What are the barriers to effective cross-cultural communication? How might these be surmounted? Identify at least 2 theories of cross-cultural communication that can shed light on your own experiences of communicating across cultures. What do these theories explain? What do they fail to explain? What are the implications of your insights for cross-cultural communication in international business organizations?
Due to globalization, business expansion has become quite possible. Companies regardless of the production activities involved into can venture into different market to sell the products and services to the international clients. Business expansion to international market enables the company to improve the profit earning margin and improve the business visibility. Both the factors are essential for the successful business conduct. Earlier management believed in implementing an effective business strategic plan, without analysing the relevance of the cross cultural factors. As per the research conducted, it has been stated that consideration for cross cultural factors is important for the conducting the operational activities. This report contains information like –
Importance of the cross cultural communications (Barinaga, 2009).
Barriers to the cross communication process
Theories
Technologies like internet and other gadgets have made it possible for companies to venture into new market and improve the visibility for the products and services. Products can be effectively promoted in the national and international market. Online and offline marketing on the international platform has made it possible for the companies to improve the brand image in the international market. Such a success has also been possible due to the introduction of cross cultural communication factor. Through this process, it becomes easy for the companies to work with people from different communities or nationality (Adamopolous & Lonner 2001).
Cross cultural communication process is important for enabling the growth of the business. By understanding the relevance of the terms, the management of the company can communicate about the strategies and business goals with people belonging to different culture. Flawless communication is important for improving the apprehension about the business goals and the steps that is expected to be followed for achieving the set target (Busch, 2009).
Cross cultural communication has been defined as the process of apprehending the business custom, values, communication strategies, and beliefs. Cultural differences impacts the method for communicating with each other and this can affect the business strategies. In this process, it is necessary to understand the relevance of high-context and low context values for culture. There are different factors that can affect the communication process and the same needs to be analysed in an effective manner (Baba et al., 2004).
High and low cultural context refers to the process adopted by the employees to think about the task, express views, and collectively work towards the goal that has been decided by the company. Such an analysis has to be done to understand the impact of the cultural factors on the business performance. For instance, the cultural values followed in North America and Western Europe is considered to be low context for cultural values. The employees of the companies located in such areas tend to make decisions on the facts and figures collected from different sources. The business dealings are done through contract process and there is no place for trust (Fowler & Blohm, 2004).
Factors associated with high context cultural values are quite opposite to the above mentioned method. Trust forms a major part of the business dealings and managers analyse different factors that are associated with the trust factors. In this process, the management of the company develop inter-personal relationships through which positive and long lasting relationship with the clients are created. Tasks are performed through team efforts and success is credited to the group, instead of individuals (Hoffman, 2009).
In order to carry out the business activities in different countries, it is necessary to understand the cultural values and beliefs. This will enable the company to develop a strategy through which positive communication process with the members can be developed and implemented. The cultural differences existing between different cultures, needs to be analysed as it will help in improving the quality of interaction. This will assist in developing an effective communication process, through which the business activities can be carried out by the management (Gibson & Cohen, 2003).
Cultural differences include analysing the practices and language spoken by the people belonging to another country or communication. Through such an analysis an attempt is made to understand the factors that can affect the communication process between groups belonging to different communities. Effective communication method is quite important as this will help in reducing the uncertainty in the message conveyance method. Through this process the management can adopted and implement effective strategies through which the complex situation related to cultural factors can be handled in an effective manner (Lincoln, & Denzin, 2000).
Cultural diversity is one of the factors that can affect the process of communication and interaction between different groups. The management needs to analyse the factors associated with individual cultural values or languages. This will help in improving the performance for the company. Such factors enable the management to develop and implement effective communication process through which the individuals or the employees of the company can be encouraged to interact with each other (Gudykunst, 2005).
The success of the global companies depends upon the effective cross-cultural interaction or communication process adopted by the management. Ineffective communication can increase internal conflicts between the groups or teams belonging to different groups. It is necessary to identify the problem that can affect the communication process, as this will minimise the redundancy of the tasks expected to be performed by the members. The barrier is with understanding the behaviour of the individuals belonging to different groups. Through effective communication process, it is possible for the companies to set right the expectations which are considered to be important for the successful business conduct. By handling the issues associated with the cross cultural factors it is possible to avoid unproductive conflicts that might exists between the management and the group or between different groups working together with the company (Kohonen, 2005).
Global marketplace provides various offers to the clients and the companies to work together and improve the earning ability. Due to ineffective or inability of the companies to handle the issues associated with the cross culture, it becomes a challenge to handle the issues in the expected manner. Conflicts and interrupted production activities impact the goodwill of the company. Such factors affect the confidence of the stakeholders on the performance of the company in the international market (Littrell, et al., 2006).
Some of the barriers related to cross cultural factors are –
This is one of the prime requirements for the conduct of the business in the desired manner. Communication becomes a challenge for the groups belonging to different cultural background. Misunderstandings can affect the productivity and business execution plan prepared by the management. The selection of the words and terms needs to be done in an effective manner, as this can increase the possibilities of misinterpreting the statement (Mendenhall & Stahl, 2000).
Behaviour is associated with the body language that is followed by the managers of the company. In the US, managers and the employees of the company prefer to choose eye contact method while integrating or instructing the members. This is done to ensure that the message is conveyed to the member in the right manner, and there is no deviation in the process. Eye contact is not considered to be an appropriate method for interaction in many of the Asian countries. Such a difference has to be understood as this will help in overpowering the barriers that exists in the industry (Mahadevan, 2009).
In such a factor, the employee usually makes assumptions about the practices or values followed by a particular group of individuals. Such factors create negative remark and impact the behaviour or the willingness of the individuals to work together. It’s necessary to collect facts, and there is no space for assumptions.
In this process, the management or the group usually indulge into the practice of judging the people belonging to certain groups or community. The comparison is done with the practises and values followed by the members in the own country. Such a comparison can affect the willingness of the people to work with different groups (Otten et al., 2009).
The strategies adopted by the companies to solve the problem differ and depends upon various factors. However, the prime objective is to minimise the differences existing between different cultures, as this will enable the management to improve the quality of prediction activities for the company. Some of the steps that can be followed for achieving the desired results are –
Meetings – The management can conduct business meetings through which the staffs can be introduced with the cultural values followed in another country. Such a process will enable the members to respect the values and practices followed by different cultures. Through this method, an attempt has been made to change the preconceptions that are formed in the minds of the people or the staffs (Osland, 2000).
Team activities – It is necessary to improve the confidence of the team members and encourage them to work together. This is possible by highlighting the relevance of the language and adopting strategies through which the differences between the members can be sorted by the management. In this method, the managers attempt to improve the co-ordination process, which is required for the smooth conduct of the business.
Workshops –In this method, the management of the company adopt and implement standard presider for positive interaction with the members. This is required for building confidence between the members. In this process, the members attempt to solve the issues faced by the staffs by encouraging positive communication process. Through this process, the members are encouraged to adopt and implement positive stages for handling the issues that exist between the members. The employees are enraged to adopt and practice different methods for communication like verbal, written, and non-verbal (Morris & Robie, 2001).
Coaching system- in this process, the members belonging to different culture are encouraged to follow the strategies and methods followed by the members from other communities. This is done through coaching method. Through this method, the members are encouraged to follow the right strategies for interacting with the members from other communities and respect each other. This is one of the important aspects through which the quality of communication can be improved amongst the members.
Theories on cross cultural factors
Anxiety and uncertainly management system
This is one of the effective cross cultural theories that play an important role in the global virtual team development process. In this theory, the researchers basically concentrate on the adoption and implementation of different strategies through which the barriers and opportunities influencing the communication process is analysed. Through such a process, an attempt is made to understand the reason for the staff behaviour and the expectations at the time of interacting with each other. In this process, an attempt is made to identify the relevance of the cognitive behaviour of the individuals which can affect the working ability of the staffs of the company (Pfeffer, 2005).
These days many companies work as a part of the virtual team. Through this process, the quality of interaction between the members belonging to different cultures is analysed. In the global teams, remembers belonging to different cultures work together. The members are not aware of each other, but ensure to work together as a team. Through an effective communication process, an attempt has been made to overpower the uncertainty that exists between the members of the company. This is one of the important factors through which the quality of communication between the members can be improved. In this method, the individual needs and preferences of the clients are analysed. This enables the management to develop an effective plan through which the necessary changes in terms of the improvement in the performance and other factors can be introduced by the management (Schwegler, 2009).
The theory, focus on the ‘cognitive adjustment’ process where the employees of the company are encouraged to work in the best possible manner. Through this process, an attempt is made to encourage the members to do the right things through which the quality of interaction amongst the members can be improved. In this method, an attempt is made to explain the process followed by the people to understand the terms associated with the cross cultural values (Sandín, 2003).
However the theory fails to explain the process that would have to be followed by different companies for improving the quality of interaction. This is one of the important factor through which the expected results can be achieved by the company.
In this method, the experiences and knowledge of the group or individual is shared with the other members. This has been done to improve upon the behaviour of the members through which the corrective measures can be introduced for improving the quality of the production activities. The views of the individuals are considered in this process. It is necessary to develop and implement standard views through which the behaviour and other factors associated with the cultural values and beliefs are indented. Through such a process, an attempt is made to interact about the positive aspects about the cultural values and the behaviours that can affect the quality of interaction (Selmer, 2000).
Theory highlights the relevance of the communication process and the steps that would have to be followed for executing the tasks that are related to the business expansion. The communication process adopted by different companies varies and it depends upon various challenges. Through the theory an attempt is made to clarify the method that is considered to be effective for improving the communication process between different groups. Through this method, an attempt is made to overpower the challenges that are associated with the communication process (Triandis, 2000).
The theory is applicable to the small companies, where limited members from different cultural background. In this case, the challenges associated with the process for implementing the changes has to be analysed, as this will help in implementing the better methods through which the required changes for the cultural communication process can be adopted.
Cross cultural factors are quite important for the business conduct. The challenges involved in the business execution have to be analysed, as this will help the management of the company to adopt and implement the right type of strategies through which the challenges can be overpowered. In this case, the limitations involved with the process have to be analysed as this will help in overpowering the challenges that is involved in the communication process. The factors affecting the communication process has to be analysed as this will help the management in selecting the better options through which the required changes can be implemented for improving the quality of communication for the company (Tanaka, 2001).
Conclusion
The cross cultural factors of the company need to be analysed. This will help in analysing the problem and implementing the correct steps for improving the quality of interaction. In this process, the challenges involved with the communication process between the members have to be analysed. This will help in improving the production activities and handling the challenges that can affect the quality of interaction between the members.
References
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