Class, Codes and Control. Low-context and high-context culture are anthropological concepts that describe the level of explicit information and the importance of context in a cultures communication. Stylus Publishing. For the sake of completeness, Figure2 displays the (un)standardized coefficients of the discussed relationships in the model. Information has to be explicit and detailed for the message to be conveyed without distortion. Based on their detail-orientation, they tend to talk at great length. The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau. Unlike low-context cultures, high-context cultures prioritize the group over the individual (Hofstede, 1984). The study had a one-factor design: advertisements with visual metaphors were presented to participants with the Belgian or the Dutch nationality (between-subject design). While Germany is an extremely culturally aware nation, they also have expectations when it comes to others understanding their culture as an independent country - so preparation is a must if you are to build a positive image from the beginning of negotiations. The present study shows that individuals' context scores account for the national differences between perceived complexity and liking of ads with complex visual metaphors. Le Pair and Van Mulken (Citation2008, p. 289) stress that their choice to relate the findings on ad liking to participants' context culture is a tentative explanation, and Callow and Schiffman (Citation2002, p. 274) acknowledge, It would also be advantageous to measure context at an individualas opposed to a culturallevel.. Managers are expected to be decisive and assertive. This can be very confusing for person who does not understand the 'unwritten rules' of the culture. On the other hand, he identified countries such as Germany, the United States and Scandinavia as low-context cultures. Germanys high score of 83 indicates that it is a pragmatic country. The Ballad of 'Deepfake Drake' - The New York Times Another source of variation is consumers' cultural background; namely, their context culture, as the next section will explain. High Context Culture: What Does It Mean and How to Adapt Xu & Wyer, Citation2010), or foreign languages (cf. endstream endobj 316 0 obj <>stream London: Routledge. Potential characteristics may be verbal metaphors (cf. These models, however, do not account for the design of complex ads such as the example of the liquid detergent, which suggests that complexity is employed to positively affect appreciation. One framework for approaching intercultural communication is with high-context and low-context cultures, which . /T?KrGM7IL];K7,~`}b`x2Zp|yMkX1h1s]0;Vq4{i `{DXB=1 u`sBY.I43VO9#"43puz qAZf6I'a^OD. Understanding German business protocol is the first step toward success in Germany. This is in part due to Germans unwillingness to reveal personal information to potential strangers. Low-context communicators dont need to be provided with much background information, but they do expect messages to be professional, efficient, and linear in their logic. 1. Gudykunst, W. B., & Ting-Toomey, S. (1988). IOR collects cookies to improve your experience on our website. Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained. Scheduling, punctuality emphasized; time is a commodity not to be wasted, Equality Third, future research may invest in developing new and/or refining existing measures for high/low context (see Kim, Pan, & Park, Citation1998). Complex ads, such as the example of the liquid detergent, may be better comprehended and better appreciated in higher- than in lower-context cultures. In a business context, maintaining good relationships is second to getting the facts straight. In an advertising context, the more effort is spent in deciphering an ad, the more satisfied consumers will be that they have succeeded in this deciphering. In other words, the Federal Republic is well-known for an extremely direct way of speaking about things. Metaphors, whether verbal or visual, are rhetorical figures that may have a high degree of complexity (e.g., McQuarrie & Mick, Citation1996; Phillips & McQuarrie, Citation2004). It seems straightforward that, when communicating with their target audience in different cultures, companies want to clearly mention the benefits of their products in order to maximize their impact (see Wyer & Shrum, Citation2015). They show an ability to adapt traditions easily to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness, and perseverance in achieving results. Politics latest updates: Union leader Pat Cullen says nurses are pushed Note: Comparison of low- and high-context cultures reprinted from Business communication: Process & product (p. 64) by M.E. Without socialization we do not become human. H2: Participants' personal context scores mediate the effect of nationality on perceived complexity. The results confirmed three of four expected differences: perceived complexity was higher for Dutch than for Spanish participants (but not than for French), and ad liking was lower for Dutch than for Spanish and French participants. The ads featured different products, such as a car, detergent, soda, and a mobile phone. In low-context cultures, people are said to prefer explicit, task-related language. Few hallway conversations; once you have greeted a person in the morning, there is no need to say hello when passing in the hallway. Low-context cultures (such as those in North America and Western Europe) depend less on the environment of a situation to convey meaning than do high-context cultures (such as those in Japan, China, and Arab countries). For complex messages to be effective, consumers need to have a minimum of cognitive resources. In a high-context culture, there are many contextual elements that help people to understand the rules. Cite this Article in your Essay (APA Style), Privacy PolicyTerms and ConditionsDisclaimerAccessibility StatementVideo Transcripts. The German language: high, low and standard German & its dialects Learn more about our academic and editorial standards. While some cultures are low or high context, in general terms, there can also be individual or contextual differences within cultures. The current study used an abridged version of the scale used by Richardson and Smith (Citation2007), which is among the very few scales available. (Citation2010) also investigated perceived complexity and liking of visual metaphors in advertising among participants from the same three countries. Studies have shown that this satisfaction transfers to higher ad liking and to a more positive product attitude for ads that require considerable cognitive efforts than for ads that need lower cognitive efforts (e.g., Forceville, Citation1996; Phillips, Citation2000; Tanaka, Citation1992). b'K/{:6 ,eQ_`RYHS9pkRg91o)?OM8u}Vo0~8m A polite nod accompanied by a firm handshake is a common greeting, both in a business as well as social context; eye contact is made and held during a face-to-face conversation. In public, space is less of a physical concept: people bump into each other in the street and push others when queuing; it is more a concept of the mind. YbpIIV 9x~G6 Cultures Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. In general, both Germany and the U.S. are low-context cultures, meaning that information and meaning are usually communicated explicitly through words. (2014, December 10). 1 From High Context to Low Context . A low-context (LC) communication is just the opposite; i.e., the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code.". Low-context cultures rely on explicit communication. Renewable, clean energy has become a key talking point for every nation, and Germanys push puts itself at the forefront of a new economic boom. This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised. When working with high context cultures repeat yourself less, ask clarifying questions often and work on . Sage Publications. Belgian participants have a higher ad liking than Dutch participants, and this national difference is explained by the participants' personal context score. zsOx B*@ Low Context Culture: Examples, Definition & Countries Register a free Taylor & Francis Online account today to boost your research and gain these benefits: The Influence of High-/Low-Context Culture on Perceived Ad Complexity and Liking, Centre for Language Studies, Communication and Information Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Review of a 40-source debate in international advertising: Practitioner and academician perspectives to the standardization/adaptation issue, Ease of message processing as a moderator of repetition effects in advertising, The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations, The predictive validity of multiple-item versus single-item measures of the same constructs, Implicit meaning in visual print advertisements: A cross-cultural examination of the contextual communication effect, A critique of Hall's contexting model: A meta-analysis of literature on intercultural business and technical communication, How to persuade Belgian, French and Dutch business people to listen to your presentation, Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium, A new approach to country segmentation utilizing multinational diffusion patterns, Conducting experiments on cultural aspects of document design: Why and how, Adapting consumer advertising appeals to cultural values: A meta-analytic review of effects on persuasiveness and ad liking, Foreign language display in advertising from a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspective: A review and research agenda, High- versus low-context culture: A comparison of Chinese, Korean, and American cultures, Beyond culture or beyond control? Because directness may be thought of as disrespectful, discussions in high-context cultures can be circuitous, circling key issues rather than addressing them head-on. Your email address will not be published. While some traditions and norms are important to Germans, they can also be adapted to suit solutions that are dependent on time, situation, and context. In a low-context culture, communication occurs through explicitly spelled out and defined words, and listeners just have to interpret spoken or written words as they are. Communication Research Reports. For each participant, a mean score for perceived complexity and for ad liking was computed based on the 12 advertisements. South Korea. The visual in the ad displays a piece of clothing with blue liquid detergent in the form of a crocodile attacking a brown, coffee-like stain. Details are equally important to create certainty that a certain topic or project is well-thought-out. People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read. Germany Germany is one of the so-called " low-context " cultures. This proved to be the case (F(1, 287) = 5.85, p =.016, 2 =.02). For each advertisement, perceived ad complexity was measured with two items with 7-point scales: The message of the advertisement is easy/hard to understand and The message of the advertisement is simple/complex (mean reliability: =.93, range.83.96). Conclusion Cultural Communication is always a challenge. Hofstede Insights enables you to solve Intercultural and Organisational Culture challenges by utilising our effective and proven frameworks. Direct; individualized; principled; fact-oriented; no face-saving concerns or need for harmony. Its impressive business sector features many of the largest brands in the world, and the consumer market has a high buying power. All Rights Reserved. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(3356907, 'f3c79a54-94fa-4875-95d8-58d85fe04dc8', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); St. Patricks Day, cable-knit wool sweaters, and lush, green rolling landscapes are what people Read More, How people communicate with one another varies wildly from culture to culture. Le Pair and Van Mulken (Citation2008) examined the perceived complexity and appreciation of ads with metaphors in France, Spain (both relatively high-context cultures), and the Netherlands (a relatively low-context culture). Sage Publications. High Context Culture vs Low Context Culture: Communication - TechTello This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The effect size is small, but what matters is the relationship between personal context score, on the one hand, and perceived complexity and ad liking on the other. (2012). Hall's approach, however, was theoretical: nations have been grouped and accorded a position on the continuum from low- to high-context rather loosely. Virtual programme Cross-Cultural Management, The Multi-Focus Model on Organisational Culture. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. Low-context communication aspires to get straight to the point. Figure 2. As Hall (Citation1976, p. 79) states: A high-context (HC) communication or message is one in which most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message. As expected by context theory, perceived complexity was lower for Belgian (a higher-context culture) than for Dutch participants (a lower-context culture), and participants' personal context culture score fully accounted for this difference. Imagine an ad for a sports car that does not feature the car, but instead shows a leopard running on a coastal road. Callow and Schiffman (Citation2002) examined the degree to which consumers infer meaning from images in advertising. Intercultural Business Communication by Confederation College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Development of long-term relationships; trust is created based on high-quality and reliability of services and products; quality may override price considerations. In a comparative survey-based study, Dutch and Belgian participants read and judged 12 full-color advertisements that were taken from two advertising databases. This is especially true when it comes to business dealings. The German society is a truly Individualist one (67). In line with the philosophical heritage of Kant, Hegel and Fichte there is a strong preference for deductive rather than inductive approaches, be it in thinking, presenting or planning: the systematic overview has to be given in order to proceed. Copyright 2023 United Language Group. Future studies may examine other dependent variables, such as product attitude or behavioral intention. A low score (Feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. In a comparative survey-based study (N = 289), Belgian and Dutch participants judged 12 complex product advertisements with visual metaphors. In addition, personal preference for high/low context was measured on a 5-point scale with nine items taken from Richardson and Smith (Citation2007), which were selected on the basis of a principle component analysis run on data collected in a pretest (N = 30, age: M = 23.90, SD = 2.16). A number of theoretical models have been developed to help understand how culture affects communication. Watch this video from international business expert Erin Meyer [1]. }Sp*vv^qVbu4.#TpK:5p/&^{tou,! )y_f77\dO :3sPb:#( L%T*qsPJl3)}TkU\z,RzHpO^GFoi'})ff\ A low-context (LC) communication is just the opposite; i.e., the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code. For the processing of complex messages, the perspective of context theory is very relevant. Business interactions tend to be unemotional and fact-driven. Even if not stated exactly, a speaker's intent will rarely be misunderstood. In communication theories, the important role of comprehension has been acknowledged. To compare your personal preferences to the scores of a country of your choice, get theCulture Compass from our store. Our Privacy Policy can be found.
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