Organizational culture change occurs when there is a shift in the success strategy of the company or as the organization goes through various lifecycles. According to Cummings & Worley, organizational culture cannot be changed easily because the employees need time to acquaint themselves with a new culture. Companies that have a defined and specific corporate culture will have a difficult task in trying to effect any cultural change.
The employees require enough time to change to a new cultural environment. According to Anderson “lifelong friends often use hidden communication messages that cannot be understood by outsiders because that can be either a smile or a glance gives a meaning that is not understandable in high context cultures. In low context cultures, the messages explained and properly expressed and specific”.
The HC/LC dimension has important links to deductive/inductive communication outlines. Straight talking is favored in HC cultures like the US and each time they intermingle with other people they would require detailed background information whereas, in LC cultures like China, emphasis is on building a relationship before negotiation takes place. The amount of information that a person can manage is the main difference between high and low-context cultures.
Background information in high context cultures is implicit whereas in low context cultures it is explicit in the communication. Low- and high-context communication does no only apply to individual communication strategies; rather they can be applied to understand cultural groups. Western cultures lean toward low-context, whereas Eastern and Southern cultures use high-context communication. High-context communication tends to be featured and it is important to pay attention to nonverbal communication clues. Low-context communication is the norm; directness is likely to be expected in return.