and Germany
• Clearly different historical backgrounds:
– The UK with Celtic and Saxon components
– Fiji with Polynesians and Indians,
– Russia with numerous subcultures such as Tatar, Chechen, etc.
• In a world of rapidly globalizing business, the ability to interact successfully with foreign partners is
seen as increasingly essential and desirable
• So how many adaptations are required for effective international business relations??? 200?
• What if there were fewer cultural types to familiarize oneself with?
• Geographical divisions (North, South, East, West)
• But what is “Eastern” culture? Is it unified?
• People can be classified according to their religion (Muslim, Christian, Hindu etc.)
• Or ethnic/racial origin (Caucasian, Asian, African, Polynesian, Indian, Eskimo, Arab)
• Such categories contain many inconsistencies:
• E.g. Christian Norwegians and Lebanese, Muslim Moroccans and Indonesians, and so on

R.D.Lewis
• Linear-active
• Multi-active
• Reactive

G.Hofstede
• Geert Hofstede have sought dimensions to cover all cultures
• His five dimensions included:
– Power Distance,
 – Collectivism versus Individualism,
– Femininity versus Masculinity,
– Uncertainty Avoidance,
– Long Term versus Short Term Orientation (LTO)/Pragmatic versus Normative (PRA)
– Indulgence versus Restraint (IND)

Edward T. Hall classified groups as:

– monochronic or polychronic,
– high or low context
– past- or future-oriented

Alfons Trompenaars’ dimensions:

– Universalism vs. particularism (What is more important, rules or relationships?)
– Individualism vs. collectivism (communitarianism) (Do we function in a group or as
individuals?)
– Neutral vs. emotional (Do we display our emotions?)
– Specific vs. diffuse (How separate we keep our private and working lives)
– Achievement vs. ascription (Do we have to prove ourselves to receive status or is it given to
us?)
– Sequential vs. synchronic (Do we do things one at a time or several things at once?)
– Internal vs. external control (Do we control our environment or are we controlled by it?)

Florence Kluckholn saw five dimensions/attitudes to problems:

– time,
– nature,
– nature of man,
– form of activity and
– relation to one’s cultural compatriots

Culture categories. The need for a categorization is obvious. It enables us to:

✦ predict a culture’s behavior,
✦ clarify why people did what they did,
✦ avoid giving offense,
✦ search for some kind of unity,
✦ standardize policies
✦ perceive neatness and order

R.D.Lewis model
• R.D.Lewis model focuses on communication and attitude
• He subdivided cultures into 3 categories (or some combination of these variations) according to their
focus or concentration:
– Linear-active (result-oriented)(Cool, factual, decisive planner)
– Multi-active (people-oriented) (warm, emotional, loquacious, impulsive)
– Reactive (respect-oriented) (courteous, accommodating, compromiser, god listener)
 This triangle does not indicate other
cultural resemblances (core beliefs,
religion, taboos etc.) Therefore
Spaniards and Arabs, though
strikingly different in ideological
and theological convictions, are
able to benefit from their similar
multi-active nature in
communicating. Our personal traits
can contradict the national norm As
well as the personal or
psychological traits of an
individual, the context within which
he or she operates is an important
factor. Situational context consists
of: (age, profession and field of
study )
• Age is, a well-recognized “layer of culture”. Attitudes about society, authority, law and freedom are
often generational, Younger people test strongly linear-active or multi-active according to their
culture, but both groups become more reactive as they get older
• A person’s profession is also an influential factor. Linear-active people often wind up as engineers,
accountants and technologists. Teachers, artists and sales and marketing staff lean toward multi-
active options. Doctors and lawyers either need to be reactive by nature or develop reactive skills in
order to listen carefully to their clients’ needs. Human resource managers tend to be more hybrid, as
they seek and promote diversity in a firm’s human and cultural capital. Successful managers are also
generally hybrid, with evenly balanced LMR scores. Skilled senior managers are usually more multi-
active than the norm, especially in cultures where linearity is the norm
The early years of the twenty-first century find some degree of blending of cultural categories.
Globalization, especially in business, has been one of the major forces behind this phenomenon. This trend
is the most visible in the linear-active/reactive categories

Hofstede (1997)
He surveyed over 116,000 employees of IBM, compared work-related attitudes across the countries and
found four dimensions of cultural values held by both employees and managers:
 1. individualism/collectivism (IDV)
2. power distance (PDI)
3. uncertainty avoidance (UAI)
4. masculinity/femininity (MAS)
• 20 years, 116 000 respondents, More than 50 countries, More than 20 different languages

1. Individualism/collectivism
• This dimension describes the relationship between the individual and the groups to which she or he
belongs
• This dimension relates to the question of what a culture values in terms of individual achievement or
collective group accomplishments
• In individualist cultures, the individual is the most important element in any social setting.
• In contrast, in collectivist cultures the group is the major element.
• People are expected to conform to the group’s norms and values
• Columbia, Venezuela, Pakistan, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Chile, and Hong Kong are
collectivist countries.

2. Power distance
• It is the degree to which the culture tolerates inequality in power distribution in relationships and
organizations
• High-power distance cultures tend to be authoritarian, with a hierarchical or vertical structure of
social relationships
• People are assumed to be unequal
• Differences in age, sex, generation, and status are maximized
• Brazil, Hong Kong, Columbia, Mexico, Venezuela, India, the Philippines and Singapore are
representative of the high-power distance countries
• Low-power distance cultures are characterized by an emphasis on horizontal relationships rather than
vertical ones
• Differences in age, sex, generation, status, roles are minimized and individual differences are
encouraged.
• These countries tend to be less formal and more direct in their communication
• Examples of low-power distance countries are Australia, Israel, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland,
Switzerland, New Zealand and Ireland.

3. Uncertainty avoidance
• This dimension measures the degree to which a culture can tolerate uncertainty and ambiguous
situations.
• Members of high-uncertainty avoidance countries (e.g. Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Argentina, Chile,
Peru, Spain, France, and Japan) try to reduce the level of ambiguity and uncertainty
• They resist change, fear failure, avoid risk taking.
• Low-uncertainty avoidance cultures are more comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.
• They are better able to cope with the stress and anxiety
• They take more initiative, exhibit greater flexibility
• Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and the
US are examples of countries with low-uncertainty avoidance.

4. Masculinity/femininity

• This dimension is the degree to which stereotypically masculine and feminine traits prevail in a
culture.
• Does the culture place the highest value on assertiveness, wealth and achievement, or on
relationships, caring for others, and the overall quality of life?
 • In a masculine culture, men are dominant.
• Communication style tends to be aggressive
• Japan, Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, Ireland, Switzerland and Venezuela are masculine countries.
• Members of feminine countries emphasize compassion, emotion, affection and sensitivity.
• Gender roles are more equal.
• People are more tolerant of ambiguous situations and more capable of reading nonverbal cues.
• Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Chile, Portugal, and Thailand represent
feminine cultures

5th dimension

• A fifth Dimension was added in 1991 based on research by Michael Bond

• He conducted an additional international study among students with a survey instrument that was
developed together with Chinese employees and managers.
• That Dimension, based on Confucian dynamism, is Long-Term Orientation (LTO) and was applied
to 23 countries
• The long-term orientation dimension can be interpreted as dealing with society’s search for virtue.
• Societies with a short-term orientation generally have a strong concern with establishing the absolute
Truth.
• They are normative in their thinking. They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small
propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results.
• In societies with a long-term orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on situation,
context and time.
• They show an ability to adapt traditions to changed conditions, a strong wish to save and invest,
thriftiness

6th dimension

• In the 2010 edition of Cultures and Organizations, a sixth dimension has been added, based on
Michael Minkov's analysis of the World Values Survey data for 93 countries
• This new dimension is called Indulgence versus Restraint (IND)

Indulgence vs restraint
• Indulgence stands for a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human
drives related to enjoying life and having fun
• Restraint stands for a society that suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict
social norms.

E.T.Hall (1976). He divided culture into two dimensions:

• Low-context cultures vs High-context cultures
• Monochronic vs Polychronic time sense

• Environmental, sociorelational and perceptional contexts have an immense impact on

communication
• LC and HC communication refers to the fact that when people communicate, they take for granted
how much the listener knows about the subject under discussion (low-context – the listener knows
very little; high-context – listener is already ‘contexted’)
• High-context cultures focus on the nonverbal context (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese,
Greek and Arabian)
• Low-context cultures focus on the verbal context (German, Scandinavian, American, and Swiss)
 • Many low-context cultures are highly individualistic (Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia, the
United States, France, the United Kingdom)
• The difference in context means different style of communication
• To members of high-context culture, members of a low-context culture often appear overly talkative,
lacking in subtlety
• To members of low-context culture, high-context communicators often appear inexpressive or even
dishonest
• Members of high- and low-context cultures communicate differently, especially with the use of
silence
• “One of the fundamental components of cultural and linguistic competence is knowing how and
when to use silence as a communicative tactic” (Charles Braithwaite)
• High-context cultures do not rely on verbal communication
• Silence communicates mutual understanding
• Much of the meaning is expected to be interpreted by the receiver
• Unlike in high-context cultures, doing most low context transactions, silence is uncomfortable
• People who do not talk are perceived negatively
• Silence communicates a problem
• Low-context communicators are expected to be direct and say what they think

Kai Hammerick & R.D.Lewis “Fish can’t see water” Chapter 2 p.54-71

Corporate culture. Many of the people living and working inside a nation are also living and working inside
a company or corporation. Aligning the corporate culture with that of their country – this certainly tends to
attract customers in the domestic market. There are no universal rules uniformly beneficial to the
establishment of a corporate culture. They vary enormously even inside one country and one branch of
commerce
 Nation-state traits are usually influential at the beginning
 Historical factors bear upon the creation of corporate cultures just as they do at the national level. In
which historical period did the company first see daylight? Was it born during a depression, boom
time or war? Three revolutions – agricultural, industrial and technological – have parented
commercial enterprises with very different agendas, aims, aspirations and avenues of ambition.
 Who were the founders and early managers of the company? Did the emerging corporate culture
reflect their image
 The tripartite categorization of the Lewis model – distinguishing between linear-active, multi-active
and reactive cultures – will, in the main, engender corporate cultures which follow this pattern. Thus
we might expect board members in linear-active Holland to install procedures based on facts,
planning, action and implementation, while their multi-active French counterparts would place more
emphasis on elegant discourse, theoretical models and the company's reputation in the larger society.
Japanese companies and conglomerates (reactive) are seen as semi-sacred entities where self-
sacrifice, paternalism and internal cooperation combine to reinforce a strict, albeit benign, hierarchy
Linear-active cultures

Linear-active people tend to be task-oriented, highly organized planners who complete action chains by
doing one thing at a time, preferably in accordance with a linear agenda. They prefer straightforward and
direct discussion, depending on facts and figures they obtain from reliable, often printed or computer-based
sources. Speech is for information exchange, and conversationalists take turns talking and listening. Truthful
rather than diplomatic, linear-actives do not fear confrontation, adhering to logic rather than emotions. They
partly conceal feelings and value a certain amount of privacy. Results are key, as are moving forward
quickly and compromising whennecessary to achieve a deal.

Linear-actives believe that good products make their own way and sometimes fail to see that sales are based
on relationships in many parts of the world. They normally use official channels to pursue their aims and are
usually not inclined to use connections, take shortcuts or influence opinions through presents or undercover
payments. Normally law-abiding, linear-actives have faith in rules and regulations to guide their conduct.

They honour written contracts and do not unduly delay payment for goods or services received. When doing
business, they are keen on punctual performance, quality and reliable delivery dates. Mañana behaviour and
over-loquacity are frowned upon. They are process oriented, brief on the telephone and respond quickly to
written communication. Status is gained through achievement, bosses are often low key and money is
important. Rationalism and science dominate thinking more than religion does.

The term linear-active refers to cultures which emphasise “linear” qualities such as punctuality, step-by-step
planning in a straightforward manner, singlemindedness, observation of deadlines, quick responses to
written communication and completion of action chains, and which are very “active” in supporting and
buttressing these goals with an elaborate system of medium- and long-term strategies embedded in a
complex mesh of processes and doctrines

Multi-active cultures

Multi-actives are emotional, loquacious and impulsive people; they attach great importance to family,
feelings, relationships and people in general. They set great store by compassion and human warmth. They
like to do many things at the same time and are poor followers of agendas. Conversation is roundabout and
animated as everyone tries to speak and listen at the same time. Not surprisingly, interruptions are frequent,
pauses in conversation few. Multi-actives are uncomfortable with silence and can seldom tolerate it.

In business, relationship and connections are seen as more important than products. The former pave the
way for the sale of the latter. Relationships are best when they are face to face; they cannot be maintained
over a protracted period simply by written correspondence or phone calls, although the former has less effect
with multi-actives than the latter. They much prefer to obtain their information directly from people and
trade in rumour and gossip. Multi-actives show less respect than linear-actives do for official
announcements, rules or regulations. Although they have limited respect for authority in general, they
nevertheless accept their place in their own social or company hierarchy. Strong bosses are admired and are
also expected to protect their employees.

Multi-actives are often late with delivery dates and paying for services or goods received. Less interested in
schedules or deadlines than linear-actives are, multi-actives often move only when they are ready.
Therefore, procrastination is common, punctuality infrequent. Multi-actives' concepts of time and discourse
are decidedly nonlinear, and they fail to understand the importance that timetables have for linear-active
people.

Multi-actives are flexible and frequently change their plans, which in themselves are not as detailed as those
of linear-actives. Improvisation and handling chaos are strong points.
Multi-actives borrow and lend property rather freely. They are gregarious and inquisitive, valuing privacy
less than company. Often epicurean, they adhere less to strict Protestant values than linear-actives do. In
business, they use charisma, rhetoric, manipulation and negotiated truth. They are diplomatic and tactful and
often circumvent laws and officialdom to take “shortcuts”. They entertain lavishly and give presents or
undercover payments to secure deals and contracts.

Lewis's term multi-active connects closely with not only the ability to do several things at once but implies
and spotlights the often equivocal activities and action-mode of the persons in the category. These activities
include the use of flexible or situational truth, frequent manipulation of the situation or environment, seeking
favours with key people and pulling strings, often disregarding regulations and even laws, gaining status
through connections, ignoring principles of punctuality, maximizing power distance, replying tardily to
written correspondence, resorting to improvisation after inadequate planning, often changing plans, allowing
religion to influence business decisions and “renegotiating” contracts (which they regard as ideal documents
in an ideal world).

Reactive cultures

Reactive describes a psychological stance which penetrates the Asian mindset and intention. The genius of
reactive listeners is that they exercise their ability to adapt towards linear-activity or multi-activity within the
framework of their reaction to their interlocutors, e.g.: Japanese stress their undoubted qualities of
punctuality, factuality, planning and calm when dealing with the Germans, but adopt a more flexible,
people-oriented approach when confronted with multiactive Spaniards, Italians.

Reactive cultures listen before they leap. Reactive cultures are the world's best listeners inasmuch as they
concentrate on what the speaker is saying, do not let their minds wander (difficult for Latins) and rarely, if
ever, interrupt a speaker while the discourse or presentation is ongoing. When it is finished, they do not
reply immediately. A decent period of silence after the speaker has stopped shows respect for the weight of
the remarks, which must be considered unhurriedly and with due deference.

Even when representatives of a reactive culture begin their reply, they are unlikely to voice any strong
opinion immediately. A more probable tactic is to ask further questions on what has been said in order to
clarify the speaker's intent and aspirations. Japanese, particularly, go over each point many times in detail to
make sure there are no misunderstandings.

Reactives are introverted; they distrust a surfeit of words and consequently are adept at nonverbal
communication. This is achieved by subtle body language, worlds apart from the excitable gestures of Latins
and Africans.
In reactive cultures the preferred mode of communication is monologue – pause – reflection – monologue. If
possible, one lets the other side deliver its monologue first. In linear-active and multi-active cultures, the
communication mode is a dialogue. One interrupts the other's monologue with frequent comments, even
questions, which signify polite interest in what is being said. As soon as one person stops speaking, the other
takes up his or her turn immediately, since the Westerner has an extremely weak tolerance for silence.

Reactives not only tolerate silence well but regard it as a very meaningful, almost refined, part of discourse.
The opinions of the other party are not to be taken lightly, or dismissed with a snappy or flippant retort.
Clever, wellformulated arguments require – deserve – lengthy silent consideration

The reactive “reply-monologue” is context-centred and will presume a considerable amount of knowledge
on the part of the listener

Lack of eye contact, Small talk does not come easily

Self-disparagement is another tactic of reactives; it eliminates the possibility of offending others. Such
humility may draw the other person into praising one's conduct or decisions. Linear-actives and multi-
actives must be aware of presuming that self-disparagement is connected with a weak position.

Cultural stereotypes (L3)

Cultural generalizations
• Hofstede’s research relates to ongoing discussion regarding generalizations and sophisticated
stereotypes.
• Critics claim that it is not possible to rank an entire nation on only one side of the continuum or the
other.
• Any culture could be both individualistic and collectivistic depending on situation and context.

Are generalizations considered labels or stereotypes?

“Good cultural generalizations are based on systematic cross-cultural research. They refer to predominant
tendencies among groups of people, so they are not labels for individuals. A given individual may
exhibit the predominant group tendency a lot, a little, or not at all. So cultural generalizations must
be applied to individuals as tentative hypotheses, always open to verification”. (Bennett, 2001)

Generalizations are helpful as long as we realize that the results of any study may or may not be applicable
to specific individuals or events.
“For global managers, using cultural generalizations is the best way to combine cross-cultural knowledge
with openness to individual differences. This combination of knowledge and openness translates into the
strongest climate of respect for diversity, and thus, to competitive advantage”(Bennett, 2001).

• The Hofstede rankings are to be used merely as a guide for initially understanding culture.
• Is China really a collectivistic society?
• Current social changes (one-child policy and the broadening of the middle class) are affecting this
core dimension as young people become more individualistic.
• It is therefore necessary to gather more information and use the findings merely as a starting place.
• The results of the Hofstede dimensions are categorized by country
• Any national country has many cultural groups (China has over 56 ethnic minorities)
• Only 10 percent of the 200+ national cultures can be considered monocultural (Gannon, 2008).
• Paradoxical values exist within any society because of the unique attributes of people who make up
the culture.
• So, it is not possible to say, ‘‘All Irish are…’’ All Germans are….’’ All Indonesians are….’’ Rather,
we can say, ‘‘Generally, Irish people value….’’ Or ‘‘Generally, Germans might think that….’’

By constructing categories, the human mind processes information more efficiently. Stereotyping involves
members of one group attributing characteristics to members of another group. Stereotypes become
dangerous when we determine that all people are ‘‘this or that’’ and we become rigid and inflexible with our
views. They carry positive or negative evaluation. Stereotypes are categories with an attitude.

What is a stereotype? A generalization about a group of people. Exaggerated image of the characteristics of
a particular group held by prejudiced people who hold ill feeling towards the group (R.Schaefer). Cognitive
representations of another group that influence one’s feelings about the group (Gudykunst&Kim). A belief
about a person or group that puts everyone into a category. A lazy way to describe people
Stereotypes about groups of people can be positive, negative, or neutral.
1. We categorize others based on easily identifiable characteristics
2. We assume that certain attributes apply to most or all of the people in the category
3. We assume that individual members of the category have the attributes associated with the group

Stereotyping should be seen as a normal process or as an information processing tool

The difficulty arises when:
– it carries a negative valence
– is used to overgeneralize negative traits of an entire group (that few members actually
possess)

It can lead to:

Ethnocentrism – view of things in which one’s own group is the center of everything
and all others are rated with reference to it (Sumner)
Prejudice - a faulty and inflexible stereotype, a judgment without any previous
thoughts or concerns (Cushner and Brislin). Prejudice is always negative. Prejudice is
an assumption or an opinion about someone simply based on that person's
membership to a particular group. People can be prejudiced against someone else of a
different ethnicity, gender, or religion. A person might have a lot of preconceived
ideas about someone who is Christian, Muslim, or Jewish (Black, White, or Asian)
and will allow those judgements to affect the way they view and treat those people.

• The study of racial and ethnic stereotypes started in 1930s in the US. The study conducted by David
Katz & Kenneth Braly. College students were presented with 84 adjectives. They were asked to use
them to describe 10 ethnic groups (Americans, Blacks, Chinese, English, Germans, Jews etc.).
Students consistently agreed on the traits
• Human perception is not necessarily accurate and honest
• Perception is influenced by one’s needs, wishes, expectations
• People perceive what they expect to perceive
• Stereotypes lead to expectations

How do stereotypes affect our intercultural communication?

Neuliep, J.W. Intercultural Communication: a Contextual Approach (2017) p. 285-307

By constructing categories, the human mind processes information more efficiently. Once created,
categories are the basis of prejudgment, such as stereotyping. Considered a subset of categorization,
stereotyping involves members of one group attributing characteristics to members of another group. These
attributions typically carry a positive or negative evaluation. In this sense, stereotypes are categories with an
attitude. Stereotypes typically refer to membership in social categories—such as sex, race, age, or
profession—that are believed to be associated with certain traits and behaviors.

The difficulty arises when stereotypes carry a negative valence and are used to overgeneralize negative traits
to an entire group of people when, in reality, few members of the group actually possess such traits. In this
way, stereotyping can lead to ethnocentrism, prejudice, and discrimination
A considerable body of research suggests that media play a significant role in the development of
stereotypes.

Theory, called cultivation theory, developed by George Gerbner and his colleagues proposes that long-term
exposure to media, especially television, “cultivates” in viewers a perception of social reality that is
reflective of the content they view on television.

Gerbner refers to this as symbolic reality and contends that this process begins early in life. He observes that
before they can read or even speak, children watch television, much of it designed specifically for them. But
Gerbner is careful to point out that viewers are not passive receivers in the cultivation process. Viewers
make their desires known, and the producers of television programming are sensitive to them and appeal to
them. So the cultivation process is a dynamic, interdependent one that evolves and adapts with each new
generation of viewers

To the extent media portray Black Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanics/Latinos in stereotypical
rather than accurate ways, such stereotyping serves to validate, accentuate, and perpetuate hostile, and
sometimes benevolent, racism.

Stereotype Content Model

Stereotype Content Model A model that proposes that all stereotypes are based on social perceptions of
warmth and competence

At the core of the SCM is the thesis that individuals’ social perceptions (i.e., stereotypes) about others are
based on two judgments: warmth and competence. The model posits that people ask two questions upon
encountering out-group members: Do they intend to harm me? and Are they capable of harming me? In the
SCM, judgments of warmth and competence stem from two appraisals: (a) the potential harm or benefit of
the target’s intent and (b) whether the target can effectively enact that intent. Judgments of warmth are based
on social perceptions of honesty, trustworthiness, friendliness, sincerity, and the like. Judgments of
competence are based on social perceptions of skillfulness, knowledge, intelligence, confidence, and so on.
When stereotyping, competitors lack warmth, while noncompetitors are warm; high-status people are
competent, while low-status people are incompetent. While both warmth and competence are core
dimensions in all stereotypes, judgments of warmth seem to be primary; that is, warmth is judged before
competence, probably because judgments of warmth determine approach–avoidance tendencies (e.g., Is this
person safe?). However, according to
the SCM, when a person stereotypes
someone, that stereotype is based on a
combination of both warmth and
competence. The stereotyped person
could be judged as either high or low on
warmth and either high or low on
competence

Noncompetitive groups are seen as warm, while competitive groups are seen as cold. High-status groups are
seen as competent, while low-status groups are seen as incompetent. SCM posits a direct link between the
larger social structures, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.

This effect is the tendency for people to see members of an out-group as less diverse
and more stereotypical than the members of that group see themselves. We have a tendency to see out-group
members as highly similar (i.e., homogeneous) yet view ourselves and our in-group members as unique and
individual.
 Cultural adaptation (L4)

“Exploring a new culture without experiencing a culture shock is like learning to swim without the water”
(G.Hofstede)

Cultural differences may cause cultural misunderstandings. Staying in a new culture for a prolonged time
may lead to frustration or a culture shock. It is a very personalexperience (not the same for two people or
two different occasions). It is always a process

Indicators of a culture shock

1. Familiar cues now have a different meaning
2. Values are not respected by the host
3. One feels disoriented, anxious, depressed or hostile, experiences stress
4. One is dissatisfied with most of the things (climate, food etc.)
5. Social skills that used to work do not seem to work any longer
6. There is a sense that this horrible state will never go away
7. Everything and everyone around is being criticized
8. Excuses to stay at home
9. Fear to touch locals
10. Refusal to start learning a local language
11. Exaggerated worship of the native country and culture
12. Very strong wish to come back home
13. Wish to communicate with “non-locals” only

Culture shock is a multifaceted experience that results from the numerous stressors that occur when coming
into contact with a different culture (Winkelman). Anyone can experience it

It can occur within immigrant groups: –Foreign students –Refugees –International businessmen –Volunteers
–Social workers –Professors etc.

Anthropologist KalervoOberg was the first to apply the term culture shock/ Most models of culture shock
include four stages. K.Obergused a medical metaphor (1954): –1. Incubation –2. Crisis –3. Recovery –4.
Full recovery

Culture shock models

Stage 1.Initially called the tourist stage/honeymoon stage. Euphoria, Excitement, Positive reaction to stress
,Interest in culture, Photograph

Stage 2. Called real culture shock/frustration/crisis stage. Confusion, Frustration, Lack of control,
Stress/anxiety, Depression, Paranoia
Stage 3. Typically called adjustment/reorientation phase. Problems solving skills, Conflict resolution,
Appreciation of host culture, Intercultural relationships

Stage 4. Is called adaptation/acculturation stage. Bicultural identity, Constructive responses, Stable

adaptations, Personal growth, Cultural transformation, Functional fitness

Interpersonal factors. Age, Previous travel, Language skills,

Resourcefulness, Independence, Tolerance for ambiguity

Intrapersonal factors, Social support networks, Intercultural

relationships, Intracultural relationships

Biological factors, Physical condition, Medical or dietary needs,

Ability to tolerate biorhythmic disruptions

Geopolitical factors
•International, national, regional or local tensions

Host culture attitudes. Immigration policies, Racism, Stereotypes of newcomers, Discrimination

Spatial factors. Length of stay. Geographical locale

Cultural similarity. Degree of similarity between native and host culture

Quality of information
•Amount of information about new environment
•Channels of communication
•Media exposure

Control factors. Degree of control one has over initiating move to a new culture

Neuliep, J.W. Intercultural Communication: a Contextual Approach (2017) p. 668-677

When people move to a new culture, they take with them the values, beliefs, customs, and behaviors of their
old culture. Often, depending on the degree of similarity between the old and the new culture, the values,
beliefs, customs, and behaviors of the native culture clash with those of the new culture. This can result in
disorientation, misunderstandings, conflict, stress, and anxiety. Researchers call this phenomenon culture
shock.
Likewise, Winkelman points out that culture shock stems from the challenges associated with new cultural
surroundings in addition to the loss of a familiar cultural environment. Culture shock appears to be a
psychological and social process that progresses in stages, usually lasting as long as a year.

Most models of culture shock

describe the process curvilinearly,
or by what Sverre Lysgaard called
the “U-curve hypothesis.”
Elaborating on the U curve,
Professor Kim Zapf asserts that
culture shock begins with feelings
of optimism and even elation that eventually give way to frustration, tension, and anxiety as individuals are
unable to interact effectively with their new environment. As they develop strategies for resolving conflict,
people begin to restore their confidence and eventually recover and reach some level of acculturation.

The initial stage of culture shock, usually called

something like the tourist stage or
honeymoon stage, is characterized by intense
excitement and euphoria associated with being
somewhere different and unusual. Winkelman
asserts that this stage is typical of that
experienced by people who enter other cultures
temporarily during honeymoons, vacations, or
brief business trips. The stresses associated with
cultural differences are tolerated and may even seem fun and humorous. During the tourist phase, the
newcomers’ primary interactions with their new cultural environment are through major cultural institutions,
such as museums, hotels, Western restaurants, and so forth. This phase may last weeks or months but is
temporary. Eventually, the fun and excitement associated with the tourist phase give way to frustration and
real stress, or active culture shock. Failure events once considered minor and funny are now perceived as
stressful. Winkelman maintains that culture shock is partially based on the simultaneous effects of cognitive
overload and behavioral inadequacy that are rooted in the psychological and physical stresses associated
with confronting a new environment. The new environment requires a great deal of conscious energy that
was not required in the old environment, which leads to cognitive overload and fatigue. People also
experience role shock in that the behaviors associated with their role in their native culture may be
dramatically different from the behaviors for that same role in the new culture. Finally, people may
experience personal shock in the form of a loss of intimacy with interpersonal partners.

Second stage: Things start to go wrong, minor

issues become major problems, and cultural
differences become irritating. Excessive
preoccupation with cleanliness of food, drinking
water, bedding, and surroundings begins. One
experiences increasing disappointments,
frustrations, impatience, and tension. Life does not
make sense and one may feel helpless, confused,
disliked by others, or treated like a child.
Paranoia—in which newcomers are convinced that
their troubles are deliberate attempts by the natives
to disrupt their lives—is also a typical response to
culture shock. In this phase, people may develop
irrational fears of being cheated, robbed, or even
assaulted. Some people never recuperate from the
crisis stage of culture shock and return home or isolate themselves from the host culture by restricting their
interaction with it, such as by fostering only intracultural relationships (e.g., in a military base or university
setting).

The third phase of culture shock is typically called the adjustment phase, or reorientation phase. Here,
people eventually realize that the problems associated with the host culture are due not to deliberate actions
by the natives but, rather, to a real difference in values, beliefs, and behaviors. At this stage, people actively
seek out effective problem-solving and conflict-resolution strategies. They begin to develop a positive
attitude about solving their problems. As Winkelman notes, the host culture begins to make sense, and
pessimistic reactions and responses to it are lessened as people recognize that their problems are due largely
to their inability to understand, accept, and adapt. Typically, the adjustment phase is gradual and slow, and
often people relapse into mini-crisis stages.
The final stage of culture shock is labeled the adaptation or acculturation stage. At this point, individuals
actively engage the culture with their new problem-solving and conflict-resolution tools, and they
experience some degree of success

Kim argues that to the extent that people acculturate to their new culture, they experience cultural
transformation. They possess a degree of functional fitness in which the external demands of the host culture
are met with appropriate and consistent internal responses. Moreover, they develop a level of competency in
communicating with the natives. As a result of their successes, people also acquire psychological health,
take on an intercultural identity, and foster a sense of integration with their host environment

W-Curve Models of Reentry Culture Shock

Adrian Furnham and Stephen Bochner’s “W-curve” model of culture shock contains two U curves—the
initial culture shock experienced when the traveler enters a new culture and a reentry shock U curve

Strategies for Managing Culture Shock

Successful management of culture shock depends on an awareness of its symptoms and the degree of its
severity. Winkelman maintains that sometimes people falsely attribute their problems to sources other than
culture shock. He argues that people have a tendency to deny that they are experiencing it. His advice is that
one should accept the fact that virtually all atypical problems that occur during acculturation are caused or
exacerbated by culture shock.

Non-verbal Intercultural Communication

Relationship between Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. Human language evolved from a system of
nonlinguistic (nonverbal) communication. When we combine verbal and nonverbal language, we create
communication system through which humans understand each other. All animals interact nonlinguistically
through sight, sound, smell and touch. Like verbal language, much of nonverbal communication is learned
and varies across cultures
Nonverbal communication focuses on the messages people send to one another that do not contain words but
are sent through:
– Body motions
– Vocal qualities
– Personal space
– Dress
– Smell etc.

Channels of Nonverbal Communication

• Kinesics (communication with the body) – consists of the use of the hands, arms, legs, and face to
send the message
• Paralanguage (the use of the voice) – refers to the vocal characteristics (volume, pitch, rate etc.)
• Proxemics – refers to the perception of space
• Haptics (tactile communication) – refers to the use of touch
• Olfactics – refers to our sense of smell
• Physical appearance and dress – refers to physical observations of the other’s physical appearance

• During IC verbal and nonverbal messages are sent simultaneously

• Verbal communication represents the literal content of the message whereas the nonverbal component
communicates the style or how the message should be interpreted
• Nonverbal code often complements, accents, substitutes, repeats or even contradicts the verbal message
• The nonverbal signal system is much more restrictive than the verbal code
• It is impossible to communicate about the past or the future through nonverbal communication (e.g.
waving your hands of impending danger)
• Communication of negation is practically impossible with the nonverbal code system (e.g. not going to
the grocery store tomorrow)
• All verbal languages have a formal set of rules (grammar, syntax etc.)
• Different types of nonverbal communication can be categorized, but these categories are much more
loosely defined
• Nowhere there is a book or guide prescribing exactly what nonverbal behaviour should be used when
and where

Kinesic behaviour (body movement) includes:

– Gestures
– Hand and arm movements
– Leg movements
– Gaze and blinking
– Posture
Children use gestures earlier than words, Later they are replaced by the words, Research indicates that by 6
months of age babies in all cultures begin to use gestures to communicate with parents, Edward Sapir noted
that gestures are a part of the secret code of all cultures that is “written nowhere, known by none, understood
by all”

Greeting rituals are an important component in any person’s communication, In high-context and
collectivistic cultures, greeting rituals often differ according to one’s social status, Bowing is a customary
greeting in Korea and other Asian cultures , When Koreans greet persons of higher status (elders, professors,
persons of power), they bow lower and longer. In addition to bowing as a greeting, Japanese businesspeople
also exchange business cards, Double-sided (in Japanese and English) business cards are important, They
are exchanged at the beginning of the meeting and while standing. In Saudi Arabia men kiss one another on
both cheeks and prefer to get very close. The cheek-kissing ritual is practiced in other Middle Eastern
cultures as well.. The Arab handshake feels lose compared with the firm handshake in many Western
cultures

Offensive gestures. Many cultures have illustrations for insulting others. Most cultures have 6 or 7 obscene
gestures (Archer). Whereas some northern European cultures (Netherlands and Norway) do not have any
native obscene gestures

• Facial expressions. More than any other part of the body, the face has the highest nonverbal sending
capacity. Current evidence suggests that some facial expressions of emotions called affect display are
universal. Humans can make more than 10,000 facial expressions. 2,000 to 3,000 of them have to do
with emotions. A facial expression of anger is remarkably similar in several animal species. Though
many expressions of primary emotions appear universal, cultural differences play role in the
expression of emotion too. People from collectivistic cultures are less confident expressing negative
emotions than people from individualistic cultures. In Eastern cultures a smile might mean
embarrassment and shyness not joy or happiness
• INTENSIVE EYE CONTACT – Arab countries, Mediterranean countries, Latin Europe and Latin
America
• AVERAGE/STRONG EYE CONTACT – Northern Europe, North America, Korea and Thailand
 • INDIRECT EYE CONTACT – Most Asian countries

• Paralanguage refers to vocal qualities that usually, though not necessary, accompany speech. They
include:
– Pitch
– Rhythm
– Tempo
– Articulation
– Silence in speech act etc.
• Paralinguistic features often reveal a speaker’s emotional state. Parents might detect a child’s
deception not by what he says, but how it is said. Tonal languages rely on vocalized tones to
communicate meaning. English speakers can communicate anger or sadness changing the pitch of
their voice. Some paralinguistic devices are learned and vary across cultures. South Koreans are
taught to avoid talking and laughing loudly. A research on native and nonnative paralinguistic
accents showed that:
– Persons with nonnative accents are perceived differently (usually more negative)
– It is one of the most salient characteristics of a person as an in-group or out-group member
– These people are stereotyped negatively (perceived as less intelligent, less loyal, less
competent etc.)
– Face discrimination in housing and employment
– Are more likely to be assigned lower-status positions
• In the USA a British accent is often perceived as prestigious. Western European accents are
perceived more favorable than Asian or Hispanic accents

Silence is considered to be a paralinguistic channel. Culture influences the meaning and use of silence
(Hasagawa and Gudykunst). In the USA silence is defined as a pause, break, empty space, lack of verbal
communication. In Japan, it is a space or pause during verbal communication that has important meaning. It
is used to avoid directness and maintain harmony

Proxemics: Communication zones (Hall). Proxemics refers to the perception and use of space, including
territoriality and personal space. Hall created 4 communication zones and described them:
– Intimate
– Personal
– Social
– Public

Intimate zone (15-46 cm). Only emotionally very close people are allowed to enter it. It shows great trust.
Other people in this zone will arise negative emotions. Japanese are very sensitive about this zone
Personal zone (46-120 cm). In many cultures people feel distracted if others invade this zone. The smallest
personal zone is maintained in Latin America and Arab countries. A bit bigger – in the USA and France.
The biggest – in Germany and Japan
Social zone (1,2-3,6 m). Business people communicate in this zone. People work, solve problems and
interact here. Maintaining this distance means one is not willing to have very close relationship
Public zone (3,6 m and more). Contact between people in this zone is impersonal and very formal. Used for
public speeches

Haptics. Haptics, or tactile communication, refers to the use of touch. Knapp and Hall argue that touch may
be the most primitive form of communication. Haptic communication varies widely across cultures. The
amount and kind of touch varies with the age, sex, situation, and relationship between people. E.T.Hall
distinguishes between contact and noncontact cultures
• Contact cultures – South and Central America, South Europe
• Moderate contact cultures – the USA
• Noncontact cultures – most of Asian cultures

Psychologist Sidney Jourard counted the frequency of body contact between couples in a café per hour:
– San Juan (Puerto Rico) – 180
– Paris – 110
– Florida – 2
– London - 0

Because people are taught not to touch others, they develop touch avoidance. Heterosexual men in Italy are
often seen kissing each other, walking together arm in arm. In East India to touch the feet of elders is a sign
of respect. Saudi Arabian businessmen often hold hands as a sign of trust. Saudi women, however, are never
to be touched in public
Most cultures prohibit some forms of touch: In Thailand and Sri Lanka the head is considered sacred. In
many African and Middle Eastern cultures the use of the left hand is forbidden. In Iran and Iraq left hand is
used for cleaning oneself and should never be used to give or receive gifts

Olfactics. The least understood, yet most fascinating of all human sensations is olfactics – our sense of
smell. Humans can detect almost 10,000 different compounds by smell. 1% of our genes are devoted to
detecting odors. Nowadays, particularly in the USA, people are obsessed with masking certain smells,
especially of the human body. Americans are considered to be the biggest users of fragrance in the world. In
many Western cultures body odor is regarded as unpleasant and distasteful. Humans not only detect odor but
also produce them. Humans are the most highly scented of all the apes. The finest perfumes in the world
contain olfactory hints of urine. Scientists claim that they function as sex attractants. Smell is also used
politically for marking social class distinctions. Idiomatic expressions often employ smell-related terms:
 “smell a rat”
 “smells fishy”
 “It doesn’t smell right

Scent can also be perceived as social attribute significant for members of subordinate groups. They are often
labeled as “smelly”. Such labels often foster racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice and hatred. Many cultures
establish norms for acceptable and unacceptable scents. When individuals or groups fail to fit into the
norms, odor signals that something is wrong with them physically or mentally.
• Muslims believe that cleanliness of the body and purity of the soul are related
• Koran specifies that all five daily prayers must be preceded by washing of the hands, arms
and feet
 • Social class distinctions based on smells are the cultural product of education, religion,
parenting and social pressure
• Hitler’s hatred of Jews was based particularly on olfactics
• He claimed that their foul odor was representative of their immorality
• During World War II German and English soldiers claimed they could identify the enemy by
their smell
• The smell preferences are not universal:
• Ethiopians believe that the smell of cows is the most pleasant
• People of Mali find the scent of onions attractive

Physical appearance and Dress. Often we can identify a person’s culture by his or her physical appearance
and dress. In many cultures, a person’s physical appearance and dress communicate the person’s age, sex,
and status within the culture. In every culture men and women dress differently, and in many cultures the
difference begins at birth:.

 Americans dress male infants in blue and female infants in pink

 In the Masai culture in Kenya, the distinction between young girls and women is communicated
through body artifacts
 Muslim women are easily recognized by headscarves
 In Saudi Arabia Islamic law requires women dress conservatively

Neuliep, J.W. Intercultural Communication: a Contextual Approach (2017) p.423-470

The nonverbal code often complements, accents, substitutes, repeats, or even contradicts the verbal
message.
A key distinction between the two is that the verbal language system is based primarily on symbols, whereas
the nonverbal system is signal based. The difference between a symbol and a signal is that a symbol is an
arbitrarily selected and learned stimulus representing something else. A sign, or signal, however, is a natural
and constituent part of that which it represents. Unlike signals, symbols have no natural relationship with
that which they represent; therefore, they are arbitrary abstractions and must be learned.

Another difference between the verbal and nonverbal code is that the nonverbal signal system is much more
restrictive in sending capacity than the verbal code. In addition, communication of negation is practically
impossible with the nonverbal code system.

Formal Versus Informal Code Systems

All verbal languages have a formal set of sounds, syntax, and semantics. The degree of formality of verbal
language is not found in the nonverbal code, however. The alphabets of most verbal languages in the world
represent about 40 sounds. No such formalized alphabet exists for nonverbal codes. Different types of
nonverbal behavior can be categorized, but these categories are much more loosely defined than in the
verbal code. All verbal languages have a set of rules, called grammar or syntax, that prescribes how to
combine the various sounds of the language into meaningful units, such as words and sentences. Although
rules govern the use of nonverbal communication, a formal grammar or syntax does not exist. The rules for
nonverbal communication are learned informally through socialization and vary considerably, even
intraculturally. Finally, the verbal code, when used with the correct syntax, takes on denotative meaning.
When using verbal language, if we hear a word we do not understand, we can quickly consult a dictionary,
and it will define the word for us. The dictionary tells us what the language means. No such device exists for
our nonverbal communication.

Channels of Nonverbal Communication

1. Kinesics
Kinesics, or body movement, includes gestures, hand and arm movements, leg movements, facial
expressions, eye gaze and blinking, and stance or posture. Although just about any part of the body can be
used for communicating nonverbally, the face, hands, and arms are the primary kinesic channels through
which nonverbal messages are sent. Relative to other body parts, they have a high sending capacity,
especially the face. The most widely recognized system for classifying kinesic channels was developed by
Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen. Together, they organized kinesic behavior into five broad categories:
(1) Emblems are primarily (though not exclusively) hand gestures that have a direct literal verbal
translation. Emblems vary considerably across cultures
(2) Illustrators are typically hand and arm movements that accompany speech or function to accent
or complement what is being said. Illustrators serve a metacommunicative function—that is, they
are messages about messages. They are nonverbal messages that tell us how to interpret verbal
messages. Emblems and illustrators are not taught in school but are learned informally through a
child’s socialization in his or her culture. There is growing evidence that emblems and illustrators
play an important role in language, cognitive development, and communicative development.

Knowing the greetings of different cultures when interacting outside your own culture is a
first step toward developing intercultural communication competence. In high-context and
collectivistic cultures, greeting rituals often differ according to one’s social status. Moreover, in
many cultures, men and women have different rules for how to greet someone.

(3) affect displays: facial expression of emotions. Through facial expressions, we can communicate
our personality, open and close channels of communication, complement or qualify other
nonverbal behavior, and, perhaps more than anything, communicate emotional states.
Many linguists believe that our verbal language evolved from a system of nonlinguistic
communication that was inherited from our animal past. If this is a valid assumption, then
we should expect that some forms of our nonverbal communication are invariant across
cultures. Current evidence suggests that some facial expressions of emotion, called affect
displays, are universal. while people from divergent cultures may express emotions similarly,
what stimulates the emotion and the intensity with which it is expressed is probably culturally
specific. Moreover, cultures may differ in how they manage and regulate facial expressions of
emotion, particularly in the presence of others.

The results showed that in an overwhelming number of trials, the emotion rated strongest by the
largest number of observers in each culture was the predicted emotion. Where cultures differed
was in their ratings of intensity of the emotion. Ekman reasoned that perhaps people judge a
foreigner’s expressions to be less intense than expressions shown by members of their own
culture or that attributions of less intense emotions to foreigners might be due more to
uncertainty about the emotional state of person from an unfamiliar culture

Carroll Izard claims that an evolutionary and biological relationship appears to exist between
facial expressions and certain emotional states but that this connection can be uncoupled by the
human capacity to exercise voluntary control over innate emotional expressions.

Persons from individualistic cultures express emotions affirming independent self-conceptions,

such as self-actualized, capable, self-satisfied, and proud of oneself. They also found that persons
 from collectivistic cultures were less comfortable expressing negative emotions (e.g., indignant,
annoyed, distrustful) than were persons from individualistic cultures.
Persons from individualistic cultures are better able to recognize happiness than are collectivists
and that persons from high uncertainty avoidance cultures were less accurate in the recognition of
facial expressions of fear and sadness than were persons with low uncertainty avoidance. High
uncertainty avoidance cultures create social institutions to deal with fear and, therefore, recognize
this emotion less well.
(4) regulators, and
(5) adaptors.

2. Oculesics
Oculesics is the study of eye contact. Eye contact is one of the most dynamic forms of nonverbal behavior
and is an essential biological skill necessary for effective social interactions. Indeed, many researchers
believe that basic visual processes, including attraction to the eye region of the face, are not only innate in
humans but in animals as well. In humans (and probably animals) both adults and infants prefer to look at
the eyes of another over other facial features. direct gaze is associated with approach tendencies, while
averted gaze is associated with avoidance tendencies. But Adams and Kleck also point out that direct gaze in
both humans and animals can communicate threat or friendliness. Thus, they maintain that contextual cues
become important in discerning the meaning of eye gaze within social arenas. Eye contact differs between
men and women across most cultures. Audry Nelson writes that in most cultures, women do more to
enhance their eyes than men do.

3. Paralanguage
Paralanguage refers to vocal qualities that usually, though not necessarily, accompany speech. Knapp and
Hall divide paralanguage into two broad categories: voice qualities and vocalizations. Paralinguistic voice
qualities include pitch, rhythm, tempo, articulation, and resonance of the voice. Paralinguistic vocalizations
include laughing, crying, sighing, belching, swallowing, clearing the throat, snoring, and so forth. Other
paralinguistic vocalizations are intensity and nonfluencies, such as um, ah, and uh. Silence is also considered
within the domain of paralanguage. Often, paralinguistic qualities, vocalizations, and nonfluencies reveal a
speaker’s emotional state or veracity. Audiences can discern when speakers are nervous or confident by
listening to their tone of voice, rhythm, pace, and the number of nonfluencies they utter. Through
paralanguage, we can tell whether speakers are being genuine, cynical, or sarcastic. Moreover, a person’s
geographical origin can be determined by listening closely to his or her paralanguage.

English and other languages have inflections—that is, a change in pitch on certain words and
sentences. English speakers can communicate anger or sadness by changing the pitch of their voice.
Without the appropriate inflection, the meaning of an English speaker’s sentence can be
misinterpreted. In Chinese, however, tones completely change the meaning of a word.

According to Giles, dialect refers to differences in grammar and vocabulary among different versions
of the same language, whereas an accent is the paralinguistic component combined with the
phonological and intonation features of the spoken word—that is, its sound. Hence, speakers with
different accents may share the same grammar, syntax, and lexicon but sound very different in their
usage. Such paralinguistic differences often prompt social perceptions of others, especially during
intercultural communication in which one or more of the interactants speaks with a nonnative accent.
The manner and style in which one speaks, including one’s accent, plays a central role in creating
and maintaining one’s social makeup while communicating to others meaningful social data.63 Most
researchers in this area agree that a nonnative accent often stigmatizes a person as foreign-born and
as someone who does not apply the language competently.
 People who are perfectly verbally fluent in a second language may still carry a nonnative accent after
many years in a host country because they retain the paralinguistic phonology (i.e., the sounds) of
their native tongue. These people, they argue, are usually stereotyped negatively, which carries
serious social, professional, and economic consequences. Nonnative accents are associated with a
wide range of negative stereotypes, including perceptions that the people who speak them are less
intelligent, less loyal, less competent, and lower in social status

4. Proxemics
Proxemics refers to the perception and use of space, including territoriality and personal space. In cultures
whose population density is high, personal space and territoriality are highly valued. Privacy in densely
populated locations is often accomplished psychologically rather than physiologically. Culture plays a
decisive role in how spatial distances are maintained during communication. Other variables besides culture
can affect proxemic distances, however, such as the age and sex of the interactants, the nature of the
relationship, the environment, and the ethnicity of the interactants. Several studies have documented that in
most cultures, the need for personal space increases with age. In addition, the use of space as influenced by
sex seems to vary significantly by culture

5. Haptics
Haptics, or tactile communication, refers to the use of touch. Knapp and Hall argue that touch may be the
most primitive form of communication.76 Haptic communication varies widely across cultures, and the
amount and kind of touch varies with the age, sex, situation, and relationship of the people involved. In his
theorizing about culture and touch, Edward Hall distinguishes between contact and noncontact cultures.77
Contact cultures are those that tend to encourage touching and engage in touching more frequently than do
either moderate-contact or noncontact cultures, in which touching occurs less frequently and is generally
discouraged. Many South and Central American countries are considered contact cultures, as are many
southern European countries. The United States is regarded as a moderate-contact culture, whereas many
Asian countries are considered noncontact.
Because we are often taught not to touch others, some people develop touch avoidance. These people
feel uncomfortable in situations requiring touch and generally avoid touching when possible.

The nature of touch is often mediated by more than culture. The relationship between the
interactants, the location and duration of touch, the relative pressure of the touch, the environment in
which the touch occurs (public or private), and whether the touch is intentional or accidental
influence touch across cultures.

6. Olfactics
Many cultures establish norms for acceptable and unacceptable scents associated with the human body.
When individuals or groups of people fail to fit into the realm of acceptability, their odor signals that
something is “wrong” with them, either physically or mentally. Social class distinctions based on smells are
the cultural product of education, religion, parenting, and social pressure from peers. With the exception of
those scents that appeal to everyone, people are conditioned to find certain scents attractive and others dirty
or foul. Moreover, such distinctions sustain social barriers between groups and even justify a dominant
group’s persecution of subordinate groups
This emphasis on smell is often motivated by the pivotal role olfactics play in the maintenance of
social relationships. Josephine Todrank, Deidre Byrnes, Amy Wrzesniewski, and Paul Rozin assert
that most cultures assign meaning to odors that is often displaced onto the people wearing those
odors.This is especially evident in relationships with members of the opposite sex. Although it is
widely recognized that odors play a determinant role in the mating practices of many animal species,
Kohl and Francoeur argue that odors are also an important ingredient in human mating and bonding,
and they cite empirical evidence showing that odors hasten puberty, mediate women’s menstrual
cycles, and even influence sexual orientation. Extant research indicates that odors help people
 identify their family members, facilitate the bond between parents and children, and influence how
often and with whom individuals mate.

7. Physical appearance and dress

Often, we can identify a person’s culture by his or her physical appearance and dress. Communication with
another is often preceded by visual observations of the other’s physical appearance. Moreover, in most
cultures, people consciously manipulate their physical appearance to communicate their identity. Most
cultures have strict rules for how their members should present themselves. Violating a culture’s
prescriptions for appearance may result in negative sanctions. In many cultures, a person’s physical
appearance and dress communicate the person’s age, sex, and status within the culture .

8. Chronemics
Chronemics refers to the nonverbal channel of time. Hall’s description of monochronic and polychronic
time-oriented cultures. According to Hall, monochronic (M-time) orientations emphasize schedules and the
compartmentalization and segmentation of measurable units of time. Many M-time cultures are low context,
including the United States, Germany, Scandinavia, Canada, France, and most of northern Europe.
Conversely, polychronic (P-time) orientations see time as much less tangible and stress multiple activities
with little emphasis on scheduling. P-time cultures stress involvement of people and the completion of tasks
as opposed to a strict adherence to schedules. Many P-time cultures are high context, including southern
Europe, Latin America, and many African and Middle Eastern countries

Nonverbal Communication and Dimensions of Cultural Variability

1. Individualism–Collectivism
In their review of nonverbal communication in individualistic and collectivistic cultures, persons in
individualistic cultures tend to be distant proximally, whereas persons in collectivistic cultures tend to work,
play, live, and sleep in close proximity. In addition, body movements tend to be more synchronized in
collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures. Facial behaviors (i.e., affect displays) differ as well.
Persons in individualistic cultures tend to smile more than persons in collectivistic cultures. Andersen and
his colleagues reason that people in collectivistic cultures are more likely to suppress their emotional
displays because maintaining group harmony is primary. Finally, individualistic cultures are more
nonverbally affiliative (i.e., enlisting nonverbal behaviors that bring people closer together physically and
psychologically) than are collectivistic cultures.

2. Power Distance
A culture’s power distance (i.e., large vs. small) may account for nonverbal differences across cultures.
Power distance refers to the extent to which less powerful members of a culture expect and accept that
power is distributed unequally. Cultures with a smaller power distance emphasize that inequalities among
people should be minimized and there should be interdependence between less and more powerful people. In
cultures with a larger power distance, inequalities among people are both expected and desired. Less
powerful people should be dependent on more powerful people. In high power distance cultures, interaction
between persons of low and high power may be restricted, thus limiting the amount of nonverbal interaction.
Andersen and his colleagues point out that in large power distance cultures, people without power are
expected to express only positive emotional displays (e.g., smile more) when interacting with those of higher
power. Power distance also affects paralinguistic cues.

Persons in small power distance cultures are generally less aware of their vocalics (e.g., volume, intensity)
than are persons in large power distance cultures. Andersen and his colleagues mention that North
Americans (small power distance) are often perceived as noisy, exaggerated, and childlike. Oculesics, the
way the eyes are used during communication, is also affected by power distance. In large power distance
cultures, subordinates are taught to avert eye contact, often as a sign of respect for those in superior roles.
For example, in large power distance cultures, students rarely give teachers direct eye contact. Direct eye
gaze can be interpreted as a threat or a challenge to the person of higher power.

3. High and Low Context

Recall from that high and low context refer to the degree to which interactants focus on the physical, social,
and psychological (i.e., the nonverbal) context for information. Persons in high-context cultures are
especially sensitive to the nonverbal context. Persons in low-context cultures focus less on the social or
physical context and more on the explicit verbal code. Persons from low-context cultures are perceived as
direct and talkative, whereas persons from high-context cultures are perceived as quiet, shy, and perhaps
even sneaky. Persons in high-context cultures tend to pay a great deal of attention to nonverbal behavior
during interaction. Thus, facial expressions, touch, distance, and eye contact serve as important cues. Subtle
body movements that may be missed by a lowcontext person may take on special meaning to a high-context
person.