Intercultural
Communication
Chapter 5
Cultural Patterns and
Communication: Taxonomies

Caveats for Taxonomies
• There is no right or wrong approach
– Each approach takes the whole of cultural patterns – beliefs, values, norms, and social practices – and divides them in different ways.
• B. The parts of the system are interrelated.
• C. Individual members of a culture may vary greatly from the pattern that is typical in that culture

Taxonomies of
Cultural Patterns-Hall
• Cultures organized by the amount of information implied by the context of the communication itself, regardless of the specific words spoken.

Taxonomies of
Cultural Patterns-Hall
• High-context cultures prefer to use highcontext messages.
• Low-context cultures prefer to use lowcontext messages.
• Some cultures have a majority of messages that are high-context, others have messages that are mostly low-context, and yet others have a mixture of both.

Hall
Covert and Overt Messages
• High-context culture,
– Meanings are internalized
– Large emphasis on nonverbal codes.
• Messages are almost preprogrammed
• Much more is taken for granted and assumed to be shared
• Most messages are coded so they do not need to be explicitly and verbally transmitted.
• Reactions to messages are likely to be reserved.

Hall
Covert and Overt Messages
• Low-context cultures
– Meaning of others’ behaviors is in the plainly and explicitly coded messages.
• The details of the message are expressed precisely and specifically in the words that people use.
• Little of the communication is taken for granted, and the speaker is responsible for communicating.
• To be understood accurately, messages should be transmitted explicitly and directly.
• Reactions in low-context cultures are very explicit.

Hall
Ingroups and Outgroups
• Communication differs when communicating with in-group and outgroup members.
– Ingroup-a group to which a person belongs.
– Outgroup-a group to which a person does not belong.
– In high-context cultures, it is very easy to determine who is a member and who is not.
– Determining group membership in low-context cultures is not as easy.

Hall
Ingroups and Outgroups
• The emphasis placed on the individual in contrast to the group as a source of selfidentity differs in high-context and lowcontext cultures.
– In a high-context culture, the commitment between people is strong and deep.
– In a low-context culture, bonds between people are very fragile and the extent of involvement and commitment to long-term relationships is lower.

Hall
Orientation to Time
• High-context-time is viewed as more open, less structured, more responsive to immediate needs of people, and less subject to external goals and constraints.
• Low-context-time is highly organized (in part because of the additional energy needed to understand others) and people are forced to pay more attention to time to complete the work of living with others.

Taxonomies of
Cultural Patterns-Hofstede
• Mental programs are developed during childhood and reinforced by culture.
• Theycontain the ideas of a culture and are expressed through its dominant values.
• Hofstede originally identified five dimensions but recently added two more.
• Provides a synthesis of the relationships between cultural values and social behaviors

Hofstede
Power Distance
• Refers to the concerns that cultures have regarding the issue of human inequality.
– Are “all men are created equal” or are
– Some people superior to others?
– Are inequalities good or bad, right or wrong?
– Can power be distributed unequally?
– An powerholders be challenged?

Hofstede
Power Distance
• Cultures that prefer small power distances believe in the importance of minimizing social or class inequalities.
• Cultures that prefer large power distances all believe that each person has a rightful and protected place in the social order.

Hofstede
Power Distance
• In families
– High-children obey
– Low-children seek reasons
• In schools
– High-conformity, rote learning
– Low-independence, challenge, question
• In business
– High-autocratic
– Low-participative

Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
• Addresses how members of a culture adapt to changes and cope with uncertainties.
– Do people prefer or tolerate change?
– What strategies are employed?
– Are people threatened by the ambiguity?

Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
• Low uncertainty avoidance cultures have a high tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.
– Minimize rules and rituals that govern social conduct and human behavior
– Accept and encourage dissent.
– Tolerate people who behave in ways that are considered socially deviant.

Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
• Low uncertainty avoidance cultures have a high tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.
– Taking risks and try new things.
– Tend to live day to day.
– View individual achievement as beneficial.
– They need few rules to control social behaviors
– Unlikely to adopt religious rituals that require precise patterns of enactment.

Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
• High uncertainty avoidance cultures have a low tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.
– Avoiding uncertainty is a cultural value.
– Desire or even demand consensus about societal goals.
– Do not like to tolerate dissent or allow deviation in the behaviors of cultural members.
– Try to ensure certainty and security through an extensive set of rules, regulations, and rituals.

Hofstede
Uncertainty Avoidance
– To cope with a world of unpredictability, they invent rules and rituals to constrain human behaviors.
– They tend to be worried about the future and, thus, have high levels of anxiety and are highly resistant to change.
– Uncertainties in life are regarded as a continuous threat that must be overcome, so they develop many elaborate rules and rituals
(with precise sequences) to control social behaviors.

Hofstede
Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Involves people’s relationships to the larger social groups of which they are a part.
– People must live and interact together for the culture to survive.
– Addresses the degree to which a culture relies on and has allegiance to the self or to the group.

Hofstede
Individualism vs. Collectivism
• People in highly individualistic cultures take care of themselves and, perhaps, their immediate family members.
– Autonomy of the individual is paramount.
– Independence, privacy, self, the all-important I.
– Good for the individual, not the group.
– Do not perceive a large chasm between ingroup and outgroup members.
– More likely to speak out and be onfrontational.

Hofstede
Individualism vs. Collectivism
• People in highly collectivistic cultures value a group orientation.
– Require an absolute loyalty to the group which can include the nuclear family, the extended family, a caste, or a jati (a subgrouping of a caste).
– Decisions are always based on what is best for the group.
– The groups to which a person belongs are the most important social units.

Hofstede
Individualism vs. Collectivism
– Individuals are expected to support the group over the self, the group is expected to take care of its members.
– Dependent on organizations and institutions.
– Focus on a “we” consciousness.
– Emphasize belonging.
– Large distance between ingroup and outgroup.
– Ingroup requires unquestioning loyalty.
– Outgroup members are inconsequential.
– Use face-saving strategies

Hofstede
Masculinity/Feminity
• Gender expectations-the extent to which people prefer:
– achievement and assertiveness (masculine) or
– nurturance and social support (feminine).

Hofstede
Masculinity/Feminity
• Masculine cultures believe in achievement and ambition.
– People should be judged on their performance.
– Achievers should display material goods.
– Support ostentatious manliness and products associated with male behavior.
– Men should be assertive and women nurturing.
– Sex roles are clearly differentiated and sexual inequality is seen as beneficial.

Hofstede
Masculinity/Feminity
• Feminine cultures believe in the importance of life choices that improve intrinsic aspects of the quality of life.
– Service to others and sympathy for the unfortunate.
– Prefer equality between the sexes.
– They have less prescriptive gender roles.
– Accept nurturing roles from men and women.
– Men are far less interested in achievement.
– Equality between the sexes is the norm.

Hofstede
Long-Term vs. Short-Term
• Focuses on how cultures relate to the concept of time.
– A person’s point of reference about life & work.
– Categorized on a continuum from long to short.
– Cultures that promote a long-term orientation toward life admire persistence, thriftiness, and humility.
– Cultures that promote a short-term orientation toward changing events have an expectation of quick results following one’s actions.

Hofstede
Indulgence vs. Restraint
• Juxtaposes hedonism with self-discipline.
– Cultures high on the indulgence side of the continuum encourage pleasure, enjoyment, spending, consumption, sexual gratification, and general merriment.
– Cultures high on the restraint side of the continuum encourage the control of hedonisitic gratifications, and discourage the pleasures and enjoyment associated with leisure activities.

Hofstede
• Juxtaposes stability with change.
– Monumentalism encourage people to be like the monuments or statues: proud, unchangeable, upstanding, stable, and resolute.
– Self-effacement encourages humility, flexibility, adaptation to the situation, and feeling comfortable about life’s paradoxes and inconsistencies.

Taxonomies of
Cultural Patterns-GLOBE
• GLOBE is an acronym for Global
Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Effectiveness.
• Project GLOBE is based on Hofstede’s work on value dimensions and on
Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s work on value orientations.

GLOBE
Power Distance
• Degree to which cultures believe that social and political power should be distributed disproportionately, shared unequally, and concentrated among a few top decision makers.

GLOBE
Uncertainty Avoidance
• The extent to which cultures feel threatened by the unpredictability of the future and therefore try to establish more structure in the form of rules, regulations, rituals, and mandatory practices.

GLOBE
Ingroup Collectivism
• Reflects the degree to which people express pride, loyalty, and solidarity with their family or similar group,
• Similar to what Hofstede calls individualism-collectivism.

GLOBE
Institutional Collectivism
• Represents the degree to which cultures support, value, and prefer to distribute rewards based on group versus individual interests.

GLOBE
Gender Egalitarianism
• The extent to which a culture minimizes differences in gender expectation for men versus women.

GLOBE
Assertiveness
• Describes the extent to which people value and prefer tough aggressiveness or tender non-agressivness.

GLOBE
Performance Orientation
• Refers to the degree to which a culture encourages and rewards people for their accomplishments.

GLOBE
Future Orientation
• Refers to the extent to which a culture plans for forthcoming events.
• Describes the degree to which cultures advocate:
– long-term planning and deferred gratification
– or the deeply felt satisfaction that comes from experiencing the simple pleasures in life.

GLOBE
Humane Orientation
• The extent to which cultures encourage and reward their members for being benevolent and compassionate toward others or focused on self-interest and selfgratification.

Comparing GLOBE
Dimensions
• Helps clarify our understanding of cultural patterns by separating:
– Cultural practices (the ways that people typically behave in everyday communication interactions) from,
– Cultural values (or what people regard as important and believe is ideal).
• Also helps to explain the complex nature of cultural patterns.

Taxonomies and
Intercultural Competence
• Taxonomies serve as useful devices for people to understand and appreciate cultural valuations.
– The categories help people describe the fundamental aspects of culture and provide mechanisms to understand all intercultural communication events.
– The competent intercultural communicator must recognize that cultural variations will always be a factor in intercultural communication

Taxonomies and
Intercultural Competence
• To improve your competence, create a profile of a culture’s values.
– Seek out information about cultural patterns.
– Study the patterns of your own culture.
– Be willing to reflect on your preferences.
– Mentally consider your own preferences by juxtaposing them with the description of the typical person from another culture.