Discuss about the Cross- Cultural communication in International Business.
Universally, culture is a blending of values, traditions, norms, and beliefs. Culture can be described as the way an individual behaves when he or she is in amidst of other people. For one to express his or her feelings or want to say what he or she wants to do, communication must be employed. Hence connection becomes a vital part of the culture in every society. First and foremost, before understanding communication in religion, it is essential first to comprehend the word communication in general.
Communication is the exchange of thoughts, opinions, information, feelings as well as facts from one person to another.The manner in which a business is conducted in every organization varies from one culture to another. Good relations are achieved in business when sales, the personnel in technical sectors as well as the managerial, receive training on how to avoid problems. Also, on how to solve communication barriers and conflicts in all cultures. Generally, business objectives and goals of a particular organization are easily achieved when solutions to old problems are found by people from different cultures by individuals seeing issues in the viewpoint of other people.
Cross-Cultural communication in a business set up engages in understanding various organizational communication policies and customs. Major factors like power distance, language difference, non-verbal differences and low context, as well as high settings, influences cross-cultural communication. Currently, different specialists of communication offering training to employees hired on the global level, with this training they can face the difficulties of employed worldwide. This communication exercise is crucial for those working and spending their lives in overseas to have different approaches to handle problems under all circumstances (Samovar, McDaniel, Porter & Roy,2015).
Cross-Cultural communication is currently very significant to businesses because of the development of universal organizations, Internet, and technology. Considering intercultural communication is substantial for a company that has various personnel or strategies on steering business internationally. Such kind of discussion includes being considerate of how different persons from different cultures believe in and how they communicate (Vaara, Sarala, Stahl & Björkman,2012).
An organization that enhances cross-cultural communication have some advantages in the sharing of ideas as well as shared goals. This keeps all the members on toes and focuses on the laid down objectives and goals. Individuals can make good business relations internationally instead of depending on local ideas. Knowledge of the organization is ensured to all members, and hence all of them focus on a similar goal. Also, the access to the full range of information leads to an organization producing work of very high quality (Usunier & Roulin,2010).
Cross-cultural communication enables the members of the formal institution to benefit with experience. This is because it involves various countries who could be having better ideas and methods of handling different issues. Different countries have different skills that others who are unaware of the capabilities can borrow from them (Kinloch & Metge,2014).
Maximization of efforts as well as avoiding duplication is achieved since the members are from different countries with a difference in backgrounds and are working together will minimize the risk of biases.
Cross-cultural communication promotes creativity in firms. Creativity is achieved by the many ideas from the heterogeneous group compared to a homogeneous group. Different group work by considering issues from a broader range of viewpoints (kumar, 2015).
Continuous improvement is ensured in the cross-cultural communication. In the heterogeneous groups, debate and challenge of the ideas given by different groups lead to new opportunities for development.
Another advantage is that clients also benefit from cross-cultural communication since teamwork is created which helps in improving the flexibility of the organization. Appropriate products are presented relevantly to the public hence the relevance of the products offered to the clients (Trompenaars & Hampden,2011).
A communicator should have the ability to participate in some set activities accordingly thus competency. This competency would enable an organization to achieve its set objectives considering the people affected by its day to day operations. Intercultural competency will help the organization to have the ability to overcome the challenges facing cross-cultural communication
Another measure is involving cramming a person’s ability to appreciate and consider other people’s culture. In the process of intercultural awareness leads to both cultural consciousness as well as self-awareness
Adroitness development ensures the required skills and competence to engage in successful transactions which leads to the overall results such as self-expression and etiquette hence an achieved progress.
Individuals need to put efforts to appreciate other people backgrounds, how they feel and their worldview. The qualities required for each person to have for them to understand everyone is like knowledge, skills and dealing with anxiety. Having these values will enable all to overcome the barriers to cross-cultural communication.
Low contexts have an implication that the information in a message is defined ad tends not to hide any information. People in this small context adhere to the rules set and the standards keenly. These people in this kind of setting have a relationship which is short-term
In the high context, the unspoken message indirectly transferred in communication times. A word may have a different meaning and is interpreted differently and the alteration of the word is also different hence the word implies different meanings in the society. The words in high contexts are linked to the body language which also may end up being different in another place (Ochieng & Price,2010).
Australia has a low context culture viewed in their verbal communication. In communication, Australians are more of right in personal feelings expression as well as opinions as they have a conversation. They believe that it is better and sincere to speak directly with no any intention to hide anything.
Ethnocentrism is a belief that one’s culture is better than others hence superior. Such people tend to judge the beliefs and customs of other people regarding the standards of their culture. Such people discriminate others. Therefore, there is no mutual understanding of others. Stereotypes are an extension of ethnocentrism in that; people hold perceptions about individuals regarding opinions made before.
Stereotypes unlike ethnocentrism do not occur immediately but are a product of discrimination over an extended period. This information of ethnocentrism against an individual or a group of people is stored, and it is used to judge or make sense of the happenings around us. Stereotypes can either be positive or negative, and the information is used to describe those people. For example, Africans are known to be in the class of apes just because they have a lot of melanin hence black (Samovar, McDaniel, Porter & Roy,2015).
Individual differences may be termed as the variety of different people on how they react to similar situations. Thorough training and the development of those individual with their differences will be relevant other than working on teaching the members of different cultures to behave the same. Importance of personal differences among the workers in an organization may include behavior, altered perception, different responses to directives, and different interaction with the seniors as well as different embrace to change (Moran, Abramson & Moran,2014) An organization focusing on individual differences other than cultural adaptation may have advantages. People are empowered differently. Differently, a task difficult for others is just to another. Individual differences enhance specialization where employees are given chances to do what they are best empowered. It also encourages the division of labor hence saving time and cost of production. Individual differences promote creativity and innovation. Cultural adaptation will pose difficulties to the employees. Adapting a specific culture is time-consuming, and it is not a guarantee that the worker will thoroughly learn the new culture and it’s also stressing. (Cordano, Welcomer, Scherer, Pradenas & Parada,2010).
Culture is defined as the salient features and the know-how of a specific group of individuals based on their habits, religion, arts, language, and music they engage themselves. Culture can also be viewed regarding values in that those values are formed based on the manner people should behave. (Giroux,2012). Culture is also explained by the use of products material like clothing, and it gives people a framework of understanding and living in the world. Culture also can be termed as the belief. Culture mediates relationships among men and between men and their ecological systems based on how they should behave. Culture is inseparable with the careers since culture is the fundamental determining factor of how individuals view and comprehend reality consciously or not (Cummings, Hutchinson, Scott, Norton & Estabrooks,2010)
Culture mediates relationships in amidst of both men and women as well as the environment. In every career, cohesion and harmony among the staff and their seniors are paramount for the achievement of objectives and goals. Culture helps individuals to appreciate other people views, beliefs as well as their religion. Culture also provides a platform where human beings can communicate. In every career setting, communication is widely used to pass information from one person to another and how the data is given is tied to the culture. The language used to move the information should be formal hence no career is inseparable to cultural habits (Ferraro, & Briody, (2013).
In the nation of Kenya, most people do not opt for direct communication. Information is delivered sensitively to avoid harsh remarks to protect relationships. The style of communication depends on the level of hierarchy between the receiver and the giver of information.
In Australia, people tend to be direct to the point, and failure to that is regarded as hypocrisy. One should mean what he says and say what he means. People in this country are against bragging and are against people regarding themselves being better than others. Humor is used in business.
There are significant differences between the communication styles between Kenya, and Australia .in Kenya, humor is unheard in business situations unlike in Australia direct communication in Kenya is not welcomed for there are relationships to preserve. In Australia, no one is better than the other, but in Kenya, a person in a particular docket must be recognized. Self-promotion in Kenya is practiced widely.
With this term that no individual of a particular group represents all the group’s characteristics means that for one to give a conclusion concerning people or things, he or she should look into keenly on the various dimension other than a single one. This is because different people have different individual differences and categorizing everyone out of data got from a single person will be a mere assumption with no proof. For one to be able to get facts about a particular group, a wide range of people from the group should be considered before generalizing them. With this, one will have the ability to avoid stereotyping.
There is a belief in Australia that Kenyan women especially in Nyeri town butter their husbands. This is because several cases have emerged of the same. The idea is a stereotype since the Australians generalize it to all Nyeri women. The stereotype is not accurate since not all women butter their husbands hence it is an assumption. Kenyans believe that Australians like spending most of their times at the beach. This belief is almost accurate but not entirely accurate. There are others who are extremely busy to attend to the beach.
Culture shock
Culture shock is a barrier in communication among people in international environment. Culture shock can be described as situation an individual might happen to go through when the person is shifted to another new environment. The new environment have new life, traditions, beliefs as well as the way of life in general. An individual might experience disorientation due to the subjection of a new culture. Cultural difference existing in the life of the individual suddenly taken to a new environment might cause misunderstandings between the those living there and the new person. Since the person is irritable and is not free to mingle with others, any correction to him will not be taken positive. The person experiencing culture shock might think he or she is being discriminated upon. In a business, the person will act according to his or her own culture and might end up irritating his or her colleagues. For instance, in an environment where only low context is used and the individual is from a high context communication, we find that the person might end up causing misunderstanding as well as conflict. The person suddenly moved to a new way of life is supposedly to face discomfort both physically and emotionally since the new culture is completely different to what he or she has known all hi or her life. A series of happenings to that person compile in bits rather than sudden. An individual is subjected to symptoms like identity loss, inability to make profound decisions and solve problems, vulnerability, unwillingness to mingle with other people, being irritable as well as lacking personal confidence. Culture shock to a person happens because that individual has to adapt the new culture which tend to be very difficult (Cordano, Welcomer, Scherer, Pradenas & Parada,2010)
For an organization which have employed such people will have a negative effect to the normal routine of the business. The set objectives of the company will not be met by these employees for their dedication to their assigned duties is low. A person who is not ready to interact with others will only do what he thinks and the business lacks the common drive. Teamwork will not be effectively employed in the business and the business will cease being a goal-oriented business.
Conclusion
In our current world, intercultural communications are necessary for business context. The success of a business is determined by the ability of the manager to foster effective communication with all the people and also understanding the different cultures of those people working together (Kraidy, 2017). Success in the global view is determined by the ability of international managers showing respect to the customs and values of the world nations. Cross-cultural awareness, as well as cultural sensitivity development by managers, will lead to the success and growth of global business. Managers should ensure that there are a mutual understanding and respect of other people’s different backgrounds to provide an effective cross-cultural communication and growth and success of the business. Finally, a business ought to employ means and measures to overcome the cross-cultural communication in order to achieve a comprehensive culture in the organization that is mutually beneficial to the individuals, the clients and the organization at large (Kittler, Rygl & Mackinnon,2011).
References
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