Summary of previous
lectures
Myron Lustig and Jolene
Koester
• "culture is a learned set of shared
interpretations about beliefs, values,
norms and social practices, which affect
the behaviors of a relatively large group of
people"
• 4 components: beliefs, values, norms
and social practices
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Culture and
communication
• What is culture?
Beliefs
“An idea that people assume to be true about the world (a
set of learned interpretations that form the basis for cultural
members to decide what is and what is not logical and
correct)”
Central (the culture!s fundamental teachings about what reality is and
expectations about how the world works) vs. peripheral (matter of personal
taste)
E.g., the Earth is flat, evil eye
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Values
“What a culture regards as good or bad, right or
wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust, beautiful or ugly,
clean or dirty, valuable or worthless, appropriate or
inappropriate, and kind or cruel.”
V. are desired characteristics or goals of a culture,
and they do not necessarily describe the actual
behaviors and characteristics
Norms
• “Expectations of appropriate behaviors”
• The outward manifestations of beliefs and values are
norms, which are socially shared expectations of
appropriate behaviors.
E.g. manners (good/bad), social routines, show respect to older
people
E.g., young or old
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Geert Hofstede
Social practices
• “predictable behavior patterns that members of a
culture typically follow”
e.g. rituals
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• "culture is the collective programming of the
mind that distinguishes the members of one
group or category of people from another"
• Mental programs are developed in childhood
and shaped by culture; they contain ideas of
culture expressed by dominant values
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Person’s mental programming (3 levels):
partly unique, partly shared with others
Manifestation of culture at different
levels of depth
symbols: words (e.g. jargon), gestures, pictures
(e.g.Coca-Cola), objects (e.g. flags)
heroes- persons, alive or dead, real or
imaginary, who possess characteristics highly
prized by people of particular culture (e.g.
Batman, Asterix)
individual
collective
rituals- collective activities that are technically
unnecessary to the achievement of desired
ends, but that within a culture are considered
socially essential, keeping the individual bound
within the norms of the collectivity (e.g. ways of
greeting)
universal
Jens Allwood
Communication
Culture refers to "all the characteristics common to a particular group of people
that are learned and are not given by nature.”
Social and physical
context
Four primary cultural dimensions:
Involved in all human activities:
Patterns of thought- common ways of thinking, where thinking includes
factual beliefs, values, norms, and emotional attitudes.
Patterns of behavior- common ways of behaving, from ways of
speaking to ways of conducting commerce and industry, where the
behavior can be intentional/unintentional, aware/unaware or individual
interactive.
Involved in some human activites:
Patterns of artifacts - common ways of manufacturing and using material
things, from pens to houses (artifact = artificial object), where artifacts
include dwellings, tools, machines or media. The artifactual dimension of
culture is usually given special attention in museums.
Imprints in nature - the long-lasting imprints left by a group in the natural
surroundings, where such imprints include agriculture, trash, roads or intact
ruined human habitations. In fact, "culture" in the sense of "cultivation" (i.e., a
human transformation of nature) gives us a basic understanding of what the
concept of culture is all about.
Person
A
messages
Person
B
verbal and nonverbal
communication
background
(age, gender,
education, culture,
etc)
background
(age, gender,
education, culture,
etc)
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Communication
Intercultural communication
•“Sharing
of information between people
on different levels of awareness and
control” (Allwood)
•“a symbolic process whereby reality is
produced, maintained, repaired and
transformed” (Martin and Nakayama)
Intercultural: at least 2 individuals with
different cultural backgrounds
Perspectives on cultural
influence
monocultural
studies
biological determinism
cultural determinism
comparative or
cross-cultural
studies
indeterminism (statistical variation)
indeterminism (cultural stereotypes)
intercultural
studies
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Ethics
Power
ethical values
cultural differences concerning ethical
values
Cultural patterns and
taxonomies Part 1
Hall
Hofstede
power and culture
Cultural patterns
“Shared beliefs, values and norms that are
stable over time and that lead to roughly similar
behaviors across similar situations are known
as cultural patterns” (Lustig and Koester)
Edward T. Hall!s taxonomy:
High and Low context cultures
• Low context culture (LC) where much of the background
information must be made explicit in an interaction
e.g. German, English...
•High context culture (HC) where background information is
•importance of context, way of
communicating
•amount of information implied by the setting
or context of the communication itself,
regardless of the specific words that are
spoken
implicit; most of the information is either in the physical context
or internalized in the person, very little is coded, explicit,
transmitted part of the message
e.g. Japanese, African American, Mexican...
”MIXTURE”
LC people and HC people
LC
Geert Hofstede!s taxonomy
HC
logical, linear, individualistic, and actionoriented = logic, facts, and directness;
use precise words and intend them to
be taken literally
the interactant will look to the
physical, socio-relational and
perceptual environment for
information; many HC cultures are
collectivistic
Solving a problem means lining up the
facts and evaluating one after another
Decisions are based on fact rather than
intuition + end with actions
High-context business people may
even distrust contracts and be
offended by the lack of trust they
suggest
communicators are expected to be
straightforward, concise, and efficient in
telling what action is expected
communication tends to be more
indirect. Flowery language, humility,
and elaborate apologies are typical
Silence is uncomfortable
Silence is comfortable
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• Geert Hofstede “Cultures
and Organizations: Software
of the Mind” (first 1966)
• survey
• About 100 000 people from
IBM
• First 40 countries; 50
countries (2001)
Dominant patterns of culture can be
ordered along the following
dimensions:
1.Power distance
2.Uncertainty avoidance
3.Individualism vs. collectivism
4.Masculinity vs. femininity
Relatively new! 5. Long term vs. short
term orientation
1. Power distance
• is inequality good or bad? Right or wrong? basic fact of
human existence
• Power distance is "the extent to which the less
powerful members of institutions and organizations
within a country expect and accept that power is
distributed unequally"
• "culture sets the level of power distance at which the
tendency of the powerful to maintain or increase power
distances and the tendency of the less powerful to
reduce them will find their equilibrium"
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e.g. Swedish and Iranian
doctors
Some implications of country power distance differences
Low PDI
High PDI
inequality
minimized
needed- rightful place
hierarchy
convenience
existential inequality
subordinates/superiors like me
of different kind
rights
equal
power holders entitled
to privileges
powerful people
try to look less
powerful
older people
try to look as powerful
as possible
neither respected nor
respected and feared
feared
• Swedish:
Swedish doctor: so if one has had some of these three things then we usually RECOMMEND
surgery / if one has had attacks of biliary colic then one may choose a little oneself how
troublesome one think it is / and how much it limits one's life quality but if one has had these
somewhat more serious things with inflammation of the gallbladder or irritation in pancreas or
stop in the bile ducts or something like that, we usually recommend removing the gall bladder //
er because it’s somewhat more serious than an ordinary attack of biliary colic // but then again
you are the one who will undergo surgery you are the one who will live with it so you have
of course the right to participate in the decision or to be more correct it’s you who decide
but surely you know that
• Iranian:
Iranian doctor: per-oskar it doesn't work it’s like this health care does not function // you know it’s not
like you come and say that I want to be hospitalized right / you know you know we are the ones who
decide if you trust us working as doctor I say that the best for you it’s of course what I <s+> do
right // but if you want to kind of influence yourself // then it’s a quite different thing I understand that
you’re in pain / that’s why I react otherwise would [2 (...)]2
Swedish patient: [2 well well ]2 I understand the extent that // why I should be kept (...) now // you have
stated that I have a bullet in my shoulder / so what’s the problem cut it out and remove it
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German doctor about Swedish
patients
Here [in Sweden] man [the physician] is like
more serving. Doctor mmm you have to serve
them [the patients]. It was unthinkable that
someone could call me on the phone and ask ...
I have to search in the file / and tell him what
she has on the X-ray, whatever. That was
unimaginable. Here they call, you have to look
in the file, you have to explain talk to them it
was not like that. Here you’re a servant to them,
you have to serve
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Iranian physician about the
Swedish nurses
One gets less HELP from them [Swedish
nurses] compared to nurses in Iran. When one
wants to do something, one has to TELL them
all the time. I say for example that I will go
and examine the patient. In Iran I had all my
examination instruments there ready, it was the
nurse who assisted with everything. Here one
has to ask one has to say several times well it’s
not obvious that they should do.
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Swedish nurse about the nonSwedish physician
if she [the physician from an eastern
European country] prescribed something
the girls [the nurses] could say "no that’s
not correct" she said "why yes it should
be like this." She [the physician] was
used to a different way of working.
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Predictors of PDI
#1. Climate (geographical latitude)
high-latitude climate (moderate or cold climates) = low
PDI. Tropical = high PDI
Why? Human survival, independent thinking, modernization,
questioning of authority, need for technology = > low PDI; and the
contrary for high PDI (less need!)
# 2. Population (more people = higher PDI)
Large group----> more centralized concentration of political power
# 3. Distribution of wealth
The more unequally the wealth is distributed within a culture, the
greater the culture's power distance.
2. Uncertainty Avoidance
• TIME GOES ONLY ONE WAY! --->”We are caught in
present”
– Cope: technology (nature), law (other people) and
religion (what we don!t know)
• How we adapt to changes and cope with uncertainties?
• It reflects the level of tolerance for uncertainty and
ambiguity within the society and the extent to which
people avoid uncertainty by creating laws, rules,
regulations, and controls in order to reduce the amount"of
uncertainty.
•The high positive scores on the uncertainty
avoidance index (UAI) indicate low tolerance
for ambiguity. These cultures prefer to avoid
uncertainty and dissent as a cultural value
and desire consensus.
• Cultures with low UAI scores have a high
tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity, believe
in accepting and encouraging dissenting views
among cultural members and in taking risks and
trying new things.
Predictors of UAI
Some implications of country uncertainty avoidance differences
low UAI
high UAI
emotions
controlled
normal
change work
less hesitation
more hesitation
rules
can be broken
no
seniority as criteria for
selection
yes
no
High UAI
–
Low UAI
– low in modernization (or
just at the start)
– modern
– Often in highly changeable
situations (economic,
political, social), extensive
legislative / judicial system
– tend to be stable
(economic,
political, social)
– Often characterized by
"absolute" religions
(Catholicism, Islam)
– Religions
emphasize
relativity
(Buddhism,
Unitarianism)
3. Individualism
Individual autonomy: good or bad?
•Gregarious vs. solitary
•People’s relationships to other groups they are a
part of
individualism stands for a society in which the
ties between individuals are loose: Everyone is
expected to look after him/herself and his/her
immediate family only. Collectivism stands for
a society in which people from birth onwards
are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups,
which throughout people’s lifetime continue to
protect them in exchange for unquestioning
loyalty.
Predictors of IDV
• High PDI - Low IDV & vice versa
• Wealth: rich=high IDV;
poor=collectivistic
• Climate: colder=higher IDV,
warmer=lower IDV
High IDV
individual is most important
unit
Low IDV
Collectivistic cultures believe group is
most important unit
People taking care of
themselves
They encourage: primary loyalty to
group (nuclear family, extended family,
caste, organization)
Making decisions based on
individual needs
Dependence onbased
organization
and
Decision-making
on what is best
ifor
n sthe
t i t ugroup
tions (Expectation that
organization / institution / group will take
"We"
mentality
care of
individual)
"I" mentality
people speak out, question,
confrontational, are direct
people blend in, avoidance conflict,
use intermediaries
4. Masculinity
Do we prefer achievement and
assertiveness or nurturance and social
support?
” manliness”, achievement and ambition, male behaviour vs. Quality
of life, sympathy for the unfortunate, equality between sexes
Predictors of MAS
• Masculinity stands for a society in which social
gender roles are clearly distinct: men are
supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on
material success; women are supposed to be
more modest, tender, and concerned with the
quality of life.
• Femininity stands for a society in which social
gender roles overlap: Both men and women are
supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned
with the quality of life.
Climate appears to be the best predictor
– Warm climates´ cultures tend to be masculine;
cooler climates tend to be feminine
• EDUCATION AND EQUALITY: COLDER
CLIMATE---> EVERYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO
SURVIVE!!!
5. Long vs. short term term
orientation
(“Confucian dynamism”)
• Hofstede' new dimension is based on the study of
Michael Bond in Hong Kong (100 students: 50 m and 50
f per 22 countries)
• Hofstede’s previous four cultural dimensions did not
adequately reflect Asian perspectives on culture to what
extent virtuous living is a goal
• the countries with low LTO are among other Sweden,
USA and Canada; high LTO are, for example, China.
• High LTO: persistence, perseverance and thrift, a
strong work ethic and respect for a hierarchy of the
status of relationships are typical traits
• Low LTO: expectations of quick results, less
inclination to saving are common, etc.
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