The Lewis Model

The Lewis Model was constructed by Richard Lewis for purposes of culture classification, this model aims to promote “harmony through understanding”

The model classifies cultures into three main types:

The Lewis Model shows us:

* How people from different cultures vary in their concepts of time and space: how they handle interpersonal distance, silence, and eye contact

* How their communication styles are reflected in the language patterns they

The Lewis Model can help us:

*Promote harmony in inter-cultural relationships by allowing empathy and understanding to develop. 

*We can see that most of our reactions come from how we've been programmed by our culture, we can step back and see how different cultures react, and learn to understand such reactions.

The Lewis Model is effective in:

Helping us become aware of the communication traits of each ‘Cultural Type’.  The Lewis model helps us understand the communication characteristics of different ‘Culture Types’

With an understanding of various communication characteristics among cultures, we are better able to get along both personally and professionally with other cultures; we will be able to foresee how they are likely to react in various situations

"Cultural behavior is the end product of collected wisdom, filtered and passed down through hundreds of generations as shared core beliefs, values assumptions, notions and persistent action patterns. 

In other words, culture is a collective programming of the mind, which distinguishes the members of one human group from another."