Intercultural Communication in the Workplace Paper

Bowe, H. J. & Martin, K. (2007). Communication across cultures: Mutual understanding in a global world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This text is a good reference point. This text is used to understanding communication within culture. This source also gave a better understanding

The theorist of intercultural communication that could help solve the problem with communication with the United States and Mexico can come from different fields such as psychology, anthropology, and sociology (Chen & Starosta, 2000). It has been numerous theories use to help intercultural communication to primarily focused on the adjustment, adaptation, and research on each country (Huntington, 2005).

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

Culture in the workplace can be a barrier that obstructs the good communication between people with different backgrounds. The main challenge that people face is language. This is because it is a very complex thing, and misuse of one word can change the meaning of the message. Also, hostile stereotypes can affect communication because the stereotypes only create a barrier of characteristics towards other people that prevents to have a good interaction. Behavior differences is also an obstacle to communication, this is because the cultures have guidelines of what is considered appropriate for their society. On the other hand, the demonstration of emotions is also considered a challenge, because what for some cultures is appropriate for others

In the current era of globalization, the new economic and political reforms has made it evident and clear that leaders of organization not only need to build trans- global competence, but there is also a need to build cross cultural competence. Cross- cultural competences is known to be enhancement of flexibility and awareness for having the capability and ability for thriving and surviving across the global era as a business organizations (Jonsen, 2010).

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

In this ever-changing world, we have experience a rapid growth in globalization. From Americans working in foreign countries, to foreign exchange students, we have seen an abundance of inter-cultural work places or interactions in the past few years. Individuals are often not prepared for these new cultural experiences. This paper will discuss cultural sensitivity, and how the lack of understanding of difference can hinder

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

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

Abstract The ability of managers to interact with individuals from cultures other than their own, requires a concerted effort on the part of business educators and academics to ‘train’ and ‘educate’ today’s students and tomorrow’s managers in the area cross-cultural communication. This is not necessarily an easy task. Teaching cross-cultural communication requires a multidisciplinary approach, which goes beyond what is traditionally offered by trainers and educators. It requires the educator to design a course that includes not only culture-general but also

4. Understanding intercultural communication in interpersonal communication, greatly influence the way one delivers a message. For example, before one delivers a message, they have to take into consideration the receivers culture and whether it is high- or low- context. Knowing the difference between high- and low- context cultures is important. High-context cultures are collectivist cultures, and low-context cultures are individualistic cultures. Collectivist cultures believe that the group’s goals are more important, an individual’s success is determined by the amount of cooperation and contribution towards the group. Individualistic cultures believe that the individual’s goals are more important, and that person’s success is determined on exceeding others.

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.

Organization wants to achieve the objectives of sustained growth and increased profitability, organization must constant innovation its product or service, also need to carry out some plans to expand its business to enable an organization to have a better development. Organization expands its business cannot be confined to the domestic market must also move abroad, which effectively allows an organization closer to the global market and broadening the scope of business and profitability. However, business expansion is not as easy in this global environment, globalization has not only changed the enterprise competitive landscape also influence the way leaders conduct business (Caligiuri, 2006). Furthermore, with globalization, global leadership in terms of cultural knowledge needed to become more acute and require more advanced level of cognitive ability on the complexity of managing the demand of multiple cultures while completing managerial tasks (Caligiuri, 2006, Grosse, 2011). Therefore, the development of global management skills is very important for the global organizations and managers. Only effective in developing global management skills can help the organization reduce the risk of international business

The world offers significant business opportunities for every company, however, opportunities are accompanied by significant challenges for managers. Managing global operations across diverse cultures and markets represents a big challenge and opportunity for companies. To compete in the global market and be successful, companies must learn the strategies, policies, norms and technology necessary to conduct international business. The opportunities for global expansion are numerous, and attaining success is a matter of developing the right strategy to win local markets and its consumers.