As you’ve learned throughout this book, culture has a big impact on how we communicate. Cultural diversity can have a particularly significant impact on group processes and outcomes (Thomas, Ravlin, & Wallace, 1996). When a group has culturally diverse members, that diversity can have benefits (such as enabling the group to produce a wide array of viewpoints) as well as challenges (including misunderstandings between members).

As we discussed in Chapter 3, cultures in English-speaking nations such as the United States, Great Britain, and Canada are largely individualist and low context, valuing personal accomplishment, self-esteem, and direct communication. As such, people in individualist cultures want their own opinions heard and appreciated, and they are likely to express them clearly and openly. In a collectivist and high-context culture, people value cooperation and group harmony, as well as indirect expression. They allow group norms (rather than their own personal goals) to have the largest influence on their behaviors and thoughts (Triandis, Brislin, & Hul, 1988). Not surprisingly, this difference can present a challenge when members of these cultures are working together in groups. People from individualist cultures will likely more openly vocalize their disagreement with the others and try to persuade each other, whereas the collectivists may feel “bulldozed” as they stifle their own objections for the good of the group. Conflict also occurs because of these differences in members’ attitudes and basic orientations to problems (Tjosvold, 1992).