Chapter Two Cultural Differences and
Communication--- A theoretical introduction
People from different cultures tend to communicate differently. Culture, in general, will exert great influence on the process of sending and interpreting messages between communicators from distinct cultural backgrounds. In this chapter, we will look into some theories on cultural differences and similarities which influence the process of intercultural communication. With these theories, you may have a frame of referrence when you communicate with people from other cultures and compare them with your own culture. You may have some ideas on questions such as from which aspects can cultures differ? And then you can create a profile of the culture from which the person you are communicating with comes. This can help you make reasonable predictions on people’s behavior in communication and avoid making misunderstandings. We will start from Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s value orientations.
1. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s value orientations
Value orientations are “complex but definitely patterned principles which give order and direction to the ever-flowing stream of human acts and thoughts as these relate to the solution of common human problems” (Kluckhohn & strodtbeck, 1961). The theory of value orientations is based on the following assumptions:
(1)people in all cultures must find solutions to a limited number of common human problems;
Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) describe five problems for which all cultures must find solutions. (1)What is the nature of human beings (human nature orientation)?
(2) What is the relationship of people to nature(person-nature orientation)? (3) What is the orientation of humans to time (time orientation)? (4) What is the human orientation to activity(activity orientation)? (5) What is the relationship of one person to another (relational orientation)? As indicated above, every culture must find a solution to each of these problems. The solutions available, however, are limited for each of the problems.
(2)the range of alternative solutions to a culture’s problems is limited;
Because cultures must select their solutions from a range of available alternatives. Later when we elaborate on the five problems, you will see the answers to these problems are limited.
(3)while one solution tends to be preferred by members of any given culture, all potential solutions are present in every culture. That means within any culture, a preferred set of solution will be chosen by most people. However not all people from a culture will make exactly the same set of choices, and in fact, some people from each culture will select other alternatives.
