Attachment_6_Twelve_Domains_of_Culture.dot

RELATING AND COMMUNICATING CROSS-CULTURALLY

ultural awareness can improve the military’s ability to accomplish its mission by providing insight into the behavior, values, and intent of the various groups we will encounter. The success of US military operations calls for American military members to become knowledgeable in not only the culture of their adversaries, but also in the culture of their allies, civilian counterparts, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations, and others. Our ability to relate and communicate with the people we encounter on missions in foreign lands is essential to our success.

The doctrine of Building Partnerships emphasizes the importance of “Airmen interacting with international Airmen … to develop, guide, and sustain relationships for mutual benefit and security.” Building Partnerships enables the US to build “the capacity of partner governments and their security forces,” and requires “Airmen to perform their duties effectively and achieve influence in culturally-complex environments around the globe.”

Cross-Cultural Competence

Cross-Cultural Competence (3C) education and training as outlined by Air University, may be viewed as two broad categories:

Culture-general: “The ability to quickly and accurately comprehend, and then effectively act in any culturally complex environment to achieve the desired effect without necessarily having prior exposure to a particular group, region, or language.”

Culture-specific: “An approach that emphasizes specific aspects of particular cultures, affording individuals much of the knowledge and/or skills necessary to interact more competently with individuals of other cultural backgrounds.”

The purpose of culture-general learning is to develop Airmen who are cross-culturally competent. That means they can operate effectively in culturally complex environments by exerting positive influence on themselves, their teams, partners, local inhabitants, and adversaries. Airmen must be able to do this with no particular expertise in a specific culture, region or language.

The Air Force 3C Development Model is built with a triad of skills supported by cultural knowledge, individual motivation, and both academic and experiential learning approaches. Looking at the center of the model, we see that it’s focuses on the ultimate goal of Airmen achieving decisive influence using three skills: relate, communicate, and negotiate.

The first key to operational success in a culturally-complex environment is being able to relate by understanding universal elements of culture, or cultural domains.

Relate: The 12 Domains Of Culture

Cultural domains are twelve universal categories of interaction, belief and meaning shared by all cultures but dealt with differently by each culture. There are general aspects that every culture shares, such as the fact that each culture organizes people first by their family group and then by other social groups. Using that general information, you can then find out how specific cultures go about organizing the family and what other social groups are most important for them. These twelve cultural domains are not mutually exclusive. However, the cultural domains help you organize what you see and experience by allowing you to compare general information about culture to your experience, and by enabling you to use that information to understand others’ cultural perspectives.

Here are brief descriptions of each domain.

1. Family & Kinship: This domain refers to the ways people recognize relatives and the rights and status accorded to those relatives. The domain covers cultural practices, structures and beliefs and values related to marriage, children, family size & structure, mating, descent, inheritance, residence, relations, etc. It also includes the relationships with people we treat like family regardless of our actual genetic relationship to them. The family and kin groups are the first social group in a person’s life; it helps to define what is culturally acceptable and unacceptable, who are “friends” and “enemies,” how a person’s identity develops, who a person or group will turn to in times of trouble and the ways the culture will be transmitted to future generations. Beliefs about family and kinship also influence ideas and practices regarding origins, descent, residence, inheritance, etc.

2. Sex & Gender: This domain pertains to ways different cultures acknowledge biological differences between men and women (sex); the ways they assign roles, responsibilities and status to masculine, feminine or other identities (gender); and their beliefs and values that support gender differences. People’s sex and gender often influence or even fully determine their relationship to parts of every other cultural domain and can control access to resources, their work, and the kinds of social and political relations they can enter and how they can worship. The domain also covers the social structures, beliefs and values related to sex and gender differences, such as gendered division of labor, reproductive rights, etc.

3. Sustenance & Health: This domain covers the ways humans feed themselves and treat their bodies. More specifically, a focus on sustenance leads to discussion of the patterns of subsistence (what people produce and eat at different times); the ways food is produced, collected and distributed; values placed on food rituals; food taboos; beliefs about properties of certain foods and the like. A focus on health includes discussion about what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, how to be or get healthy when one is sick, how illness is defined, the causes of illness, medical rituals, people who can treat illness, etc.

4. Religion & Spirituality: This domain refers to a culture’s way of defining and relating to the sacred and supernatural. Spirituality refers to the practices, beliefs and values related to the sacred and supernatural. Religion, on the other hand, means an organized system of practices, structures and beliefs/values related to the sacred and supernatural. The domain covers cultural practices, structures and beliefs/values related to origin stories, deities, ways of worshipping, religious communities, birth/death/life/afterlife, rules, rituals, etc. Religion provides people a sense of identity and peace of mind; it can contribute to belief in control over certain aspects of life; and it can help to preserve or structure the social order.

5. Political & Social Relations: This domain refers to the cultural practices, structures and beliefs and values related to human organization and governance. Understanding of activity in this domain gives you broader information about how people interact with each other, how they enforce laws and standards, how they collect and distribute food, etc. Political relations (or organization) refer to a culture’s patterns of dividing power among people, exercising that power and governing groups of people. The term usually includes some form of governmental or legal structure in society. This term implies a much broader set of activities and relationships than the American concept of “politics.” Social relations (or organization) refer more generally to a culture’s patterns of relationships among people, usually outside of the governance or legal structure. Examples include the wide variety of groups we form and how we use those groups to “get things done,” whether that means dividing up food, celebrating traditions, educating children, practicing religion, or any other human activity. The domain also covers community organization, ethnic groups, regional identities, national governments, ideas about status/leadership, passing of laws, etc.

6. Economics & Resources: This domain pertains to the ways people allocate, produce, distribute and consume goods and services. Among other topics, it includes attention to the variety of practices, structures, beliefs and values related to raw natural materials, human labor, careers, means of production and methods of exchange (monetary, gift-giving, reciprocal, etc). Information about economics and resources can help one understand the importance assigned to different resources, jobs and forms of exchange; and others’ goals, interests and expectations in many situations.

7. History & Myth: This domain pertains to a culture’s treatment of the past (its own and others’). It can include the study of history through evidence (ranging from material culture to documents to fictional stories), ideas concerning what is important/unimportant about the past, ways to maintain knowledge and a group’s identity as supported by historical or mythical events. The practices, structures, beliefs and values that relate to history and myth may also incorporate a group’s origins or its predicted end, as well as an individual’s roles within the group.

8. Learning & Knowledge: This domain pertains to the means and methods through which a culture transmits knowledge and the kinds of knowledge that are valued. The means and methods of learning and teaching may range from informal, as in a parent tutoring a child, to formal, as in an apprenticeship or college education. Learning may also take place in a number of ways, such as through experience, via a book, in a group, one-on-one, etc. Each culture values these to different extents. The kinds of knowledge that are valued depend on the socioeconomic, resource and technological context of the culture. Learning and knowledge are a human necessity for biological and cultural survival.

9. Technology & Material: This domain refers to the resources to which a culture has access and the items the culture produces (both of these are ‘material’); and the raw materials, equipment, knowledge and skills (these constitute technology) that people use to transform the natural environment into items necessary for cultural and biological survival. Each culture maintains practices, structures, beliefs and values concerning its technology and material. These may range from practices of how to use tools, beliefs about who can use certain tools and who cannot and the structural hierarchy of people who receive the products of such work. The domain also incorporates both artistic and practical uses of technology and material, such as churches, museums, libraries, archaeological sites, architectural landmarks and their contents (i.e., “cultural property”).

10. Aesthetics & Recreation: This domain refers to people’s expressions of beauty and style (aesthetics) as well as people’s methods of “having fun” (recreation); in all, this domain incorporates a variety of creative human activity. Aesthetic and recreational practices, structures, beliefs and values may surpass what is needed for physical survival, but they may also be an integral part of everyday life. These aspects of culture are often what people think of when one mentions “culture,” since they are very observable in classical or folk art, clothing, music, games and sports. The underlying meaning of the activities and art may be interpreted quite differently across cultures, from good/bad to moral/immoral to beautiful/ugly (and everything in between).

11. Language & Communication: This domain pertains to the means and methods people have of exchanging information. Language refers to the biological capability of speech, to the existence of different languages throughout the world and to culturally-influenced designations for languages, such as “standard/nonstandard,” “official/unofficial,” “creole,” and “dialect.” Communication is the result of exchanges of information, whether verbal or non-verbal. Both language and communication are crucial to establishing and maintaining relationships; and to transmitting culture. We often speak of communication “styles,” such as direct/indirect styles or high/low context styles. Each style or variant of language and communication is the result of the practices, structures, beliefs and values of a particular culture.

12. Time & Space: This domain refers to the practices, structures, beliefs and values that people of a culture apply to the concept of time and the use of space. It includes attention to differences in measurement of time and space (calendars, idioms, physical measures, passage of time); a culture’s focus on the future, present or past; the meanings of time and space in communication (pauses, standing distance, etc.); and the division of living space into functional units. Attention to time and space helps a culture order its world and interact with its natural surroundings.

Important points about the domains of culture:

· Each domain is related to all the others;

· Each domain deals with change over time;

· Each domain is influenced by power variables (wealth, status, influence, etc.);

· Items in one naturally appear and influence in another (holistic nature of culture);

and

· The types of activities incorporated in the domains exist in every culture.

Relating well with other cultures improves our ability to shape mission outcomes. It is important to be aware of the cultural beliefs and behaviors of each the 12 domains. In particular, the domain of Language and Communication is critical to keeping things from being misunderstood and misinterpreted. Let’s take a look at some culture general information regarding the Air Force 3C skill of “communicate.”

Communicate

Culture manifests itself in our communication. Whether we realize it or not, our verbals and nonverbals speak volumes about how our world views or notions of how the world is. They also provide clues into our norms or beliefs on how we think the world should be. These contextual clues, if misunderstood or overlooked, could spell disaster for a relationship or even an entire mission. While you may not know the native language of the country you are deployed to, there are three key elements that will impact your communication: paralanguage, nonverbal, and cultural context.

Paralanguage involves how our words are shaped by volume, word emphasis, use of silence and pauses, intonation, and rate of speech. It’s often not what we say but how we say it that communicates meaning. Therefore, paralanguage plays a tremendous role in the way we perceive and are perceived by others. For example, Israelis view high volume as a sign of strong beliefs on an issue, and Germans assume a commanding tone that projects authority and self-confidence. However, people from Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines tend to speak very softly, almost in a whisper. They believe this communicates good manners and education. In Japan, laughing signals joy but it also often camouflages displeasure, anger, embarrassment, and sorrow.

Nonverbals consist of four types of communication that vary cross-culturally. The term “haptics” involves the functions, perceptions, and meanings of touch. When we think about haptics from a cross-cultural perspective, it becomes clear that factors related to who touches whom, when, where, and how are all connected to our cultural upbringing. Proxemics is the study of the communicative effects of space or distance. Because we all have needs for both privacy (distance) and to be interdependent (nearness), one way we manage this tension is by defining and defending a territory. Chronemics is the study of how people perceive the use of time and how they structure time in their relationships. This is a form of nonverbal communication because one’s use of time sends a message without one uttering a single word. Whether in an academic, business, or social environment, members of different cultures use and perceive time differently. Finally, kinesics is the technical term for the study of movement and gesture, and it comes from the Greek word “motion.” It includes gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and eye behavior.

Lastly, Cultural Context pertains to conditions or circumstances that impact communication. Context may be low or high depending on the culture or situation. Low and high-context communication is used in all cultures. One form, however tends to dominate that culture.

Many relatively individualistic cultures, like those predominant in North America and much of northern Europe, favor low context communication styles. These cultures tend to pay more attention to the explicit meaning of the verbal message. Low context communicators often stress lots of detail, facts and statistics with little regard given to how the message is delivered. They favor communication that gets directly to the point rather than communicating through analogies and high context hints. Since saving face for the group is less of a concern, “saying what you mean and meaning what you say” are more highly valued characteristics. In contrast, many collectivist cultures like those in East Asia as well as most Middle Eastern, Arab, Latino, and Mediterranean cultures tend toward high context communication styles. In these cultures, one’s relationship to the group is a dominant factor in any interaction; it must be preserved and enhanced at all times. High context communication is dependent upon the message’s context, verbal cues and nonverbal cues more so than in a low context culture. Those in high context cultures tend to consider how their words and actions reflect on the reputation of their family and their group. They are more likely to postpone making decisions and are less likely to disagree publicly with someone or openly criticize another person to avoid reflecting poorly on the other person’s family or reputation. They also believe unexpected forces (such as the divine) may affect outcomes.

Cross-cultural competence is largely built upon the capacity to notice distinctions among others; in particular, contrasts in their moods, motivations, and intentions. In more advanced forms, this intelligence permits a skilled adult to read the intentions and desires of others, even when these have been hidden. This process begins once you become aware of and become mindful of others’ paralinguistic behavior, nonverbal communication and the cultural context within which they operate.

CROSS-CULTURAL CONFLICT

onflict has been identified as occurring when two related parties—individuals, groups, communities, or nation-states—find themselves divided by perceived incompatible interests or goals, or in competition for control of scarce resources.

Furthermore, whenever two cultures come into contact, differences in the ways they relate and communicate can lead to cross-conflict. A precursor to resolving those conflicts is one’s understanding the root cause or causes.

First, there is value conflict. Values dictate our interpretation of situations, relationships, and events. Since values are not universal and are deeply embedded in culture, it is not surprising that divergent values can cause conflict. Value conflicts are difficult to resolve. The best approach is to aim for mutual understanding of value differences, and try to find commonalities beyond the conflicting principles and ethics.

Second, there is relationship conflict, which involves clashes at the interpersonal, intergroup, or international levels. Relationship conflicts are often fueled by misperceptions, stereotypes, and poor communication. When addressing this type of conflict, it is important for those involved to communicate verbally and non-verbally to clarify rather than cloud the already difficult situation.

A third category, data conflict, examines how people perceive the data being used in the interaction. Data conflicts may result from a lack of information, misinformation, or contrasting perceptions or interpretations of the significance and role of data. If the parties involved in the conflict disagree on the relevance and interpretation of the data, it can negatively impact the outcome. It’s important to note that although data itself is objective, the tools people use to interpret the data may be subjective, resulting in varying interpretations.

The final conflict type, interest conflict, results when parties have different interests. The majority of these conflicts revolve around how each party compares and measures the worthiness of their interests with the interest of others. Since interests are deeply rooted beliefs, it is unlikely that the interest conflict between the parties will change, but an acknowledgment of the other side’s interests along with a willingness to understand the reasoning behind the interest is a good place to start.

Most cross-cultural conflicts will involve a combination of two or more of the types of conflict. You are very likely to run into conflicts that contain elements of value, interest, and relationship as you interact in other cultures. Oftentimes these conflicts will rise to the top, only to be discovered later that they were fed by erroneous data. As you work in culturally complex environments, always determine the root cause of the conflict to avoid falling into the trap of false assumptions.

Bibliography:

1. USAF Posture Statement, 2012, pp. 23, 24.

http://www.posturestatement.af.mil/ shared/media/document/AFD-120321-055.pdf

2. Air University Quality Enhancement Plan 2009 - 2014: Cross-Culturally Competent

Airmen.

3. www.culture.af.mil

4. Introduction to Culture. Online course available from the Air Force Culture and

Language Center, Maxwell-Gunter AFB, AL, 2009.

5. Tucker, Jennifer S.

“Situational Judgment Tests” Air Force Culture and Language Center, 2013.

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