Overcoming Cross Cultural Differences Of Communication

     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).

Alberts, Martin and Nakayama (2011) describe communication as “ a transactional process in which people generate meaning through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages in in specific contexts, influenced by individual and societal forces and embedded in culture.”(p.7) They then go on to state that intercultural communication “occurs in interactions between people who are culturally different.”(p.122) Cultural differences thus affect many interactions, with the communication process being one.

The organization I have chosen is NEA (National Education Association) that deals with communicating cross-cultural and what teachers should know about diversity. The Website address is http://iteslj.org/Articles/Pratt-Johnson-CrossCultural.html which is found in the NEA link. The article explains the need for educators in terms of culturally responsive and competent as schools and classrooms become increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse. The article highlights five important points of cultural difference with which all teachers should be aware when teaching students of diverse backgrounds. These five points are ways of knowing, ways of solving problems, ways of communicating nonverbally, ways of learning, and ways of dealing

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

Interpersonal communication held great prominence in daily human interactions, as it was a path to building a relationship and exchanging ideas and feelings. Although achieving a more effective communication would be the goal, there was no single answer to this pursue. A certain style of communication could be evaluated differently under various circumstances or in distinct cultures. Therefore, examining and reflecting on how one’s culture impacted each area that contribute to interpersonal communication was essential to gain a better understanding with cognitive complexity.

Write an essay about the social context of communication and how cultural influences shape how people communicate with each other

Today, we are going to discuss and review How to Communicate Effectively in Cross-Cultural Communication.

¡°The moon is a rocky physical sphere that orbits the Earth; yet when looking at this object, many Americans often see a man in the moon, many Native Americans perceive a rabbit, Chinese claim a lady is fleeing her husband, and Samoans report a woman weaving¡±(Samovar 56). For Americans, a ¡°V¡± sign made with two fingers usually represents victory. Australians equate this gesture with a rude American gesture usually made with the middle finger. Most Asians respond negatively to white flowers because white is associated with death. For Peruvians, Iranians, and Mexicans, yellow flowers often invoke the same reaction. In these three examples, the external objects (moons, hands, flowers) were

Culture inevitably influences the needs and desires of consumers of particular countries and socialized groups, consequently, businesses, in order to succeed have to be aware of cultural interests and target their products and operations to cultural demands. Succeeding necessitates knowing the factors that crisscross with the other culture and understanding the other culture's practices in regards to these factors. It also requires an understanding of ethical practices of the other culture as well as their communication style amongst other factors. The business wishes to win customer trust and this too, hinges, on cultural constructs. In short, the goal of standardization has given place to mastery of cross-cultural communication. This is the challenge for the American corporation that does business on a global scale.

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 today’s world, globalization is rapidly dominating and mobilizing multicultural interactions among leaders (Bücker & Poutsma, 2010). The Eurocentric Germanizing authoritative leadership approach is no longer dominating in a colorful society of people (NewsBlaze, 2007). As globalization comes into realization, more and more people of various gender, race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, and even disability will continue to change the course of leadership (Nahavandi, 2014; NewsBlaze, 2007). Successful leaders are challenged to adapt new methods to seek out effective communication and address every human being with compassion and empathy (Harvard Business Review, 2011).

This essay is about an Australian independent girl Emily who wishes to expand her business in Japan. So, she decided to meet Mr. Hamasaki 55 year old single Japanese man who is the manager of the popular store in Japan. Where Emily is not sure how to conduct business with Japanese and what are the things need to be considered during a first meeting. In this case, Emily is facing the intercultural communication differences. Communication is most important quality to work for anyone in the international society. Therefore, Hosfstede’s dimension is used to advise her. Culture communication style are analysed in terms of its own values and practices and also when two different cultures have both similarities and differences in terms of interact it occurs a intercultural communication which involves interpreting what is occurring at the point when communication is taking place (Varner & Beamer 2010). Intercultural communication can be defined as “the differences between the global understanding of cultures and changes in conflicts and ideologies” (Eunson, Baden 2016, p.528).

"We didn 't all come over on the same ship, but we 're all in the same boat."- Bernard Baruch

Culture is a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a society, a country or a group. According to Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, organizational theorists and authors in the field of cross-cultural communication, “Culture is a shared system of meanings. It dictates what we pay attention to, how we act, and what we value.” (Trompenaars, 17) Culture is “observable” through language, living environments, governing institutions, food and material goods, the arts and literature, and religion of a particular group or society. Culture also reflects the norms and values of a group and directs their behavior. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner also believe a culture is distinguished by the way in which it “solves problems” and “reconciles dilemmas.” (Trompenaars, 8-9) A culture has to find ways deal with its external environment and has to determine how to effectively use available resources.

Competence in cross-cultural communication and understanding cultural differences is becoming more crucial in today’s society. Technology is advancing in a rapid pace and is allowing more opportunities in migration therefore existing countries has never had so much to do with each other until today. As a result of becoming inter-connected, global business is progressing rapidly. Majority of countries are participating in global business transactions, international alliances and multinational joint ventures. However, recent studies suggest that these organizations often find failure as a result of poor cross-cultural communication. Researches have analyzed the aspects of effective cross-cultural communication, how it affects business communication and why the communication is ineffective when it is.