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such as Arabic, Japanese and Mediterranean societies, emphasize the context in which communication takes place; they are sensitive to implicit information. Communication is defined as implicit: coded, circular and indirect (Hall, 1976; Reynolds & Valentine (2004) also examine nine aspects of the social framework. In contrast to its counterpart, high-context cultures are categorized as relying on implicit communication, discrepancies between actual words and intended meaning will be recognized; relationships have a greater importance; and collective initiative and decision-making is emphasized. Compared to the mechanistic view of low-context cultures, high-context cultures approach employment relationships more humanistic, and employees are seen as “family” members that work for the good of the group and remain loyal to the company for many years. Furthermore, people from high-context societies rely on intuition or trust rather than facts and statistics; prefer indirect style in writing and speaking; and favour circular or indirect reasoning. They adhere to the spirit of the law and rely less on written contracts (Hall, 1979; Reynolds & Valentine, 2004). Hall (1959) categorizes high-context cultures as having close personal relationships and extensive information networks and as avoiding offenses. To conclude, communication is implicit; the message comes not only through words but through body language, surroundings and the relationship between people involved; attention is paid to the circumstances of the communication process (Nolan, 1999; Schmidt, 2001).

 

How different are we?

Every culture has its own way of thinking and behaving, but how different can we be? Is it possible to have a certain culture so different from another's that turns the cross-cultural barriers impossible to overcome? It is all about how much we know about the other's culture and how interested we are in accept the differences and try to adapt ourselves to the new pattern of behaviour.

 

According to Hampden-Turner (1997), internationalization will lead to a decrease of the differences between nations worldwide. Some big companies are examples of that, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's where managers and employees seems to act in a similar way even is countries with far different cultures. However, James Watson (1997) in his study of McDonald's, demonstrated that even though the taste of the hamburger and the division of the labor to produce them, do seem to be universal, many differences quickly appear when consumers from different cultures enter a McDonald's restaurant

 

Respecting rules

There are some countries where the rules can never disrespect even if it can cause damage or loss to you. For example, if you are driving your car late in the night with no other cars in sight and the traffic light turns to red. What to do? Wait some minutes until it gets green even though there is no other ca本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。