germany high or low context culture

The terms "low-context" and "high-context" usually refer to language groups or nationalities. 4. Cultural Comparison between Germany and Thailand - GRIN Recognizing High and Low Context Cultures - National Charrette Institute i~^/NGu8Oc$j*$hd$BC+ji.9mkK"B?0m`d()-r//JQ ?7M!7|Q]pTX6w9 The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. Increased complexity in advertising has been found to affect consumers' comprehension and liking of ads (e.g., Lagerwerf & Meijers, Citation2008; McQuarrie & Mick, Citation1999; Van Mulken, Van Hooft, & Nederstigt, Citation2014). Without socialization we do not become human. German society also stresses compartmentalizing personal and professional lives in this pursuit of success. Germany is masculine. )&ucLHDLocalization Strategy Guide - The Cultural Dimensions of Germany IOR collects cookies to improve your experience on our website. endstream endobj 316 0 obj <>stream Order Free Brochure. Low-Context Cultures Communicators in low-context cultures (such as those in Germany, Scandinavia, and North America) convey their meaning exclusive of the context of a situation. They predicted lower perceived complexity and higher appreciation (i.e., ad liking) for French and Spanish than for Dutch participants. In high-context cultures, people are said to prefer symbolic, artful language that is implicit. Nevertheless, it persists: Political self-effects in the context of All articles are edited by a PhD level academic. First, it is expected that participants from a higher-context culture will like the complex ad better than participants from a lower-context culture (H3). High-context cultures are more likely to be intuitive, contemplative, and concerned with the collective. Information is transmitted not through words alone but also through non-verbal cues such as gestures, voice inflection, and facial expression, which can have different meanings in different cultures. However, to access this market and connect with German partners and clients, localization is essential.Developing a strategy based on a holistic cultural analysis can feel difficult, if not impossible, to do without an organized approach. As a result, context theory predicts complex messages containing visual metaphors to be better understood and to be better appreciated in high- rather than in low-context cultures. With a German audience, I need to be more fact based up front and have a more disciplined presentation style to build a case, almost as if I were in a courtroom.. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Finally, the present study focused on ad liking as a form of persuasion, which makes sense from Hall's predictions about comprehension and appreciation. On the other hand, he identified countries such as Germany, the United States and Scandinavia as low-context cultures. In order to accurately demonstrate the role of context theory, participants' individual context scores should be assessed. No decisions are made until all parties involved are heard; negotiations are fact and subject matter based. To become successful as a cross-cultural communicator in Germany: The present study shows that individuals' context scores account for the national differences between perceived complexity and liking of ads with complex visual metaphors. Hall defines intercultural communication as a form of communication that shares information across different cultures and social groups. About half of the participants were female (56%). Consensus-finding; thorough decision-making phase is followed by swift implementation phase. Germany is valued around the world for its precision engineering, especially in the auto industry. Performance and target-based; subject expertise important; in public/government institutions, length of service is one aspect of performance appraisal. Finally, it is expected that the effect predicted in H3 is mediated by participants' context-culture scores (H4): H3: Participants from a higher-context culture like ads with visual metaphors better than participants from a lower-context culture. Beyond these kinds of replications, we suggest five directions for future investigations to further examine how context theory affects comprehension and persuasion in advertising and communication. For an outsider, it is easier to enter into low-context cultures because one does not need to be aware of the shared history/values of the group. From the perspective of ELM, studies have also underlined that the recipients' background influences perceived complexity. According to the information processing theory of McGuire (Citation1972), for instance, a persuasive communicative attempt is only expected to be successful if it passes a number of critical steps, including the comprehension of the message. In. aV )I~Wo='h6&XY+]fo)'M@y~. b'K/{:6 ,eQ_`RYHS9pkRg91o)?OM8u}Vo0~8m Germany - Hofstede Insights Managers are expected to be decisive and assertive. Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained. Germans tend to make a strict distinction between work and social life; therefore expect little small talk in a business context. This is especially true when it comes to business dealings. $suH\ H1: Participants from a higher-context culture perceive ads with visual metaphors as less complex than participants from a lower-context culture. Thus, Relevance Theory accommodates two seemingly opposing outcomes: a more complex message may generate higher as well as lower appreciation than a less complex message. For complex messages to be effective, consumers need to have a minimum of cognitive resources. Beyond Culture. This is where the study of cultural dimensions is useful. Low-context cultures also want these communications to revolve around basic questions, like: What's happening? Greetings are formal and tend to include academic titles (Guten Morgen, Frau Doktor Faust). [emailprotected], 2022 Hofstede Insights | Privacy policy, Virtual Organisational Culture Certification, The Role Management Plays in Organisational Change, Organisational Culture What you need to know. Honesty is also valued highly because German communication as a whole is incredibly low-context. This post is a part of the series where I'd like to share some of my cross-cultural experiences and stories. Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson, Citation1995) has proven to be a successful approach for our understanding of the relationship between complexity and persuasion of such messages (cf. Importantly, the current study examines this classification empirically by assessing individual context scores in both cultures. The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau. Their communication is often indirect and requires a nuanced understanding, so outsiders might find it more difficult to enter their culture. Van Mulken etal., Citation2010). In contrast, high-context cultures use facial expressions, body language, and gestures in a nuanced manner. More responsibility; moving up in the company; time off (as monetary rewards are taxed at a very high rate). Messages are understood at face value. Guffey, M. E., Lowey, D., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2013). In absolute terms, the differences between the Belgian and Dutch participants in the comprehension and liking scores were small. This conservative, reasoned approach to problems that arise gives Germany the ability to change quickly to local and global situations. A principal component analysis did not lead to a more reliable scale. In a comparative survey-based study (N = 289), Belgian and Dutch participants judged 12 complex product advertisements with visual metaphors. Fewer words can often lead to better understanding. Seekprofessional input on your specific circumstances. For instance, if an ad contains a slogan in a foreign language that the recipient does not recognize (let alone understand), more effort will not result in better comprehension and better liking. Likewise, large numbers of studies have measured cultural values on participants' level to examine how these values relate to other variables (for an overview of such studies, see Soares, Farhangmehr, & Shoham, Citation2007; Taras, Kirkman, & Steel, Citation2010). For the replacement metaphor, an example is the ad for Contrex water, which features a Contrex water bottle looking at itself in the mirror (replacing a human person looking at his or her body shape). Long Term Orientation describes how a society deals with the challenges of the present and future, while also continuing to uphold time-honored traditions. In. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. 45-52). Finally, place focus on personal achievement, success, and competition, values which drive the German business world. Reviewing the use of Hall's high-/low-context concept, Culture, attitudes, and media patterns in China, Taiwan, and the U.S.: Balancing standardization and localization decisions, Openness in metaphorical and straightforward advertisements, Points of view and pieces of time: A taxonomy of image attributes, Perceived complexity and appreciation of visual metaphors by consumers with different cultural backgrounds, The effects of syntactic complexity on advertising persuasiveness, Toward a new generation of cross-cultural research, Attitude change: The information-processing paradigm, Figures of rhetoric in advertising language, Visual rhetoric in advertising: Text-interpretive, experimental and reader-response analyses, Visual and verbal rhetorical figures under directed processing versus incidental exposure to advertising, A laboratory study of the effect of verbal rhetoric versus repetition when consumers are not directed to process advertising, Thinking into it: Consumer interpretation of complex advertising images, The impact of verbal anchoring on consumer response to image ads, Beyond visual metaphor: A new typology of visual rhetoric in advertising, Comprehension's role in persuasion: The case of its moderating effect on persuasive impact of source cues, The influence of high/low-context culture and power distance on choice of communication media: Students' media choice to communicate with professors in Japan and America, Mediation analysis in social psychology: Current practices and new recommendations, Spectacular vernacular: Literacy and commercial culture in the postmodern age, The impact of perceived message complexity and need for cognition on information processing and attitudes, Hofstede's dimensions of culture in international marketing studies, The pun in advertising: A pragmatic approach, Examining the impact of culture's consequences: A three-decade, multilevel, meta-analytical review of Hofstede's cultural value dimensions, Half a century of measuring culture: Review of approaches, challenges, and limitations based on the analysis of 121 instruments for quantifying culture, The occurrence and effects of verbal and visual anchoring of tropes on the perceived comprehensibility and liking of TV commercials, The impact of perceived complexity, deviation and comprehension on the appreciation of visual metaphor in advertising across three European countries, Finding the tipping point: Visual metaphor and conceptual complexity in advertising, The role of comprehension processes in communication and persuasion, Puffery in advertisements: The effects of media context, communication norms, and consumer knowledge. South Korea. Low-Context Culture Communication & Examples - Study.com Watch this video from international business expert Erin Meyer [1]. If empirical support for the role of context-cultures scores is to be found, it would considerably strengthen the notion of context culture as a perspective to study cultural differences and similarities in advertising and communication. In low-context cultures, people are used to messages that are direct and simple; for them, interpreting metaphors is relatively more demanding. Repeat key points. Figure 2. High-Context Culture: Definition & Examples - Study.com We used 2-item scales for perceived ad complexity and ad liking because participants had to assess these constructs for 12 different ads. They are not simply complementary but are often used as the primary means of conveying a message and require the members to have greater cultural understanding. Managerial guidance appreciated and expected. Also remember that although cultures are different from one another, no culture or cultural characteristic is better or worse than any other. In societies with a pragmatic orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on situation, context and time. From Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson, Citation1995) and the resource-matching hypothesis (e.g., Larsen etal., Citation2004), we know that, for visual metaphors in particular, the relationship between comprehension and persuasion is nonlinear: with an increase in complexity, persuasion also increases up to a point where it starts to decrease. It should be noted that the present study cannot rule out a potential role of the participants' study background, as we did not assess this in the questionnaire. Jobs are changed infrequently (long-term thinking); labor laws support job stability and make it difficult to dismiss people. endstream endobj 314 0 obj <>stream Bernstein, B. Learn more about our academic and editorial standards. Germans are very detail-oriented and tend to ask a lot of subject-related questions. Culture of Germany - Wikipedia In high-context cultures, communication cues are transmitted by posture, voice inflection, gestures, and facial expression. Class, Codes and Control. After the two perceived complexity items, ad liking was assessed with two items for each ad with 7-point scales (taken from Le Pair & Van Mulken, Citation2008): The advertisement is badly/well chosen and The advertisement is unattractive/attractive (mean reliability: =.90, range.82.93). Based off those dimensions, there are several cultural aspects of German society that are of great importance when creating a localization strategy. These relationships are relevant to the hypotheses. Low-context culture refers to a culture that communicates explicitly. While some cultures are low or high context, in general terms, there can also be individual or contextual differences within cultures. Register a free Taylor & Francis Online account today to boost your research and gain these benefits: The Influence of High-/Low-Context Culture on Perceived Ad Complexity and Liking, Centre for Language Studies, Communication and Information Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Review of a 40-source debate in international advertising: Practitioner and academician perspectives to the standardization/adaptation issue, Ease of message processing as a moderator of repetition effects in advertising, The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations, The predictive validity of multiple-item versus single-item measures of the same constructs, Implicit meaning in visual print advertisements: A cross-cultural examination of the contextual communication effect, A critique of Hall's contexting model: A meta-analysis of literature on intercultural business and technical communication, How to persuade Belgian, French and Dutch business people to listen to your presentation, Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium, A new approach to country segmentation utilizing multinational diffusion patterns, Conducting experiments on cultural aspects of document design: Why and how, Adapting consumer advertising appeals to cultural values: A meta-analytic review of effects on persuasiveness and ad liking, Foreign language display in advertising from a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspective: A review and research agenda, High- versus low-context culture: A comparison of Chinese, Korean, and American cultures, Beyond culture or beyond control? PDF Cross-cultural values of Germany/Germans Instead, Germans try to avoid the ambiguity of an uncertain future by planning responses and systems well in advance. Meaning is determined not by what is said but by how it is said and by how social implications such as the communicators status and position come into play. The mean scores for perceived complexity and ad liking were submitted to regression analyses for the direct effect of nationality on perceived complexity (H1) and ad liking (H3). Renewable, clean energy has become a key talking point for every nation, and Germanys push puts itself at the forefront of a new economic boom. German Communication Style Low Context Little attention is given to non-verbal cues & body language. Robin Bargheon on Twitter Hall's cultural factors - Changing minds Examples of low-context cultures include Germany, the United States, and Australia. The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Characteristics of HC and LC Communication. ommunication between Population of Germany and German - MCSER For example, the head wobble (tilting the head from side to side) in India is a gesture that can convey a variety of meanings depending on the situation. Business communication - Business Culture Communicating with high-context cultures can require you to focus on politeness strategies that demonstrate your respect for readers and listeners. In a high-context culture, there are many contextual elements that help people to understand the rules. Did you know that with a free Taylor & Francis Online account you can gain access to the following benefits? For example, the Native Americans in the United States rely heavily on their tradition. Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. - |Cjg@Q.TN"8. Unlike the linear communication style preferred in low-context cultures, high-context communicators may use spiral logic, circling around a topic indirectly and looking at it from many tangential or divergent viewpoints. The current study is the first empirical examination of context theory's role on message comprehension and appreciation. These cookies do not store any personal information. This result supported H1. Communicating With High- and Low-Context Cultures Future studies should, however, incorporate study background as a personal characteristic. The terms low-context and high-context usually refer to language groups or nationalities. Examples of low-context cultures include the United States, Australia, and many Western countries. A polite nod accompanied by a firm handshake is a common greeting, both in a business as well as social context; eye contact is made and held during a face-to-face conversation. Scheduling, punctuality emphasized; time is a commodity not to be wasted, Equality Germany has produced some great philosophers including Albertus Magnus from the Middle Ages, Leibniz in the 17 th century, and the famous Immanuel Kant. ULG covered the basics of the six cultural dimensions in full here. Germans tend to think and argue deductively, using theoretical knowledge to build an argument. Oxford University Press. Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise. When it comes to emails, texts, and online messaging, low-context cultures use it to fire off quick, frequent messages. In general, both Germany and the U.S. are low-context cultures, meaning that information and meaning are usually communicated explicitly through words. A speaker can assume that listeners will know what they really mean. ;#EtZ-P`IsPv;SFMx+CS~!v}w\ `p>cgVX 4>`~O{][-Pq [b'E2=XQb9^F4dD$",gM)0:s^>{ I-T9.,8#PT" h_%4H~ C\s{58id]wE&= 4y3H[K302LQB7LU] #Bnf+cC Little attention is given to non-verbal cues & body language. In the current comparative survey-based study, participants were exposed to 12 different product ads; asking for actual comprehension of all of the ads might have revealed the purpose of the study. A direct and participative communication and meeting style is common, control is disliked and leadership is challenged to show expertise and best accepted when its based on it. High and Low Context This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways. In the second half, we will explain how context theory is related to people's comprehension of messages, leading to the hypotheses of the current study. High-context cultures rely heavily on non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, etc. Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism. Therefore, empirical evidence was also found for H4, which means that participants' personal context scores indeed mediated the effect of nationality on ad liking.

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