Table of Contents
Brazil a country in the South American continent, occupies half the continent’s landmass. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and most-populous country on Earth and accounts for one-third of Latin America’s population, exceeded in size only by Russia, Canada, China, and the United States. Brazil is a blend of race & ethnicities, resultant in prosperous multiplicity. Numerous unique Portuguese settlers wedded local women, which formed a original race, call ‘mestizos’ who are descendants of the Portuguese & African slaves.
Brazil being both the largest and most populous country in South America. It is difficult to define such a multicultural nation using exact expressions. Through careful analysis, I will attempt to explain both high and low context communication characteristics in the Brazilian culture.
Renowned anthropologist and researcher Edward T. Hall defines culture as the way of life of people: the sum of their learned behavior patterns, attitudes and material things. (Hall,1973)
127 our experts are availableright now
It is important to understand main differences of culture in terms of communication style and cultural issues, Hall suggested categorizing them into high and low context. A high context culture communicates in ways that are implicit and rely heavily on context, high context culture display the following behavior: group-oriented values, mutual-face concern, spiral logic, indirect style, status-oriented style, listener-oriented style and context-based understanding, whereas low context cultures show Individualistic values, self-face concern, linear logic, a direct communication style, person and speaker oriented style and verbal based understanding. (Ting-Toomey, 1999)
Brazilians prefer high-context communication, rich in non-verbal communication. Personal relationships with face to face communication is important in this culture. Brazilians some would consider to be an emotional and very religious people. The Brazilian culture is governed by emotions, feelings and thrust rather than by reason. It can be acceptable that while communicating to disregard personal space, people can stand quite close to each other strong eye and physical contact such as touching back or shoulders is common place.
Unlike most culture, conversation topics that can be seen as highly controversial, topics that include personal life, age, marital status, working status, politic, etc. is welcomed. In Brazilians high context culture in order to understand what is said, it is significant to understand nonverbal communication traits; gestures, postures, facial expressions, and even people’s family background and history. Reading between the lines is something has to be done to provide continuance of the conversation.
Brazil is a collectivistic country. Relationships have a place in upmost. Family is the center of the social life. In Brazil, family ties such as cousins, in-laws, uncles and aunts, nephews, nieces, and grandparents’ relationships are stronger than any other American nation. Families are tend to be large. Although the globalized world has changed all the relationships and structures in the world in terms of individualism vs. collectivism. As it is said before that relations has the maximum level of importance in Brazil, Brazilians seeks close relations and trust in business world, too.
Brazilians need to know who they are doing business with before they can work effectively. Individuals are more important than the job which they will do. Because of the informal characteristic traits of them, they do not follow strict legal rules in business. Besides informalities, their business is hierarchical. At people at the top is the decision maker in the society, in the family and business world.
Based on my research of brazil, Doing business in Brazil would require an intimate knowledge of the local environment. There will be challenges at every level if a potential American investor lacks deep roots in brazil. American companies may hit a competitive disadvantage if they don’t have significant in-country presence, whether through established partnerships or a subsidiary. Another challenge many face is Brazil’s reputation for corruption. Perhaps, though, the biggest challenge for US companies doing business in Brazil is the complexity of labor laws.
There is no such thing as employment at will, a standard we are very familiar with in the United States; Brazilian labor laws are known for their lack of flexibility, excessive protection of employees – based on the principle they are the weak part of the employment relationship, meaning the employees should be rigorously be protected. Another challenge is heavy tax burden on salaries and substantial employee benefits to be paid, such as social security, paid vacations and a Christmas bonus
Although doing business in Brazil seems like a massive challenge Brazil presents an enormous opportunity for US companies looking to expand their reach offshore, and there have been US companies operating successfully in the country for several generations. Exxon Mobil is the oldest continually operated oil and gas company in Brazil, in business for over a hundred years. There are tremendous opportunities today, some big opportunities lie in aviation, defense, energy, infrastructure, healthcare IT, medical devices, and services. Brazilians have a great affinity with technology, and tech start-ups can find plenty of interest in the country.
To ensure a successful market entry, I highly recommend any potential US investor to seek local expertise and build a strong relationship infrastructure within the country.
Citations
- Hall, E.T. (1973) The Silent Language. Garden City. NY: Anchor Books. (Original work published in 1959)
- Ting-Toomey, S. (1999) Communicating Across Cultures. p. 101. New York: Guilford Publications.
