Chapter 5 Communication and Culture 129in South Africa), people’s rooms often have no doors at all; people go in and out
freely, and if someone sees you, they will grab you and assume you want to have
lunch with the group. Such differences in the value of personal space and inde-
pendence versus belonging and group loyalty illustrate our second cultural value:
collectivist and individualist orientations.
Individuals from collectivist cultures perceive themselves first and fore-
most as members of a group—and they communicate from that perspective
(Triandis, 1986, 1988, 2000). Collectivist cultures (including many Arab and
Latin American cultures as well as several Asian cultures, such as Chinese and
Japanese) value group goals and emphasize group harmony and cooperation.
Communication in such cultures is governed by a clear recognition of status and
hierarchy among group members, and loyalty to the group and the honor of one’s
family are more important than individual needs or desires (Wang & Liu, 2010).
In addition, collectivist communicators are generally concerned with relational
support; they avoid hurting others’ feelings, apologize, and make efforts to help
others to maintain the group’s reputation and position of respect (Han & Cai,
2010). For example, if an individual attending a business meeting discovers a
financial error, she will not likely mention who made the error, nor will she call
attention to her own success in discovering it. Instead, she will emphasize the
group’s success in correcting the error before it became a problem for the company.
Conversely, individualist cultures value each person’s autonomy, privacy,
and personal “space.” They pay relatively little attention to status and hierarchy
based on age or family connections. In such cultures, individual “self-esteem” is
important, individual initiative and achievement are rewarded, and individual
credit and blame are assigned. Thus, an individual who notes an error—even
one by her superiors—will probably be rewarded or respected for her keen
observation (as long as she presents it sensitively). The United States is a highly
individualist culture—American heroes are usually those celebrated for “pulling
themselves up by their bootstraps” to achieve great things or change the world.
Other Western cultures, such as Great Britain, Australia, and Germany, are also
at the high end of the individualism scale.
Comfort with Uncertainty
Cultures also differ in the degree of anxiety that individual members tend to
feel about the unknown. All cultures, to some degree, adapt their behaviors to
reduce uncertainty and risk, a process called uncertainty avoidance. Cultures
that are more anxious about the unknown are said to be high uncertainty avoid-
ance cultures—people from these cultures strive to minimize risk and uncertainty.
In high uncertainty avoidance cultures (such as in Portugal, Greece, Peru, and
Japan), communication is usually governed by formal rules to satisfy a need for
absolute truth, correct answers, and stability. People value consensus and have
little tolerance for differences of opinion. By following social rules and minimiz-
ing dissent, they reduce uncertainty and anxiety in prescribed communication
situations (Gudykunst, 1993).
In contrast, cultures with a higher tolerance for risk and ambiguity (like
Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, and the United States) are considered low uncertainty
avoidance cultures (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010). Their lower level of
To what degree do you
identify with an individualist
or collectivist culture? How
might the answer to this
question be complicated if
the family you grew up with
identifies strongly with one
dimension but the larger
culture in which you were
raised strongly identifies with
the other?AND YOU?
Just because people from
cultures like those in the
United States and Ireland
have a greater acceptance
for uncertainty than others
doesn’t mean that they are
entirely comfortable with
the unknown. In fact, mem-
bers of low uncertainty
avoidance cultures will
engage in passive, active,
and interactive strategies
to reduce uncertainty when
dealing with a new rela-
tional partner (Chapter 7);
similarly, they will seek op-
portunities to learn about a
new organizational culture
so that they can assimilate
competently (Chapter 11).CONNECT