Remote communication across cultures

Not only do managers have to face the challenge of face-to-face

communication with other cultures, they also have to deal with
remote communication. This can prove particularly difficult for
two reasons. Firstly, the key visual factors that facilitate our
communication are missing and secondly, different cultures have
different preferences in how and what they communicate.

Understanding cultural preferences in communication

Information can be communicated explicitly within the text of a message - that is, in the words - or it can be implicit
in the context - that is, in the type of relationship. Different cultures have different preferences.

High Context cultures

Cultural groups, whether national, professional, regional, religious, educational, which rely on extensive personal
networks tend to communicate more implicitly. They are sensitive to the context in which they are communicating
and pick up clues about the meaning of messages from shared experience over time. For this reason, building
personal relationships becomes a priority in order to communicate appropriately. These groups are called
High Context cultures.

Low Context cultures

Inversely, there are cultures which prefer to communicate information more explicitly through words. Their
language is more concrete and task oriented. When they listen, they listen for literal meaning rather than implied
meaning, ask detailed factual questions and expect precise answers. For these cultures, personal relationships are
not always necessary for efficient communication. These groups are called Low Context cultures.
Of course, each culture and individual is only higher or
lower compared to other cultures or people. High context
These two cultural profiles have given sets of
characteristic behaviors. Mexico Japan, Indonesia
Arabic countries
High Context cultures Africa (all)
Philippines
• People learn to communicate implicitly China
• We focus on tasks through relationships Brazil Malaysia
• What I say and mean can be different India Spain
• Spoken agreements based on personal trust and Singapore Italy
loyalty are valued Greece Costa Rica
• Link between people in networks, so fluid interchange France Great-Britain
between social and business communication
Austria Australia
Low Context cultures
Scandinavia USA
• People learn to communicate explicitly
• We focus on tasks (relationships optional) Israel Germany
• What I say is what I mean Swiss Germans The Netherlands
• Written agreements based on clarity are valued
• Clear distinction between social and business Low context
communication

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Communication media across cultures
It is also important to take into account the type of media used in communicating. Although remote international
teams are often linked together with the same technology, different members may have different expectations
about which is the most appropriate medium for certain purposes.

Communication media
Higher Context cultures would tend to use, in order of preference, the following media:
1. Face-to-face meetings
2. Video conferences
3. Telephone
4. Answering machine/Voice mail
5. Groupware
6. Fax
7. Email

Communication strategies
Communicating across distance forces us to make decisions about the level of transparency we use and the level
of rapport we use. In the former, we ask ourselves how clear and explicit we should be. In the latter, we focus on
how much we should focus on the quality of our relationship with the receiver through a more indirect, remote
approach.

Balancing transparency and rapport

If we wish to successfully reconcile potentially conflicting approaches to communicating meaning in a business
context, we need to balance both high and low context styles.

Transparency strategies
The following ‘transparency strategies’ tend to clarify meaning without damaging relationships:
• signalling constructive intentions
• indicating and structuring messages
• recycling/highlighting key information
• explicit statements of needs: ‘why’ and ‘how’ as well as ‘what.’

Rapport strategies
The following ‘rapport’ strategies tend to safeguard relationships without sacrificing clarity:
• minimizing the negative
• building a sense of common interest/experience
• formulating explicit perceptions
• showing empathy
• reassuring, thanking and helping.

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