Culture as Context for Communication Business Communication

Question: Discuss about the Culture as Context for Communication for Business Communication. Answer: Introduction: Before knowing the importance and effects of culture as a context for communication, one must first understand the meaning of the terms culture and communication. Culture can be defined as a set of learned patterns and behaviors shared by a particular group of people. And communication is a process of imparting information from a group of people to another group or person. The process of communication across different cultures is challenging. Culture plays a very dominant role in effecting the ways and methods of communication. The relationship between culture and communication is very deep as well as critical (Lami, 2014). Communication influences the formal or informal business propositions and the negotiation process. It forms the base of any business dealing or any kind of involvement going on between two parties. The process of communication is basically determining a common or mutual ground of understanding and is an influential process. While culture is a ruling factor that is important to be considered in the communication procedure (Cai, 2000). Being individuals, each one of us have a separate identity and different set of behaviors and attitudes. No two persons howsoever belonging to the same culture can behave in an identical manner in a particular situation. However, culture can be classified as a clue which helps in understanding and determining the behavior of members of a specific group or society. There are different communication tools that assists in understanding different cultures. One of the essential tools of communication is High-context and Low-context (Koracà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Kakabadse, Kouzmin, Koracà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Kakabadse, Savery, 2001). This theory is proposed by famous anthropologist Edward T. Hall. The areas that come under high-context culture includes Middle East, South America, Africa, Central Europe, Asia, etc. In high-context communication culture, choice of words play a major role, and it depends very much on the use of communication which is non-verbal. The use of high-context communication leaves most part of the message unspecified as it relies on the intuition and feelings. The actual meaning of the message in this context is to be understood by the non-verbal cues, and the interpretation of the words that are not being actually said but conveys its meaning. That means a complex message can effectively be communicated to an in-group with the use of a few words, but it affects a little to an out-group and will not be reliably and efficiently understood by the outsiders. It is polychronic in nature and implies implicit and indirect messages and more emphasis is given to relationships (Croucher et al., 2012). While in low-context communication culture, the nature of communication is much more monochronic and explicit. Less emphasis is to be given to the value of words as it refers to the simple and clear messages which create no distinction for In-groups and Out-groups. The messages in low-context should be communicated in a way that it forms the exact meaning of what the com municator meant to express. This process highly relies on the written form of communication and consider facts, logics, and evidence. Relationships are of less importance and schedules are of high importance in low-context. While solving a problem, first the identification of all the facts and evidence happens and then the process of evaluation takes place, after which a decision has been made. This does not involve any kind of intuitions and feelings into it. Communicators need to be straight forward, logical, and should be clear in determining the action and what is actually said. He/she should be efficient in properly conveying the meaning of the message. The areas of low-context culture include most part of North America and Western Europe (Wang, 2009). The second important dimension is individualism and communitarianism that affects the culture based communication. A number of people in a group together form a community, and their primary identity is most commonly determined as a member of the specific group. This is called communitarianism while individualism is a separate personal identity of an individual. Now, the communication is highly based on the factor as to which type of group is being targeted (Batts, Breslin, Winter, 2012). There are many cultural influences on the context of the message and affects communication simultaneously, and those includes facial expressions, body language, relationship with one another, use of codes and symbols for the purpose of communication, etc. It also depends upon the structure of the various cultures as some cultures view it as a sequential thing which means that they provide their complete importance to an agenda at a time and follow a sequential process, and in which projects are line d up one after another. On contrary, some cultures follow a synchronic pattern in which they interrelate the flow of time period i.e. the past, present, and the future. This point of view influences the organizations approach to strategic thinking, the long-term planning concepts, investments, and deadlines. The effects of cross-cultural communication very much adhere to the perceptions of different individuals as how they perceive the specific information communicated to them, and also on the choice of the communication preferences of the sender. Once the information is being communicated, the receiver perceives it according to his/her own preferences and based on that he/she responds (St. Amant, 2016). With regard to communication, it is necessary to note that what is effective and appropriate for one culture may stand ineffective and wrong for another culture as each and every culture is so different and has its own rules and standards. The whole world is culturally diverse so, i n this whole process, communication strategy plays a significant role, and it makes it evident that the understanding and knowledge of cultures is quite important while communicating to them. It provides a set of assumptions in the mind of the sender and a better understanding of how the person or the group will react if information is conveyed to them and help them to know how to communicate in an efficient manner so that it avoids conflict or any kind of violence. To improve the cross-cultural communication, message, and language clarity should be importantly considered and delivery style should be enhanced, and it is also very essential to minimize the breakdowns in the process of communication so that the message conveys exactly what it means and does not leave any scope for misinterpretation. Hence, the need for studying the various elements of a culture and cultural influences in the context of communication is must and of utmost importance (Wurtz, 2005). Conclusion: Therefore, from the above study, it became clear that understanding of various cultures with respect to communication is influential. It is significant for the one to know and have an effective understanding of different cultures and contexts that help in influencing the communication strategy to a varied level and on the other hand, have an effect on its outcome. Effective cross-cultural communication can only be enabled when it is given an appropriate context and structure. In todays global world, when the countries are so much linked and interconnected, and the methods of communication are so instant and fast, there is not a single approach for communicating, but the success of communication depends on the understanding of the cross-cultural differences (Woolf, 2005). The relationship between culture and communication is complex as culture influences communication, and thus, the process is being enacted and reinforced. 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