Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Submitted to
Submitted by
MUHAMMAD SALIM
07217003909
MBA-1ST SEMESTER
CULTURE
Donal Carbaugh defines culture as "a system of expressive practices fraught with
feelings, a system of symbols, premises, rules, forms, and the domains and dimensions
of mutual meanings associated with these." He also suggests culture is "a learned set of
shared interpretations about beliefs, values, and norms, which affect the behaviors of a
relatively large group of people." In each of these definitions, culture is linked to
communication and a wide range of human experience including feelings, identity, and
meaning-making. Communication is the vehicle by which meanings are conveyed,
identity is composed and reinforced, and feelings are expressed. As we communicate
using different cultural habits and meaning systems, both conflict and harmony are
possible outcomes of any interaction.
Communication across cultures effectively improves your productivity and efficiency and
promotes harmonious work environment. Cross-cultural communication involves
understanding cultural differences and overcoming language problem.
Body positions and movements differ among cultures. For example, in some cultures,
people sit; in other cultures, they squat. Who is to say that sitting is more advanced or
better? Manners of walking differ among cultures. Communication with body parts
(hands, arms, head, etc.) varies by culture. Hand gestures differ by culture. So do eye
movements, touching and handshaking. Body motions or kinesics can be categorized
as follows:
Emblems - nonverbal actions that have a verbal translation into a word, phrase or
symbol. Gesture of thumb and forefinger to form a circle to say “OK” in US and to
indicate an obscenity in Brazil.
Effective displays - facial expressions such as a frown, a smile, or lips pulled down at
the corners.
Adapters – nonverbal behavior that modifies or add to what is being said. For example,
folded arms may indicate disgust or that a person is feeling closed to others; a wave
may be used as a friendly greeting; leg swinging and finger tapping may indicate
anxiety.
Regulators – movements that maintain interaction and provide feedback. Head nods or
changing gaze can indicate that it is the other persons turn to talk. A head nod can also
indicate listening.
Culture Handshakes
Americans Firm
British Soft
Probably causing even more miscommunication than differences in body positions and
movements are the different attitudes of different cultures toward various factors of
human relationships. We will review seven major factors:
Time - views about time differs widely. Some cultures stress punctuality (monochronic);
but some do not (especially of the Middle East & some parts of Asia).
Space – space is viewed differently by different cultures. In some cultures, people want
to be far apart (North American); in other cultures, they want to be close (some Arabian
& South American).
Odors – some cultures view body odors as bad (American work hard to neutralize body
odor); others view them as normal (Asians take it as act of friendship).
Frankness - High-context cultures are more frank and explicit than Low-context
cultures. Germans and Israelis are even more frank than Americans.
Intimacy of Relationships – in many cultures, strict social classes exist, and class
status determines how intimately people are addressed and treated in communication.
Similarly, how people view superior-subordinate relations can vary by culture. The role
of women varies widely by culture. In North America, we continue to move toward a
generally recognized goal of equality. In many Islamic cultures, the role of women is
quite different.
Values – each culture has different values concerning such matters as attitudes toward
work, employer-employee relations, and authority.
Many more such practices exist. Some cultures combine business &social pleasures;
others do not. Some expect to engage in aggressive bargaining in business; others
prefer straightforward dealings.
• You greet your Austrian client. This is the sixth time you have met over the last 4
months. He calls you Herr Smith. You think of him as a standoffish sort of guy
who doesn't want to get really friendly. That might be true in America, where
calling someone Mr. Smith after the 6th meeting would probably mean something
-- it is marked usage of language -- like "we're not hitting it off". But in Austria, it is
normal.
• A British boss asked a new, young American employee if he would like to have
an early lunch at 11 am each day. The employee said 'Yeah, that would be
great!' The boss immediately said "With that kind of attitude, you may as well
forget about lunch!" The employee and the boss were both baffled by what went
wrong. [In England, saying "yeah" in that context is seen as rude and
disrespectful.]
The tools we will examine here relate to communication and ways of seeing the self in
relation to others. They are:
Following series is according to increasing degree (low context to high context) - Arab,
Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Mexican, Spanish, Italian, French, English, North American,
Scandinavian, German
Paradoxically, individualist cultures tend to believe that there are universal values that
should be shared by all, while collectivist cultures tend to accept that different groups
have different values.
Many of the Asian cultures are collectivist, while Anglo cultures tend to be individualist.
• Be flexible