Managing across Cultures MGMT 544: Managing across Cultures Professor Xiao-Ping Chen University of Washington Spring, 2005

Agenda What is intercultural communication? What are the pitfalls in cross-cultural communication? Case analysis: Road to Hell

Session objectives Understand how cultural rules influence our communication style, and the way we perceive the communication style of others Examine dimensions on which communication style and content vary across cultures Learn to describe, interpret, and reconfirm before evaluating and acting

What is intercultural communication? Communication is sending and receiving messages through words and behavior. Communication is essentially the exchange of information, be it words, ideas or emotions. Information, in turn is the carrier of meaning. Communication is possible only between people who to some extent share a system of meaning. Intercultural communication is communication between people from different cultures.

Cross-cultural miscommunication ME YOU message sent message received encoding decoding

Cross-cultural communication Verbal communication Style of verbal communication Anglo Saxon A ___ ____ ____ B ____ ____ Latin A ___ ____ ___ B _______ _______ _____ Oriental A ___ ___ ___ ___ B ___ __ ___

Cross-cultural communication Tone of voice Style of Tone of voice Anglo Saxon Latin Oriental

Cross-cultural communication Non-verbal communication Eye contact Touching Space

How Close is Too Close

Culture complicates communication! Emotions Assumptions Behavior Perceptions Culture affects: - values - taken for granted assumptions Culture affects: Interpretation and perception of the message How emotions are expressed Communication style and content

High and low context of communication Context has to do with how much you have to know before effective communication can occur, how much shared knowledge is taken for granted by those in conversation with each other, how much reference there is to tacit common ground.

High and low context communication “A high-context communication or message is one in which most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message. A low-context communication is just the opposite: i.e. the mass of information is vested in the explicit code. Twins who have grown up together can and do communicate more economically than two lawyers in a courtroom during a trial, a mathematician programming a computer, two politicians drafting legislation, two administrators writing a regulation, or a child trying to explain to his mother why he got into a fight.” Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture, 1977

High and low context of communication Low-context cultures tend to be adaptable and flexible. High-context cultures are rich and subtle, but carry a lot of “baggage” and may never really be comfortable for foreigners who are not fully assimilated.

High and low context cultures value intuitive versus analytical thinking Analytic thinkers rely on prior knowledge mind is in control planning/theory oriented explicit rational linear causality is important Intuitive thinkers intuitive mind is not in control implicit nonrational context-oriented holistic sensitive to synchronicity Indrei Ratiu, in Experiential Activities for Intercultural Learning

National cultures and context Japanese Chinese Arab Greek Mexican Spanish Italian French French Canadian English English Canadian American Scandinavian German German-Swiss High context Low context O’Hara-Deveraux and Johnson 1994

Road to Hell