BUSINESS COMMUNICATION- 6
Unit-1
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After attending the lecture and going through the
study material, students should be able to:
LO1: Understand the meaning of culture and
cultural differences in the way people
communicate.
LO2: Anticipate, prevent and manage cross-
cultural conflict.
LO3: Understand dimensions of culture and
cultural iceberg concept.
Introduction to Cross Cultural
Communication
• Communication can be difficult even when there isn’t a language
barrier.
• For example, diverse workforces at global companies often struggle
to address cultural assumptions during conversations in person or
via employee communications platforms. So, it isn’t enough to just
get your point across effectively. You have to truly understand cross-
cultural communication for efficient collaboration and business
success.
• To fully understand cross-cultural communication or intercultural
communication, you should probably know what culture is.
According to communication theory, culture is the social behavior
and norms throughout societies, consisting of the values, beliefs,
and systems of language and communication.
Cross-cultural Communication
Often referred to as intercultural
communication, cross-cultural
communication is the study of how
verbal and nonverbal communication
takes place among individuals from
different backgrounds, geographies,
and cultures.
As you can see, the definition is very
straightforward, but learning how to
implement cross-cultural
communication into your career is not
as black and white.
Importance of cross-cultural communication
• Companies with multicultural environments must focus on cross-cultural
communication skills to create a positive work culture. With thoughtful
cross-cultural communication, you can eliminate miscommunication and
foster strong relationships with people from diverse backgrounds. This
respectful multicultural communication enables every stakeholder to
benefit from the free exchange of information.
• Strong intercultural communication can also help companies uncover
opportunities and fuel business growth. For example, employees from
different cultural backgrounds and age groups can share unique insights
about their generations' consumer behavior, preferences, and habits.
Their understanding of the target market can help you fuel business
growth across markets.
• Embracing cultural differences also helps you improve engagement
among employees from different countries and reduce churn.
Elements of cross-cultural communication
Understanding these three elements is key to effective cross-cultural
communication.
• Language: Many find verbal communication intriguing in a
setting with people from different cultures. A conversational level
of fluency makes it easier to overcome these language barriers.
• Cultural norms: Communications styles may change depending
on whether someone is from a high-context or low-context
culture.
• Nonverbal communication: While some may easily
communicate with eye contact or facial expressions, others may
not. Also, certain hand gestures may have different meanings
across cultural groups.
Cross-cultural communication examples
Cross-cultural situations can take different shapes. Effective communication
strategies often address the barriers created by factors like:
• Language: People can speak in completely different languages or regional
dialects of the same language. For example, American and British English
can be very different in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, and phrasal
verb usage.
• Cultural norms: Apart from language differences, every culture follows
different behavioral rules. For example, you’d do a firm handshake in
Germany as opposed to bowing in Japan.
• Age: Team members from different generations can have different points
of view according to their perceptions and worldviews.
• Education: People from different countries may have preconceptions
about different education levels.
• Business communication style: Business executives from different
cultures may have different preferences while communicating in a work
environment.
Common causes of Miscommunication in cross-cultural exchanges:
• Assumption of similarities: We often assume that the way we behave is the
norm accepted by all. When someone behaves differently, we have a negative
view of them.
• Language differences: Even if you speak the same language, words can have
different meanings in different cultures or countries.
• Nonverbal misinterpretation: Not all gestures have the same meaning across
cultures.
• Stereotypes: Stereotyping involves creating pre-defined images based on how we
think others should be. The preconceived notion of stereotyping is often at the
root of unconscious biases in workplaces.
• Evaluation tendency: People often judge others' behaviors through the lenses of
their own culture without considering the underlying reasons for their behavior.
• High anxiety: Two persons unaware of each other’s cultural differences often get
anxious as they aren’t sure about the best way to communicate with the other
person.
The Cultural Iceberg
