In the Context of Contexts...

Last year one of our senior managers who is currently based in A-PAC but is a US citizen came and met customers along with our MD. When I met him later and asked him about his experiences he talked about one customer visit where the customer was praising the company and our MD was defending!

After the call the Senior Manager asked the MD what was happening and it’s then that our MD told that the Surgeon was actually not praising but was being sarcastic! The US Manager couldn’t pick the clue and thus was so surprised by the interaction. You have to be an Indian to understand when another Indian says something and may mean exactly opposite!

While I was still thinking about this, I came across an interesting article in Times of India. This article basically was excerpts from Ruchir Sharma's new book “Breakout Nations...” It was reading these excerpts I came across the concept of “High context cultures” and “Low context cultures”, which some of you might be familiar with.

This concept was first talked about by an anthropologist Edward Hall.

During the 1950s he worked for the US State Department, at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), teaching inter-cultural communications skills to foreign service personnel. It was there he developed the concept of "High context culture" and "low context culture", and wrote several popular practical books on dealing with cross-cultural issues. He is also considered to be the founding father of intercultural communication as an academic area of study.

In nutshell a “High Context Culture” is in which there is great emphasis on context but very little emphasis on content (and Vice-versa).

Meaning (M) is a function of: Content/ Information (I) in a Context (C).
So if you compare the HC culture with LC culture on these parmeters (Content/Information AND Context), below diagram would explain the two cultures:

Reading a bit more about “High context culture”, I began to understand:

1. Why we Indians behave the way we do
2. The dilemma of the senior manager in the incident above

Interestingly, the excerpts referred to "High context" societies as cultures in which people are noisy, quick to make promises that cannot always be relied on, and a bit casual about meeting deadlines. These societies tend to be built on close ties built over long periods of time, creating an environment in which a lot goes unsaid-or is said very briefly-because much is implicitly understood from context.

The spoken word is often flowery and vague; apologies are long and formal. Such societies believe deeply in tradition, history, and favoring the in-group, whether it is one's family or business circle, and thus they are vulnerable to corruption. E.g. India and Brazil!

"Low context," in contrast, describes societies like the United States and Germany in which people are individual oriented, care about privacy, and are more likely to stick to timelines and their word. People tend to be on the move, to have many brief relationships, and thus rely on simple, open communications and codified rules to guide behavior.

In high context cultures, information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person. Behavioral rules are implicit; in other words, the context is supposed to give you the cues you need to behave appropriately. In these cultures, members tend to use a more indirect style of communication.

In low context cultures, information is part of and conveyed through the verbal content of the communication. The rules and expectations are explained and discussed; individuals tend to prefer a more direct communication style.

Examples of countries that would prefer this communication style include the United States and most European countries (Not France and Italy, though)

In high context cultures, this type of information is less likely to be displayed. There is no need for them to post a sign telling you to clean up after yourself. The expectation is that you should know what to do in situations like this.

The implications are obvious. Interactions between high and low context peoples can be problematic. For example:

• Japanese can find Westerners to be offensively blunt. Westerners can find Japanese to be secretive, devious and bafflingly unforthcoming with information!

• French can feel that Germans insult their intelligence by explaining the obvious, while Germans can feel that French managers provide no direction!


Here is some more fun:
No prize for guessing which colour (Blue/Red) box depicts which culture (HC/LC)!

Way of Life:

Punctuality:

Party:

Queue: