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INTELLECTUAL OUTPUT 3: Module 1,2,3 Diverse identities and cultures – Cross Cultural Communication
INTELLECTUAL OUTPUT 3:
Module 1,2,3 Diverse identities and cultures – Cross Cultural Communication
Cross-cultural understanding
1 2
Understanding each other : a priority
3
Our culture
Our customs
Our social
background
bias stereotype
viewing the other with disfavour
Justify rejecting the Other
Understanding each other : a priority
4
Decline of commercial exchanges between Belgium and the Maghreb countries ?
Why ?
Example
Understanding each other : a priority
5
The crisis ?
And yet the Belgians have a few advantages ….
Example
• They speak French. • They are not burdened by a colonial
past
• They are pragmatic and have high technical
Understanding each other : a priority
6
Decline of exchanges between Belgium and the Maghreb countries?
Example
At the same time, the Italians take the Belgian market share !
Understanding each other : a priority
7
Decline of exchanges between Belgium and the Maghreb countries?
Example
Unlike the Italians, the Belgians don’t really understand the way the Arabs work.
Therefore it’s a cultural problem.
What are the reasons?
Understanding each other : a priority
8
I consider myself as the centre of the world and I judge the Other by categorizing him/her with bias.
Meeting the Other, who is different from oneself, is disturbing
Understanding each other : a priority
9
▫ You have to learn how to remove the destorting glasses of your own culture
Understanding each other : a priority
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▪ A lot of misunderstandings can occur
The employees of a French-Vietnamese firm
must learn to know how to communicate
with each other
Understanding each other : a priority
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▪ A lot of misunderstandings can occur
The commercial policy of a French sales manager in Vietnam was not good and sales stagnated. Worried, his Vietnamese vendors invited him to a nice restaurant and paid the bill without ever talking about the problem..
CASE STUDY
After a few weeks, as the French director did not change his policy, the Vietnamese sellers complained by mail to the Paris headquarters
Have the Vietnamese vendors been hypocrites?
Understanding each other : a priority
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▪ Vietnamese reaction to the French manager
CASE STUDY
• The French manager expects his staff to formulate the problem directly
• Saving face is more important for the Vietnamese.
Vietnamese vendors are not hypocrites, they communicate differently
The unusual invitation to the restaurant was the message
Understanding each other : a priority
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▪ Different cultural customs
Damage a situation and create stereotypes
Clashes are amplified when both parties : • resort exclusively to their own cultural background when they
communicate
• are not aware of the cultural origin of the clash
• believe in the superiority of their own culture
Baby A learned the word with that example
How to communicate within a culture : Communication and context
14
We live with the necessary fiction that words and the way they assemble, have, at first sight, a precise meaning and that the receptor receives a clear message from the transmitter !
Example : the word «Toilets»
Baby B learned the word with that example
When baby A speaks with baby B do they understand that word the same way ?
What happens when they are talking about family, love, … ?
How to communicate within a culture : Communication and context
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The meaning of a communication
is not only based on words
How to communicate within a culture : Communication and context
The mechanism of communication includes several elements
1) Part of the message is not verbal
2) A feed-back is necessary to check or improve the precision of the message
3) Communication also depends on its context
How to communicate within a culture : Communication and context
The context will influence communication without the people involved noticing it
Cultural bias
Is a young interlocutor reliable ?
Is an old interlocutor reliable?
Do you need to know your interlocutors well to be able to communicate properly ?
How to communicate within a culture : Communication and context
1) Part of the message is not verbal
2) A feed-back is necessary to check or improve the precision of the message
place
people
age
Gender
clothes
social status
…
3) Communication often depends on its context
How to communicate within a culture : Communication and context
1) Part of the message is not verbal
2) A feed-back is necessary to check or improve the precision of the message
3) Communication often depends on its context
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Explicit messages
A more implicit message
How time is viewed
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• Keeping to an appointment
• Being able to contemplate the future
• Projecting oneself into the future
• Thinking that time is lost Time is money ?
Potential misunderstandings.
All these are very relative
Is time a scant resource or is it widely available ?
23 McDonald in Charlotte USA
How time is viewed
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Monochronism and Polychronism
Only one task will be performed within a determined time limit ( society of the diary)
It is adequate and even useful to carry out several tasks or communications
simultaneously.
What is efficient ?
Monochronic society Polychronic society
How time is viewed
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Monochronic society Polychronic society
Westerners : rather monochronic
The clients of an Indian bank see the manager discuss several files simultaneously while several people at reh same time
The « diary » behaviour
How time is viewed
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The sphere of personal life
In a low context In a high context
More separate from the sphere of professional life.
Dinner time in a lot of western countries is reserved to private life
How time is viewed
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Culture projecting into the past
It works in a more institutionalised way.
The innovator is often seen as disturbing.
They are essentially types of programming with low adaptation to evolution.
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Japanese culture combines projecting into the past, present and future
Past , present and future
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Japanese culture combines projecting into the past, present and future
Past , present and future
Nescafé was able to integrate this concept in its ads
Religions and moral code
30
In some countries it might be immoral to show bodies that are too undressed in an add
Religions and moral code
31
On the left, a Chanel advertising for the European market. On the right, the same advertising for the Japanese market.
Religions and moral code
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Advertising regularly resorts to religion
This kind of humour is not possible in most latin countries
Religions and moral code
33
The acceptance of certain kinds of food, some kinds of habits or behaviours are very frequently affected by religion
Religions and moral code
34
Videoclip banned in
Singapore
Religions and moral code
35
This clip was accepted in Germany but banned in Singapore
This clip might raise problems in Poland
Gender and moral code
36
Gender and moral code
37
Predominance of men in Japanese society
A female banker says several Japanese bankers were very curt with her simply because she was a woman.
Even for foreign women
Gender and moral code
38
Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinedjad
Gender and moral code
39
Which image can a woman project of herself?
40
Gender and moral code
41
Advertising will vary greatly according to the cultural environment.
What is possible in one country will be impossible in another one.
The place of man and woman differs according to the culture.
Gender and moral code
42
In Homophobic Countries being gay is a crime or a sin
Gender and moral code
43
A friend is a person you may ask for advice
He can be trusted all life long
Friendship:
The Chinese think their environment is hostile and they cannot survive without friends
Concept of face
44
Living together implies a kind of code : saving face
To enable somebody else to live in society :
• Accept the image he claims • Avoid noticing his mistakes
If not : impossible to keep having a relationship with that person
Concept of face
45
Losing face makes it impossible to keep on playing one’s part in society and may even lead to suicide.
A Chinese spend his entire life trying to build his social prestige and reputation, while also trying to avoid causing anyone else to lose theirs.
Losing face in Chinese culture is about more than being embarrassed
Concept of face
46
What the Chinese thinks is peculiar to
him and nobody may ask him for an
explanation
Silent language
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Linguists think that the essential part of communication is not verbal
Language enables us to send & receive messages
Non-verbal communication enables us to interpret them non-verbal gets rather complex in cross-cultural com.
55 % of communication is linked to body language 38 % to voice
7 % to the meaning of words
Silent language
48 Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner's Seven Dimensions of Culture model
How People Express Emotions
Emotional Neutral
1. Self-control
Silent language
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1. Self-control
Silent language
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2. Body posture
People’s postures often give information about their social status, religious habits, submission,...
Silent language
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3. Hand gestures
The use of arms, hands and fingers differs according to the culture.
OK Zero Money Homosexual Very vulgar
Silent language
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4. Face expressions
The use of smiling
Smiling could be a sign of weakness in Asia
In China, smiling may mean : NO
Could mean surprise or embarrassment in some parts of Africa
Could be sadness or anger in Japan
Silent language
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4. Proxemics
Marie-Joëlle Browaeys & Roger Price, Understanding
Cross-Cultural Management, Prentice Hall 2008
Silent language
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4. Physical contacts
High Touch societies Low Touch societies
How often people touch while communicating is different according to where you are in the world.
• Mediterraneans • Arabs • Jews
• English • Germans • Lot of Asian societies.
Silent language
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4. Physical contacts
Silent language
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4. Sympolism and aesthetics
Couples cin Xiamen China
Universalism and particularism
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Universalism : belief that ideas and practices can be applied all over the world
Particularism : belief that circumtances dictate how ideas should be applied and everything cannot be done the same way everywhere
People focus on relationships, working things out to suit the stakeholders
The rules of a group outweigh the interests of individuals
The individual circumstances can be more important than the rules of the group
Universalism and particularism
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END OF WEBINAR 1! THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!
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