The result is a highly structured and punctual culture, which plays into the high masculinity. The United States is the lowest context culture in the world followed by Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. . Direct; individualized; principled; fact-oriented; no face-saving concerns or need for harmony. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. A direct and participative communication and meeting style is common, control is disliked and leadership is challenged to show expertise and best accepted when its based on it. Germany Germany is one of the so-called " low-context " cultures. Low-context cultures rely on explicit communication. Understanding German business protocol is the first step toward success in Germany. 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. Instead of doubling down on the tried and true method of fossil fuel power, however, Germany has launched a massive clean-energy revolution. April 28, 2023. To become successful as a cross-cultural communicator in Germany: All articles are edited by a PhD level academic. In Collectivist societies people belong to in groups that take care of them in exchange for loyalty. Results of regression analyses in the theoretical model. Routledge. Low-context cultures can seem slightly more formal due to the explicit & precise nature of their messages. Cultures and languages are defined as higher or lower context on a spectrum. Germanys need for structure is again seen in its moderately high uncertainty avoidance. Examples of high-context cultures include China, India, and many non-Western societies. Exact Time Sourabh Yadav (MA) and Peer Reviewed by Chris Drew (PhD), Transhumanism: 10 Examples and Definition, Terminal Values: 10 Examples and Definition, Instrumental Values: 10 Examples and Definition, Latent Inhibition: 10 Examples and Definition. For the replacement metaphor, an example is the ad for Contrex water, which features a Contrex water bottle looking at itself in the mirror (replacing a human person looking at his or her body shape). Jeffrey, "High context cultures are more common in the eastern nations than in western and in countries with low racial diversity. The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. B;dd xs f^Jg.!^#>QAc Greetings are formal and tend to include academic titles (Guten Morgen, Frau Doktor Faust). Low-Context Culture Communication & Examples - Study.com The context refers to the information, with regards to communication and cultural issues conveyed via action, behavior, or speech. Which of the following countries is considered a high context culture? More important, we will test whether the effect formulated in H1 is indeed mediated by participants' context-culture scores (H2): Figure 1. which score low on this dimension, for example, prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion. This can be very confusing for person who does not understand the 'unwritten rules' of the culture. Guffey et al. In the main study, the scale proved to be just adequate ( =.68). There is a strong belief in the ideal of self-actualization. Permission is granted subject to the terms of the License under which the work was published. ;#EtZ-P`IsPv;SFMx+CS~!v}w\ `p>cgVX High and Low Context 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. Self-motivation and personal identity are important values to Germans. Achievement, competition, success, and skilled performance at work are what drives many Germansbeing the best is the goal. In contrast, high-context cultures use facial expressions, body language, and gestures in a nuanced manner. High context refers to societies or groups where people have close connections over a long period of time. Copyright 2023 United Language Group. Small families with a focus on the parent-children relationship rather than aunts and uncles are most common. Your email address will not be published. It ranks third in both total exports and imports, and has a strong economy that is the largest in Europe and the 5th largest in the world. It has to do with whether peoples self-image is defined in terms of I or We. However, be sure to consider that your communication style doesnt highlight instant gratification or a can-do emotion. Low-context and high-context cultures are the ends of a continuum portraying how cultures communicate. Germany, Sweden, and the United States are generally classified as low-context cultures. An example of such a complex ad is an ad for liquid detergent that was used in Western Europe. (_CC German society also stresses compartmentalizing personal and professional lives in this pursuit of success. According to Hall's high-/low-context theory, cultures differ in their preferences for indirect, implicit messages versus direct, explicit messages. For the indirect effects of nationality through context scores on perceived complexity (H2) and ad liking (H4), we used bootstrapping as mediation technique. More responsibility; moving up in the company; time off (as monetary rewards are taxed at a very high rate). Meaning depends on what is said- the literal content of the message- rather than how it is said. Theoretical model of the role of context culture in perceived complexity and liking of ads. Self-reliance; responsible for conduct of own life; independence, Balanced Competition 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. Wurtz found something similar while analyzing website design. What makes a metaphor complex is that the message is not explicit. That is to say, despite these small (but significant) differences in context score in this study, these context scores proved to be the explanation for the national difference in both complexity and liking of the ads. Examples of low-context cultures include the United States, Australia, and many Western countries. Loyalty is based on personal preferences for people as well as a sense of duty and responsibility. 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. 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. /T?KrGM7IL];K7,~`}b`x2Zp|yMkX1h1s]0;Vq4{i `{DXB=1 u`sBY.I43VO9#"43puz qAZf6I'a^OD. A conclusion may be implied but not argued directly. It is the reader who has to infer the so-called implicatures, the inferential steps that are needed to decipher the message (Sperber & Wilson, Citation1995). To learn about our use of cookies and how you can manage your cookie settings, please see our Cookie Policy. 17 Germany is an excellent example for a low context country as its population is commonly known for its direct way of stating opinions and its logical, almost emotionless . The blue line (Main-Linie) divides Middle German and High German. The Belgian students were sampled from the Dutch-speaking part of the country: Flanders. Need for Certainty They show an ability to adapt traditions easily to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness, and perseverance in achieving results. After completing this chapter, you will be able to: Now that we know, broadly, what culture is, lets discuss some ways to categorize aspects of different cultures. Having a Difficult Conversation with Someone from a Different Culture Sage Publications. The Influence of High-/Low-Context Cultu . https://doi.org/10.1080/08911762.2017.1296985. That is, a limited number of experiments have examined whether people in countries characterized as high-context cultures comprehend and appreciate complex messages better than people in countries characterized as low-context cultures (e.g., Van Mulken, Le Pair, & Forceville, Citation2010). Germany has a "low context culture"; the information which is made explicit is extensive. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Fewer words can often lead to better understanding. Low Context Culture: Examples, Definition & Countries 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. Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise. GI?Ln T9a`"-&k 16 KWGWC1?Q'_}]G- 4XmyxKLsx%yIj `y Emotions are discredited as unprofessional; in a business context, trust and credibility are developed through suppression of emotions; tendency to be more emotionally expressive with family and friends, particularly in southern Germany. A number of theoretical models have been developed to help understand how culture affects communication. High-Context and Low-Context Cultures - OUP Academic Potential characteristics may be verbal metaphors (cf. 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). Praise is rarely given, and when it is given, it is understated, e.g. Another source of variation is consumers' cultural background; namely, their context culture, as the next section will explain. Based off those dimensions, there are several cultural aspects of German society that are of great importance when creating a localization strategy. In communication theories, the important role of comprehension has been acknowledged. Complex ads, such as the example of the liquid detergent, may be better comprehended and better appreciated in higher- than in lower-context cultures. According to this hypothesis, the highest level of persuasion is obtained if there is a balance between the required cognitive resources for understanding the message and the cognitive resources that are available from the receiver. When it comes to complex messages in the advertising domain, though, there have been empirical studies that based their expectations on context theory. IOR collects cookies to improve your experience on our website. This study provides a unique contribution to the domain of culture and advertising in that it presents empirical evidence for the role that Hall's (Citation1976; Hall & Hall, Citation1990) context culture plays in cross-cultural communication. (2014, December 10). Hall observed that "meaning and context are inextricably bound up with each other" (Hall, 2000, p. 36), and suggested that to understand communication one should look at meaning and context together with the code (i.e., the words themselves).By context, we refer to the situation, background, or environment connected to an event, a situation, or . Germans tend to think and argue deductively, using theoretical knowledge to build an argument. South Korea. The results of their study showed that the Filipino participants scored higher on both scales than the American participants, leading Callow and Schiffman (Citation2002) to conclude that images evoke more implicit meanings in high- than in low-context cultures. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(3356907, '2a8a93c6-0c6a-4fe5-9e63-52c235f8ec9d', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); With its sizable middle class and decentralized society, Germany has a low power distance. Phillips & McQuarrie, Citation2004). The terms "low-context" and "high-context" usually refer to language groups or nationalities. The socio- . Gudykunst, W. B., & Ting-Toomey, S. (1988). High-context cultures are more likely to be intuitive, contemplative, and concerned with the collective. 45-52). After the data collection, two of the participants were randomly selected to receive a 25-euro coupon. 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. There is an aversion to letting the future take its course. In combination with their low Power Distance, where the certainty for own decisions is not covered by the larger responsibility of the boss, Germans prefer to compensate for their higher uncertainty by strongly relying on expertise. In high-context cultures, people are said to prefer symbolic, artful language that is implicit. In a business context, maintaining good relationships is second to getting the facts straight. A low-context (LC) communication is just the opposite; i.e., the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code.". Based on their fact-orientation, they may appear confrontational and overly critical.
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