Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Polski
-
- Introduction
- What is culture?
- Culture is like an Iceberg
- Culture and its core elements
- What is intercultural communication?
- Which are the challenges in intercultural communication?
- Transnational communication skills
- Enhancing cultural awareness for transnational communication
- Choosing adequate communication strategies
- Intercultural Conflict Management
- Stumbling blocks in Intercultural Communication
- Which are the elements that may lead to a conflict situation?
- Conflict strategies
- Conflict prevention
- Working on the intercultural image of the organisation
- What is the “image” of an organisation?
- Why should you adapt the image of your organisation to cultural premises?
- How can you work on your intercultural image?
- Quiz
- External resources
Culture and its core elements
Just take a minute to reflect: Imagine for a moment how your volunteer organisation makes important decisions. Do you feel involved in the decision making process?
Depending on the cultural background of your organisation, you may have answered yes or no. This depends on certain elements like the understanding of hierarchy and the manifestation of power of your organisation, for example. Both are relevant elements of the leadership style of your organisation.
There are different tools that help to observe, understand and compare elements of culture. They provide a basis for reflection concerning behaviour which may seem strange to us.
For those working the context of volunteer work the so called cultural dimensions are a suitable basis of reflection when it comes to working in international contexts. Cultural dimensions are based on the hypothesis that there are universal categories of human behaviour common to all cultures but of which cultures show culture-specific manifestations when it comes to find solutions for certain challenges (Layes, 2010, p. 53s.).
The dimensions that serve as a working basis of the Intercultural Communication Module (Module 3) are based on the most important works about cultural dimensions by Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars, Edward T. Hall and The Globe Study.
Interesting to observe is the fact that according to the Globe Study there are country clusters that, when analysed in the working context, show a) similar behaviour and b) similar values, which means that those societies have ideal expectations of how culturally relevant behaviour should be.
Here are some country clusters taken from the Globe Study (https://globeproject.com/results/clusters/middle-east?menu=list#list accessed 21.5.20) that may be relevant for volunteers or volunteer organisations wanting to internationalise:
| Country cluster | Countries |
| Anglo | |
| Eastern Europe | |
| Germanic Europe | |
| Latin Europe | |
| Nordic Europe |
https://pixabay.com/de/illustrations/vernetzung-personen-gruppe-3712818/
Related to the country clusters are certain universal cultural dimensions that have, however, country-specific manifestations. In the following you will find some cultural dimensions taken literally from the Globe Study that may be important for your work (House 2013, p. 12f.). Please keep in mind that the degrees of how strongly or evidently a dimension manifests itself, depends on culture specific factors:
| Dimensions taken from The Globe Study (House, 2013, p. 12f.) | Dimensions in volunteer work /context | Questions for understanding the dimensions in volunteer work |
| Performance orientation: The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards (and should encourage and reward) group members for performance improvement and excellence. | This dimension may show in the way your organisation encourages and supports engagement, training measures and development activities for volunteers in order to enhance their efficiency for a new international project. | How are you rewarded (with immaterial praise, badges “best volunteer of the year”) when you did especially well?
At how many trainings did you participate during the last year? |
| Assertiveness: The degree to which individuals are (and should be) assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in their relationship with others. | This dimension may show in the attitude your organisation or your colleagues have towards measuring achievements among each other and towards bringing forward one’s own interests.
Less competitive cultures lay more importance on relationships and bonding. |
How strongly do you show your desire that your idea be implemented or your objective realized? |
| Future Orientation: The degree to which individuals engage (and should engage) in future oriented behaviours such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying gratification. | This dimension may show, for example, through the effort your volunteer organisation puts in planning meetings or future steps of a project.
|
How much in the future do you plan to harvest the fruits of your work?
How is your monetary spending attitude? |
| Humane Orientation: The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards (and should encourage and reward) individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others. | This dimension may show, for example, in the attitude a society has towards volunteer work. | Is it easy for you as a volunteer organisation to engage people in your activities? Is it easy to do fundraising? |
| Power Distance: The degree to which members of a collective expect (and should expect) power to be distributed equally. | This dimension may show, for example, the extent to which you are accustomed to hierarchical structures in volunteer organisations. It can be also noticed in the way people address their boss or peers. | How do you address your boss – is it like you would address your fellow volunteers? |
| Uncertainty avoidance: The degree to which a society, organization or group relies (and should rely) on social norms, rules, and procedures to alleviate the unpredictability of future events. The greater the desire to avoid uncertainty, the more people seek orderliness, consistency, structure, formal procedures, and laws to cover situations in their daily lives. | This dimension may show, for example, in the complexity of the processes determining the acceptance of new volunteers in an organisation. | How comfortable do you feel with working processes that don’t seem clear to you?
How detailed do you define your working processes? |
In summary: The contents of this unit and in particular the table above may help you to understand some invisible and maybe unconscious elements of your culture. Being aware of the own cultural core elements is a step towards a better understanding of one’s own behavioural reactions. Linked to the country clusters the table may help you to better assess some experience of otherness you can’t explain when in contact with new cultures.
Disclaimer: Of course there is the risk of stereotyping when one tries to attribute what are ‘typical’ behaviours. But one has to keep in mind that cultural dimensions are based on what can be observed and what is normal for most members of a certain culture. It is important to remember to approach another culture not by looking at it through one’s own cultural lens but by observing it neutrally and by postponing judgments.