Language and Intercultural Communication

Lecture 5 Valerija Malavska Turiba University

Motivating People and Building Trust

Motivation - closely linked to leadership and management.

The ability of leaders to get people do what they want done while at the same time making them feel that it is a good idea, or even their own idea.

No international formula for motivation. Essentially a national phenomenon. Can vary enormously between close neighbors, e.g., Americans and Canadians, French and Germans and Swedes and Finns. In the modern era, business leaders have occasionally shown the charismatic and visionary leadership that attracts loyal followers; e.g. Henry Ford (Ford Motor Company), Akio Morita (Sony), Richard Branson (Virgin Group). Religion - major role in mass-motivation throughout the historical era.

Twenty-First Century Aspirations Linear-active people Traditionally motivated by achievement rather than words (do what you have said you are going to do). 20th century Important factors career, money, other forms of remuneration. Work equated with success which equated with prosperity. 21st century The concept of globalization itself constitutes a motivational factor. Globalization means globalization of business that leans strongly toward the imposition of Western management styles on joint ventures, mergers and acquired companies. Linear individuals are motivated by

access to high-level technology, generous funding for research, increased opportunities, entrepreneurialism through the Internet and direct business-to-business contacts free of bureaucratic controls.

Multi-active people Traditionally motivated by words more than deedsby emotion, compassion, expression of human understanding. 21st century idea of globalization - a more civilized one, where there is a compromise between materialistic goals and the recognition of softer human values. should usher in an era of market opportunities that are available also to those who are poor and underprivileged. gain inspiration from people or circumstances that are conducive to boosting their self-confidence.
Multi-actives Globalization Their

Care and security - important for this cultural category.

Reactive people Traditionally motivated by the reassuring comfort of collective goals and action, common loyalty to respectable organizations, discovery of enduring trust and diligence in preserving integrity and face for family, friends and colleagues.
Reactives

have a third view of globalization that in which the huge Asian markets of the future (India, China, Indonesia) will benefit from strategic EastWest alliances, especially in high-tech fields. Motivational factors in Asia

increased leisure time and opportunities for foreign travel and international contact (things denied to Japanese, Chinese and other East Asians in the 19th and 20th centuries).

Young people
look

for education and training wish to taste Western lifestyles participate in trend-setting in fashion, food, films and so on.

Product versus Relationship The linear-active assumes an excellent product sells itself, it paves the way for a successful relationship, a sound idea or policy, backed by facts and figures. Other cultures - different priorities

Italy, Japan or Saudi Arabia - the personal relationship paves the way for the product (or blocks its purchase). Arabs, Asians and Latins buy from people they like, not necessarily from those who offer the best product at the best price. Motivation, of customers or ones own staff, has to take place in the context of personal relationships. Once Latins and Asians know you and trust you - will be motivated to buy from you, tell you if something is amiss, protect you from losing face, look after your interests, help you in need. If they work for you, they will do so loyally, do quality work, contribute overtime hours without extra pay and wait for you to suggest promotion or better remuneration without pushing for it. If they are not properly motivated by their trust in you, there is a risk that they will be disloyal, hide things from you, invent excuses, lack incentive and originality.

 Set clear, transparent aims and goals,

Building Trust

When considering building trust in an international group, national traits must be kept in mind. Prepare clear instructions, A set of basic trust-building strategies:
Communicate them effectively, Insist on an information-sharing policy, Provide practical, user-friendly tools,

Set up time-efcient processes,

Examples of difficulties that may hinder the process:

Back up the team,

Recognize contributions,

In some cultures managers and executives are much less willing to share information (especially Act on the teams recommendations, vertically) than others.
Work toward transparency.

Effective communication is not the same in France as it is, for example, in Australia. The Japanese way of giving orders would not be seen as clear instructions by Americans and Germans. Transparency is much more common in linear-active cultures than among multi-active and reactive cultures.

High-Trust and Low-Trust Societies Francis Fukuyama, TRUST, 1995 Members of high-trust societies normally have a ready trust for their compatriots,

usually linear-active and assume that their fellow nationals follow the rules; in other words, trust a person until he or she proves untrustworthy.

Members of low-trust cultural groups

are initially suspicious of fellow nationals, are often multi-actives or reactives, have a more exible obedience to rules, regulations and laws, trust completely only those they know best: family and one or two close, lifetime friends, China and Korea (low trust) - both the family and the state exercise great inuence. The demands of both state and family take up much of the individuals time. He or she is not sure what to do with whatever spare time is left. In high- or medium-trust societies - Sweden, Germany, Britain, Canada and the United States a superabundance of extra time because the demands on peoples time outside of work are not nearly as great.

Linear-actives Worddeed correlation - essential

If you always do what you have said you are going to do, on a consistent basis, you build trust by cementing your integrity.

Truth

is recognized as scientic, based on facts and gures, almost tangible.

As

ofcial institutions in linear-active cultures are normally efcient and relatively speedy, place their trust in those institutions (banks, schools, the post ofce, etc.).

Individuals

Trust is fairly impersonal. In general, people do what they are paid to do.

Multi-actives E.g. Italians, Hispanics, Greeks, Turks, Slavs,etc.

Truth

is more exible (creative), wheels of bureaucracy turn more slowly, faith in institutions is less rm. They prefer to place their trust (strong indeed) in group intimatesfamily, former teachers, close friends. trust people who show them compassion, accept closeness, protect their vulnerabilities and disobey regulations in keeping that trust if it is necessary. Reactive cultures

They

E.g. Japan, China and Korea, etc.

Trust is gained through respectful behavior, protecting the others face. and closeness are not required.

Compassion The

Japanese particularly place great trust in their schoolmates and former schoolmates who graduated from their university. is also given to former teachers and tutors.

Trust

Trust in Virtual Teams (1)

Face-to-face meetings important for multi-active and reactive members-personal relationships and genial socializing have great signicance. as they say, breeds distance, and this is particularly true for reactive and multi-active nationalities.

Especially

Distance,

Germans, Finns and Swedes shine in the nitty-gritty lets-get-down-to-work areas.

Latins contribute most effectively in a committee atmosphere enhanced by close social contact.

Reactive Asians - the feeling of togetherness is reassuring and brings out their best qualities.

Nordics function fairly well at a distance in a cool, common-sense way.

Trust in Virtual Teams (2) Americans Accept that electronic proximity is with us to stay and are experts at impersonalizing communication.

Hispanics, Italians, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese The lack of face-to-face interaction is a far more serious matter.

Asian customers In general, want to be visited. They want and take time to evaluate and absorb what and whom they see.

Tactile Hispanics Need the warming handshake, embrace or arm around the shoulder.

The French Want to display their oratorical skills (difcult by e-mail).

Italians Wish to convince you through persuasive tones and expressive use of eyes, hands, arms and shoulders.

High Context vs. Low Context

This deals with where one looks for meaning

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall , Beyond Culture, 1976

High context A lot of unspoken information is implicitly transferred during communication. People in a high context culture tend to place a larger importance on long-term relationships and loyalty and have fewer rules and structure implemented.

Low context A lot of information is exchanged explicitly through the message itself and rarely is anything implicit or hidden. People in low context cultures tend to have short-term relationships, follow rules and standards closely and are generally very task-oriented.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhhALfB_1Aw

How to establish trust in an intercultural team?

In face-to-face meetings, low-context Germans and Nordics will require explicitness about how they are to proceed. High-context French, Indians and Japanese will leave a lot unsaid, paying their colleagues the compliment of assuming they know the situation.

High-context people speak more, but they say less. Low-context people speak less, but every word counts.

These different communication styles can be improved in a variety of ways:

body language, tone of voice and subtle timing when people are face-to-face.

The low-context individuals on the team assume their high-context teammates are hiding information from them or are being purposefully unclear. These same low-context Germans and Americans frequently annoy the high-context French and Italians with their painstaking emphasis on instructions, explanation and clarication. One should remember, for example:

Low-context, linear-active team members normally focus on tasks; they get moving rst and then build up trust. High-context, multi-active teammates will rst deal with the question of trust (i.e.,relationship building) before getting down to the tasks.

Beginning a meeting in different countries

Structuring a Meeting Just as ways of beginning a meeting vary, so do methods of structuring them.

Linear-active people - fond of strict agendas, agendas have linear shape. Multi active (usually Latins) tend to wander, wishing to repeat points already discussed. Reactives, especially Japanese, concentrate on harmonizing general principles prior to examining any details.

The purpose of a meeting depends on where one is coming from: E.g.

Britons and Americans see a meeting as an opportunity to make decisions and get things done. The French see it as a forum where a brieng can be delivered to cover all aspects of a problem. Germans, more concerned with precision and exactness, expect to gain compliance. Italians use meetings to evaluate support for their plans. The Japanese regard the rst few sessions as occasions for establishing status and trust and nding out what possible sources of disagreement need to be eliminated from the outset.

Linear-active members

little small talk before getting down to business, to introduce bullet points that can serve as an agenda,

like

tasks or issues are segmented, discussed and dealt with one after the other, reached are summarized in the minutes. Multi-active members

solutions

not

happy with the bullet-point approach,

prefer to take points in random order (or in order of importance) and discuss them for hours before listing bullet points as conclusions. Reactive people do not have the linear obsession with agendas, in Japanese eyes, for instance, things are not black and white, possible or impossible, right or wrong.

they

see arguments and ideas as points coming together and ultimately merging.

Body Language Paralanguage - non-verbal elements of communication used to modify meaning and convey emotion. Pitch, volume, intonation of speech are often more important in communication than what is actually being said orally. 70% of what we communicate when talking directly with others is through paralanguage. Kinesics / body language - the most obvious form of paralanguage, the language of gestures, expressions, and postures. Proxemics - the study of interaction distances and other culturally defined uses of space.
Comfortable Comfort

interaction distance to a person with whom we are speaking.

in interaction distance between faces that are looking directly at each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhhALfB_1Aw

Proxemics
organization of space
Western offices Japanese offices

Haptics
the study of touch Low-contact cultures
North Americans, the British, China, Japan

High-contact cultures
Italians, the French, Russians, Arabs and Latin Americans

Different Types of Body Language Anthropologists view

speech developed to make body language more explicit, and that as the former became more sophisticated, gestures became less necessary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTE0G9amZNk

Finns and Japanese do not seem to have any body language- both cultural groups do use body language that is well understood by fellow nationals in each country.
restrained

type of body language that is so subtle that it goes unnoticed by the foreign eye.

Italians, Arabs and South Americans demonstrative body language For reactives to observe multi-actives is as if someone used to listening to the subtle melodies of Chopin or Mozart were suddenly thrown into a modern disco.

Head Eye contact Multi-active cultures speakers will maintain close eye contact while they deliver their message. Spain, Greece and Arab countries (some linear-actives and reactives would call it staring) Japan - close eye contact - improper and rude. Japanese avoid eye contact 90 percent of the time. Looking at a speakers neck while listening and at their own feet or knees when they speak themselves. In societies where hierarchy is important, it is easy to detect the pecking order by observing peoples eye behavior. Lower-ranking staff often look at superiors, who ignore them unless they are in direct conversation with them. When anyone cracks a joke or says something controversial, all the subordinates eyes will switch immediately to the chief personage to assess his or her reaction. French and Hispanic people indulge in the nose twitch, snort or sniff to express alertness, disapproval or disdain respectively.

Oculesics - the study of the use of the eyes in interpersonal communication

Asians, Puerto Ricans, West Indians, African Americans and Native Americans consider a direct eye contact to be rude, or disrespectful, or intimidating, while Europeans find it a sign of openness and honesty.

The Rest of the Body Multi-active cultural groups also use all the rest of their bodies to express themselves.
mobile Latins

shoulders (normally kept still in northern societies.)

keep their shoulders back and down when tranquil and observant but push them up and forward when alarmed, anxious or hostile. which are used little by Nordics during conversation, are an indispensable element in ones communicative weaponry in Italy, Spain and South America.

Arms,

The hands - among the most expressive parts of the body. Immanuel Kant called hands the visible parts of the brain. Italians watching Finnish hands may be forgiven for thinking that Finns have slow brains. It is undeniable that Northern peoples use their hands less expressively than Latins or Arabs, who recognize them as a brilliant piece of biological engineering.

Leg language Legs together position signies basically defensiveness against a background of formality, politeness or subordination. Most people sit with their legs together when applying for a job; it indicates correctness of attitude. This position - common for Anglo-Saxons at rst meetings, but they usually change to legs crossed as discussions become more informal. The formal Germans and Japanese can go through several meetings maintaining the legs-together position. Ways of crossing legs:
the

most formal - the crossing of ankles only, the average - crossing the knees, the most relaxed and informal is the ankle-on-knee cross - common in North America.

It is said that the feet are the most honest part of the body Foot messages may include, for example,
tapping

on the oor (boredom), apping up and down (want to escape), heel lifting (desperate to escape) and multi-kicking from a knees-crossed position (desire to kick the other speaker).

Intercultural Verbal and Non-verbal Communication Advice

Speak slowly Repeat as necessary Be sincere and empathetic Keep it simple and short Show and demonstrate by using examples /illustrations Borrow attributes of the other culture that will allow you to function effectively in it Practice the skill of switching cultural channels