Oral Communication: Culture and Diversity

• Oral Communication study notes covering diversity, culture and adapting to others.

Generational Characteristics

• Matures (1925-1942): They work hard, have a sense of duty, are willing to sacrifice, know what is right, and work quickly.
• Baby Boomers (1943-1960): Value personal fulfillment and optimism, crusade for causes, buy now/pay later, support equal rights, and work efficiently.
• Generation X (1961-1981): Live with uncertainty, consider balance important, live for today, save, and consider every job a contract.
• Millennials (1982-2002): Close to their parents, feel "special," are goal and team-oriented, frequently use social media, and focus on achievement.

Ethnicity and Culture

• Ethnicity: Social classification based on nationality, religion, language, and ancestral heritage shared by a group with a common geographic origin.
• Ethnicity fosters common bonds affecting communication patterns.
• Race: Based on genetically transmitted physical characteristics of a group classified together by common history, nationality, or geography.
• Ethnicity emphasizes culture (learned behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms) more than race's genetic background.
• Discrimination: Unfair treatment based on group membership.
• Globalization: Integration of economics and technology, creating a worldwide, interconnected business environment.
• Culture: A learned system of knowledge, behavior, attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms shared by a group and shaped from one generation to the next.
• Culture and communication are inseparable.
• Cultures are not static; they change with new information and technologies.
• Co-culture: A cultural group within a larger culture (e.g., people with physical disabilities, different ages, or religious groups).
• Intercultural Communication: Occurs when individuals or groups from different cultures communicate.
• Culture Shock: Feelings of confusion, loss, stress, and anxiety when encountering a different culture.

Cultural Context

• Cultural context includes nonverbal cues that surround and give added meaning to a message.
• High-Context Cultures: Rely on nonverbal cues for interpreting messages.
• High context cultures examples: Asian, Arab, Southern Europe, African, and South American cultures.
• Low-Context Cultures: Rely more on language and the meaning of words, using fewer contextual cues.
• Low context cultures examples: Northern European, Australian, American, German, Polish, and Swiss cultures.

Cultural Values

• Cultures establish values relating to individualism vs. collectivism, distribution of power, avoidance of uncertainty, cultural perspectives (masculine vs. feminine), and time orientation.
• Collectivistic Culture: Values collaboration, teamwork, and group achievement.
• Individualistic Culture: Values individual achievement and personal accomplishments.
• Power Distribution: Societies with higher scores value greater power differences; societies with lower scores are more accepting of fewer people with authority.
• Uncertainty Avoidance: Societies with higher scores prefer to avoid uncertainty; societies with lower scores are more comfortable with uncertainty.
• Masculine Culture: Values achievement, assertiveness, heroism, material wealth, and traditional gender roles.
• Feminine Culture: Values being sensitive toward others and fostering harmonious personal relationships.
• Orientation to Time: Societies with higher scores have a long-term orientation, valuing perseverance and thrift; societies with lower scores value the past and present, respecting tradition.

Barriers to Bridging Differences

• Assuming superiority, assuming similarity, assuming differences, stereotyping, and prejudice can be barriers.
• Ethnocentrism: Belief that one's own cultural approaches are superior.
• Stereotype: Placing a person or group inflexibly into an all-encompassing category.
• Prejudice: Judgment based on the assumption that one already has all the needed information about a person.

Adapting to Others

• Aim for intercultural communication competence.
• Intercultural Communication Competence: The ability to adapt one's behavior appropriately to another person's culture. Includes stages such as denial, defense, minimalization, acceptance, adaptation, and integration.
• Denial: Believing there is only one real culture (one's own).
• Defense: Acknowledging other cultures but believing that one's own has the best way of doing things.
• Minimalization: Recognizing other cultural perspectives but minimizing them as if there are no real differences.
• Acceptance: Diminishing ethnocentrism and recognizing and accepting cultural differences.
• Adaptation: Consciously seeking to adapt behavior appropriately in response to cultural differences.
• Integration: Moving freely in and out of one's own cultural mindset while adapting to others, minimizing focus on one's own cultural identity.
• Ethnorelative Cultural Perspective: An appreciation for and sensitivity to cultural differences.
• Being mindful and an approach to any new cultural encounter

Being Other-Oriented

• Focus on the needs and concerns of others while maintaining personal integrity through the processes of socially decentering and being empathic.
• Egocentric: Focused on oneself and one's importance.
• Social Decentering: A cognitive process through which one considers another person’s thoughts, values, background, and perspectives.
• Empathy: An acknowledgment that someone is feeling a certain emotion.

Ethical Adaptation

• It involves being truthful and honest while observing the rights of others.
• Ethical communication is responsible, honest, fair, enhances human dignity.
• Maintain listener options rather than coerces or forces someone to behave against his will.