Reconciling neutral and affective cultures

Verbal communication

Intercultural communication

There are a variety of problems of communication across cultural bound­aries which arise from the differences between affective and neutral approaches.

Western society has a predominantly verbal culture. We communicate with paper, film and conversation. Two of the best-selling computer pro­grammes in the western world, wordprocessing and graphics, have been developed to support verbal communication. We become nervous and uneasy once we stop talking. But we have very different styles of discus­sion. For the Anglo-Saxons, when A stops, B starts. It is not polite to inter­rupt. The even more verbal Latinos integrate slightly more than this; B will frequently interrupt A and vice versa to show how interested each is in what the other is saying.

The pattern of silent communication for oriental languages frightens the westerner. The moment of silence is interpreted as a failure to communicate. But this is a misunderstanding. Let us reverse the roles; how can the westerner communicate clearly if the other person is not given time to finish his or her sentence, or to digest what the other has been saying? It is a sign of respect for the other person if you take time to process the information without talking yourself.

Tone of voice. Another cross-cultural problem arises from tone of voice. For some neutral societies, ups and downs in speech suggest that the speaker is not serious. But in most Latin societies this "exaggerated" way of communicating shows that you have your heart in the matter. Oriental societies tend to have a much more monotonous style; self-controlled, it shows respect. Frequently, the higher the position a person holds, the lower and flatter their voice are.

A British manager posted to Nigeria found that it was very effective to raise his voice for important issues. His Nigerian subordinates saw this unexpected explosion by a normally self-controlled manager as a sign of extra concern. After success in Nigeria he was posted to Malaysia. Shout­ing there was a sign of loss of face; his colleagues did not take him seri­ously and he was transferred.

Overly neutral or affective (expressive) cultures have problems in doing business with each other. The neutral person is easily accused of being ice-cold with no heart; the affective person is seen as out of control and incon­sistent. When such cultures meet the first essential is to recognise the dif­ferences, and to refrain from making any judgments based on emotions, or the lack of them.

So, to sum it up, people in affective or emotional cultures are not hesitant to reveal their innermost feelings whereas people in neutral cultures tend to control their emotions carefully and maintain their composure.

People in neutral cultures may consider the behaviors of people from affective cultures immature; people from affective cultures may view the stoic behaviors of people from neutral cultures as insincere and deceiving. This perception may cause problems during cross-cultural negotiations between managers from affective and neutral cultures.

Countries that exhibits neutral cultures: Ethiopia, Japan, Hong Kong, China, India, Britain and Singapore.

Countries that exhibits affective cultures: Kuwait, Egypt, Spain, Russia, Argentina, Mexico, the Netherlands, Switzerland. The US is average.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11