COM2603 Assignment_1 2021.

COM2603 Assignment_1 2021. Intercultural, Development And Health Communication. Intercultural communication is the verbal and nonverbal interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Intercultural and health communication is faced with similar communication challenges. Differences in communication styles and language abilities affect ways in which medicine is understood by patients and healthcare staff. These cultural differences can affect the quality of health services one receives and the difference in the way medicine, illness, and healthcare are understood and approached by patients and health practitioners. Healthcare and intercultural communication commonly conjure up feelings of anxiety, stress, and uncertainty, allowing for discrimination and prejudice when receiving and seeking proper treatment with the proper diagnosis of patients. Differences in approaching medicine and treatment are intertwined with differences in communicative repertoires. Communication is central to building rapport between patients and healthcare providers. Miscommunication or poor communication can impede the development of relationships and hinder the healing process. In intercultural healthcare settings, studies have examined how pain is expressed in different cultures and how difficulties arise in assessing the level of pain patients are in. Some value internalizing pain while others value openly expressing it. Dealing with such challenges creates stress for staff, leading to frustration, prejudices, and wrong diagnoses or treatment (Hanssen & Pedersen, 2013). Lack of trust has been shown to affect patients’ willingness to thoroughly follow treatment (Santos & Amaro, 2011). Mark Potgieter # COM2603 Assignment_1 Unique No # 6 | P a g e SECTION 1 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION QUESTION 1 According to Martin et al. (2013: 80-84), Hofstede’s Value Dimensions are: 1.1) Power Distance Hofstede defines power distance dimensions as maintaining strict rules that establish the types of relationships individuals have with one another and the way members of a certain culture deal with inequalities. Power represents the level of hierarchy and upward mobility within a cultural group. High power distance cultures accept power as a necessity and respect authority and leadership. Low power distance cultures believe power should be fairly and equally distributed amongst people in a culture group. Leadership represents a culture’s acceptance of either authority or toward an orientation style that is laissez-faire (laid-back). e.g. Bianca is the president of a large production company and has a “hands-off management approach” with her employees. Although she is in a position of leadership and authority, her management style allows for a democratic and interactive process in meetings. 1.2) Masculine/Feminine Hofstede (2001:81) describes the “masculine/feminine” dimension as roles representing two emotional paradigms of thinking about the world with traditional gender values associated with gender roles. Gender refers to the culture’s tendencies readiness toward enforcing or reinforcing masculine and feminine roles in work. The primary issue is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what they do (Feminine). Masculine cultures (a high score), tend to emphasize ambition, control and achievement, whereas feminine cultures (a low score) emphasize nurture, caring and quality of relationships being more important. e.g. In South Africa, we score a 63 on this dimension scale. Managers adopt a more Masculine society where people “live to work” and performance and conflicts are resolved by fighting them out. Mark Potgieter # COM2603 Unique No # 7 | P a g e 1.3) Uncertainty Avoidance According to Hofstede (2001:82), the uncertainty avoidance dimension is the extent to which members in society are capable of coping with future uncertainty or how they try to avoid it, without going through stress. Since the future can never be known, this uncertainty within society brings anxiety and different cultures deal with this anxiety in different ways. “Members of high uncertaintyavoidance cultures are aggressive, emotional and compulsive, while those members of cultures that are tolerant of uncertainty have lower stress levels, are contemplative, accept dissent and more willing to take risks” (Hofstede 2001:82). e.g. South Africa scores 49 on the uncertainty avoidance scale showing a low preference for avoiding uncertainty, meaning that it maintains a more relaxed attitude and deviance from rules are more easily tolerated. 1.4) The Individualism/Collectivism The Individual and Collectivism dimension compares the importance of individual versus group interests. The High side of the spectrum, ‘individualism’, can be defined as a preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take care of only themselves and their immediate families (‘I’-identity). Its opposite, collectivism, represents a preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which individuals can expect their relatives or members of a particular in-group (‘We’-identity) to look after them in exchange for loyalty. “Individualist-orientated people often value confrontation to solve problems, whilst collectivists prefer more non-confrontational ways” (Hofstede 2001:83). e.g. in South Africa, white students will credit teamwork done on a project to the particular individual responsible for the project, whereas black students would acknowledge teamwork over that of an individual responsible for the project. Mark Potgieter # COM2603 Unique No # 8 | P a g e 1.5) Long-term orientation/Short-term orientation This dimension describes how every society has to maintain some links with its past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future. According to Hofstede (2001:83), this dimension indicates “a society’s search for virtue versus truth. Societies with short-term orientation are concerned with the truth and getting quick results (reflected in Western religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Societies with a long-term orientation are more concerned with virtue (as with Eastern religions like Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Shintoism)”. In South Africa we score 34, meaning that our culture is more ethical and moral than efficient and realistic. We have a strong obligation for finding the absolute truth, exhibiting great respect for traditions and focusing on achieving quick results. e.g. black South Africans tend to focus on doing well every day than spending time planning for the future, whilst whites saw more importance in planning for the future and predicting possible future events. 1.6) Limitations of Value Frameworks Cultures are dynamic and heterogeneous. We shouldn’t reduce individuals to mere stereotypes based on these value orientations. Another limitation of value framework is that they tend to “essentialize” people and assume that a particular group characteristic is the essential characteristic of a given member at all times and in all context. Other limitations according to Hofstede (2001:84) include the following: • Individuals play different roles and differentiation between whole groups of people that are not the same, are not taken into account. • Not all Afrocentric people are group-centred and not all Eurocentric people are individualistic. • Too much emphasis is placed on the uniqueness of the value systems of each society, ignoring possible solutions already found from different societies and cultures. • Societies cannot relate to proposed situations in the same way. • Basic problems with a fixed number of solutions generalize a society. • There are unrepresented possible value solutions to problems that are not accounted for in the set of possibilities. Mark Potgieter # COM2603 Unique No # 9 | P a g e SECTION 2 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION QUESTION 1 The five main criticisms of the modernisation theory are: 1.1) Western or ethnocentric biases The modernisation theory is typically a Western phenomenon, its roots lie around a capitalist society. The dominant paradigm imposed Western cultural values on the Third World since the West was regarded as superior. The United States of America was seen as an ideal model of a developed nation and capitalism was thus the only economic system capable of bringing development to the Third World (University of South Africa 2013:118). It was assumed that communication technologies and communication strategies employed in first world countries could be used in the Third world. Modernisation in the Third World destroyed traditional ways of life but did not produce the expected material and political benefits. The development created more underdevelopment and the people in the Third World were worse off than before (University of South Africa 2013:115). Compromise is needed between modernisation and dependency paradigms, which have dominated and stagnated development in Third World countries. Technological determinism According to the dominant paradigm, modern mass media technology was considered significant. Because of this over-emphasis on mass media technology, the Third World countries were encouraged to adopt these to achieve development. This led to these countries, of which most of them poor, to spend a considerable amount of money to acquire expensive technology and as a result, getting themselves into unnecessary debt (University of South Africa 2013:120). Furthermore, it was argued that the promotion of technology was ideologically inclined as it involved the dissemination of American political and ideological propaganda on the Third World (University of South Africa 2013:120).