intercultural communication and communication accommodation theory

Blogging is optional for students this week, but not for me. Today I'll cover intercultural communication and communication accommodation theory.

In the introduction to this section of the text, Griffin notes that Gerry Philipsen defines the basis of culture as a code. Griffin then goes on to discuss Hofstede's four dimensions of culture. Power distance refers to the extent to which less powerful members of a society accept the unequal distribution of power. Clearly defined sex roles are associated with Hofstede's masculinity dimension of culture. Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance dimension refers to the degree to which people feel threatened by ambiguity. Group loyalty is associated with Hofstede's individualism dimension of culture. Individualistic cultures tend to rely on message content in their interactions with others. In contrast, collectivistic cultures tend to rely on message context in their interactions with others.

Howard Giles' communication accommodation theory, associated with the socio-psychological tradition, was originally called speech accommodation theory. According to Giles, the process of adapting behavior to be more similar to the other person is convergence. The desire for social approval provides the main motivation to converge. Divergence occurs when you accentuate the differences between yourself and another person. When communicators use overaccommodation their talk is demeaning or patronizing.

Griffin using the context of intergenerational communication to illustrate communication accommodation theory as much of Giles' work has been in this area of communication. Rigidly held stereotypes contribute to the impression of a communication encounter being an intergroup experience. For accommodation, what is ultimately important is not how a communicator converges or diverges, but the other person's perceptions of the behaviors. Giles relies on attribution theory to help explain the process of interpreting another’s behavior. Listeners who interpret convergence as a speaker’s desire to break down cultural barriers react favorably.

In critiquing communication accommodation theory, Griffin notes that relative simplicity is the criterion of a good theory that's most problematic for Giles' work.

~ Professor Cyborg