germany high or low context culture

You can often convey more information with fewer words. Restrained 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. These results are visualized in the upper part of Figure2. We used 2-item scales for perceived ad complexity and ad liking because participants had to assess these constructs for 12 different ads. The study had a one-factor design: advertisements with visual metaphors were presented to participants with the Belgian or the Dutch nationality (between-subject design). The Belgian students were sampled from the Dutch-speaking part of the country: Flanders. By closing this message, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Those in management are expected to have both, while also keeping an open mind to respectful critiques and challenges. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Two studies have empirically tested this expectation. ULG covered the basics of the six cultural dimensions in full here. To compare your personal preferences to the scores of a country of your choice, get theCulture Compass from our store. Performance and target-based; subject expertise important; in public/government institutions, length of service is one aspect of performance appraisal. To many businesses, Germany is the perfect place for business dealings. Based on their fact-orientation, they may appear confrontational and overly critical. For more information please visit our Permissions help page. 2.3: Understanding Intercultural Communication Rather than valuing positions that are based on family connections or age, Germans prefer to put trust in those who demonstrate experience and vast knowledge. For each advertisement, perceived ad complexity was measured with two items with 7-point scales: The message of the advertisement is easy/hard to understand and The message of the advertisement is simple/complex (mean reliability: =.93, range.83.96). Communicators in high-context cultures pay attention to more than the words spoken they also pay attention to interpersonal relationships, nonverbal expressions, physical settings, and social settings. More important, we will test whether the effect formulated in H1 is indeed mediated by participants' context-culture scores (H2): Figure 1. zsOx B*@ While some cultures are low or high context, in general terms, there can also be individual or contextual differences within cultures. She found out that in high-context countries, the advertising campaigns used more colors, movements, and sounds to provide context. Register a free Taylor & Francis Online account today to boost your research and gain these benefits: The Influence of High-/Low-Context Culture on Perceived Ad Complexity and Liking, Centre for Language Studies, Communication and Information Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Review of a 40-source debate in international advertising: Practitioner and academician perspectives to the standardization/adaptation issue, Ease of message processing as a moderator of repetition effects in advertising, The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations, The predictive validity of multiple-item versus single-item measures of the same constructs, Implicit meaning in visual print advertisements: A cross-cultural examination of the contextual communication effect, A critique of Hall's contexting model: A meta-analysis of literature on intercultural business and technical communication, How to persuade Belgian, French and Dutch business people to listen to your presentation, Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium, A new approach to country segmentation utilizing multinational diffusion patterns, Conducting experiments on cultural aspects of document design: Why and how, Adapting consumer advertising appeals to cultural values: A meta-analytic review of effects on persuasiveness and ad liking, Foreign language display in advertising from a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspective: A review and research agenda, High- versus low-context culture: A comparison of Chinese, Korean, and American cultures, Beyond culture or beyond control? Meaning is determined not by what is said but by how it is said and by how social implications such as the communicators status and position come into play. Registered in England & Wales No. 1.5: Taxonomies of Cultural Patterns - Social Sci LibreTexts In such circumstances, recipients are persuaded by other elements in the message for which comprehension is less relevant. Unlike the linear communication style preferred in low-context cultures, high-context communicators may use spiral logic, circling around a topic indirectly and looking at it from many tangential or divergent viewpoints. Germany demonstrate the characteristic features of the low-context culture, the communicative style of the German-speaking Swiss is mitigative as they are referred to the high-context culture. 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). Although context theory has been a dominant perspective in studying cultural differences and similarities in advertising and communication, the theory has received only very limited empirical attention (Cardon, Citation2008; Kittler etal., Citation2011). Also, in contrast to Indulgent societies, Restrained societies do not put much emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires. Germany, Sweden, and the United States are generally classified as low-context cultures. For instance, See, Petty, and Evans (Citation2009) showed, in two studies, that people with a high need for cognition (who have a tendency to appreciate undertaking cognitive activities) were more motivated to process a complex rather than a simple message, and that people with a low need for cognition were more motivated to process a simple instead of a complex message. This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The terms low-context and high-context usually refer to language groups or nationalities. In line with the philosophical heritage of Kant, Hegel and Fichte there is a strong preference for deductive rather than inductive approaches, be it in thinking, presenting or planning: the systematic overview has to be given in order to proceed. Cultural map of the world according to the World Values Survey, describing Germany as high in "Rational-Secular Values" and low in "Self Expression Values" Germany is a modern, advanced society, . Deductive reasoning that relies on details are what matter in German society, and having a carefully thought out plan for the future is essential. Respect for authority; yet open and even confrontational discussions between subordinate and superior are accepted if they are fact-based and related to the subject-expertise of the subordinate. Which one of the following countries is considered a low context culture? The Belgian participants had a higher context score (M = 3.07, SD = 0.49, n = 174) than the Dutch participants (M = 2.92, SD = 0.52, n =.115). This concept was first advanced by Edward T. Hall in the 1950s. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. When doing business with German clients, having employees in place who command respect with extensive knowledge and a willingness to have an open mind will be a huge asset. German Philosophy. A polite nod accompanied by a firm handshake is a common greeting, both in a business as well as social context; eye contact is made and held during a face-to-face conversation. They predicted lower perceived complexity and higher appreciation (i.e., ad liking) for French and Spanish than for Dutch participants. This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. . These great minds from Germany have come up with . This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Intercultural Business Communication by Confederation College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. B`%~Prj_G:r`m^1&[3PfX$]#b?UoZs43avM"M iwz|t&GEyea;Nu;Y;VNv3'k[dX@^kN+Vd4.?BBSKeA{x/ Uyg"] )1MQS z6lx{(7x*g6'lfD2q9up q61M 0.R According to Hall's context theory, people from different cultures may react differently to complex messages. High and Low Cultural Contexts - Intercultural Business Communication Consumers differ in these resources; for instance, because they vary in the motivation to invest in cognitive tasks (e.g., Lagerwerf & Meijers, Citation2008; See etal., Citation2009). Ratneshwar and Chaiken (Citation1991) demonstrated this effect from the perspective of the HSM. Edward T. Hall describes low-context culture as one in which: most of the information is either in the explicit code or readily available elsewhere (Hall, 1976). Virtual programme Cross-Cultural Management, The Multi-Focus Model on Organisational Culture. Context High context. Thus, Relevance Theory accommodates two seemingly opposing outcomes: a more complex message may generate higher as well as lower appreciation than a less complex message. 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 is among the uncertainty avoidant countries (65); the score is on the high end, so there is a slight preference for Uncertainty Avoidance. In general, both Germany and the U.S. are low-context cultures, meaning that information and meaning are usually communicated explicitly through words. Websites catering to high-context audiences had a lot of animation & images. The German society is a truly Individualist one (67). Likewise, large numbers of studies have measured cultural values on participants' level to examine how these values relate to other variables (for an overview of such studies, see Soares, Farhangmehr, & Shoham, Citation2007; Taras, Kirkman, & Steel, Citation2010). Future studies should, however, incorporate study background as a personal characteristic. German directness is a particularly noticeable cultural standard. As Lowrey (Citation2008, p. 173, italics in original) argued: The important issue is the recognition that complexity effects occur in the individual. When we refer to the complexity of a message in this article, we therefore also refer to the comprehension of the message by the receiver. The terms "low-context" and "high-context" usually refer to language groups or nationalities. That is, the more benefits they expect, the more willing they are to invest in processing the message. In low-context cultures, people are said to prefer explicit, task-related language. While a lot of resources are in the realm of international relations and business, there are some valuable high and low context culture lessons to glean for community engagement. - |[email protected]"8. Germany. Le Pair and Van Mulken (Citation2008) examined the perceived complexity and appreciation of ads with metaphors in France, Spain (both relatively high-context cultures), and the Netherlands (a relatively low-context culture). Low-context cultures rely on explicit communication. In order to present participants with ads that varied in complexity, different metaphors were used, including the juxtaposition metaphor, the fusion metaphor, and the replacement metaphor (cf. Based on their insights into Hall's context theory and the Dutch and Belgian (communication) culture, cross-cultural communication scholars Gerritsen and Claes (Gerritsen, Citation2002; Claes & Gerritsen, Citation2011) indicate that Belgium is a medium-context culture, and the Netherlands a low-context culture. Sage Publications. This is especially true when it comes to business dealings. Low-context cultures tend to be logical, analytical, action-oriented, and concerned with the individual. Instead, they depend on the explicit code of the words and written rules to convey meaning. New empirical studies should be conducted with other countries than Belgium and the Netherlands in order to empirically examine Hall's theoretical classification of high- and low-context cultures. The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. This methodological limitation makes it impossible to assess whether it is indeed context culture that is the explanatory factor of the results obtained. Tanaka, Citation1992). Fourth, in future empirical studies on the role of context theory in comprehension and persuasion, it may be worthwhile to vary the ways in which message comprehension is measured. 7:00AM and 4:00PM CEST For high-context cultures, language is a kind of social lubricant, easing and harmonizing relations that are defined according to a group or collectivist orientation where we rather than I is the key to identity. In order to accurately demonstrate the role of context theory, participants' individual context scores should be assessed. Van Mulken etal., Citation2014) or to ask them to write down what they think is the meaning of the message (cf. Figure 2. Low-context culture refers to a culture that communicates explicitly. i~^/NGu8Oc$j*$hd$BC+ji.9mkK"B?0m`d()-r//JQ ?7M!7|Q]pTX6w9 Required fields are marked *, This Article was Last Expert Reviewed on March 15, 2023 by Chris Drew, PhD. ;#EtZ-P`IsPv;SFMx+CS~!v}w\ `p>cgVX First, whereas the present study took a linear relationship between comprehension and liking as a starting point, future research may examine nonlinear relationships. Low-context communicators dont need to be provided with much background information, but they do expect messages to be professional, efficient, and linear in their logic. However, scholars have noted an increase in the use of complex advertisements; for instance, through visual images (Phillips, Citation1997; Scott, Citation1993). Which countries have low context cultures? - Our Planet Today While there is still an emphasis on enjoying oneself and having fun, the overarching mentality for many is live to work. High-context cultures rely heavily on non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, etc. brH!|QZi4 0L9~eJ_cTwxme%$ GJN. Communication is driven by cultural differences - MSU Extension While some traditions and norms are important to Germans, they can also be adapted to suit solutions that are dependent on time, situation, and context. Politics latest updates: Union leader Pat Cullen says nurses are pushed An example of this long term orientation is Germanys shifting attitudes towards nuclear energy. Stylus Publishing. The result is a highly structured and punctual culture, which plays into the high masculinity. Class, Codes and Control. Achievement, competition, success, and skilled performance at work are what drives many Germansbeing the best is the goal. Focus on accomplishing tasks one at a time and sequentially. Highly decentralised and supported by a strong middle class, Germany is not surprisingly among the lower power distant countries (score 35). Permission is granted subject to the terms of the License under which the work was published. Repetition is appreciated for purposes of clarification, as is putting . A person's culture shapes their beliefs, as well as the way they express themselves through communication. 4.3: Variations in Communication Styles - Social Sci LibreTexts Status is often shown, especially by cars, watches and technical devices. This means that Germans tend to pay more attention to the literal meaning of words than to the context surrounding them. Low-context cultures are less stable than high-context cultures as they are not founded upon any shared background. The mean scores for perceived complexity and ad liking were submitted to regression analyses for the direct effect of nationality on perceived complexity (H1) and ad liking (H3). 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. Culture of Germany - Wikipedia On the one hand, the results demonstrated that the more complex, implicit ad was better liked than the less complex, explicit ad; on the other, the results demonstrated that the too complex ad without a headline was liked less than the implicit ad. It can imply understanding or agreement, but it can also mean their conversea lack of certainty. Gudykunst, W. B., & Ting-Toomey, S. (1988). Countries such as Germany and Sweden are also low context while Japan and China are high context. All Rights Reserved. An example of Germans tentative disposition toward the unknown is the countrys mentality towards Internet privacy. McQuarrie & Mick, Citation2003, Citation2009), jargon (cf. As a result, context theory predicts complex messages containing visual metaphors to be better understood and to be better appreciated in high- rather than in low-context cultures. For the sake of completeness, Figure2 displays the (un)standardized coefficients of the discussed relationships in the model. High Context Culture: What Does It Mean and How to Adapt In the studies that did investigate the role of context culture in comprehension and persuasion, individuals' nationality was measured but not individuals' context culture. From the same gender distributions in the two samples, it might be considered unlikely that, for instance, one sample contained predominantly arts students (which are mostly female students) and the other predominantly engineering students (which are mostly male students). Use our contact page or Communicating in High Context vs. Low Context Cultures Characteristics of HC and LC Communication. Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices. Cultures and languages are defined as higher or lower context on a spectrum. Yet, relatively little is known about how affordances provided by social media platforms affect whether and how users express political opinions. Due to this shared understanding, high-context cultures are slightly more informal. For an outsider, it is easier to enter into low-context cultures because one does not need to be aware of the shared history/values of the group. The cultural context. However, this type of segregation is not rigid, but takes the form of a gradient since the contextual . For this reason, understanding differences between U.S. and German business communication may prove useful when starting conversations and negotiations with German business partners. 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. This assignment will discuss the cultural differences in China and Germany using, Hofstede's and Schwartz's theories, monochronic-pluralistic, compare high and low context culture, Trompenaar`s framework and other concepts. aV )I~Wo='h6&XY+]fo)'M@y~. This methodological issue is not unique; Cardon (Citation2008), in his review of papers on context culture and communication, also noted that context culture was measured at the individual level in only a minority of studies. Details are equally important to create certainty that a certain topic or project is well-thought-out. This conservative, reasoned approach to problems that arise gives Germany the ability to change quickly to local and global situations. According to Hall's high-/low-context theory, cultures differ in their preferences for indirect, implicit messages versus direct, explicit messages. b'K/{:6 ,eQ_`RYHS9pkRg91o)?OM8u}Vo0~8m 1 From High Context to Low Context . Measuring a cultural construct responsible for the expected cultural differences at the level of the studies' participants is an essential methodological tool to enable attributing empirical, cultural differences to that cultural construct (Hoeken & Korzilius, Citation2003; Van de Vijver & Leung, Citation1997). This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Understanding German business protocol is the first step toward success in Germany. Communicating with high-context cultures can require you to focus on politeness strategies that demonstrate your respect for readers and listeners. (2014, December 10). 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. (Citation2010) also investigated perceived complexity and liking of visual metaphors in advertising among participants from the same three countries. Even if not stated exactly, a speaker's intent will rarely be misunderstood. Hall's cultural factors - Changing minds The use of short scales is consistent with recommendations in the marketing literature (Bergkvist & Rossiter, Citation2007). This is what the cultural standard "Direct communication style" is about. According to the information processing theory of McGuire (Citation1972), for instance, a persuasive communicative attempt is only expected to be successful if it passes a number of critical steps, including the comprehension of the message. To request a reprint or commercial or derivative permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below. Communication Research Reports. Intercultural Communication on Websites: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Websites from High-Context Cultures and Low-Context Cultures. In the 21 st century, Germany has been key in developing analytic philosophy in Europe together with nations such as France, Scandinavian states, Switzerland, and Austria. Although the use of understandable messages is commonplace in advertising and communication, complex messages are regularly used; for example, through the use of jargon, foreign languages, or verbal or visual metaphors. Produced by Will Reid and Michael Simon Johnson. Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Development of long-term relationships; trust is created based on high-quality and reliability of services and products; quality may override price considerations. Neuliup, J. W. (2011). Stability desired, less tolerance for risk. In addition to striving for personal accomplishment through masculine traits, Germans also enjoy tokens of status, which often comes from high-quality cars and new technology. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. 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. On the basis of his review of studies on context theory, one of Cardon's (Citation2008, p. 423) concluding remarks was about this measurement issue: [F]uture research must employ rigorously developed measures. There are smaller communities and specific settings within national/linguistic cultures, and they may exhibit different communication patterns. The blue line (Main-Linie) divides Middle German and High German. A message does not have one given complexity; what is complex to one person is not necessarily complex to another. The Basic Difference Between High-context and Low-context Cultures As a preliminary test, we first checked whether Belgian participants indeed scored higher on their personal context score than Dutch participants. Le Pair and Van Mulken (Citation2008, p. 289) stress that their choice to relate the findings on ad liking to participants' context culture is a tentative explanation, and Callow and Schiffman (Citation2002, p. 274) acknowledge, It would also be advantageous to measure context at an individualas opposed to a culturallevel.. Complex ads, such as the example of the liquid detergent, may be better comprehended and better appreciated in higher- than in lower-context cultures. German Communication Style Low Context Little attention is given to non-verbal cues & body language. ommunication between Population of Germany and German - MCSER The United States is the lowest context culture in the world followed by Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. Wurtz studied McDonalds online advertising in various countries such as Japan, Germany, the United States, etc. Original music by Dan Powell and . The indirect effect of nationality on perceived complexity through participants' individual context score proved to be significant (b = .05; CI [0.117, 0.007], bootstrapping technique, N = 50,000). It relies on the straightforward use of language, without depending much on nonverbal cues. It describes the level of explicit information and the importance of context in a given culture, indicating the range of communicative abilities (verbal messages, gestures, etc.) Comfort in knowing the rules; protocol important; sensitivity to position and age. Another source of variation is consumers' cultural background; namely, their context culture, as the next section will explain. Praise is rarely given, and when it is given, it is understated, e.g. From the perspectives of both ELM and HSM, comprehension does play a part in the persuasion process, but it is not a necessary condition for persuasion to take place. In other words, the Federal Republic is well-known for an extremely direct way of speaking about things. (1971). Keep away from uncertain situations, and instead focus on the known and practical. Privacy Policy. All Anglo-Saxon cultures fall on the left-hand side of the scale, with the United Kingdom as the highest context culture of the Anglo-Saxon cluster. 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. A message that is too simple or too difficult to understand is therefore expected to be less persuasive than a message with matching resources. Third, future research may invest in developing new and/or refining existing measures for high/low context (see Kim, Pan, & Park, Citation1998).

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