II. INTERCULTURAL AND
GLOBAL COMMUNICATION
After the completion of the chapter, students should be able to:
1. define culture;
2. identify the different dimensions of culture;
3. explain how these dimensions of culture affect the communication situation;
4. apply practical use of these dimensions in improving the quality of
communication;
5. identify ways/guidelines in communicating under a diverse intercultural setting;
and
6. identify barriers in intercultural communication and how to resolve them.
Thinking about
Culture
Significant differences exist between
societies indifferent parts of the world. People
of each country speak different languages;
dress differently; and use different nonverbal
systems. These factors are relevant when
giving presentations to audiences in different
countries. A better way to see the relationship
between culture and language is that culture
does not create different communication but
different communication creates “culture”.
Therefore, culture in relation to communication cannot be viewed as something
represented by a particular group of people from a specific region or location that
has exclusive rituals, lifestyles, attitudes,beliefs and customs. 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.
Ethnocentrism is the term anthropologists use to describe the opinion that one's
own way of life is natural or correct.
Ethnocentric Bias (also known as ethnocentrism) means believing that your culture
is the benchmark of all others. This occurs when perceptions of others are influenced
by the culture of one's own ethnic group. It is looking at outgroups and judging them
based on the norms and standards of one particular culture.
Xenocentrism is the belief that someone else's culture is superior to their own.
Cross-cultural communication generally compares the communication styles and
patterns of people from very different cultural / social structures, such as nationsstates.
Intercultural communication deals with how people from these cultural / social
structures speak to one another and what difficulties or differences they encounter,
over and above the different languages they speak.
Dimensions of
Culture
Culture refers to community or population sufficiently large enough to be selfsustaining, that is large enough to produce new generations of members without
relying on outside people.
The totality of the group’s thought, experiences, and pattern of behavior and its
concepts, values and assumptions about life that guide behavior and how those
evolve with contact with other cultures.
FOUR ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
1. Symbols refer to verbal and nonverbal language.
2. Rituals are the socially essential collective activities within a culture.
3. Values are the feelings not open for discussion within a culture about what is
good or bad, beautiful or ugly, normal or abnormal, which are present in a majority
of the members of a culture.
4. Heroes are the real or imaginary people who serve as behavior models within a
culture.
FIVE VALUE DIMENSIONS THAT
VARY ACROSS CUTURES
INDIVIDUALISM - means that the interest of the individual prevails over the interest of
the group.
MASCULINITY - culture that place high values on masculine traits. It stresses
assertiveness, competition, and material success.
POWER DISTANCE - the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and
organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed
unequally.
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE - refers to the extent to which people in a culture feel
threatened by uncertain or unknown situations.
TASK VS SOCIAL 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. Socially-oriented societies focus more on collective concerns: cooperative
Intercultural
Communication
Ethics and
Competence