Cultural Approach to Communication

The Impact of Culture on Communication. (2018). Retrieved February 23, 2023,: https://ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-culture-on-communication/

Communication is an essential part of the daily life of every individual. Without proper communication, our ideas and views cannot be informed to others.

Usually, communication starts when there is a need to convey a message to another. It refers to the process of exchanging ideas and facts from one person to the next. “Communication may be defined as the process by which an individual (or group of individuals) transmits information about ideas, feelings and intentions to another person (or group of persons)” (Pennington, 2002, p.12).

Different factors influence the communication process. Some of them are culture, language…etc. Cultural differences of the people in a group/team affect effective communication among them both positively and negatively. This paper dwells on this aspect and describes the importance of culture in communication using a descriptive approach.

Impact of Culture on Communication

The culture has a significant influence on the communication process. The cultural differences can create conflicts and misunderstanding between parties involved in the communication process (Monippally, 2001, p.45). Culture’ has often been defined in simplistic terms as life-style of people of a community.

But culture means much more; it encompasses various attitudinal and behavioral dimensions such as values, beliefs, expectations, norms, etc. All these make culture a complex thing to understand and has drawn the attention of researchers to study the various dimensions of culture and its impact on the people living within that culture.

Within a culture there may be various sub-cultures on the basis of ethnic groups, religious groups, professions, etc., and differences exist among them. Many studies by behavioral scientists prove that all the people who belong to a particular culture have similarity in their thinking and behavior.

‌Culture differs from one group to another and these differences can affect the level of trust and openness in communication that one can achieve with people of other cultures. Therefore the cultural difference should be properly understood in order to ensure an effective communication.

Key points of Intercultural Communication

We can communicate effectively in a cross-cultural context if we understand how one culture differs from another and on what basis. The commonly known cultural differences are;

a. Contextual: Cultural contexts have a major influence on the way people interpret messages. High-context cultures like Taiwan or South Korea rely more on non-verbal communication than verbal communication; wheras low-context culture like the US or Germany, rely more on verbal communication than non-verbal communication.

b. Social Differences: Social behavior is another distinguishing factor among cultures.

c. Non-Verbal Differences: It is very important to understand the differences in the meanings which non-verbal communication conveys in the context of diversified cultures. The simplest hand gesture may signify different meaning from one culture to another.

Communication without considering the cultural difference may not give expected result in majority of the cases. To communicate effectively with people of other culture, understanding their culture is very important. Understanding their culture removes the attitudinal and behavioral barriers in communication. Without understanding the culture, communication can lead to misunderstanding.