Intercultural Communication in the Workforce

Whether you are in Russia, Saudi Arabia, or in a neighboring city twenty miles down the road, the difference between having a pleasant experience and possibly one that is on the opposite end of the spectrum may boil down to if you can or can you not effectively communicate with the people you encounter and interact with. Lustig and Koester refer to “ethnocentrism” as a universal truth held by all cultures that each culture knows the correct ways of doing things in life (p.150). Therefore if that one culture is performing everything truthful and honestly then by default every other culture is not. Perhaps this is an arrogant view to take in light of the fact that no one could possibly do everything perfect, but there has to be some type of baseline for which to refer to.

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

Previous researchers have found that for a person to achieve better and more effective communication competence, it is necessary to develop skills that allow an appropriate participation in specific situations. The ability to listen, ask questions, and express concepts or ideas effectively is an important part of communication competence. Intercultural communication presents an unexplored and challenging field that needs to be understood for a better development in communication. (Dillon and McKenzie, 1998). The variables of listening depend on the different perceptions that a person obtains through their cultural background. Furthermore, culture often affects the structure of consciousness in the act of listening. When a person seeks to

Intercultural communication competence refers to the ability of an individual to adapt and communicate appropriately and effectively across a wide array of cultural contexts. That is to say, for an individual to be considered an intercultural communicator they must understand other’s cultures as well as they understand their own, and apply this understanding to communication (Chen 1-2). With the increasing diversity at the workplace, school and other social settings, it has become increasingly important to learn how to communicate with people from a diverse array of cultures. More importantly, adapting to a more effective intercultural communication competence model provides us with learning opportunities occasioned by the interaction with people from other backgrounds. The intercultural communication competence model comes with some key components including tolerance for uncertainty, self-knowledge, and motivation. The greatest and most important of these aspects is motivation. An individual must be willing to foster relationships with people from a different cultural background. If an individual lacks the willingness to promote intercultural relationships, then other aspects of the intercultural communication model become moot.

In an increasingly globalized workplace, the ability to communicate effectively across cultures is important. The quality of communication experienced by individuals plays a significant role in the outcomes of intercultural interactions, such as cross-border negotiations.

Intercultural communication is about distinctions and variances that refer to traditional, and everyday life. In this reflection paper I will display supporting factors that contribute to my understanding of cultures. I will present my understanding of my background, experiences, culture, and perspectives. In addition. give my understanding of acceptance and differences in background, experience, culture and perspectives outside of my culture by giving my understanding of cognitive and behavioral strategies and personal experiences that have been effective and ineffective in regards to intercultural communication. I have listed the order of importance to myself as it relates to intercultural communication.

Angela K. Y. Leung (2011) singles out two obstacles in the intercultural communication which are the most major and common among people. First of them is an obstacle called Person-Level Obstacle. It describes that there are two types of people. There are people who has no problem while communication with people from other culture and they are curious about them and have no problems with communication however, the group of people who has problems while having a contact with people with other values, beliefs and from other culture is bigger. Those people often feel distressed and anxious. Some of people may even experience a cultural shock when it comes to the meeting (A. K. Y Leung, 2011), (p. 245). It happens because both of them possesses different beliefs, values, behaviours and even gestures. Another obstacle is close-mindedness. According to Leung (2011), “People who are open to experience have a predisposition to learn from new cultural experiences and engage in intercultural interactions”. Those people are curious about people from different culture, they would like to know it, but there are also people “with low levels of openness” and they “may find encountering foreign cultures to be overwhelming, shocking and even threathening” (A.

The world today is characterized by an ever growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In the process of globalization, the relationship between people differ racially, ethnically, nationally, and regionally. These groups become such a normative thing and seen as a good sign of a process of integration and social diversity. It is important for one to experience intercultural communication. It can help society grow in knowing different elements of different cultures. It can help create a positive awareness of our own and others cultures, by being able to observe similarities and differences in cultural behaviors, attitudes, and experiences. I have recently been able to experience intercultural communication with Central Washington University’s AUAP students. Once a week I would go into an AUAP classroom and help them with the classroom activities. This experience allowed me to get over my uncertainty avoidance and self- disclose information with the AUAP students in order to connect with them more. Before going into the classroom, I was very anxious and uncertain of what might happen during my time with the students. After I met them I felt more reassured that they were very nice and it was going to be a good experience for me to volunteer in their classroom. This then led to self- disclosed information being exchanged between the AUAP students and myself. After some information was disclosed

Communication is unquestionably one of the most critical skills to refine. Communicating effectively and clearly in your own environment and comfort zone is challenging enough, and even more critical and challenging in an exponentially different culture. In this age of cultural diversity and Globalization is being able to communicate in the face of cultural diversity plays a more important than ever. Today in this essay I try to elucidate how cross cultural differences in communication can play havoc in our professional and personal life.

Ethnicity—a term that is used to refer to a wide variety of groups who might share a language, historical origin, religion, identification with a common nation-state, or cultural system

A culture’s context can basically be described as the background or environment, along with surrounding circumstances, in which professional communication takes place, and can be broken down in to two more specific categories known as low-context and high-context. “Low-context cultures tend to be logical, analytical, and action oriented” (Guffey, 2014, p.89). These types of cultures tend to prefer clear and concise information and do not consider looking at non-verbal cues, relationships, or the setting when communicating. High-context cultures are the complete opposite of low-context and focus more on “interpersonal relationships, nonverbal expression, physical setting, and social setting” (Guffey, 2014,

Global business, the bread and butter of several of today's emerging enterprises, brings executives into head to head contact with other executives of completely diverse cultural backgrounds. It has become obvious that individuals of different cultures are having additional issues communicating efficiently than they are with those from identical cultures.

Lack of intercultural communication leads to the difficulties in aspects of business negotiations, managing conflicts and expressing disagreement. The proper usage of intercultural communication should be maintained for further decision making and growing the business internationally. The goal is to attain

Trade and communication are no longer constrained by the physical boundaries of the country in which an organization is located in. Instead, goods, information and services easily flow across national borders in a way that was not imaginable only a few decades ago. This ease of communication and trade resulted in corporations relying less on their domestic or regional marketplace, and expanding internationally to take advantage of attractive economic opportunities in other countries and the international environment (SHRM, 2015). Due to the rise of international trade and transnational corporations the average manager now communicates with vendors, employees and businesspeople in multiple countries on a daily basis. This level of global communication between individuals, requires management to display a greater level of understanding, cultural awareness and sensitivity in order for communication to be effective. Unfortunately, many managers and organizations underestimate or ignore the barriers that culture and language create when trying to communicate in a global or multi-national setting. In doing so managers are unable to communicate effectively with the broad range of cultures represented in today’s workplaces. This decreases organizations’ ability to operate on the global business stage as well communicate and function internally effectively.

Generally culture involves the collectively held values, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions and norms of behavior that distinguish a people, group or society. Whereas communication involves the sending and receiving of information which has meaning from the source to the receiver and obtains feedback. Therefore collectively, intercultural communication involves the interaction amongst people and the transference of information from one