Marissa Mealey

10/13/19

DP #4

Chapter 6: Culture

This chapter of Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life demonstrates the
implications diverse cultures have on the personal and professional environments. Dainton and
Zelley convey these definitions and results through Hofstede’s cultural dimensions,
communication accommodation theory, anxiety/uncertainty management theory, and conflict
face negotiation theory. In the book culture is defined as “one’s identification with and
acceptance into a group that shares symbols, meanings, experiences, and behavior” (Dainton &
Zelley, 2018, p. 98). Dainton and Zelley also examine the differences between cross-cultural
communication as well as intercultural communication.

Beginning with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Dainton and Zelley explain Hofstede’s
analysis of his five dimensions as a continuum for ranking and classifying different cultures. The
five dimensions are individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance,
masculinity-femininity, and long term and short term orientation. Individualism-collectivism is a
feature that labels how people define themselves and their relationships with others. Uncertainty
avoidance measures the extent of how nervous people become in situations that are unclear,
unstructured, or unknown. The third dimension rates the extent to which people with less power
in society consider the imbalance acceptable. A culture can be ranked high in power distance or
low in power distance. The fourth dimension, masculinity-femininity, addresses the relationship
between biological sex and behavior that results in the emphasized gender roles. Lastly, long
term and short term orientation refers to the patience of gratification. Cultures that are long term
oriented see the achievement at the end of the long run and keep a strong work ethic to get there.
On the other hand, cultures that are more short term oriented prefer instant gratification and
quick results.

Communication accommodation theory is the notion that individuals either match or

differentiate the speech and language they use to accommodate the person they are interacting
with. There are 3 aspects that are measured on a spectrum to explain communication
accommodation theory. Communicating social identities through definitions of in-groups (social
affiliations of belonging) and out-groups (social affiliation of non-belonging) helps explain why
people use this theory. It is claimed to be that individuals use specific speech and language
because it conveys their status in various groups. Next is convergence versus divergence. When
confronted with in-groups and out-groups, individuals have the decision to either assimilate or
deviate from the groups. Lastly, CAT can be approached by maintenance or nonaccommodation,
meaning whether individuals choose to adjust their communication with others or sometimes
they can overaccommodate or underaccommodate. Nonaccommodation leads to unsuccessful
interactions.

Anxiety/uncertainty management theory (AUM) forecasts that decreased anxiety over

intercultural interactions is a result of communication effectiveness and intercultural adjustment.
There are seven predictors that influence the level of uncertainty one may experience in
intercultural and intergroup interactions. Someone’s self-concept can impact their anxiety
profusely: if their identity is threatened their anxiety increases. The second predictor is the level
of motivation to interact with strangers. If someone has a high need to be included, their degree
of anxiety and/or uncertainty rises because they cannot predict the behaviors of the others. The
level of empathy one has influences how well they will react to strangers thus impacting their
anxiety; the more empathy one has, the less anxiety they feel with strangers. The fourth predictor
of AUM describes how one categorizes strangers. If they are perceiving similarities with a
stranger and have positive expectations of this person, they will have low anxiety or uncertainty
about this person. The next predictor addresses situational circumstances meaning, if the in-
group continues to expand and gain more power or presence, anxiety will lessen. The
connections one has or feels towards the strangers also plays a role in decreasing uncertainty. If
the stranger is attractive or they have mutual friends with this person, anxiety is reduced going
into the interaction. Lastly, ethical interactions are an important indicator of anxiety levels. If the
stranger is being respectful and sharing similar values as the individual they will feel less
anxiety.

The last theory discussed in this chapter is conflict face negotiation theory (FNT) dives
into the causes of conflict between cultures. This theory claims that conflict styles (avoidance,
accommodating, competing, compromising, and collaborating) vary on two dimensions which
are assertiveness and cooperation. FNT addresses the causal relationship culture, face, and
conflict styles all have with one another.