ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature, properties, and components of communication. After reviewing the process of human communication, we examine individual and cultural variations in communication styles. Communication, like culture, is characterized by energy or action; it is always developing and never passive or static. In intercultural situations, the communication process may be complicated by a range of factors: divergent understandings of when and how to convey messages, disparate views about gender relations, and differing expectations about what constitutes ‘appropriate’ verbal and nonverbal behavior in a particular situation and context. Communication is a complex, dynamic process that entails the encoding and decoding of verbal and nonverbal messages within a particular cultural, physiological, sociorelational, and perceptual environment. As well as multiple dimensions of context, the relationship between culture and communication is complex and influenced by many factors.
