Intercultural Differences in the Global Workplace

Presented by:
Prof. Youcef Hdouch
Ibn Tofail University
yhdouch@[Link]

Riddle 1
Culture X
Death of a relative is an event that
business associates are expected to view
as significant to the family members;
Culture Y
This is a private affair, but something that
should not affect work.

Riddle 2

Why doesnt McDonalds sell

hamburgers in India?

Outline
I. Culture: Definition
[Link] of Cultures: Low /HighContext
III. High vs. Low Context Communication
IV. Forms of Verbal Interactions
V. Verbal Communication Styles and Cultural Types
VI. Areas of Nonverbal Communication
VII. Why is Cross-Cultural Communication important?
VIII. Examples of Intercultural Communication:
Negotiation
A-Negotiators from polychronic cultures
B- Negotiators from monochronic cultures
C-Dimensions of difference across national cultures
D-Cross-cultural Negotiations: U.S vs. Nigeria

IX. Conclusion

I. Culture : Definition
. It is the software of the mind. It is
what enables us to process information in
various specific applications.
It is the collective programming of the mind
which distinguishes the members of one
group or category of people from another.
Hofstede
(1993)

It is "the coherent, learned, shared

view of a group of people about lifes
concerns that ranks what is important,
furnishes attitudes about what things
are
appropriate,
and
dictates
behavior".
Beamer and Varner
(2001, 13)

Dos and Don'ts

Never refuse the offer of coffee from a

businessman in Kuwait.

Be very careful not to cross your legs so that the

sole of your shoes points to someone from
Thailand.

Never help yourself to food when you are the

guest of honour at a banquet in China.

Do not discuss politics in Nigeria.

Do not offer your host gifts for his wife or children

when doing business in Saudi Arabia.

Plan to spend 2 hours on lunch in France.

II- Types of Cultures: Low-Context

and High-Context

Japanese

Arab
African

Korean
Chinese

Adapted from Hall (1976)

Greek Spanish

Italian
English
North American
Swiss
German

Edward T. Hall's Model

High-context
cultures
Long-lasting
relationships
Exploiting context
Spoken
agreements
Insiders and
outsiders clearly
distinguished

Low-context cultures
Shorter relationships
Less dependent on
context
Written agreements
Insiders and outsiders
less clearly
distinguished
Cultural patterns
change faster

Cultural Classification-Hall

Low-Context Cultures - What Is Said Is

More Important Than How or Where It
Is Said.

U.S.
Germany

High-Context cultures - What Is Said

and How or Where It is Said Are
Significant.

Asia
Latin America
Middle East
Sub-saharan Africa

Low-context in business
Business

before
friendship
Credibility through
expertise & performance
Agreements by legal
contract
Negotiations efficient

High-context in business
No

business without
friendship
Credibility through
relationships
Agreements founded
on trust
Negotiations slow &
ritualistic

III- High vs Low Context

Communication

High context: The sender does not encode

large amounts of information.
Communication is implicit. The most crucial
information is internalized in the receiver or is
in the context. Ex: Best Friends, twins
Low Context: Information is explicit. The
receiver does not have to read into anything in
order to understand the intended message. Ex:
lawyers

IV- Forms of Verbal Interaction

Repartee - Conversation in
which parties take turns
speaking/listening for short
periods. (US, British)
Verbal dueling - Like
gamesmanship; purpose is to
see who can gain dominance in
a friendly debate. (Russia)
Intercultural Business
Communication, 4th ed.,
Chaney & Martin

 Ritual conversation - Involves

standard replies and comments
for a given situation.
Self-disclosure - Form of
interaction which involves telling
other people about you so they
may get to know you better.

Intercultural Business
Communication, 4th ed.,
Chaney & Martin

V- Verbal Communication Styles

Direct style
Indirect style
Instrumental style
Affective style
Exacting style

Elaborate style
Succinct style
Person-centered
style
Role-centered style

Direct Vs. Indirect

Direct: Blunt, say exactly what they mean,

honesty motivated
Indirect: beating around the bush, do not
say exactly what they mean; to maintain
relationships, face saving is a major
benefit.

Instrumental Vs. Affective

Instrumental: Focus is on the sender and

the task/goal at hand; want to accomplish a
personal goal.
Affective: Equal focus on the listener, more
concerned with entire process/interaction;
think holistically and about the relationship

Exacting, Elaborative, or Succinct

Exacting: Does not use more or less language

than is needed; honest and to the point
Elaborative: Rich, expressive language (can
seem wordy or dramatic to others), use
metaphors and similes.
Succinct: deliberately give a small amount of
information, understatement, silence,
especially used in anxiety ridden situations

Person vs. Role centered

Person Centered: Frequently use first

person pronouns, downplay the differences
between people, informal.
Role Centered: Formal, the status of the
speakers is taken into account, use
honorifics, use formal titles.

VI. Areas of Nonverbal

Communication

Chronemics (time)
Proxemics (space)
Oculesics (gaze/eye contact)
Olfactics (smell)
Haptics (touch)
Kinesics (body language)
Chromatics (color)
Silence

Intercultural Business
Communication, 4th ed.,
Chaney & Martin

Time (Chronemics)
Attitudes toward time vary from
culture to culture.
Countries that follow monochronic
time perform only one major
activity at a time (U.S., England,
Switzerland, Germany).
Countries that follow polychronic
time work on several activities
simultaneously (Latin America, the
Mediterranean, the Arabs, Africans).

Intercultural Business
Communication, 4th ed.,
Chaney & Martin

Cultural Differences in
Attitudes Toward Time
U.S. persons are very time conscious
and value punctuality.
Tardiness also conveys that the person
is not well organized.
Germans and Swiss people are even
more time conscious.
In Africa, punctuality is not widely
regarded.
Intercultural Business
Communication, 4th ed.,
Chaney & Martin

Space (proxemics)

High context
* Executive offices
shared and open to
all
* May have several
people in their office
at one time
* Stand close to each
other in business
conversations and
may be offended if
someone moves
away

Low context
* Executive offices
separated and access
controlled
* Expect to meet with
one person alone and
not have others
lingering about
* Set boundaries and
will be uncomfortable
if someone moves too
close

VII- Why is Cross-Cultural

Communication important ?
Globalization: Cross border movement of people, goods and data
brings more and more cultures into contact with one another and
increases the potential of cross culture communication.

Business Opportunities
Job Opportunities
Improves the contribution of employees in a diverse
workforce
Sharing of views and ideas
Talent improvisation
An understanding of diverse market

Increased Selfawareness
One of the most important reasons
for studying intercultural
communication is that it increases
our awareness of our own culture
our cultural identity and cultural
background. And it helps us avoid
ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism

is a tendency to
think our own culture is superior to

Creative Problem
Solving
According

to creativity research, we learn more from

people who are different than us than from those who
are similar to us.

(Sternberg, 1999 as cited in Ting-Toomey &Chung, 2005)

Small

group research suggests the quality of ideas

produced in ethnically diverse groups have significantly
higher outcomes than ethnically homogeneous groups.
This is due to the synergistic perspective.

Synergistic

perspective means combining the best

of all cultural approaches in solving a workplace
problem.

Examples of Intercultural Communication: Negotiation

A-Negotiators from polychronic cultures tend

to
start and end meetings at flexible times,
take breaks when it seems appropriate,
be comfortable with a high flow of
information,
expect to read each others' thoughts and
minds,
sometimes overlap talk,
past-oriented

B-Negotiators from monochronic cultures tend to

prefer prompt beginnings and endings,
schedule breaks; oriented to the present and the nearfuture
deal with one agenda item at a time,
rely on specific, detailed, and explicit
communication,
prefer to talk in sequence,
view lateness as devaluing or evidence of lack of
respect.

C-Dimensions of difference across national

cultures
1-Power Distance
2- Uncertainty avoidance
3-Individualism vs. collectivism
4-Masculinity vs. Feminism

Power Distance

Orientation towards
authority

High

Low

Malaysia
Arab Countries,
Sub-Saharan Africa
Mexico
India
France
Italy
Japan
Spain
Argentina
US
Germany
UK
Denmark
36

Power Distance
High

hierarchical structures,
clear authority figures, and
the right to use power with
discretion

Low

democratic structures and flat organizational

hierarchies,

shared authority,

the right to use power only in limited

circumstances and for legitimate purposes

Uncertainty Avoidance
Weak uncertainty
avoidance
-Uncertainty: normal feature
of life and each day is
accepted as it comes
-Low stress subjective
feeling of well-being
-Aggression and emotions
must not be shown
-Comfortable in ambiguous
situations and with unfamiliar
risk
-There should not be more
rules than necessary
-Precision and punctuality
have to be learned
-Tolerance to innovation
-Motivation by achievement

Strong uncertainty avoidance

-Uncertainty: A continuous
threat that must be fought.
High stress subjective
feeling of anxiety
-Aggression and emotions
may be shown at proper
times
-Fear of ambiguous
situations and of unfamiliar
risk
-Emotional need for rules,
even if they never work
-Precision and punctuality
come naturally
-Resistance to innovation
-Motivation by security

38

Uncertainty Avoidance

Desire for
stability

High

Low

Greece
Japan
France
Korea
Arab Countries
Sub-saharan
Africa
Germany
Australia
Canada
US
UK
India
Denmark
Singapore
39

Individualism
Low individualism

High individualism

Individuals learn to think in

terms of we

Individuals learn to think in

terms of I

High-context communication

Low-context communication

Diplomas provide entry to

higher status groups

Diplomas increase
economic worth and/or selfrespect

Relationship employeremployee is perceived in

moral terms, like a family
Hiring and promotion
decisions take employees in
group into account
Management is
management of groups
Relationship prevails over
task

Relationship employeremployee is a contract

based on mutual advantage
Hiring and promotion are
supposed to be based on
skills and rules only
Management is
management of individuals
Task prevails over
relationship

40

Individualism
Hig
h

Australia
US
UK
Canada
France
Germany
Spain
Japan
Mexico
Italy
Korea
Singapore

Lo
w
41

Masculinity
Low masculinity

High
masculinity

Dominant values: caring

for others and
preservation

Dominant values: material

success and progress

People and warm

relationships are important

Money and things are

important

Sympathy for the weak

Sympathy for the strong

In family, both fathers and

mothers deal with facts and
feelings

In family, fathers deal with

facts and mothers with
feelings

Stress on equality, solidarity

, and quality of work life

Stress on equity,
competition among
colleagues and
performance

Managers use intuition and

strive for consensus
Resolution of conflicts by
compromise and negotiation

Managers are expected to

be decisive and assertive
Resolution of conflicts by

42

Masculinity
High
Japan
Mexico
Germany
UK
US
Arabia
France
Korea
Portugal
Denmark
Sweden
Lo
w
43

D-Cross-cultural
Negotiations

U.S. Approaches to Negotiation

U.S. negotiators: individualist values,
imagining self and other as autonomous.
Independent initiative may be taken.

African Approaches to Negotiation

Negotiation happens within social

networks, following prescribed roles.

relationships and hierarchies tend to be

emphasized;
Distributive negotiation: A win-lose
perspective;
May deal with different issues at the same
time;

See things universally -- i.e., they like to

talk about broad applications of ideas;

Concentrate on one problem at a time;

Focus on areas of disagreement, not areas

of commonality or agreement;

Like closure and certainty rather than

open-endedness or fuzziness.

Focus on areas of agreement, not areas of

disagreement;

MODEL OF CULTURES EFFECT ON NEGOTIATING

STRATEGY
Dimension
Negotiators Profile
Basic Concept of
Negotiations

Distributive or Integrative

Most Significant Type of

Issue

Task or Relationship

Selection of Negotiators

Abilities or Status

Influence of Individual
Aspirations

Individualist or Collectivist

Internal Decision-Making
Process

Independent or Majority
Rule
Orientation Toward

Risk-Taking Propensity

Risk-Averse or Risk-Tolerant

Speed of Trust

Fast Trust or Slow Trust

Concern with Protocol

Formal or Informal

Style of Communication

Low-Context or HighContext

Nature on
of Persuasion
or Metcalf et al.
Based
Weiss and Stripp Factual-Inductive
(1985, 1998) and
Affective
(2008).

The Nigerian Negotiators Profile and Implications

for Europeans

See Handout 1
Practice: See handout 2

Conclusion
A Traveler to Distant Places Should Make No Enemies.
Samuel A.
Spralls III

Prof. Geert Hofstede

Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy.

Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a

disaster.

47