Заказ 34735 (200 грн.)

Module 4.

High-Context and Law-Context Cultures

4.1 Characteristics of high-context cultures. Implicit communication, emphasizing nonverbal communication, collective initiative and decision making, relying on intuition or trust rather than facts and statistics, indirect style in writing and speaking, subordinating tasks to relationships, etc.

4.2 Characteristics of low-context cultures. Explicit (literal) communication, emphasizing verbal communication, separating job tasks from relationships, individual initiative and decision making, relying on facts and statistics direct style in writing and speaking, etc.

4.3 Guidelines for communication with representatives of high-context and low-context cultures.

Chapter Objectives:

After reading this chapter, you should be able to

1. Identify some cultures that are high context and some that are low context.

2. Compare and contrast high- and low-context cultures.

3. Compare value orientations among high- and low-context cultures.

4. Identify own position where you fit on the low and high context continuum.

5. Develop trainees’ skills of effective communication with the representatives of high- and low-context cultures.

Learning outcomes:

Upon completion of this chapter students will have critical awareness of:

• a range of peculiarities of high- and low-context cultures;
• a range of rules in communication, intercultural and business factors that affect relations among representatives of high- and low-context cultures;
• specific cultural customs and traditions needed to be learnt for successful business relations;
• special rules to avoid misunderstanding in high- and low-context cultures.

Introduction

In an increasingly connected and interdependent world effective communication not only becomes more important but also much more difficult. Ironically, it is often not dissimilar languages that cause the greatest problems but rather much more mundane and harder to detect cultural differences. One such difference is that of a high context (HC) culture versus a low context (LC) culture.

The context gives additional information, which is necessary to encode the whole situation / background of given information. The picture demonstrates intercultural differences between high- and low-context cultures. Let’s analyze these differences according to the information given here. ☺(discussion of this table may encourage the trainees to involve into the problem giving them the opportunity to guess in general some features of two cultures)