The Concept of Low-Context Communication

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Due to the rapid increase of the globalization pace, the necessity to reconsider the existing strategies for intercultural communication has emerged recently (Weaver, 2001). Consequently, intercultural communication’s taxonomy, particularly its low-context and high-context types, has appeared (Usunier & Roulin, 2010). “Low-context” basically means that a particular communication process was reduced to the use of critical concepts and explicit terms (Usunier & Roulin, 2010).

To be more exact, once the level of business communication is identified as the low-context one, the messages conveyed by the conversation participants become more explicit, right to the point where they turn entirely transparent (Richardson & Smith, 2007). There is no subtlety in the course of a low-context business conversation – the very term presupposes that every single detail must be spelled out (Usunier & Roulin, 2010). It is crucial that in the process of a low-context communication, no issues should remain in the shadow and that the participants of the communication should have a clear perspective of a problem in question (Usunier & Roulin, 2010).

The Concept of Low-Context Communication: Appropriate Use and Significance

As far as the context of the low-context communication process is concerned, one must admit that the phenomenon is quite rare due to the specifics of the environment in which it occurs. Based on its definition, the low-context communication process occurs in the setting of complete trust and understanding, which is admittedly rare for most companies in the era of high competition rates and the struggle for the position in the target market (Usunier & Roulin, 2010). Nevertheless, a range of companies, especially the corporations of a significant influence, seem to have included the “low-context” principle into the list of their communication strategies; as the latest reports show, a number of companies consider the low-context communication strategy crucial when it is necessary to establish exceptionally trustworthy relationships with the partner (Pruvli & Alas, 2012). Gaining the trust of a businessperson is not an easy task, and the willingness to talk straight, shedding light onto every controversial issue, will clearly be appreciated by the opponent (Usunier & Roulin, 2010).

Low-Context and High-Context Communication: Nailing Down the Differences and the Similarities

The differences between the two approaches are quite obvious, and so are the benefits of each strategy. Unlike high-context communication, the low-context one requires that the parties should trust each other completely, which is fraught with severe consequences as long as at least one of them happens to be dishonest (Usunier & Roulin, 2010). In addition, the fear for the company’s information to be disclosed to the third parties does not predispose to creating the atmosphere for easy and fruitful communication (Jim, Sinkovics & Kim, 2010).

The benefits of low-context communication in business, however, are also quite evident. In contrast to the high-context conversation process, the low-context one does not involve any hidden innuendoes or double meanings; therefore, there are practically no factors for a misunderstanding between the parties to occur (Weaver, 2001). As a result, the agreement process is handled in a more adequate and expeditious manner than in the course of high-context communication (Usunier & Roulin, 2010).

Though being comparatively new, the concept of low-context communication is becoming increasingly popular. The rapid pace of globalization contributes to the popularity of low-context conversations. Though low-context communication cannot be viewed as a silver bullet, it must work quite efficiently for merger or acquisition negotiations (Hammami et al., 2014).

Reference List

Hammami, M. M., Al-Jawarneh, Y., Hammami, M. B. & Quadire, M. A. (2014). Information disclosure in informed clinical consent: “reasonable” patient’s perception of the norm in high-context communication culture.BMC Medical Ethics, 19(3), 1–10. Web.

Jim, R.-J. J., Sinkovics, R. R. & Kim, D. (2010). Drivers and performance outcomes of relationship Learning for suppliers in cross-border customer-supplier relationships: The role of communication culture. Journal of International Marketing, 18(1), 63–63–85. Web.

Pruvli, E. & Alas, R. (2012). Status related social categorization: High context and low context cultural perspective. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, 46(17), 91–95. Web.

Richardson, R. M. & Smith, S. W. (2007). The influence of high/low-context culture and power distance on the choice of communication media: Students’ media choice to communicate with professors in Japan and America.International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31(4), 479–501. Web.

Usunier, J.-C. & Roulin, N. (2010). The influence of high- and low-context communication styles on the design, content, and language of business-to-business websites. Journal of Business Communication, 47(2), 189–227. Web.

Weaver, G. R. (2001). Ethics programs in global businesses: Culture’s role in managing ethics.Journal of Business Ethics, 30(1), 3–15. Web.

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The Concept of Low-Context Communication

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