Coming from a high context culture, I found the German colleagues too wordy when writing minutes of meeting and focus too much on details in discussions. On the one hand, the results demonstrated that the more complex, implicit ad was better liked than the less complex, explicit ad; on the other, the results demonstrated that the too complex ad without a headline was liked less than the implicit ad. This is especially true when it comes to business dealings. More responsibility; moving up in the company; time off (as monetary rewards are taxed at a very high rate). The work of Hofstede is data-driven: nations have been given precise numerical scores on cultural dimensions on the basis of empirical research. After the 2011 nuclear reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan, Chancellor Angela Merkel immediately called for the permanent shutdown of several nuclear reactors, and has plans for taking the rest of the reactors offline by 2022. Examples of low-context cultures include the United States, Australia, and many Western countries. 45-52). What is the perfect Organisational Culture? Stylus Publishing. Respect for authority; yet open and even confrontational discussions between subordinate and superior are accepted if they are fact-based and related to the subject-expertise of the subordinate. When doing business with German clients, having employees in place who command respect with extensive knowledge and a willingness to have an open mind will be a huge asset. One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the degree to which small children are socialized. For the sake of completeness, Figure2 displays the (un)standardized coefficients of the discussed relationships in the model. Beyond these kinds of replications, we suggest five directions for future investigations to further examine how context theory affects comprehension and persuasion in advertising and communication. Van Mulken etal., Citation2010). A Feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. In the example above between the two sisters, they are using high-context communication; however, America is considered a low-context culture. In high-context cultures, people are said to prefer symbolic, artful language that is implicit. To compare your personal preferences to the scores of a country of your choice, get theCulture Compass from our store. . It should be noted that the present study cannot rule out a potential role of the participants' study background, as we did not assess this in the questionnaire. Communication is among the most direct in the world following the ideal to be honest, even if it hurts and by this giving the counterpart a fair chance to learn from mistakes. Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise. To request a reprint or commercial or derivative permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below. Carolyn Meyer (2017)[4]discusses the prototypes for communication in low-context and high-context cultures: Communicators in low-context cultures (such as those in Germany, Scandinavia, and North America) convey their meaning exclusive of the context of a situation. What is an Interculturally Effective Person (IEP)? Put it in writing. An example of this long term orientation is Germanys shifting attitudes towards nuclear energy. On the other hand, low-context culture does not have any such shared background. The United States is the lowest context culture in the world followed by Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. The ads featured different products, such as a car, detergent, soda, and a mobile phone. This means that Germans tend to pay more attention to the literal meaning of words than to the context surrounding them. Examples of countries that Hall classified as low-context are Norway and Switzerland; examples of high-context countries are China and Japan. Use our contact page or For example, the Native Americans in the United States rely heavily on their tradition. Besides cultural context, personal experiences and preferences also shape communication. Scheduling, punctuality emphasized; time is a commodity not to be wasted, Equality PDF THE CULTURE MAP - NetElixir The lower part of Figure1 models the relationship between receiver nationality and ad appreciation. Our Privacy Policy can be found. All Anglo-Saxon cultures fall on the left-hand side of the scale, with the United Kingdom as the highest context culture of the Anglo-Saxon cluster. The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the score on Uncertainty Avoidance. The current study used an abridged version of the scale used by Richardson and Smith (Citation2007), which is among the very few scales available. Did you know that with a free Taylor & Francis Online account you can gain access to the following benefits? The ability to navigate successfully across cultures is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Localization Strategy Guide The Cultural Dimensions of Germany, unwillingness to reveal personal information. 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. With a score of 66 Germany is considered a Masculine society. (2012). In societies with a pragmatic orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on situation, context and time. Universalism Permission will be required if your reuse is not covered by the terms of the License. Low-context countries, on the other hand, relied more on linear processes and verbal communication. Building cultural competence (pp. The current study is the first empirical examination of context theory's role on message comprehension and liking. For each participant, a mean score for perceived complexity and for ad liking was computed based on the 12 advertisements. Brings out best in individual; challenges to produce best possible outcome, yet a strong sense of collaboration persists, Task Orientation The difference between High and Low Context Culture is that Low Context Cultures (Individualistic Cultures) do not need a lot of additional (Contextual) information to engage in " communication ". The blue line (Main-Linie) divides Middle German and High German. This study focuses on two Western European countries: Belgium and the Netherlands. Individual Orientation and the German culture is referred to low context and status-oriented cultures [Kulikova, 2006; Kotthoff, 2003; Gnther, 2002; Khorrami . Understanding German business protocol is the first step toward success in Germany. This, in turn, may make employers (particularly of smaller companies) very cautious and selective when hiring people. In total, 289 students participated in this comparative survey-based study. Low-context and high-context culture are anthropological concepts that describe the level of explicit information and the importance of context in a culture's communication. Relatively weak control is called Indulgence and relatively strong control is called Restraint. An expert on metaphors in advertising checked the ads on the metaphors that were included, and another expert ensured the cross-cultural equivalence of the material in the Netherlands and Belgium. 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. As the ads depicted individuals or individuals in interaction, they chose to measure the participants' personal achievement (i.e., leadership) and affiliation (i.e., friendship) evoked by the images as measures of implicit meaning. In two studies, they observed that participants' attitudes towards the product were affected by the source's expertise when the message was difficult to understand. Social media have become important environments for people to express and explore their political views. Imagine an ad for a sports car that does not feature the car, but instead shows a leopard running on a coastal road. However, be sure to consider that your communication style doesnt highlight instant gratification or a can-do emotion. An example of such a complex ad is an ad for liquid detergent that was used in Western Europe. They also displayed pictures of individuals, while high-context websites foregrounded group pictures. brH!|QZi4 0L9~eJ_cTwxme%$ GJN. which score low on this dimension, for example, prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion. When it comes to the role of context culture on liking, a linear regression first showed that nationality predicted ad liking (F (1, 287) = 4.39, p =.037, R2 =.01; B =.206, SE =.098): Belgian participants (M = 4.33, SD = 0.77) liked the ads better than the Dutch participants (M = 4.13, SD = 0.89). It relies on the straightforward use of language, without depending much on nonverbal cues. Cardon (Citation2008, p. 400), for instance, noted, Studies that use contexting as an explanatory framework for cross-cultural variation almost invariably accept the contexting continuum, neglecting to measure participants' context scores. Highly decentralised and supported by a strong middle class, Germany is not surprisingly among the lower power distant countries (score 35). Self-motivation and personal identity are important values to Germans. Communicating in High Context vs. Low Context Cultures A principal component analysis did not lead to a more reliable scale. - |Cjg@Q.TN"8. These small differences seem to be related to the large similarities between the two populations, both in broad characteristics (e.g., political system, geographical location) and in context culture. In such circumstances, recipients are persuaded by other elements in the message for which comprehension is less relevant. This conservative, reasoned approach to problems that arise gives Germany the ability to change quickly to local and global situations. Keep away from uncertain situations, and instead focus on the known and practical. The High German languages (German: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (Hochdeutsch) - not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called "High German" - comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and Uerdingen isoglosses in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and eastern Belgium, as well as in . While a lot of resources are in the realm of international relations and business, there are some valuable high and low context culture lessons to glean for community engagement. Nevertheless, it persists: Political self-effects in the context of https://helpfulprofessor.com/low-context-culture-examples/. Low-context cultures tend to be logical, analytical, action-oriented, and concerned with the individual. Goodwill Messages and Recommendations. Note: Comparison of low- and high-context cultures reprinted from Business communication: Process & product (p. 64) by M.E. A person's culture shapes their beliefs, as well as the way they express themselves through communication. When it comes to the role of context culture on perceived complexity, a linear regression showed, in the first place, that nationality predicted perceived complexity (F (1, 287) = 4.48, p =.035, R2 =.01; B = .216, SE =.102, p =.035): Belgian participants (M = 3.28, SD = 0.86) perceived the ads as less complex than the Dutch participants (M = 3.49, SD = 0.83). They predicted lower perceived complexity and higher appreciation (i.e., ad liking) for French and Spanish than for Dutch participants. The five areas of future research relate to the study of context culture on the nonlinear relationship between comprehension and persuasion, the selection of complex message components other than visual metaphors, the measurement of context culture on an individual level, the measurement of message comprehension, and the measurement of persuasion. 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 Importantly, the current study examines this classification empirically by assessing individual context scores in both cultures. This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). About The Helpful Professor In low-context cultures, people are said to prefer explicit, task-related language. No decisions are made until all parties involved are heard; negotiations are fact and subject matter based. Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson, Citation1995) has proven to be a successful approach for our understanding of the relationship between complexity and persuasion of such messages (cf. Therefore, empirical evidence was found for H2, which means that participants' personal context scores indeed mediated the effect of nationality on perceived complexity. This work argues that message persistence (i.e., the temporal extent to which messages can be accessed by users) is a central affordance of many . German families are prone to center mostly on their immediate relatives, which stands in contrast to collectivist cultures. Co-determination rights are comparatively extensive and have to be taken into account by the management. Localization Strategy Guide - The Cultural Dimensions of Germany This result supported H3 (see the lower part of Figure2). For high-context cultures, language is a kind of social lubricant, easing and harmonizing relations that are defined according to a group or collectivist orientation where we rather than I is the key to identity.