Communication Where you take meanings and translate them into words and behaviors How you translate is based on cultural background Noise is anything that undermines the meaning of communication Cross cultural miscommunication occurs when the person from the second culture does not re ceive the sender s intended message Causes of Miscommunication 1 Misperception Perception when an individual selects organizes and evaluates from an external environment to provide meaning to themselves Perception is selective learned culturally determines consistent and inaccurate Interpretation occurs when an individual gives meaning to observations and their relationships process of making sense of perception 2 Misinterpretation Miscategorization When we group perceived images into familiar categories we are categorizing Stereotypes Form of categorization that organizes our experiences and guides our behavior toward ethnic and national groups they never describe individuals describe norm for a particular group Effective Stereotypes are consciously held descriptive accurate a first best guess and modi fied by experience Sources of Misinterpretation Subconscious Cultural Blinders Lack of Cultural Self awareness Projected similarity 3 Misevaluation Evaluation involves judging whether someone or something is good or bad We use our own culture as a standard of measurement and since no other culture is like ours we tend to judge others as inferior Cultural variables in miscommunication Attitudes Thought Patterns Inductive Reasoning Top Bottom thinking uses investigation as a way of reasoning through something Deductive Bottom Top thinking uses development as a way of reason through something Language Verbal Communication Styles Context information that surrounds a communication and helps convey the message plays a key role in many communication differences messages usually highly coded and implicit in high context societies Verbal communication can be considered high context or low context High Context Cultures Indirect communication messages implicit and indirect voice intonation timing and facial expressions play an impor tant role in conveying information Most information is internalized Ex Japan and many Arab countries Low Context Cultures Direct Communication Messages often explicit and speaker knows precisely what that mean Most information ex pressed as it is mean to be People meet only to cover objectives tend to be direct and focus on communication Ex U S and Canada Styles of communication Elaborate to Succinct Styles Three degrees of communication quantity elaborating exacting succinct Elaborating style most popular in high context cultures with moderate degree of uncertainty avoidance Exacting style focuses on precision and use of the right amount of words to convey message more common in low context low uncertainty avoidance cultures Succinct style more common in high context cultures with considerable uncertainty avoidance where people say few words and allow understatements pauses and silence to convey mean ing Contextual and Personal Styles Contextual style focuses on the speaker and the relationship of parties Often associated with high power distance collective high context cultures Personal style focuses on the speaker and the reduction of barriers between parties More popular in low power distance individualistic low context cultures Affective and Instrumental Styles Affective style is characterized by language requiring the listener to note what is said and to ob serve how the message is presented The meaning is often nonverbal and requires receiver to use intuitive skills to decipher message Common in collective high context cultures Instrumental style is goal oriented and focuses on the sender who clearly lets the other know what s he wants the other to know More commonly found in individualistic low context cultures Non Verbal Communication The transfer of meaning through means such as body language and use of physical space Forms of Nonverbal Communication Chromatics Use of color to communicate messages Kinesics Study of communication through body movement and facial expression Eye contact Posture and Gestures Proxemics Study of the way people use physical space to convey messages Intimate distance used for very confidential communications Personal distance used for talking with family close friends Social distance used to handle most business transactions Public distance used when calling across room or giving talk to group Chronemics The way time is used in a culture Monochronic time schedule things done in linear fashion Ex Americans Polychronic time schedule people do several things at same time and place higher value on personal involvement than on getting things done on time Ex Latins In order to get the meaning of the conversation and not just the words you must Verbally Clear Slow Speech Repetition Simple Sentences Active Verbs Accurate Interpretation Silence Intelligence Differences Design Breaks Small Modules Longer Time Frame Non verbally Visual Restatements Gestures Demonstration Pauses Summaries Comprehension Understanding Check Comprehension Motivation Encouragement Drawing Out Reinforcement