Communication and culture are part of human’s life, communication is basically about sending and receiving message, meanwhile for the culture is how people talk and react towards the person based on their attitude which basically shaped by their culture. Communication is also being considered as one of life's greatest resources, in any case communication is likewise considered as one of the issues or problems in life. Because, everybody utilizes communication in their regular day to day existence, and surely human is truly relying upon correspondence with a specific end goal to give and get the information. Further, People nowadays tend to be more flexible towards other people, and it is not simply because the society accepts them, however it is the people around the community who has a sense of the diversity and belongings of the community that makes them to be accepted. In this essay, the writer will examine about the definition of communication, culture and its level of culture, what is the Communication in the globalized world and its meaning to the writer, and give an example about the cultural misunderstanding in the company.
First and foremost, Culture is something that we believe and something hold and perceive based on the person's attitude and the way they think. According to the Hofstede’s theory, culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others (Rajh, 2015). Thus, basically, there are 7 layers of culture, such as Global Culture, National Culture, Organization Culture, Group Culture, Individual, Cultural Self-representation, Top down, and Bottom Up. And the culture itself is often alluded to the unpredictable aggregation of learning, old stories, dialect, rules, ceremonies, propensities, ways of life, demeanors, convictions, and traditions that connection and give a general character to a gathering of individuals. Communication in the Globalized World based on the researcher Analysis is basically a term that represents learning the different culture and understand about to whom you are talking to. It could be differing in many aspects in life, such as doing marketing, persuade your customers, during a speech and much more. However, what it emphasis in the Communication in the globalized world, is to understand the different culture and behave of the people of your host or home country. Global communications are not only the interaction between two employees within your organization. The first step in achieving effective communications is to know your audience (GBSB Global Business School, 2015). Thus, this means that in order to gain a better or acknowledge the importance of the communication in the globalized world, people needs to first identify their audience, so that it does not lead to the cultural misunderstanding. Culture is so essential to the people, because it consists of 2 different aspects such as CQ and CC. CQ stands for the Cultural Intelligent, and the CC stands for the Cultural Competence. Cultural intelligence is related to emotional intelligence, but it picks up where emotional intelligence leaves off (Harvard Business Review, 2004). Meanwhile, “Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively with people across different cultures” (ParaQuad 2012).
Secondly, National Culture is the key theories that refers and fits to the communication world today. Why? Because according to the Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, beliefs that human cultures in the workplace should resemble the laws of physics and engineering is a cultural, not a scientific belief (Technology Innovation Management, 2016). In this case this means that national culture should be concerned as one of the main point by the big companies if they want to deliver their products, and it also spread to any other aspect which include in the Communication in the Globalized World, which refers to the understanding the culture so, that it does not lead to the cultural misunderstanding which bring unbeneficial to both parties. In addition, why natural culture is so important is because it does concentrate on the what is the internal core of the identity and the culture that has been brought many years before the globalized world came, so based on that is it critically important to pay attention to the importance of the natural culture. "The set of norms, behaviors, beliefs and customs that exist within the population of a sovereign nation. International companies develop management and other practices in accordance with the national culture they are operating in"(Business Dictionary, n.d.). However, these two aspect s play different role in its field.
Lastly, Cultural misunderstanding in communication world are often happened in the workplace. In the workplace, there are many people from many nationalities and backgrounds, this might be affect on the how they work things or even in gather together to come up for some solutions, Further, if there was a miscommunication along the way, it would not be surprised that the problems might be worst in the company. "During the 1994 World Cup, Heineken printed the flag of each qualifying country under the bottle cap. Saudi Arabia was included, which has a holy verse on its flag. This angered Muslims all over the world as the verse was then associated with alcohol. Heineken reacted by recalling all the bottles and stopping their marketing campaign all together "(Language Lens, 2014). In this case, the company clearly has a miscommunication on the product that has anger all the Muslims in the world, because the the Muslim Quran verse was written in the Heineken beer. Basically, it is very useful and essential for the business people to identify the impact and the influence of words that can indirectly send a message to the customer, because the success of the business or even the failure is all goes back to the company’s way of working. Therefore, if the workers does not understand the meaning of cross cultural difference it might leads also to the violence by a group of superior people in the community against the minority of the workers. Meanwhile different case of misunderstanding by communication happens by the culture in the south east Asia, it occurs when Pepsi change its vending machine, because they have failed to identify the different culture and part of the society that cannot be disturbed, in addition they changed the color in order to reduce or expect to get a better deal in the coming year, also the company also learns that the company desperately needs to deal with the cultural issues first rather than focus on the uniqueness of the product in the field to be delivered in the public places or mostly in the streets. "Pepsi changed its vending machines from deep blue to light blue in Southeast Asia and started losing market share. They later learned that light blue is a symbol of death and mourning in Southeast Asia"(Language Lens, 2014).
In conclusion, Communication and Culture are both essential in people’s everyday live, Communication helps to spread the message and received, because many companies in this world often fails to manage this communication, which again leads to the misunderstanding of the communication. Meanwhile understanding the cultural, to understand the different culture and learn the host of home country norms or even the culture. If these aspects of communication in the globalized world does not being implemented in the company or even countries, the result would be different and lead to many problems which can be worst. Although, there are many aspect in the communication and culture for the company to focus on, however, it is critically important to learn the culture and identify the behave before making a mistake.