Giving and Receiving Criticism

When evaluating others, think about how you will share your positive and negative assessments with them and how they will react to your feedback. This article focuses on giving and receiving criticism. It offers some dos and don'ts and things to consider when preparing for a feedback session.

Cultural Differences in Approaching Criticism

When giving criticism, it is important to consider cultural differences such as eye contact, verbal style, and speaker expectations.

Key Points

  • In low context culture such as the United States, people will say what is on their minds directly; they will not "beat around the bush." In high-context cultures such as Japan and China, people use indirect speech, hints, and subtle suggestions to convey messages.

  • The instrumental style is sender-orientated; the burden is on the speaker to make him or herself understood. The affective style is more receiver-orientated and places more responsibility on the listener.

  • Collective orientation places the needs and interests of the group above individual desires or motivations. In contrast, cultures with individualistic orientations view the self as most important.

  • Face is often thought of as a sense of self-worth that we want others to have of us.

  • Rules about maintaining eye contact vary from culture to culture and influence how we approach feedback, questioning, and criticism.

Key Terms

  • Face: a sense of self-worth or self-esteem, especially in the eyes of others

  • Collectivism: a philosophic, political, religious, economic, or social outlook that stresses the priority of group goals over individual goals and the importance of cohesion within social groups

  • Culture: The beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people's way of life; the arts, customs, and habits that characterize a particular society or nation.

Cultural Groups Approach Criticism with Different Styles


A photo of attendees at a United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Cultural Differences Impact Communication: The attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the attendees shape the communication inside and outside the conference.


A culture is a system of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that form distinctive ways of life. Different cultural groups have different ways of communicating, both verbally and non-verbally. While globalization and media have moderated many of the traditional differences for younger audiences, it is wise to consider five important areas where cultural differences could play a role when giving and receiving criticism:

  1. Verbal style in low and high-context cultures
  2. Instrumental versus affective message responsibility
  3. Collectivism and individualism in cultures
  4. Face
  5. Eye contact


Verbal Style in Low and High Context Cultures

In low context cultures such as in the United States and Germany, there is an expectation that people will say what is on their mind directly; they will not "beat around the bush". In high context cultures, such as in Japan and China, people are more likely to use indirect speech, hints, and subtle suggestions to convey meaning.


Responsibility for Effectively Conveying a Message

Is the speaker responsible for conveying a message or the audience? The instrumental speaking style is sender-orientated; the burden is on the speaker to make him or herself understood. The affective style is receiver-orientated and places more responsibility on the listener. With this style, the listener must pay attention to verbal, nonverbal, and relationship clues to understand the message. Chinese, Japanese, and many Native American cultures are affective cultures, whereas American culture is more instrumental.

Think about sitting in your college classroom listening to a lecturer. If you do not understand the material, where does the responsibility lie? In the United States, students believe that it is up to the professor to communicate the material to the students. However, when posing this question to a group of Chinese students, you may encounter a different sense of responsibility. Listeners raised in a more affective environment respond, "no, it is not you; it is our job to try harder." These students accept responsibility as listeners who work to understand the speaker.


Collectivism and Individualism

Are the speaker and listeners from collectivist or individualistic cultures? When a person or culture has a collective orientation, they place the needs and interests of the group above individual desires or motivations. In contrast, cultures with individualistic orientations view the self as most important. Each person is viewed as responsible for his or her own success or failure in life.

When you offer feedback or criticism, if you are from an individualistic culture, you may speak directly to one individual, and that individual will be responsible. However, if you are speaking with someone from a culture which is more collectivist, your feedback may be viewed as shared by all the members of the same group, who may assume responsibility for the actions of each other.


Face

Face is usually thought of as a sense of self-worth, especially in the eyes of others. Research with Chinese university students showed that they view a loss of face as a failure to measure up to one's self-esteem or what others expect. In more individualistic cultures, speakers and listeners are concerned with maintaining their own face and not so much focused on that of others. However, in an intercultural situation involving collectivist cultures, the speaker should not only be concerned with maintaining his or her own face, but also that of the listeners.


Eye Contact

Rules about maintaining eye contact vary from culture to culture and influence how we approach feedback, questioning, and criticism. For example, in many cultures, it is a sign of respect to not look someone in the eye directly, the exact opposite of what most North Americans expect. In many traditional Arab cultures, it is inappropriate for a woman to maintain eye contact with a man. Additionally, in many African American and Latin-American communities, it is considered respectful for a child not to look directly at an adult speaking to them. It is important not to construe lack of eye contact as a sign of indifference or disrespect.

Source: Boundless, https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-communications/giving-and-receiving-criticism/
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