Advantages of Cross-Cultural Communication in Business
Discuss about the Cross-Cultural Communication in Business.
Cross-culture refers to the amalgamation of different cultures for the specific purpose of any organization. Cross-cultural communication (CCC) hence, can be said to be the effective communication established across cultures. Businesses can benefit largely by conducting efficient cross-cultural communication. The list describing the advantages of CCC is not exhaustive but some advantages as mentioned by Padhi (n.d.) could be included.
The first advantage of CCC is that it can give an upper hand to a business negotiator over his or her competitor. An employee who is well-versed in a foreign language where the business hopes to expand, might prove to be the reason for success as people would prefer those who value their culture and language is a part of culture.
The second advantage of CCC is that it helps organizations establish a concrete plan of action to tackle the challenges of the global business environment. Developing an internal communication capacity can help businesses control and monitor the external threats.
As the third advantage, CCC allows managers and subordinates of multinational companies to interact with members of different cultures thus enhancing innovation. It also enhances managerial effectiveness.
Fourth advantage of cross-cultural communication within the context of business is that it saves the company from creating blunders while promoting any products or services in foreign nations.
The author states that cross-cultural communication faces obstacles due to several reasons from management style to worker expectations, lack of understanding between staff and managers, presence of power distance and so on. In order to overcome these barriers, managers need to possess the knowledge of non-verbal code systems of different cultures. It would assist in creating communication relationships with others.
According to the author, understanding the various dimensions of culture would provide great help for businesses to conquer the barriers to CCC. Distancing from stereotyping, discriminating and making false judgments would help businesses succeed.
In order to overcome the barriers to CCC that includes culture shock as well, businesses need to change their management styles or adapt to the changing cultures of different nations. Culture shock refers to the initial experience people have after shifting to a new place having different culture.
Intercultural competence is another measure that businesses can take to overcome CCC barriers. It is the ability to take part in activities that involves a common communication code. Developing intercultural communication would equip the managers to appreciate differences in culture. All the aspects of intercultural communication starting from cognitive and behavioral that ensures intercultural awareness and adroitness must be learnt in order to defeat the barriers.
Measures to Overcome Barriers to Cross-Cultural Communication
Low context culture, according to the author encourages direct expression of ideas and frankness in assessing situations. Managers in a low context culture are very blunt in expressing and this reduces the risk of misinterpreted communication. Most people find it easier to grasp the messages conveyed by low context cultures as these are loud and clear.
High context culture on the other hand, implies interdependence in societies. The messages conveyed in high context cultures carry subtle and covert meanings as these have innumerable interpretations. The words used and the gestures shown might contradict thus providing a vague message. Cultures of the Orient tend to represent the high context cultures. They prefer communicating more with expressions and less with words. Countries in the Orient are more inclined towards high context cultures because they believe in expressing more with gestures and less with words.
Australia is undoubtedly a low context culture because the people here convey what they really mean. Apart from that, the population here is more diversified and less homogenous. Australian people are more comfortable in communicative messages that are more verbal in nature rather than non-verbal. As argued by Padhi (n.d.), the low context nature is mostly preferred by multinational companies because the times are changing and people want their business transactions to end quickly to save time.
In order to understand the association between ethnocentrism and stereotyping, it is important to first comprehend the meaning of both the terms. Ethnocentrism, as explained by the author, means the dominance feeling of some people belonging to a certain culture. Ethnocentric people tend to believe that their culture is the supreme of all and thus view other cultures from this perspective. These types of people do not even try to understand the other cultures and consider their own culture as the best. Ethnocentrism hence becomes a dangerous tool that could lead to damaged communication.
Stereotyping on the other hand is the perception of people and their beliefs regarding certain individuals or community based on the ideas and attitudes that have already been formed. These pre-conceived notions about individuals and groups are a result of the culture that people follow over a period. Although stereotyping could be both negative and positive, it mostly yields negativity against a certain individual or group.
The above statement made by the author thus relates to the meaning that ethnocentrism leads to a feeling of superiority and clouds the minds of the individuals who then start associating pre-conceived notions to certain other individuals. They start stereotyping others. As the author mentioned, “stereotypes do not develop suddenly but are formed by our culture over a period” (Padhi, n.d.), clearly indicates that placing certain characteristics to individuals or groups (stereotyping) is an extension of ethnocentrism.
Low and High Context Cultures and Australia
According to the author, it is important that managers and subordinates of any global business firm have a good relationship. The author states that subordinates who give priority to national identity tend to show less interest in the relationship with the manager and lower perception of effective managerial practice. It clearly shows that providing training to managers and subordinates to behave as per each other’s culture are not enough. The approach becomes ineffective because many individuals – be it managers or subordinates – do not tend to change their own national identity for the sake of the other and this leads to poor business results. Therefore, it is important, as the author claims, to focus on individual differences. Promoting cultural differences would only lead to resentment amongst members with strong feeling of nationality.
Businesses in today’s world realize the importance of possessing a diverse workforce to stay ahead in the competition. As Nunes, Felix and Prates (2017) mention, “It is necessary to identify the factors that facilitate a satisfactory performance of executives in international assignments”. This statement relates to the global business workforce must have proper training on individual differences to make sure that when they visit a foreign land as expatriates they are ready to get along with others. However, it would be more effective if managers or expatriates are trained in individual differences and possess the skills to culturally adapt as well.
The author refers to culture as the features and the knowledge a specific group of people possess and includes every element like religion, cuisine, music and arts and social habits. Further, the author explains that the systems of values and beliefs and the material products comprise the major factor of culture. The author then moves on to explain the belief systems in culture that includes myths and stories and how it could be interpreted in order to know the thoughts and feelings of others. Secondly, he explains the values of culture that individuals are taught and that they believe in like honesty, integrity and frankness. Lastly, culture also includes the material things like clothes, food, movies and music. Therefore, culture is an all encompassing element of an individual’s life that provides a framework of cognitive understanding for the world to know and work in it. Culture is the primary determinant that helps in defining the way an individual views the real world in both conscious and unconscious way. The most important thing is, however, the context that the culture provides that enables communication between humans.
Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping
It is therefore unreasonable to opine that one’s professional career has nothing to do with his or her cultural habits. As the author puts it, “one’s professional career can never be separated from his or her cultural habits” (Padhi, n.d.). Cultural habits are inherent to an individual that gives him or her impulse to work hard and communicate effectively with others.
My home country is India and the communication style followed there is very subtle and polite. By subtle, I mean that people sometimes tend to hide the true meaning of what they say and instead say other things. Indian people communicate politely with those whom they are not familiar and make sure that they convey the things they want to listen to keep away from conflict. In Australia however, the communication style is open and sometimes very blunt. People in Australia do not hide their feelings and say anything directly. Australia being a low context communication culture, the people here use more words to convey messages rather than use expressions. In contrast to this, India being a high context communication culture, the people there do not speak bluntly. They want the receiver of the message to understand the hidden meaning through their facial expressions or other gestures.
In case of similarities, the communication styles in the two countries do not possess many similarities. However, Indians might find some similarity in communication with the Indigenous Australians as they too are very polite and subtle while communicating with others. Apart from that, Indigenous Australians also make significant use of non-verbal communication that is a feature of Indian communication style. Although there are mostly differences, both countries have a certain group that demonstrates styles that are not inherent to the generally accepted styles.
As explained in the previous section, two different cultures will have different styles of communication but not all members of the culture are ought to possess it. Some sections of the society have members that demonstrate unique characteristics that are in contrast to their own culture. Every group has both likeness and differences. As Derex and Boyd (2016) argue, every generation has seen an upsurge from within the same culture when members of the same cultural group demonstrated different characteristics. To provide an instance, in Australia, Aboriginal members do not possess all the characteristics inherent to Australia and not all Aboriginal Australians possess similar qualities inherent to Aboriginal culture. The author states clearly that while comparing groups, one must consider the multiple dimensions of contrast.
Individual Differences: A More Effective Approach?
In the previous sections, while explaining ethnocentrism and stereotyping it was mentioned that people tend to associate a particular norm to a certain group without understanding the actual cultural differences. While stereotyping, people cloud their own intellect because it is a common sense that not all members of a group would demonstrate the same characteristics. An example of a stereotype associated with women is that they do not possess good knowledge about sports and hence they must not host any shows related to sports but that is not true to all the women as has been portrayed by many.
Australians are very straight in what they want to convey as already discussed. This causes great problems with people coming from countries like India, from where I belong. Indians think of Australians as racist and insensible to the feelings of others. In recent years, news of Indian students being attacked by white Australians made the rounds that created further ripples among Indians regarding Australians. In addition, Indians feel that most Australians are criminals or have a criminal legacy owing to the history of their colonial period.
Australians on the other hand, have very little knowledge about the cultures and traditions of India. They are rarely aware of the multifarious characteristic of the Indian culture. Australians stereotype Indians as being poor English speakers and illiterate even. Further, Australians view Indians as those who staff the call centers and open curry shops. These perceptions about Indians have been formed largely due to the little knowledge about the people and culture in India (Smh.com.au, 2018). Similar could be stated about the Indians’ perception of Australia.
The stereotyping in which both countries engage are all based partially on the perceptions created by the international media – both mainstream and the social media – and partially on the literature prescribed in both countries. Hence, it can be asserted that these stereotypes are not accurate and citizens in both countries must make an effort to end this.
Several examples from the real world can be cited to demonstrate the ways in which cultural differences might result in misunderstandings. In the global business environment, it is important for the business organizations to understand the cultural diversity in the countries they operate. One common example is when expatriates visit another country and have to manage the business operation where majority of the workforce is from a different culture. In Asian countries especially Japan, when business delegates meet, they ought to bow down to each other as a mark of respect. However, expatriate managers from Western countries might not be aware of this and might offer a handshake, which is seen as an insult by the Japanese. This misunderstanding arising due to cultural differences cause heavily on the business as it might prompt the Japanese delegates to abort their plan. Bauer, Matzler and Wolf (2016) believe that business should focus more on task integration rather than on human integration in order to ensure innovation through understanding. The authors describe human integration as the “creation of a shared identity and satisfaction among the employees from both organizations and task integration as the “transfer and sharing of resources and capabilities”. Therefore, it is clearly understood that having a sound knowledge about different cultures and integrating those into the business operation might produce more positive results than negative.
References:
Bauer, F., Matzler, K., & Wolf, S. (2016). M&A and innovation: The role of integration and cultural differences—A central European targets perspective. International Business Review, 25(1), 76-86.
Derex, M., & Boyd, R. (2016). Partial connectivity increases cultural accumulation within groups. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(11), 2982-2987.
Nunes, I. M., Felix, B., & Prates, L. A. (2017). Cultural intelligence, cross-cultural adaptation and expatriate performance: a study with expatriates living in Brazil. Revista de Administração, 52(3), 219-232.
Padhi, P. K. The Rising Importance of Cross Cultural Communication in Global Business Scenario.
Smh.com.au. (2018). Prosperous immigrants don’t fit their stereotypes – National – www.smh.com.au. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Prosperous-immigrants-dont-fit-their-stereotypes/2005/01/21/1106110947965.html
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