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Essay: Communication is influenced by culture

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  • Published: 15 September 2019*
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All aspects of communication are influenced by culture, from the way of selecting words in letters to the way of communicating personally or via e-mail, and how individuals are given a certain understanding of a gesture or perception. Additionally, even what causes sudden confusion and noise internally or externally for us can be influenced by cultures (Myers, V., Smith, J. H., & Swanson, M. M., 2001). Therefore, there is no substitute for communication for the peaceful coexistence of different cultures. Arseculeratne & Yazdanifard (2013) have defined a culture itself as a shared collective of beliefs, attitudes, and notions of mindsets. With a close examination of any culture, it can also be described is a phenomenon that has bound societies which share similar beliefs, attitudes, and notions of mindsets together. To illustrate that, the communication system of an organization is affected by employees’ cultures and background while mixed with the business's value, rules, practices and philosophy (Arseculeratne & Yazdanifard, R., 2013). In this paper, I will discuss cross-cultural communication, barriers of intercultural communication and how to surmount them, two relevant theories of cross-cultural communication, and lastly, some implications for international organizations.

Cross- Cultural Communication

Intercultural communication is essential in this era of globalization. Cross-Cultural Communication is simply a form of communication that aims to share and exchange information and knowledge among cultures and different cultural groups.

Intercultural communication between people took various forms to enrich each other and gain paths of change for the better despite the conflict that defines the different relationships between countries. In business, learning and understanding the cultural differences plays a huge role in a firms’ success.             

One of the multiple forms of communication is asking people for

Barriers to Effective Cross-Cultural Communication

There are unlimited possibilities for miscommunications between people and groups from different cultures. Mishler (1965) said:” the greater the cultural differences, the more likely barriers to communication and misunderstandings become” (p.517). The most important barriers involve language, behavior, and noise barriers.

Languages and Fluency

Languages are the obvious cross-cultural barrier of all. Not only the difference in the languages we speak, but also our choice of words and their voice are important. Although English is considered to be the official language of business and nowadays everyone speaks English, as non-native English speakers, our levels of using and understanding English may differ from one another. Having difficulty in expressing or fully understanding our colleagues or the work tasks might clearly lead to conflicts between co-workers. I, for example, once told a former Indian colleague that his work emails sounded passive-aggressive to me, and he explained his view and how they were professional and polite to him! Basically, this is the magnitude of the influence of native language on the English we speak and write that leads to misunderstanding in receiving the messages. Another point is that the fluency gap of employees in a team can discourage less fluent people from talking or expressing their ideas. In a multinational team, the person who speak English better will have more power and influence on the team.

Behavior Barrier

Not only the language we speak might cause miscommunications, but also our body language and nonverbal behaviors! What is considered appropriate and inappropriate behaviors is different from culture to culture.  

In cross-cultural negotiations, we might expect problems of communication caused not only by what is said, but also by how what is said is interpreted.

These differences in behaviors between work colleagues can cause misunderstandings, especially in today's global market.

there differences in behaviors between work colleagues can cause misunderstandings.

intercultural communication barriers exist and being noticed lately because of the globalization and the economics growth.

Noise Barrier

Surmounting the Barriers

In today's global market, everyone should learn more about the evolution of culture and how culture relates to organizations. To break the stated barriers to cross cultural communication, we, as individuals, need to keep our minds open and learn more about each other. The differences between us make us separate and different from each other of course, but we often forget that we are all human beings and that our culture and difference is a sign of our different geographical regions and not of our human nature. All what we need is knowledge and experience because understanding and accepting other cultures has a profound impact on the scope of our thinking and learning. We can simply expand our horizons and widen our perspectives just by gaining little useful information about our differences. At a multicultural workplace where people have different values, beliefs, and behaviors, they need to communicate and deal with each other with respect and acceptance for the best outcomes. Besides individuals’ efforts, the work environment at multinational companies should be prepared for all employees to adopt. According to a research conducted by Thomas and Ravlin, teaching team members of different cultures to behave the same is an ineffective approach to improving intercultural interactions in work environments. To create innovation and enhance cooperation, the focus should be placed on simply promoting cultural adaptation. They should also focus on using the individual differences in the team (Padhi, P. K., 2016). Management in multinational companies should pay more attention to the different individuals and their cultures that influences there way of thinking and behaving. Having multiple cultures in the workforce is an advantage when it comes to making decisions, developing integrated and innovative strategies and finding creative solutions to problems.

They have to ensure that every employee has fully understandings toward vision and purposes of firms and their work tasks.

Theories of Cross-Cultural Communication

1. Cultural Dimensions Theory, By Geert Hofstede

One reason of cross-cultural communication failure is the cultural differences. Hofstede has introduced the cultural dimensions theory to analyze these basic issues. Cultural dimensions theory elaborated that culture of a community or society can be explained from five dimensions that includes Power Distance, Individualism vs Collectivism, Masculinity vs Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance vs Tolerance, and Long-term Orientation vs. Short-term Orientation (Hofstede, 1997). Hofstede’s research was conducted on employees of IBM during the seventies. Each dimension has been formed by comparing forty countries with different cultures. In this report, a brief and features of the five dimensions will be explained below.

1.1. Power Distance

The first dimension refers to the degree of inequality that is accepted by people in a society. Every country has a different understanding of power. According to Hofstede (1997), different cultures put more emphasis on authority, status, positions and qualifications while other do not. To demonstrate that, power distance is measured from 0, the smallest power distance, to 100, which is the largest power distance. People view themselves as equals in low power distance countries while people in high power distance countries aware of the unequal distribution of power and positions. In business organizations, employees are very dependent on their managers in countries with a large power distance while there is interdependence between managers and employees in countries where the power distance is small (Hofstede, 1997).

1.2. Indiv
idualism versus collectivism

The second dimension of differences between societies emphasizes the relationship between individuals and groups. According to Hofstede (1997), individualism refers to a society in which individual is the most important unit. It means that individuals separate themselves from the collective community. Beyond immediate family, everyone is expected to put their selves first. Individual choices and decisions are also expected in highly individualist cultures. On the other hand, collectivism refers to a society in which individuals are expected to integrate strongly in a group. Their choices and decisions are determined socially.

1.3. Masculinity vs Femininity

This dimension is about expected gender roles, not individuals. In a masculine culture, the gender roles are recognizably different. A set of attributes, and cultural expected roles are associated with men, such as strength and dominance. Men are traditionally expected to work hard and focus on accomplishments and success. Women are expected to be caring, modest, supportive and considerate as their differentiated gender roles. In contrast, femininity refers to that roles of female and male in society overlap, where both men and women are being supportive, modest, caring, and considerate. Both genders work together equally across many jobs in a feminine society (Hofstede, 2001).

1.4. Uncertainty Avoidance vs Tolerance

Uncertainty avoidance refers that the way individuals manage their concerns and anxiety by valuing uncertainties of unknown and ambiguous situation in future. The degrees of uncertainty avoidance differ from one country to another. In cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance, people are encouraged to overcome and being positive about the future, while people in weak uncertainty avoidance are taught to accept risks, tolerate and accept different culture’s behavior.

1.5. Long-term Orientation vs. Short-term Orientation

As indicated by the theory,

Implications for International Business Organizations

Globalization has encouraged an increasing number of formerly domestic companies move abroad to maximize both their competitiveness and their market share. This has led to a growth in numbers of multinational companies; further emphasizing the need for an understanding of cross-cultural working relationships, particularly in relation to effective leadership techniques (Alzoman, 2012). Understanding the different cultures communication style is key to managing employees in different regions of the world. As a result of the globalization and the fast advancement of economics and the financial aspects, multinational firms are increasingly pervasive. Organizations who stretch out their business abroad need to confront the cross-cultural communication challenge. Coworkers still experience some social boundaries. With the end goal to make progress, administrators working in worldwide conditions must be capable in cross-cultural communication. Distinctive attributes of culture bring about reasoning, understanding and communicational assorted variety. These assorted varieties hinder authoritative advancement and administration pretty much.

International business is more than a trade between companies from different countries.

International business cultures focus less on barriers that separate people, and in turn focus more on the communication that brings them together.

As the world becomes interconnected via globalisation, the number of people living and working outside of their native countries is increasing. As a consequence, those in the workplace are increasingly expected to interact with people from diverse cultural backgrounds; often this means people who speak different languages, lead different lifestyles, and come from widely disparate belief systems and cultural backgrounds. (Alzoman, 2012)

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