Intercultural and

Global
Communication
Ms. Ma. Angelica Naranja
 Thinking About Culture
What does it mean to belong to a culture , and
when you identify yourself as a member of a
larger group, such as culture , to what exactly
do you belong. (Duck & McMahan, 2009)
 Thinking About Culture
We usually think of a culture or society as basically
geographical or ethnic-the East and West, the
majority and the minority. Significant differences of
course, exist between societies in different parts of
the world, and it is true that they speak different
languages; dress differently; and use different
nonverbal systems.
Relationship between Culture and
Language
• Culture does not create different communication but
different communication creates culture.
• Communication creates communities and cultures.
• Cultures are created through communication; that is
communication is the means of human interaction
through which cultural characteristics, whether customs
roles, rules, rituals laws or other patterns-are created and
shared.
 Ethnocentric Bias
• Your culture is the benchmark of all.
• Your own cultural way of acting is right and
normal, and all other ways of acting are only
variants of the only really good way to act
(yourself).
Culture as Geography or Ethnicity
• culture as a structure, place, and national
identity.
• This way of seeing culture focuses on large-
scale differences between nation’s style of
religion or beliefideas of national dreams and
goals or prefered ways of acting.
 Cross-cultural Communication

Generally compares the communication

styles and patterns of people from very
different cultural/social structures, such as
nation-states.
 Intercultural Communication

Deals with how people from these

cultural/social structures speak to one another
and what difficulties they encounter, over and
above different languages they speak
(Gudykunst& Kim. 1984).
 Transacting Culture
• You belong to a set of people who share meanings and
styles of speaking, system of beliefs and customs.
• Your conformity with society’s and culture’s beliefs and
practices is constantly and almost invisibly reinforced
in the daily talk that happens informally in the
interactions with such agents as tour friends, your
family, your co-workers, and even strangers.
Dimensions of
Culture
 High-context societies
• place a great deal of emphasis on the total
environment or context where speech and interaction
take place.
• spoken words are much less important than less the
rest of context-for example, the relationship between
the people communicating.
• such societies greatlty emphasize and give major
priority to relationships between family, friends, and
associates.
 High-context societies
High-context cultures often display the following tendencies:
Association: Relationships build slowly and depends on trust.
Productivity depends on relationships and the group process.
Social structure and authority are centralized.
Interaction: Nonverbal elements such as voice tone, gestures,
facial expressions and eye movement are significant. Verbal
messages are indirect, and communication is seen as an art
form or way of engaging someone.
 High-context societies
High-context cultures often display the following tendencies:
Territoriality: space is communal. People stand close to each
other and share the same space.
Temporality: everything has its own time, and time is not
easily scheduled. Change is slow, and time is a process that
belongs to others and nature.
Learning: multiple sources of information are used. Thinking
proceeds from general to specific.
 Low-context societies
Low-context society, the message itself means
everything, and it is much more important to have a
well-structured argument or well-delivered
presentation than it is to be a member of the royal
family or a cousing of the person listening.
 Low-context societies
Low-context cultures often display the following tendencies:
Association: Relationships begin and end quickly. Productivity
depends on procedures and paying attention to the goal.
Interaction: Nonverbal elements are not significant. Verbal
messages are explicit, and communication is seen as away of
exchanging information, ideas and opinions.
Territoriality: Space is compartmentalized. Privacy is
important, so people stand farther apart.
 Low-context societies
Temporality: events and tasks are scheduled and to be done at
particular times. Change is fast and time is a commodity to be
spent or saved. One’s time is one’s own
Learning: one source of information is used. Thinking proceeds
from specific to general. Learning occurs by following the
explicit directions and explanations of others. Individual
orientation is preferred, and speed is valued.
 Collectivist Societies

Place a greater emphasis on the whole

group, stressing common concerns and
the value of acting not merely for oneself
but for common good.
 Individualist societies

Focusing on the individual person and his

or her personal dreams, goals and
achievements, and right to make choices.
 Monochromic Time

People do one thing at a time or multitask because

it helps them work toward particular goals with
tasks in sequence and communications fitting into
a particular order.
 Monochromic Cultures

View time as a valuable commodity and punctuality

as very important. View of time will usually arrive at
an appointment few minutes early as a symbol of
respect for the person they are meeting.
 Polychromic Time

Where independent and unconnected tasks can be

done simultaneously.
 Polychromic Cultures

These cultures instead have a much more relaxed

attitude toward time. In polychronic societies
‘promptness is not particularly important, and as
long as the person shows up sometime during the
right day, that will count as doing what was
required.
 Conflict-as-opportunity
• Conflict is a normal, useful process.
• All issues are subject to change through negotiation.
• Direct confrontation and concilliation are valued.
• Conflict is ncessary renogotiation of an implied
contract-a redistribution of opportunity, release of
tensions, and renewal of relationships.
 Conflict-as-destructive
• Conflict is a destructive disturbance of the peace.
• The social system should not be adjusted to meet the
needs of members; rather members should adapt to
establish values.
• Confrontations are destructive and ineffective.
• Disputants should be disciplined.
 Conflict

When conflict occurs, people generally engage in one of

five styles of conflict management (Rahim, 1993; Ting-
Toomey, 2004): a. dominating, b. integrating, c. comprising,
d. obliging, and e. avoiding
 Dominating styles

Involve forcing one’s will on another to satisfy

individual desires regardless of negative relational
consequences.
 Integrating styles

Necessitate a great deal of open discussion about

the conflict at hand to reach a solution that
completely satisfies everyone involved.
 Compromising styles

Are often confused with integrating styles because

a solution is reached following discussion of the
conflict. However, making a compromise demands
that everyone must give something up to reach a
solution, and as a result, people never feel fully
satisfied.
 Obliging styles of conflict
management
involve giving up one’s position to satisfy another’s
this style generally emphasizes areas of agreement
and deemphasizes areas of disagreement.
 Avoiding styles of conflict

People avoid the conflict entirely either by failing to

acknowledge its existence or by widthrawing from a
situation when it arises.
Dutch management researcher Geert Hofstede
(1980) also identified five value dimensions that vary
across cultures. He labeled these dimensions as
individualism, masculinity, power distance, and
uncertainty avoidance, and task versus social
interaction.
Individualism
versus
Collectivism
 Individualism
In an individualist culture, the interest of an
individual prevails over the interest of the group.
Ties between individuals are loose. People look after
themselves and immediate families. Individualist
cultures, goals are set with minimal consideration
given to groups other than perhaps your immediate
family.
 Collectivism
In collectivist cultures, the interest of the group
prevails over the interest of an individual. People are
integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups that
continue throughout a lifetime to protect in
exchange for unquestioning loyalty (Hofstede, 1997).
In collectivist cultures, other groups are taken into
account in major way when goals are set.
 Direct Style
And
Indirect Style
 Direct Style
Direct style are associated with individualism, the
wants, needs, and desires of the speaker are
embodied in the spoken message.
 Indirect Style
Indirect style, associated with collectivism. The
wants, needs, and goals of the speaker are not
obvious in the spoken message.
Masculinity
Versus
Femininity
 Masculine Cultures
Masculine Cultures are those that strive for maximal
distinction between what women and men are
expected to do. Cultures that place high values on
masculine traits stress assertiveness, competition
and material success.
 Feminine Cultures
Feminine Cultures are those that permit more
overlapping roles for the sexes. Cultures that place
high values on feminine traits stress quality of life,
interpersonal relationships, and concern for the
weak.
 Power Distance
Hofstede (1997), as mentioned in Jandt (2010),
defines power distance as “the extent to which less
powerful members of institution and organization
within a country expect and accept that power is
distributed unequally.” In high power distance
cultures, children are expected to display respect for
those of higher status.
 Power Distance
Power distance also refers to the extent to which
power, prestige and wealth are distributed within a
culture. Cultures with high power distance have
power and influence concentrated in the hands of a
few rather than distributed throughout the
population.
 Uncertainty Avoidance
Refers to the extent to which people in a culture
feel threatened by uncertain unknown situations.
Hofstede (1997) explains that this feeling is
expressed through nervous stress and in a need for
predictability or need for written or unwritten rules.
 Uncertainty Avoidance
Cultures strong in uncertainty avoidance are active,
aggressive, emotional, compulsive, security seeking,
and intolerant; cultures weak in uncertainty
avoidance are contemplative, less aggressive,
unemotional, relaxed, accepting of personal risks
and relatively tolerant.
 Task
Versus
Social Orientation
 Social Orientation
Groups in societies with a strong orientation focus
heavily on getting the job done. By contrast, groups
in societies with a high degree of social orientation
are more likely to be concerned about the members
and their smooth functioning as a team.
 Task-Orientation
Task oriented societies are characterized by a focus
on making the team more competent through
training and the use of up-to-date methods. In task-
oriented societies members are highly concerned
with individual success: advancing to more
responsible jobs, better training and so on.
 Task-Orientation
By contrast groups in socially oriented societies
focus more on collective concerns: cooperative
problem solving, friendly atmosphere, and good
physical working conditions.
 Intercultural
Communication Ethics
and Competence
A lot of who you are depends on where you are, or at least on
where you come from, as well as on the groups you belong to
and how they expect people to behave. A sense of belonging to a
culture brings with it a sense of how to behave, norms of acting,
and a host of relational formats. These norms are transacted in
communication, as respect for elders, permitted degrees of
openness and warmth, nonverbal style and degree of deference
shown to other people in interaction, and appropriateness of
labels for people.
 Identify Your Culture
Certain geographical locations, nations, races, and
regions are important factors in talking about
society and cultural identity, but the simple
connection or identification of a nationality with a
culture is a problem for many reasons.
 Identify Your Culture
Identifying society and culture in such ways makes
the simple mistake of assuming, for example, that
everybody from the same nation or country has the
same set of assumptions and beliefs. Yet most
countries have regions regarded as different and
distinctive.
 Identify Your Culture
Broad-brush ideas are very helpful when travelling to other
countries, dealing with international relationships, or discussing
the clash of cultures and/or diversity, it is important to go beyond
the broad ideas and add some finer details. Consider how your
membership is such large categories or broad groups will affect
your communication. Only then can you go on to see how
communication serves to perform membership of smaller
cultures, groups, and networks.
You Belong Without Knowing It
You were born into a society, a nationality, and a
heritage; you live somewhere, you follow certain
rules that exist in that society; you speak particular
language or set of languages that prevail there; you
eat particular foods and can identify cuisines of
other nations.
You Belong Without Knowing It
Several cultures may exist within any country and
when talking about such entities, co-cultures, or
smaller groups of culture within a larger cultural
mass (Houston & Wood. (1996) commonly come up
in conversation.
You Belong Without Knowing It
It is important to recognize that within, any given
nation or society, any cultures amount to different
relational groups that transact their business in
communicative patterns, codes and styles.
 Speech Communities
As cultures and define membership in a culture in
terms of speaking patterns and styles that reinforce
that particular “culture” and make us belong
communicatively.
 You Do It Without Knowing It
Your talk indicates or displays your cultural
membership. Your culture is written in your voice
not only in the language you speak but also the
thoughts you express and assumptions you make.
Ethics Across Cultures (Kale,1997)
• Ethical communicators address people of other cultures with
the same respect that they would like to receive themselves.
Intercultural communicators should not demean or belittle
the cultural identity of other through verbal or nonverbal
communication.
• Ethical communicators seek to describe the world as they
perceive it as accurately as possible. What is perceived to be
truth may vary from one culture to another; truth is socially
constructed. This principle means that ethical communicators
do not deliberately mislead or deceive.
Ethics Across Cultures (Kale,1997)
• Ethical communicators encourage people of other cultures to
express themselves in their uniqueness. This principle respects
the right of people to expression regardless of how popular or
unpopular their ideas may be.
• Ethical communicators strive for identification with people of
other cultures. Intercultural communicators should emphasize
the commonalities of cultural beliefs and values rather than
their differences.
There are two areas of addressing people of other cultures with
respect are examined more in details as follows:

The Language and Ethics of Prejudice and Racism

The Language and Ethics of Othering
The Language and Ethics of Prejudice
and Racism
Communication can play a role in either spreading
prejudice and racism or stopping their spread.
Prejudice and racism are commonly viewed as
being rooted in the child’s early socialization and
fostered in communication with other people who
are prejudiced or racist (Adorno et., 1950).
 Hate Speech
Includes threats or verbal slurs directed against
specific groups or physical acts such as burning
crosses or spray-painting swastikas on public and
private property (Walker, 1994).
The Language and Ethics of Othering
The bipolarizing tendencies of language and
research present an ethical challenge. Othering
refers to the labelling and degrading of cultures and
subgroups outside of one’s own (Riggins, 1997).
Communication Approach to
Intercultural Communication
 Personality Strength
The main personality traits that affect intercultural
communication are:
• Self-concept
• Self-disclosure
• Self-monitoring
• Social Relaxation
 Self-Concept
Refers to the way in which a person views the self.
 Self-Disclosure
Refers to the willingness of individuals to openly
and appropriately reveal information about
themselves to their counterparts.
 Self-Monitoring
Refers to using social comparison information to
control and modify your self-presentation and
expressive behavior.
 Social Relaxation
Is the ability to reveal little anxiety in
communication. Effective communicators must
know themselves well and through self-awareness,
initiate positive attitudes.
 Communication Skills
Individuals must be competent in verbal and
nonverbal behaviors. Intercultural communication
skills require:
• Message skills
• Behavioral flexibility
• Interaction management
• Social skills
 Message Skills
Refer to the ability to understand and use the
language and feedback.
 Behavioral Flexibility
Is the ability to select an appropriate behavior in
diverse contexts.
 Interaction Management
Emphasizes the person’s other-oriented ability to
interaction, such as attentiveness and
responsiveness.
 Social Skills
Are identity and empathy maintenance.
• Empathy is the ability to think the same thoughts
and feel same emotions as the other person.
• Identity maintenance is the ability to maintain a
counterpart’s identity by communicating back an
accurate understanding of that person’s identity.
 Psychological Adjustment
They must be able to handle the feelings of “culture
shock”, such as frustration, stress, and alienation in
ambiguous situations caused by new environments.
 Cultural Awareness
To be competent in intercultural communication,
individuals must understand the social customs
and the social system of the host culture.
Understanding how a people think and behave is
essential for effective communication with them.
 Barriers to
Intercultural
Communication
There is no way that you can learn all the rules
governing appropriate and inappropriate behavior
for every culture and subgroup with which you
come into contact. In fact, you wouldn’t even know
if you were expected to conform to the other’s
norms or if you were expected to behave according
to your own culture’s norms while respecting other
culture’s norms.
A better approach to examine on a general level the
barriers to intercultural communication. LaRay M.
Barna (1997) has developed a list of six barriers:
anxiety, assuming similarity instead of difference,
ethnocentrism, stereotypes and prejudice,
nonverbal misinterpretation, and language. The first
four barriers will be discussed in this lesson.
 Anxiety
The first barrier is high anxiety. When you are
anxious because of not knowing what you are
expected to do, it is only natural to focus on that
feeling and not be totally present in the
communication transaction.
 Assuming Similarity Instead of
Differences
When you assume similarity between cultures, you
can caught unawares of important differences.
When you have no information about a new culture;
it might make sense to assume there are no
differences, to behave as you would in your home
culture. But making that assumption could result in
miscommunication.
 Assuming Similarity Instead of
Differences
Each culture is different and unique to some
degree. The inverse can be a barrier as weel.
Assuming difference instead of similarity can lead
to your not recognizing things that cultures share in
common. It is better to assume nothing. It is better
to ask, “What are your customs?” rather than
assuming they’re the same- or different-
everywhere.
 Ethnocentrism
Negatively judging aspects of another culture by
the standards of one’s own culture. To be
ethnocentric is to believe in the superiority of one’s
culture. Everything in culture is consistent to that
culture and make sense if you understand that
culture.
 Cultural Relativism
Another term for ethnocentrism is the
anthropological concept of Cultural Relativism. It
does not mean that everything is equal. It does
mean that we try to understand other people’s
behavior in the context of their culture before we
judge it. It also means we recognize the subjective
nature of our own cultural behaviors and are willing
to re-examine them by learning about behaviors in
other cultures (Cohen, 1998).
 Cultural Nearsightedness
Cultural nearsightedness, or taking one’s own
culture for granted and neglecting other cultures.
Cultural nearsightedness often results to in making
assumptions that simple things are the same
everywhere.
 Cultural Nearsightedness
Cultural nearsightedness, or taking one’s own
culture for granted and neglecting other cultures.
Cultural nearsightedness often results to in making
assumptions that simple things are the same
everywhere.
Stereotypes and Prejudice
 Stereotype
The broadest term commonly used to refer to
negative or positive judgements made about
individuals based on any observable or believed
group membership. The word stereotyping was first
used by journalist Walter Lippmann in 1992 to
describe judgements made about other on the
basis of their ethnic group membership. Today, the
term is more broadly used to refer to judgements
made on the basis of any group membership.
Negative Effects on Communication
Stereotypes are harmful because they impede
communication in at least four ways:
• They cause us to assume that a widely held belief is true
when it may not be.
• Continued use of the stereotype reinforce the belief.
• Stereotypes also impede communication when they
cause us to assume that a widely held belief is true of
any individual.
• The stereotype can become a “self-fulfilling prophecy”
for the person stereotyped.
 Prejudice
Refers to the irrational suspicion or hatred of a
particular group, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Highly prejudiced people are unlikely to change
their attitudes even when presented with new and
conflicting information.
 Characteristics of intercultural
Competence
Beyond knowing the specific rules of an individual
culture, there are also attitudes and skills called “cultural
general” that help communication build relationships
with people from other backgrounds (Samovar & Porter,
2004) as mentioned in Alder & Rodman (2009):
• Motivation
• Tolerance for Ambiguity
• Open-Mindedness
• Knowledge and Skill
 Motivation
The desire to communicate successfully with
strangers is an important start.
 Tolerance for Ambiguity
Communication with people from different
backgrounds can be confusing. A tolerance for
ambiguity makes it possible to accept, and even
embrace the often equivocal and sometimes
downright incomprehensible messages, that
characterize intercultural communication.
 Open-Mindedness
It is one thing to tolerate ambiguity; it ‘s another to
become open-minded about cultural differences.
 Knowledge and Skill
The rules and customs that work with one group
might be quite different from those that succeed
with another. One way to boost your understanding
of cultural differences is via mindfulness-awareness
of your own behavior and that of others.
 Knowledge and Skill
Communication theorist Charles Berger outlines three strategies from
moving forward to a more mindful, competent style of intercultural
communication:
• Passive observation involves noticing what behaviors embers o a
different culture use and applying these insights to communicate
in ways that are most effective.
• Active strategies include reading, watching films, and asking
experts and members other culture hoe to behave, as well as taking
academic courses related to intercultural communication and
diversity.
• Self-disclosure involves volunteering personal information to people
from other culture with whom you want to communicate.
 Activity
Group yourselves into 5. Watch and analyze the intercultural themes on the
given movies and present it to the class next meeting. Write your observed
intercultural themes on A4 bond paper. Only 2 members from the group
will present the observed intercultural themes. Write your group number
and members on a ¼ sheet of paper and submit it.

Movies:
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding
• Like Water for Chocolate
• Lost in Translation
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Elemental
THANK
YOU!