![]() ![]() In the United States, business correspondence is expected to be short and to the point. Conflict is discussed openly and people say what they think. The communication tends to be impersonal. The message is clear, and to the point without hidden intentions or implied meanings. ![]() If you as a student were in a meeting with the President of your university and you were to tell them to “Shut the window,” what do you think would happen? Can you even imagine saying that? An indirect approach in this context may appear more polite, appropriate, and effective.ĭirect styles are those in which verbal messages reveal the speaker’s true intentions, needs, wants, and desires. As the United States is typically a direct culture, these latter statements might generate comments like, “Why didn’t you just ask someone to shut the window?” or “Shut it yourself.” Why might someone make a choice to use a direct or indirect form of communication? What are some of the advantages or disadvantages of each style? Think about the context for a moment. However, if I were to ask, “Is anyone else cold in here?” or, “Geez, this room is cold,” I might also be signaling indirectly that I want someone to close the window. If I say, “Close the window” my meaning is quite clear. Direct speech is very explicit while indirect speech is more obscure. The direct / indirect continuum has to do with the explicitness of one’s talk, or how much of their thoughts are communicated directly through words and how much is hinted at. As a result, people often miss important clues that could tell them more about the specific issue. In business interactions, people from low-context cultures tend to listen primarily to the words spoken they tend not to be as cognizant of nonverbal aspects. Communication between people from high-context and low-context cultures can be confusing. ![]() Countries such as Germany and Sweden are also low context while Japan and China are high context. In the example above between the two sisters, they are using high context communication, however, The United States is considered a low context culture. People who spend a lot of time together in the same group inevitably develop high context ways of communicating. While some cultures are low or high context, in general terms, there can also be individual or contextual differences within cultures. \): A graph which shows the level of context in various world cultures ![]()
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