Saving Face in High – Context Culture

Saving face is crucial in high-context societies

High context cultures refer to a cultural tendency where low context messages are not used in everyday communications and many things are left unsaid allowing the culture to explain. The use of words is very crucial in high context communications because fewer words correspond complex messages to people within the group but gets harder to understand for outsiders.

In order to stay on the safe side, delivering bad news is very important. It’s very important to save face in this culture and refusals are considered potential losses for both parties.

 

In order to understand the meaning behind a conversation in a high context culture, a person has to analyze the other person’s communication style, tone, culture and context.

Here is a video which tell more about the High context culture. 

To better understand it, here is an example: a contractor goes to home depot to buy a saw and asks the associate for help, who is not similar with this particular department. The answer of the associate would have to be “sir, I’m not familiar with this product but I will get someone who knows more about this”, in order to stay on the safe side. This way both parties benefit. 

Reference
http://badnewspresenting.blogspot.ca/2013/02/high-context-vs-low-context-cultures.html 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc6rDxlqG18