1. Communication
between cultures 8TH EDITION
Chapter 6
Cultural Values:
Guidelines for
Behavior
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 1

2. Key Ideas
• Understanding perception
• Understanding values
• Cultural patterns
• Cultural patterns and communication
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 2

3. Understanding perception
• Perception
– Making sense of your physical world
– Making sense of your social world
– How you construct reality
• Perception is selective
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 3

4. Understanding perception
• Perception is learned
• Perception is culturally determined
• Perception is consistent
• Perception is inaccurate
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 4

5. Understanding values
• Beliefs are foundations for values
• Values are individual and collective
• Values inform a culture of what is good or ba,
right or wrong, correct or incorrect,
appropriate or inappropriate
• Values establish normative modes of behavior
in a culture
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 5

6. Cultural patterns
• You are more than your culture
• Cultural patterns are integrated
• Cultural patterns are integrated
• Cultural patterns can be contradictory
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 6

7. Selecting cultural patterns
• Cultural pattern typologies help to identify
and understand dissimilar cultural values
• Values presented I cultural patterns are points
along a continuum
• There is a great deal of duplication and
similarity between different cultural patterns
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 7

8. Kohl’s Values Americans Live By
US Values Foreign Counterpart Values
Personal Control over the Environment 1 Fate
Change 2 Tradition
Time & Its Control 3 Human Interaction
Equality 4 Hierarchy/Rank/Status
Individualism/Privacy 5 Group’s Welfare
Self-Help 6 Birthright Inheritance
Competition 7 Cooperation
Future Orientation 8 Past Orientation
Action/Work Orientation 9 "Being" Orientation
10
Informality Formality
11
Directness/Openness/Honesty Indirectness/Ritual/"Face"
12
Practicality/Efficiency Idealism
13
Materialism/Acquisitiveness Spiritualism/Detachment
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 8

9. Hofstede’s Value Dimensions
• Individual/Collectivism
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Power Distance
• Masculinity/Femininity
• Long term/Short term Orientation
• Indulgence/Restraint
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 9

10. Minkov’s
Monumentalism/Flexhumility
Monumentalism Flexhumility
• Self-pride/self-promotion • Humility
• Self-concept is • Self-concept is
consistent/fixed flexible/fluid
• Truth is absolute • Truth is relative
• Absolutist cognition • Holistic cognition
• Religion is important • Religion less important
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 10

11. Minkov’s
Monumentalism/Flexhumility
Monumentalism Flexhumility
• Interpersonal
• Interpersonal
competition valued competition problematic
• Lower value on education • Higher value on
• Difficulty in adapting to education
• Easily adapts to another
another culture
culture
• Suicide taboo • Suicide accepted
• Tipping • Tipping not
expected/prevalent expected/rarely done
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 11

12. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s
Value Orientation
• Basic questions
– What is the character of human nature?
– What is the relation of humankind to nature?
– What is the orientation toward time?
– What is the value placed on activity?
– What is the relationship of people to each other?
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 12

13. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s
Value Orientation
ORIENTATION VALUE AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE
Human nature Basically evil Mixture of good and evil Basically good
Humans and nature Subject to nature Harmony with nature Master of nature
Sense of time Past Present Future
Activity Being Being-in-Becoming Doing
Social relationships Authoritarian Group Individualism
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 13

14. Hall’s High Context and
Low Context Orientations
• High Context
– Most of the meaning exchanged during an
encounter is often not communicated through
words
– High-context cultures are usually quite
traditional
– People from high-context cultures tend to be
attuned to their surroundings and can easily
express and interpret emotions nonverbally
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 14

15. Hall’s High Context and
Low Context Orientations
• High Context
– Meaning in high-context cultures is also conveyed
“through status (age, sex, education, family
background, title, and affiliations) and through an
individual’s informal friends and associates
– Members of these groups often “communicate in
an indirect fashion and rely more on how
something is said, rather than what is said
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 15

16. Hall’s High Context and
Low Context Orientations
• Low Context
– Low-context cultures typically have considerable
population diversity and tend to
compartmentalize interpersonal contacts
– The verbal message contains most of the
information and very little is embedded in the
context or the participant’s nonverbal activity
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 16

17. The Globe Study:
The Globe Study and Cultural Dimensions
Uncertainty The extent that societal or organizational members
Avoidance work to reduce uncertainty about future events
through the use of social norms, protocols, and
established practices.
Power The degree that societal or organizational members
Distance acquiesce to the unequal distribution of power.
Collectivism – The degree that established social and organizational
Societal practices condone and reward collective actions and
resource distribution.
Collectivism – The degree of pride, loyalty, and interconnectedness that
In-group people have in their family or organization.
Gender The degree that a society or organization minimizes
Egalitarianism differences in gender roles and gender inequality.
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 17

18. The Globe Study:
The Globe Study and Cultural Dimensions
Assertiveness How assertive, confrontational, and aggressive are
members of a society or organization in their social
interactions.
Future The extent that people take part in future orientated
Orientation actions, such as planning and investing for the future
and delaying gratification.
Performance The degree that a society or organization rewards
Orientation members for improvement and excellence.
Humane The degree that a society or organization promotes and
Orientation rewards displays of fairness, altruism, generosity, caring,
and kindness toward others.
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 18

19. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Anglo Cluster:
– All of the members of this cluster are developed
nations with predominantly English speaking
populations
– A major characteristic is an individualistic,
performance based orientation, with a forward
looking perspective
– Rewards are a result of merit and there is less
dependence on formal rules and established
procedures
– While gender equality is valued, in practice the
countries are male-dominated
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 19

20. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Latin Europe Cluster
– A distinctive feature of the Latin Europe group is
the reliance on the state to provide a wide range
of social support services
– tends more toward collectivism than
individualism
– gender equality was the lowest score of the
cluster
– power distance was the highest score
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 20

21. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Nordic Europe Cluster
– High score on gender equality, future orientation,
and uncertainty avoidance
– Underplaying of assertiveness, familial, and
masculine authority and emphasis on certainty,
social unity and cooperation
– The welfare state found in all Nordic nations may
contribute to the cluster’s low performance
orientation scores
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 21

22. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Germanic Europe Cluster
– High scores on assertiveness, uncertainty
avoidance, and power distance
– Low scores on gender
– Self reliance on well-defined rules and standards,
masculinity
– Assertive approach taken by members of these
nations, along
– Technocratic orientation
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 22

23. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Eastern Europe Cluster
– Preference for hierarchical organizational
leadership practices
– Strong in-group collectivism, and gender equality
– High tolerance for uncertainty It is useful to note
that
– Many of the nations in this cluster were once part
of the former Soviet Union
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 23

24. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Latin America Cluster
– Paternalism perspective is a central theme
– Desire to sustain personal social status
– Predilection for in-group collectivism
– Sense of fatalism
– Prefer to live life in the present, rather than
planning for the future
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 24

25. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Middle East Cluster
– The five nations of this cluster share a common
historical, religious, and socio-cultural heritage.
• Arabic is the common language in all but
Turkey
• Islam is the dominant religion
– Strong in-group collectivism - centers on the
family and attachments to other groups such as
tribe, sect, village, neighborhood, or classmates
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 25

26. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Middle East Cluster
– Follow well-defined power distance hierarchies in
their relationships
– Have very distinct gender roles, with masculinity
being predominant
– Many institutionalized values can be attributed to
the Koran, which teaches that leadership authority
should be respected and provides clear definitions
of the different roles for men and women
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 26

27. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Southern Asia Cluster:
– Strong in-group collectivism, humanism
– Preference for social hierarchy
– Tendency toward male domination
• Within the workforce, women commonly have to
rely on family connections or a lengthy work
history in order to compete with their male
counterparts
• It appears that modern South Asian women are
seen as having outside accomplishments but are
expected to concurrently maintain strong family
ties
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 27

28. The Globe Study:
Globe societies and clusters
• Confucian Asia Cluster
– Pervasive influence of Chinese history and
Confucianism
– Confucianism that contributes to the
contemporary practice of strong societal and in-
group collectivism performance
– Rewards are associated less with individual
achievement and more with attainment of
collective goals
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 28

29. Face and Facework
• Face is your public identity
• Face is acquired, lost, and maintained through
social interaction
• The process of acquiring face is referred to as
facework
• Facework consists of those actions you
engage in to acquire or maintain face for
yourself or give face to someone else
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 29

30. Face and Facework
• Face and facework, however, are influenced by
cultural values and vary across cultures
– In individualistic cultures a person’s face is
usually derived from his or her own self-effort and
is normally independent of others
– In collectivistic cultures, group membership is
normally the primary source of identity and
status
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 30

31. Face and Facework
• Varying attitudes as to what represents face
and how facework is conducted have a very
noticeable impact on how a culture views and
approaches conflict
• The differences between face and facework
across cultures are a function of different
cultural values
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 31

32. Cultural patterns and communication
Individualism Collectivism
• Focus is on the • Focus is on the
individual & self- group/affiliations & self-
promotion criticism
• Independency • Interdependency
• Task dominates • Relationship dominates
relationship task
• Social obedience • Social obedience
through sense of guilt through sense of
shame
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 32

33. Cultural patterns and communication
Egalitarian Hierarchal
• Horizontal relationships • Vertical relationships
• Subordinates consulted • Subordinates informed
• Equality expected • Inequality accepted
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 33

34. Cultural patterns and communication
Low Uncertainty High Uncertainty
Avoidance Avoidance
• Change is normal and • Change is disruptive
good and disliked
• Few behavioral • Many behavioral
protocols protocols
• Greater cultural • Less cultural diversity
diversity
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 34

35. Cultural patterns and communication
Monochronic Polychronic
• Time is linear and • Time is flexible
segmented • Focus on multiple tasks
• Focus on a single task • Weak ties to schedules
• Adherence to
schedules
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 35

36. Cultural patterns and communication
Low Context High Context
Communication Communication
• Meaning reliant on • Meaning can be
verbal message derived from context
• Nonverbal • Nonverbal
communication low communication high
importance importance
• Silence is avoided • Silence is normal
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 36

37. Cultural patterns and communication
Low Face Concerns High Face Concerns
• Conflict/disagreement • Conflict/disagreement
is constructive is threatening
• Concern for self-face • Concern for
mutual/other-face
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 37

38. Communication
between cultures 8TH EDITION
Chapter 6
Cultural Values:
Guidelines for
Behavior
© Cengage 2012 Chapter 6 Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior 38