![]() ![]() Globally, most of Asia and parts of Africa, Latin America and southern Europe operate this way. Situationally, families and close friendships tend to be high context. To be blunt might even cause offense, as it can imply a lack of respect or a desire for distance. Many things do not need to be spelled out explicitly. In these High Context or Indirect societies, communication is usually indirect and non-verbal. In a society where communities are close-knit and relationships are long-lasting, it is natural to rely on shared experience and mutual understanding to communicate ideas. Adapted from Moreau, Campbell & Greener, Effective Intercultural Communication: A Christian Perspective, p.130. High- and Low-Context Communication illustrated. Do we prefer to spell things out explicitly or do we let others read between the lines? Do we give more weight to words or to the context of those words? Our choices depend a great deal on our cultural background. With so many means of communication at our disposal, we have to choose which to prioritize when giving and receiving messages. Experts estimate that anywhere from 70-93% of communication is nonverbal. ![]() Even clothing, posture, and use of space and time convey a message. Each of us uses a variety of means to do so – words, gestures, tone of voice, silence and touch. In this article, we will focus on the area of communication: how words and context are used to communicate truth.Įvery person from every culture communicates, both intentionally and unintentionally. Some of the more commonly discussed values continua include Individual vs. Though individual preferences within a society do vary, these continua are useful tools for comparing the general values of one culture, relative to another. The greater mass of culture lies beneath, and we must go out of our way to recognize and understand it.Ĭulture specialists often explore a particular aspect of culture in terms of a spectrum or continuum of values (Hall Hofestede Storti). Below the water is The Why: the intangible, subconscious aspects of culture which include attitudes, beliefs, expectations, values and assumptions. Above the water lies The What: that which we can observe with our senses. In my last article, I introduced the concept of the cultural iceberg: the idea that culture exists both above the waterline and below. The key to Schein’s model is that, through analysing the three levels shown in Figure 6, a better understanding of the different components of culture in organisations can be achieved.Top banner photo: “There is so much value in having Indian architects & engineers in EMI to communicate design and negotiate with local contractors!” Photo by Ligy A., 2014, India-Bhutan border. Less visible, however, are a culture’s values, beliefs and norms, which can be much harder to identify and interpret. Examples of visible cultural aspects include written documents – strategic plans, job descriptions and disciplinary procedures. Schein’s iceberg model (Schein, 1992) is useful in that it illustrates that some cultural aspects of an organisation are visible while some are hidden and difficult for outsiders or even new members of an organisation to interpret. Below the water line and so invisible or unseen: Basic assumptions – Unconscious and taken for granted ways of seeing the world.įigure 6 Schein’s iceberg model of culture.At water level so partly visible: Values – Ethical statements of rightness.Above water and fully visible: Artefacts – Tangible manifestations of culture.The diagram shows an iceberg at sea with the sea level only allowing a small amount of the iceberg to be visible above water. Culture can exist at different levels and in different ways within an organisation, or the community, or the people they serve, relating to a range of both tangible and intangible elements, as the iceberg model of culture developed by Edgar Schein, shown in Figure 6, demonstrates. Yet the very simplicity of this definition masks the underlying complexity of organisational or community culture. All of these things are aspects of culture. Equally, you might have an unstated routine that your team always goes for lunch together at a certain time each day and always sits at the same table. You might know, for example, that titles for ranks or positions should be used in particular situations, or that in some contexts certain dress is required. Perhaps the most straightforward definition of culture is that proposed by Deal and Kennedy (1982), who asserted that culture is ‘the way we do things around here’. It is often one of those things that you recognise when you see it yet can be problematic to define clearly. The concept of culture can be understood in many ways. ![]()
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