2.1.3 The Importance of Culture in Communication

     There are many reasons for the current cultural emphasis in the field of communication: (1) demographic changes, (2) increased sensitivity to cultural differences, (3) economic interdependency, (4) advances in communication technology, (5) the renewed concern for politeness, and (6) the fact that communication competence is specific to a culture (what works in one culture will not necessarily work in another). It’s impossible to communicate effectively without being aware of how culture influences human communication.

Demographic Changes

     Most obvious, perhaps, are the vast demographic changes taking place throughout the United States. Whereas at one time the United States was largely a country populated by northern Europeans, it’s now a country greatly influenced by the enormous number of new citizens from Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. And the same is true to an even greater extent on college and university campuses throughout the United States. With these changes have come different customs and the need to understand and adapt to new ways of looking at communication.

Cultural Sensitivity

     As a people, we’ve become increasingly sensitive to cultural differences. American society has moved from an assimilationist perspective (which holds that people should leave their native culture behind and adapt to their new culture) to a perspective that values cultural diversity (which holds that people should retain their native cultural ways). And, with some notable exceptions—hate speech, racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism come quickly to mind—we’re more concerned with communicating respectfully and, ultimately, with developing a society where all cultures can coexist and enrich one another. At the same time, the ability to interact effectively with members of other cultures often translates into financial gain and increased employment opportunities and advancement prospects.

Economic Interdependency

     Today most countries are economically dependent on one another. Consequently, our economic lives depend on our ability to communicate effectively across cultures. Similarly, our political well-being depends in great part on that of other cultures. Political unrest in any part of the world—the Far East, eastern Europe, or the Middle East, to take a few examples—affects our security in the United States. As a result of this interrelatedness among nations and peoples, often referred to as a “spaghetti bowl,” business opportunities have an increasingly intercultural dimension. All this makes cultural awareness and intercultural communication competence essential skills for professional survival and success.

Communication Technology

     The rapid spread of communication technology has brought foreign and sometimes very different cultures right into our living rooms. News from foreign countries is commonplace. You see nightly—in high definition—what is going on in remote countries. Technology has made intercultural communication easy, practical, and inevitable. Daily the media bombard you with evidence of racial tensions, religious disagreements, sexual bias, and all the other problems caused when intercultural communication fails. And, of course, the Internet has made intercultural communication as easy as writing a note on your computer. You now communicate by e-mail just as easily with someone in Europe or Asia as with someone down the street, and you make friends with people on Facebook from countries you never even knew existed.

Politeness

     There can be little doubt that part of the emphasis on culture is because of the renewed emphasis on politeness. Politeness is probably universal across all cultures (Brown & Levinson, 1987), so we don’t really have polite cultures on the one hand and impolite cultures on the other. Nevertheless, cultures differ widely in how they define politeness and in how important politeness is in comparison with, say, openness or honesty. For example, not interrupting, saying “please” and “thank you,” maintaining focused eye contact, and asking permission to do something are all examples of politeness messages, but their importance differs from one culture to another.
     Cultures also differ in their rules for expressing politeness or impoliteness. Some cultures, for example, may require you to give extended praise when meeting, say, an important scientist or educator; other cultures expect you to assume a more equal position regardless of the stature of the other person.
     The varied forms of polite greetings provide excellent examples of the different ways cultures signal politeness, cleverly captured in the title of one guide to intercultural communication, Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: How to do Business in Sixty Countries (Morrison & Conaway, 2006). Chinese and Japanese will greet you with bows. In Chile, Honduras, and many other Latin countries women may pat each other on the arm or shoulder. In the Czech Republic men may kiss a woman’s hand. In many Latin and Mediterranean cultures the polite greeting is to hug—a type of greeting that is gaining in popularity throughout the United States. And in many cultures the proper greeting is the handshake, but even this varies. For example, in the United States and Canada, the handshake is firm and short (lasting about 3 to 4 seconds), but it’s soft (resembling a handclasp) and long (lasting about 10 to 12 seconds) in Indonesia. For more on the handshake, see Table 7.3, on page 162.
     There also are large gender differences (as well as similarities) in the expression of politeness (Helgeson, 2009; Holmes, 1995). Generally, studies from several different cultures show that women use more polite expressions than men (Brown, 1980; Holmes, 1995; Wetzel, 1988). Both in informal conversation and in conflict situations, women tend to seek areas of agreement more than do men (Holmes, 1995). There are also similarities. For example, both men and women in the United States and New Zealand seem to pay compliments in similar ways (Holmes, 1986, 1995; Manes & Wolfson, 1981), and both men and women use politeness strategies when communicating bad news in an organization (Lee, 1993).

Communication Competence

     Communication competence is specific to a given culture; what proves effective in one culture may be ineffective in another. For example, in the United States corporate executives get down to business during the first several minutes of a meeting. In Japan, however, business executives interact socially for an extended period and try to find out something about one another. Thus, the communication principle influenced by U.S. culture would advise participants to get down to the meeting’s agenda during the first five minutes. The principle influenced by Japanese culture would advise participants to avoid dealing with business until everyone has socialized sufficiently and feels well acquainted enough to begin negotiations. Each principle seems effective within its own culture and ineffective outside its own culture. For example, Asians often find that the values they have learned —values that discourage competitiveness and assertiveness—work against them in Western cultures that endorse competition and outspokenness (Cho, 2000).