The changing of culture and development of technology make a huge change to the global business marketplace. Nowadays, almost every organization around the world has more than one nationality of employee. For example, all of the Google offices in the United States have 39 percent of foreign employees (Google, 2014). From the multinational environment in the global business, the cross-cultural communication is so important for the company to communicate and send the message to their stakeholder clearly. It is not easy to do the cross-cultural communication effectively for the company, because there are the barriers from the diverse workforce. There are three major barriers of effective cross-cultural communication; language, nonverbal communication, and stereotype barrier.
Language Barrier We can say that language is the biggest barrier for the people to make the cross-cultural communication. According to Oxford dictionary, language means “the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structure and conventional way” (2014). Language is the important tool that can connect people to communicate to each other, and it is not only for the business purpose, but it includes how to talk with people in daily life. However, if people come from the different country, the problem is how they can understand the language of each other, because in each country, they have their own language. In addition, there are more than 7,100 languages
A common communication barrier is the difficulties to speak the mother language of a country well.
Cross-cultural communication involves an understanding of how people from different cultures speak, communicate, and perceive the world around them. This type of communication has become fundamental to companies as well as entrepreneurs looking to grow their business, in addition to being fundamental as the workplace has become more diverse. In this line is important to highligh the concept of high- and low-context culture.
The harmony of the existing cultures is crucial for the survival and success of any communication and ignoring these aspects may challenge the communication. For example, speaking to employees in Middle East is quite different from Switzerland; talking about personal things is acceptable by Swiss. Individuals who move to other countries unprepared for cultural differences may face unpleasant frustration when communicating. However, those who try to learn other cultures are likely to avoid individual tragedies. For example, Americans doing business in Mexico need to learn the local language to enhance interactions with the locals.
In business, successful communication is the key to success, and being able to relate to a customer is the best form of communication. This is why cross-cultural communication is so important as the business world continues to globalize itself. Unfortunately, “A lack of awareness about the culturally prescribed rules and norms of communication behaviors can cause public relations projects to fail, or worse, backfire.” (Zaharna, 2001, p.135).
Communicators who succeed in a diverse workplace must educate themselves about different cultures and co-cultures. Treating people from different cultural backgrounds with respect is essential. Finally, being willing to acknowledge and discuss cultural differences can help communicators understand and appreciate one another. The impact of culture and listening is very important in everyday life. Think about how many times you have had problems understanding someone from a different culture or even a different sub-culture. Now think about how many times someone from a different cultural background may have had problems understanding you. I know realize once that e-mail was
Leaders who are well versed in the foregoing leader-follower communication concepts will also be successful in global and in cross-cultural environments (Rentfrow, 2007). For example, when leaders: (1) model willingness to engage others; (2) are sensitive to differences/diversity; (3) promote the establishment relationships beyond their immediate environment; and (4) eliminate organizational barriers, these principles are universal and
Those that go into the business world quickly recognize that each work environment they find themselves in can be total different from another. This can especially be said even of environments within the United States, from region to region. There is definitely a disparity of workplace environments from country to country. Not only can culture drive a varied atmosphere, but the diversity of the personnel making up that environment can equally create a challenge that a leader must be prepared to manage. Recognizing that special care needs to be placed on communication and perception skills is crucial in our present professional domain. Managers of today need to employee tools from the psychological and sociological field to be successful. Having a deep understanding in the differences in culture and diversity in the workplace is critical, especially when debating about accepting a position overseas or assigning an employee to an embedded position abroad. With a broad knowledge of cultural differences and diversity, success as a manager and the stability of a positive work environment can be achieved and maintained without unnecessary effort and focus.
Today, we live in a culturally diverse society due to globalization. As our world grows, expands and become increasingly more interconnected, the need for effective interpersonal communication among differing cultures has become apparent. When people from different cultures interact with one another there is intercultural communication because different cultures create different interpretation and expectations about what is seen as competent behaviors that will enable the construction of shared meanings.
The case, Charles Foster sends an email, is a perfect example of the how globalization and increased cross cultural interaction is increasing the complexity and ambiguity facing the managers of large multinational companies. The specific focus of this case is to address the repercussions that can occur by using inadequate communication methods, given the importance and complexity of a situation. Also, the case addresses the possibility of cross cultural communication misinterpretation leading to confusion and confrontation amongst the parties involved. The objective of this qualitative analysis is to utilize both theory and practical
In my previous professional role, it was imperative that I obtained an effective level of intercultural communication competence. I managed U.S. employee communications for unplanned system issues which often had a downstream global impact within the organization. As a result, many of my communications were tailored for a global audience which consisted of the United States, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions. Prior to a sending an employee communication for a system issue, there was always a global business call with all stakeholders to discuss the details and determine which region would lead the communications. The region designated to lead the communication had a challenging task of tailoring the message
4. Language and social differences in potential markets act as barriers to business activities. Without knowledge of the foreign languages, conducting business transactions becomes harder. The culture differences make it even more complicated, since there are differences in business etiquette depending on the country.
Many corporate are now conducting training on cross-cultural communication for their workforce. In the US, opinions of cultural experts are invited before taking a judicial decision. In short, every person or organization can make small steps to minimize this
The importance of understanding cultural, ethnic and gender differences by managers and professionals in a business setting is essential to make the work environment comfortable. In every culture there are basic standards of thinking, and acting and these cultural differences strongly influence workplace values and communication. What may be considered acceptable and natural in the workplace for one person may be unacceptable for another person. People from diverse cultures bring new ways of thinking, creativity and language skills needed to survive in today’s work force. In many
Cross-cultural communication is the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries, in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimizes antagonism, that is, it looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds endeavour to communicate. The study of cross-cultural communication was originally found within businesses and the government both seeking to expand globally. Communication is interactive, so an important influence on its effectiveness is our relationship with others. All communication is cultural -- it draws on ways we have learned to speak and give nonverbal messages. We do not always
Language is one of the barriers to effective interpersonal communication. Ahlers (2014) suggests that, language is the common barrier to communication. It may cause misunderstanding between people provided they are using different language. Mostly people in organizations use bombastic words when expressing themselves to their colloquies , these becomes a barrier in communication as those words might be known by few people in the organization provided that they are not equal in terms of education. It simply shows that there will be few people able to decode and interpret the message because of misunderstand able words used in a communication process. Some of people from other countries use their own language and it makes a barrier between them and Basotho much that sometimes the foreigners lack helps because people misunderstood what they wanted.