Communication in Cross-Cultural Context
Communication is the process of cultural ethics that provides clear identification of knowledge and understanding between employees and management. In case of effective business communication, the gap in between employees and management curtailed and that somehow impacted on the clarity, relevance and understanding of the process in business (Kernbach, Eppler and Bresciani 2015). In the case of non-verbal communication, some confusion or miss-communication persists. However, in some cases, the process is relevant enough to consider.
In this assignment, Mary owns “The Aroma Shop” and this is one of the small condiment business in Australia. The business has some growth opportunities and thus Mary wants to move the business from Australia to India. Mary will come and attain Mr Sharma and the man has some ethics as Mr Sharma born and brought up in India thus some etiquettes and rituals are there that instigate the man as an Indian. Mary also needs to know Indian culture so that a good business dealing or gel will implement.
In this essay, the aspect of penetrating genre for “The Aroma Shop” and state Indian etiquettes with the shop is the key concern in that case. The process of differentiation is relevant to that point as the HOFSTEDE model will be used in that case for the cross-cultural communication cases.
The process of communication instigates people from different backgrounds and their diverse communication process. The communication across culture is the main concern and intercultural communication is the best way to understand the feeling between two people, maybe they are from different nations but they have the approach of understanding that helps others to some extent (Pearson 2017). The process of socialization helps to mitigate the communication gap between two people from the different sociological background. Ethnocentrism is the quality parameter that deals with delivering quality provided in the organisation. The control of recruitment and strategic enhancement is there and development of cultural aspect is important in that case. The morality, ethics, law, political situation, economy, product culture, art, custom, belief and knowledge all these are important for the cross-cultural communication process (Sigmar, Hynes and Hill 2012). The change in globalised function and enhance the business execution, cross-cultural communication is important. The development opportunities are there through the cross-cultural option and the execution and positive approach will extract from that case.
India is a sovereign state in South Asia, having 1.2 billion people and consider themselves as the second largest country in the world in the aspect of the second most populous country. The cultural aspect of the country is completely different from others, which is quite obvious in that case. In the modern business context in India, the different international company have come for business and that will initiate a global business agenda as well. The process of business mentality, greeting, conversion process, business meeting and meals all these are completely different from other countries.
Indian Business Culture and Mentality
The business mentality in India segregates two in types. The first process is the traditional one and another one is the family-run business. In India, the “Boss’ has to take entire responsibility and the decision making power is with the man (Mehta 2014). The general working hour of organisations starts at 10 am and some of the offices in Mumbai starts early at 7.30 am. The business mentality depends on the upper-end people and they are not responsible to anyone for any organisational change.
In the case of greeting, the maintenance of hierarchical culture is followed in India. Senior persons are greeted at first and then it comes downwards. The process is not associated with the power the man or the woman has, rather it is a kind of respect that elderly people have got form their younger ones (Updhyay and Sharma 2014). The title of the person is being used in case of greeting like “Mr”, “Mrs”, and “Miss” all these are generally used to provide respect to that person and to make a professional title before the name of the person.
The official language in India is English and Hindi. English is important for business dealing, politics and education purposes. In the case of business dealing with other nations, English plays a vital role in understanding and commitment. The major welcome topics in India like Politics, film and cricket are the major aspect in that case and people come from the foreign countries are associated with these at ease. Indians are very tolerant and adjusting, compromising but they try to avoid talking about the religion or the relationship with Pakistan. In case of addressing ‘No’ they nod their head both the sides and in case of saying yes in a non-verbal manner, they shake their head in a formal way (Rameswarapu, SurendranathSai and Valsangkar 2015). The body language also determines the positive and negative approach of the man and that reflected through their eye contact. The eye contact is the major part of communication as it determines the positive intention of the people. Indian generally do not touch any body part at the time of communication. The distance between the people in the case of general speaking is 3 feet apart. Hands-on heap signifies the interpretation of anger, posture even aggressive attitude.
In the case of business meetings men are in suit and tie or the full sleeve shirt is also acceptable with the tie. Status is determined by the age, cast, profession and degree the person has. In a business meeting, food intake is a major approach and Indians prefer to eat their food with their right hand. The business card is quite popular in India and most of the Indians, ranked in higher have business cards to showcase their designation (Updhyay and Sharma 2014). Indians are punctual enough and try to maintain their time for the business meetings. They are protective and possessive for their projects and they have a trust over their fellow workers. Multi-ethnic and pluralistic society persist in that nation and the cultural difference helps in case of accumulating more people with the nation. The value of the relationship is the concerning aspect and they try to maintain this at the level best.
Greeting and Body Language in India
Figure 1: HOFSTEDE Cultural difference between Australia and India
(Source: Hofstede-insights.com 2018)
In case of power distance, power distribution is one of the main concern for the organisation of that nation. The individual involvements of employees and managers are the key matter in that case. Australia scores low in that aspect as they have provided some individual approach in organisation But India on the other hand, power mainly accumulates in hand with some of the upper post people. This is the reason India scores 77 on that particular perspective.
In the case of individualism, the degree of individualism showcases the independence in the workplace. The defined term of “I” and “We” is the major aspect in that case and high individualist cultural is important in that matter (Hofstede-insights.com 2018). Australia has the high score in that matter with 90 whereas India’s 48 is quite low in that aspect.
The process of masculinity, motivate people is the major aspect of the organisation. In Australia, a little bit of extra motivation delivers rather than India. Australia scores 61 whereas India is on 56. The evaluation showcases better motivational dimensions of Australia rather than India from a business perspective.
In case of uncertain avoidance, cultural feel creates belief and institutions. The control over the future is the key matter that deals with different process and Australia are on 51 and India is quite low in that case, as they scored 40 (Hofstede-insights.com 2018). Both the countries are in the intermediate situation and both face some uncontrollable situation as well.
Long-term orientation is the process that maintains the challenges of the present and future. In the case of Australia, normative culture is present in that situation and the low score of 21 persist in that situation. They have great respect for traditional and on the other hand, India scores 51 and that showcases determined culture, philosophical thought process also. The pragmatism is present in that situation.
The last process is indulging and this is a situation that tries to control the desire and impulse of the employees and management leads to maintain the process of operation in the right way. India’s low score of 26 showcase cultural restraints and 71 of Australia maintain as an indulgent country (Hofstede-insights.com 2018). The positive attitude of the country along with the optimisation is the main aspect in that case.
The change in total attitude or change is not possible for Mary for the business dealing in India, rather some of the sections are quite similar to Australia. So, a better business opportunity persists for “The Aroma Shop”, and Mary has to take full utilization of it. The recommended culture and situation along with their meeting goal and objective needs to be set and that will hit the bull eye at the process of meeting and economic transaction process will be evolved along with the relationship between countries (Crews and Stitt-Gohdes 2012).
Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that communication is business is important for the business dealing and Mary to have to learn the possible formal business perspective to meet Mr Sharma in India. The medium of communication is also important and that influences the communication line up, matter and perspective. In the case of face-to-face communication, the verbal form of communication is the most important part that solves lots of problem in between employees and management. Meeting, Presentation discussion all these are generally the part of verbal communication. The aspect of good food culture is there in India and the business will grow at a huge leap, however, the aspects promotions and other need to be there but the market opportunities for the company is there and it has a growing perspective.
References
Crews, T.B. and Stitt-Gohdes, W.L., 2012. Incorporating Facebook and Twitter in a service-learning project in a business communication course. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(1), pp.76-79.
Hofstede-insights.com 2018 country comparison retrieved from: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/australia,india/ [Accessed on 3rd August 2018]
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M.J. and Bresciani, S., 2015. The use of visualization in the communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(2), pp.164-187.
Mehta, R., 2014. Masculinity redefined in India. The result of globalization. Journal of Research in Gender Studies, 4(2), p.618.
Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
Rameswarapu, R., SurendranathSai, K. and Valsangkar, S., 2015. Assessment of hand hygiene levels among healthcare professionals in India. Int J Biomed Adv Res, 6, pp.107-9.
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Updhyay, Y. and Sharma, D., 2014. Culinary preferences of foreign tourists in India. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 20(1), pp.29-39.