Download 2 nd face-to-face

Influence of culture on communication
2ND FACE-TO-FACE
A Case Study of Malay-German Interface
 A German salesman was making a presentation of a
German product to a group of Malaysian personnel of one
government agency. He was very please that the
presentation went well and appeared to be well-taken by
his clients. The Malaysian expressed interest and appeared
to be keen with the product. The German salesman was
very confident that a contract would seem to be in order.
At the end of the presentation, the issue was raised by the
German and was told that the contract would be signed in
a week time. After a week the salesman called to remind
about the contract and was told that the person in charge
was not in. He waited for another week and discovered
later that in actual fact there was not going to be any order
or signing of contract. The German salesman was rather
dismay because he perceived that his clients were
definitely enthusiastic about the product and the decline
came as a surprise.
words
Social status
tone
posture
paraphrase
Social setting
gesture
words
Social status
tone
posture
paraphrase
Social setting
gesture
words
Social status
tone
gesture
posture
paraphrase
Social setting
Low-context
communication
High-context
communication
Hall’s Theory of Contexting
 Context means having to recognize the
information and circumstances that surround
a particular situation and event
 Hall categorizes culture as being along the
continuum of a high or low context,
depending on the degree to which meaning
comes from the settings or from the words
being exchange
 Assumptions: culture provides a highly
selective screen between man and the
outside world.
 Culture designates what we pay attention to
and what we ignore.
Differences
 LOW-CONTEXT
 HIGH-CONTEXT
 Explicit, direct
 Implicit, indirect
 Does not assume shared
 Relies on shared
knowledge or experience
 Information flow is
controlled according to
information needs
knowledge and
experiences
 Information flows freely
through networks
Malaysia is a high-context
culture
 Meaning of a message is often made up in
terms of who is the sender, how did he say it,
when did he say it, who else were there, etc
 Some things are better left unsaid.
 Western foreigners often times find it is
frustrating communicating with the locals
L-C
German-Swiss
Scandinavian
American
French
English
H-C
Japanes
e
Chinese
Korean
Arab
Greek
Challenges 1.
Time orientation
 “It is difficult to get things done through
Malaysians. It’s not that they don’t have
commitment … perhaps they lack discipline
in terms of prioritization. They face
difficulties in knowing which job needs to be
done first,” British expat complained.
 “Malaysians do not put much emphasis on
schedule. They are less hurried and more
accommodating to time change. In executing
projects, they have milestones, but throughout
my experience working in project teams led by
Malaysians, the schedules keep on changing.
They do not emphasize sticking to schedule
unless they are being put to close scrutiny by
their boss,” said German expat.
Time orientation
 MONOCHRONIC
 POLYCHNONIC
 Only do one activity at
a time
 Do more than one
activity at a time
 Time is seizable and
 Appointment are
measurable
approximate and
subject to “giving time”
to significant others
 Keep appointments
 Schedules are
strictly; schedule in
advance and do not run
late
 Relationships are
generally subordinate
to schedule
 Strong preference for
following initial plans
generally subordinate
to relationships
 Strong preference for
following where
relationships lead
ANSWER THIS QUESTION
 Think of the past, present and future as being
in the shape of circles. Please draw three
circles on a piece of paper, representing past,
present and future. Arrange these circles in
any way you want that best show how you
feel about the relationships of the past,
present and future. You may use different
size circles. When you have finish, label each
circle to show which one is the past, which
one the present and which one the future.
Challenges 2.
Expectation
Mismatched
 In Western organization, managers are
expected to reach decisions and solve
problems rationally and in a democratic
manner and participative manner; decisions
are made by focusing on results while facts,
risk taking and logical reasoning are the basis
of decision making.
 “A typical answer was ‘what to do?’ to my
question for ideas from them on problems. It
was much later, through the grapevine, that I
learned that this had created the impression and
the situation that the boss didn’t know what to
do. From my perspective, I was doing this to
develop the skills of the staff. By questioning, I
was getting the staff to think and evaluate and
that is a coaching role,” said one UK expat.
Challenges 3. Group Orientation
 “Four years ago, I tried to introduce total
quality business management. It require
everyone in the company to actively look at
their job functions and come up with
suggestions for improvement. However,
some middle management personnel took
the suggestion as personal complaint against
them,” noted a UK expat.
 Two people were discussing ways in which individuals
could improve the quality of life.
 A= One said: It is obvious if individuals have much
freedom as possible and the maximum opportunity
to develop themselves, the quality of their life will
improve as a result.
 B= The other said: If individuals are continuously
taking care of their fellow human beings the quality
of life will improve for every one, even if it obstructs
individual freedom and individual development.
 Which of the two ways of reasoning do you think is
usually best, A or B?
 A defect is discovered in one of the installations. It
was caused by negligence of one of the members of
a team. Responsibility of this mistake can be
carried in various ways.
 A= The person causing the defect by negligence is
the one responsible.
 B= Because he or she happens to work in a team
the responsibility should be carried by the group.
 Which one of these two ways of taking
responsibility do you think is usually the case in your
society, A or B?
Individualism
 Person belongs to many groups and moves in




and out of groups easily.
Responsibility to individual and immediate
family.
Individual pursue own goals.
Competition.
Autonomy, self-reliance & independence.
Collectivism
 Person belong to a limited # of group;




membership does not easily change.
Responsibility to the group and its members.
Individual goals come from the group.
Harmony and face-saving.
Obedience, duty and sacrifice.
Challenges 4. Separation of
private and public lives
 Unexpected demand of overtime and more
contact within and outside the workplace
violates some cultural values (e.g., German
and Swiss “private garden”
 Japanese tend to extend work into their
private lives.
Challenges 5. Communication
Patterns
 According to European expatriates, Malaysian
have a tendency to be indirect, ambiguous and
under communicating, and are perceived as
unassertive, passive or even hypocritical.
 They are reluctant to sit down and talk out the
difficulties and would prefer to use a third party
o tell disagreement or to work out the problem
rather than telling the person directly.
 A source of conflict and tension to the
Europeans.
Constrasting Western-Eastern Style
 Eastern Comm Style
 Western Comm Style
 Process oriented
 Outcome oriented
 Differentiated linguistic
code
 Undifferientiated
linguistic code
 Indirect, face-saving
communication
 Direct and out-spoken
style
 Receiver oriented
 Source oriented
Challenges 6.
proficiency
Language
 Language matter but language facility alone
is not enough. Need knowledge of other’s
culture
 Assuming not necessary to learn local
language because English is international and
business language.
Type of strategies
 Cognitive strategy: awareness and understanding
of the other’s culture, identify similarities and
differences
 Affective strategy: positive attitude towards
differences and positive emotional orientation
(open-mindedness, patience, joking etc)
 Behavioral strategy: being flexible and adapting
behavior to meet the requirement. Practice
accommodative behavior (emphatic listening, speak
slowly and clearly, repeating, paraphrasing etc)