The Effect of Culture in Communication

Communication is the process of exchanging information, and culture in communication refers to the effect of the cultural characteristics of communicators on this process. A culture is the collection of shared characteristics of a group of people, and it’s comprised of habits, beliefs, and behavioral norms. While a person’s culture can make them naturally efficient at communication, it can also reduce their efficacy. There are several advantages in learning about culture’s role in communication, such as:

• It helps you to identify the cultural basis of beliefs. When communicating with your coworkers or supervisors, you may encounter beliefs that do not make sense to you in areas such as gender roles, clothing, communication, indulgence, trustworthiness, and loyalty. By learning about culture’s role in communication, you can identify the cultural characteristics that have triggered these beliefs. Then, you can make informed decisions that can improve your communication, such as making your communication materials more understandable across specific cultures.
• It helps you to identify cultural behaviors. You’re more likely to identify behaviors that emanate from a culture. This enables you to separate individual behaviors, which are unique to a person, from cultural behaviors, which are unique to a culture. Then, you can tailor your communication strategy to address the latter type.
• It improves your skill set for working with multinationals. Many businesses operate in countries with different cultures, so learning about how cultural characteristics impact communication can improve your qualifications for working in them.
• It makes you a better communicator. Based on your knowledge of culture’s role in communication, you develop stronger communication strategies. Then, you become a better communicator.
• It helps you to progress in your career. By learning about how culture influences communication, you’re more likely to take remedial action when faced with communication issues impacted by cultural differences. This can help you to impress your supervisor, get a promotion, and achieve your professional goals.

Learn more: The Work Environment: Definition, Key Features, and Types

Communication styles in different cultures are distinctive customs for conveying information. Each is influenced by a culture. The framework developed by the Dutch psychologist, Geert Hofstede, is one of several methods that can be used to describe culture-based differences between social groups, including those that impact communication. Based on this framework and other techniques, communication styles in different cultures include:

More power distance versus less power distance

This Hofstede dimension refers to whether people with relatively less power accept unequal power structures in their social group. While their acceptance of power-based inequalities indicates a culture with more power distance, their refusal to do so marks a culture with less power distance. The communication style used in the former type is likely to be an authoritarian, top-down style. In contrast, the latter culture is likely to prefer a democratic style that works toward a consensus.

Individual-focused versus group-focused

Two of Hofstede’s dimensions, masculinity versus femininity and individualism versus collectivism, can be grouped in the individual-focused versus group-focused dimension because they essentially explore the same things. Using this new grouping, the communication styles in different cultures can be separated based on whether they favor individual-focused goals such as assertiveness, heroism, material reward, and achievement or group-focused targets such as modesty, cooperation, quality of life, and caring for the weak.

More uncertainty avoidance versus less uncertainty avoidance

Hofstede separated cultures that are comfortable with uncertainty from those that are not so. In relation to communication styles, the former is likely to make employees responsible for their communication while the latter is likely to have the narrative in each stage of exchanging information under the control of the management.

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Indulgence versus self-restraint

In this dimension, Hofstede differentiated cultures that are more likely to indulge their desires from those that are less likely to do so. During the process of communication, communicators from the former type are likely to be less dependable than people from the latter.

More context versus less context

This dimension of cultural difference relates to how a culture values context. In relation to communication, a communicator from a culture that values less context is likely to focus on the communication itself and develop materials to support it while another from a culture that prefers more context is likely to work on the communication’s surrounding circumstances, such as social relationships between stakeholders and their personal agendas.

Affective versus neutral

While affective cultures tend to share their emotions, neutral ones value controlling their feelings during interactions. While the former prefers informal, theatrical communication, the latter opts for a more formal process of information exchange.

Social resources-based versus skill-based

Cultures can also be differentiated based on whether they rely more on their social resources or skills. In the former type, which is prevalent in less developed societies, the exchange of information is regulated by social networks that are usually intolerant of criticism or dissension. Communicating with people from social resources-based cultures can be unproductive.

In contrast, cultures that are skill-based are usually found in developed societies. These social groups rely on experts with proven skills who consider opposing viewpoints and make informed decisions. This enhances communication.

Learn more: How to Improve Communication Skills for Workplace Success

There are various aspects of cultures that affect how people exchange information, including:

• Beliefs: One’s culture informs one’s beliefs, which are the things accepted as being true. Communicating with people who share your beliefs is easier than exchanging information with those who believe in significantly dissimilar things.
• Habits: The customary things people do are regulated by their cultural beliefs and behavioral norms. While these habits are dynamic and adaptable in high-performance societies, they are less so in low-performance societies.
• Behavioral norms: Each culture includes norms of behavior. As these shared standards of socially accepted conduct drive how people behave, irrational norms can be extremely difficult to address via communication.
• Freedom: Individual freedom differs across cultures. This is because the beliefs, habits, and norms of behavior that comprise a culture directly affect the freedom of those within it. While less developed cultures normalize restricting the freedom of people, developed alternatives protect individual freedom. As you communicate with others, their freedom, or lack thereof, will affect how your information is interpreted, understood, and addressed.
• Clothing: In a culture, the beliefs, habits, and behavioral norms of people support a dress code. In cohesive, healthy cultures, there is less interest in enforcing this standard, provided outliers avoid choosing clothing that attacks core cultural beliefs and norms. Communicating with people from a different culture in which individuals — particularly women — have been coerced on what to wear for a long period of time can be challenging. This is due to their beliefs that support their culture’s regulation on apparel and disapprove of any article of clothing — including yours — if it differs.
• Technology: Some cultures, such as European cultures, are comfortable with using computer technologies for all their work-based communications. In contrast, others prefer in-person interactions.
• Happiness: As cultural characteristics include the shared beliefs, behavioral norms, and habits of a specific social group, they directly impact the happiness of the people within it. For example, a culture that normalizes reductions in personal autonomy, inequalities between males and females, and disrespect for each other’s inalienable rights can make its people very unhappy. In the workplace, your happiness impacts your motivation, engagement, and productivity. Consequently, communicating with people who are unhappy due to their cultural issues — which you cannot fix — can be counterproductive.
• Autonomy: Respecting the personal autonomy of another, which relates to their right to govern themselves and enjoy their inalienable rights, is a core belief and behavioral norm among strong cultures.

Use the following tips to handle culture in communication effectively:

• Use technology that suits the culture. During cross-cultural communication, determine the extent to which a culture has contributed to modern technological innovations, progressed with them, and grown comfortable with using them when selecting your communication tools.
• Develop strategies to deal with cultural differences. Identify cultural differences that have negative impacts on communication. Then, prepare strategies for handling them. Keep in mind that some cultural dissimilarities cannot be bridged. Focus on the ones you can handle.
• Engage similar cultures. Due to the pervasive influence of culture on thinking and behavior, it makes more economic sense to work with similar cultures that share several communication styles and cultural aspects.
• Evaluate respect for your autonomy. Assess the respect that potential communication partners have for your autonomy. To communicate effectively, engage with people who respect individual autonomy. They are likely to be easier to collaborate with than others whose cultures preclude respecting individual independence.
• Work with progressive cultures. Work with communicators from healthy cultures that are open to change based on new information instead of ones that are opposed to any significant changes.

As discussed, understanding the impact of culture in communication offers several benefits. Use what you learned to optimize your information exchange in your current or future job.

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