Communication in context: Cultures, Organisations, Settings

social groups form societies within entire countries

are basic assumptions about the world that we take with us into any interaction

reflecting the discredited notion that some ‘races’ are superior to others

a speaker may wants to get a message across to a particular audience without other listeners being aware of it

Edward T. Hall, denoting the study of a culture’s perception of space, in particular as it relates to interpersonal communication - personal space

1. public: 4 metres or more

2. social: 1 to 4 metres

3. personal: 0.5 to 1 metre

4. intimate: up to 0.5 metres

1. power distance: the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally

2. individualism: pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family - the opposite is termed collectivism

3. masculinity: pertains to societies in which social gender roles are clearly distinct, the opposite being femininity which pertains to societies in which social gender roles overlap

4. uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations

a short-term orientation is associated with a culture that values tradition and continuity, while a long-term orientation is associated with an adaptive, pragmatic view of life

a measure of the extent to which a society accepts and allows its members to have fun

Hofstede was an inspiration, nine aspects of culture, which are termed cultural competencies

performance orientation – assertiveness – future orientation – humane orientation – in-group collectivism – institutional collectivism – gender egalitarianism – power distance – uncertainty avoidance

the degree to which a collective encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence

the degree to which a collective encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others

inconsistencies in American culture (e.g. the American culture scores highly on individualism, many Americans though frequently behave in ways that are clearly collectivist), they are explained by the notion of value trumping – the values imparted by culture can be overridden by others which acquire importance in particular micro-level contexts

the belief that any concept can be broken down into a number of aspects which together constitute its essence, its true nature

is linear, it is divided quite naturally into segments, making it possible for a person to concentrate on one thing at a time

time is characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of many things and by a great involvement with people, there is more emphasis on completing human transactions than holding on to schedules

the structure of an organisation is set out in its organisation chart, sets out the organisation’s component units, illustrates how they are related to each other and along which paths internal communication is expected to flow

formal communication follows organigramms, whereas informal communication focuses on the relationships between interlocutors/colleagues

the network of informal/unofficial channels linking individual organisation members

1. Wheel: mostly talking through a person "in the middle"

2. Chain: the message goes through more or less the same procedure every time

3. Circle: just like the chain, but the last two people are also connected

4. Network: everyone can talk to everyone

1. keep contributions short and sweet

2. members face each other

3. members connect directly with each other

4. back-channel and side-conversations

5. exploring outside the team

the micro-level context of any communicative event

situation / social activity in which conversation is embedded

1. increased code structuring

2. code consistency

3. invoking of positional identities

4. emerge of a central focus

the location in which communication occurs, sometimes it is also called the setting

a separate floor housing the most senior executives, associated with high status (CEO, CTO, ...)

the interlocutors are sitting in front of / facing each other

the interlocutors are  sitting in a circle or half-circle or just anyhow and anywhere

in extreme cases, a group/community believes itself to be under attack from all outsiders, also called bunker mentality

one whose members are drawn from units responsible for different business functions

any group that works together and communicates in pursuit of a particular goal, and whose language use develops in order to help achieve it

involves switching between languages or varieties depending on the topic

two or more languages may even be used in the course of a single utterance