Tuesday, April 1, 2008
High context and Low context culture
High context and Low Context are terms first introduced by Edward Hall. He used these terms to classify societies or cultures on the basis of their style of communication.
High Context cultures use a lot more context in communication. They have less verbally explicit communication and rely on context cues like body language, implicit cultural references, time and place and relationship between the communicators. They are also more indirect and tend to avoid disharmony and conflict. They tend to group together with others who have similar experiences and expectations. Japan, Asia, Middle East, South America are examples of high context cultures.
Low context cultures are the opposite. They are more direct, value independence and tend to use a lot of written and explicit communication. It is customary to end discussions with a written agreement or contract. North America, Great Britain, German speaking countries, Scandinavian countries tend to be low context.
Polychronic Time(p-time) and Monochronic Time(m-time) are time management methods.
Typically high context cultures tend to use p-time and low context cultures tend to use m-time.
When using m-time, one gives more importance to scheduling work. One gives importance to deadlines and generally concentrates on one job at a time. Scheduling is a natural result of this behaviour as it lets us schedule different times for individual jobs. Individuals also tend to respect privacy, and private property and try not to disturb, borrow or lend to others.
When using p-time one tends to give more importance to human relationships and time is considered secondary. Multiple jobs are undertaken at the same time. They are more open to changing their plans on the fly and are more accepting to distractions.
Business Lessons:
These concepts are important in a multi-national company or when one has business relationships with companies in other countries. When communicating with people from other cultures, one has to be sensitive to their style of communication and time management methods.
Advertising to high context cultures is also different than to low context cultures. It is not enough to just translate text into different languages. Sometimes the entire advertising strategy needs to be changed to communicate the message more effectively. For e.g. using local cultural cues in advertising to establish a frame of reference will be more effective in a high context society.
High Context cultures use a lot more context in communication. They have less verbally explicit communication and rely on context cues like body language, implicit cultural references, time and place and relationship between the communicators. They are also more indirect and tend to avoid disharmony and conflict. They tend to group together with others who have similar experiences and expectations. Japan, Asia, Middle East, South America are examples of high context cultures.
Low context cultures are the opposite. They are more direct, value independence and tend to use a lot of written and explicit communication. It is customary to end discussions with a written agreement or contract. North America, Great Britain, German speaking countries, Scandinavian countries tend to be low context.
Polychronic Time(p-time) and Monochronic Time(m-time) are time management methods.
Typically high context cultures tend to use p-time and low context cultures tend to use m-time.
When using m-time, one gives more importance to scheduling work. One gives importance to deadlines and generally concentrates on one job at a time. Scheduling is a natural result of this behaviour as it lets us schedule different times for individual jobs. Individuals also tend to respect privacy, and private property and try not to disturb, borrow or lend to others.
When using p-time one tends to give more importance to human relationships and time is considered secondary. Multiple jobs are undertaken at the same time. They are more open to changing their plans on the fly and are more accepting to distractions.
Business Lessons:
These concepts are important in a multi-national company or when one has business relationships with companies in other countries. When communicating with people from other cultures, one has to be sensitive to their style of communication and time management methods.
Advertising to high context cultures is also different than to low context cultures. It is not enough to just translate text into different languages. Sometimes the entire advertising strategy needs to be changed to communicate the message more effectively. For e.g. using local cultural cues in advertising to establish a frame of reference will be more effective in a high context society.
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