Cross-Cultural Communication
Introduction
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).
My research is focused on the problems associated with cross-cultural communication and how awareness of culture, language, tradition, and business practices can increase the advantages to globalization. This report will be field specific in the International Beverage industry with my interviews focusing on the communication relationships between H.P. Bulmers, Ireland, which recently decided to move into the United States. I choose this focus due to interest in working in this industry after college, and because I plan to study abroad in Galway, Ireland in the future. I plan to outline the major issues that companies must address when dealing with different countries, and then I will create an action plan to help companies solve their communication issues.
Methods:
For my interview I decided that I would present both sides of a cross-cultural business relationship. To accomplish this I will first interview Mark Woodard, my father, who is Head of Operations in the United States, for H.P. Bulmers. Next, I will interview John Keyo, the President of Operations in Ireland for a unique examination of European communication. With both interviewees my questions focus on the problems that have developed in the past 2 years since H.P. Bulmers first began communication with the United States. Additionally, with Mr. Keyo my focus is extended to discover if he has experienced any sense of “American arrogance” during his communication.
My library research is focused on discovering different success and failures of companies in the past, and to figure out the causes. With this information I will be able to highlight the main problems areas for international communication, and focus on how these issues can be avoided in the future.
Findings:
“Learning international business practices and customs, communicating clearly and effectively… are crucial ...
... middle of paper ...
...e time it takes to ship product across the Atlantic, there must be constant communication between the United States and Ireland to ensure that there is never a shortage of product. A company can lose even a loyal customer if the individual is not able to find their favorite brand and is forced to turn to alternatives. My main focus with this interview will be how my father meets the challenge of communication with the different individuals and how this has changed with respect to the changes in technology.
Citations
1. Arnold, Mitchell D. (1998). Building a truly World Wide Web: a review of the essentials of international communication, v45 n2, 197-207.
2. Burgi, Andreas., & Lichtenberger, Bianka. (1998). Walking the tightrope. (management of international business enterprises). SwissWORLD, i6, 38(2).
3. Jana, Reena.(2000). Doing a double take - IT professionals who work abroad often need to re-examine their communication skills, business practices -- and retool. InfoWorld, v22 i7, 100-105.
4. Zaharn,a R.S. (2001). "In-awareness" approach to international public relations. Public Relations Review, v27 i2 135-152.
5. (M.A. Woodard, interview, March 6, 2002)
The short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, deals with the subject of adultery. The story takes place in the early 1900’s. There are two main characters, Calixta (the wife) and Alcee (the former lover). Alcee must take refuge from a passing storm in Calixta’s house, while he is there the two end up making love while Calixta’s husband and son have to wait out the storm at the local store. By doing this Chopin implies the theme that is, adultery is natural and does not necessarily have negative consequences. Through out the story the constant changing of imagery plays a great role in the development of characters and their ability to demonstrate the theme.
Hill, C.W.L (2005). International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace (5th ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin. New York, NY
Understanding the impact of globalization on cross-culture communication is imperative for organizations seeking to create a competitive advantage in the global market. Regional, ethnic, and religious cultures account for differences with countries; ethnic and religious groups often transcend political country borders. These groups form minorities at the crossroads between the dominant culture of the nation and their own traditional group culture (Hofstede, et., al, 2010). An effective global leader, when crossing country and cultural borders a transformation should occur asking ourselves, who we are and how we see ourselves. Global businesses must understand how to communicate with employees and customers from different cultures in order to fulfill the organization’s mission and build value for stakeholders (McCall & Hollenbeck, 2002). To achieve goals and avoid cultural misunderstandings, leaders should and need to be culturally sensitive and promote creativity and motivation through flexible leadership. Cross-culture leaders should be culturally sensitive and promote creativity and motivation through flexible
In today’s society many American companies are becoming globalized and are turning to contracting outside of the U.S. as a way to gain economic advantages. However, the globalized world does face challenges just as non-globalized businesses. Some of these challenges include socio-cultural views, values, ethics, etc. Thus, the case study of Hunter-Worth will help me to understand how socio-cultural differences create problems that influence globalized companies and their management. An example of socio-cultural differences this paper will focus on is communication. There are many barriers to communication and these barriers may occur at any period in the communication process. Communication barriers may lead to messages to becoming unclear and therefore jeopardize wasting both time and/or money by causing uncertainty and misunderstanding that could spiral into something much bigger. Consequently, I will be able to identify my personal assessment of communication apprehension to this case study to learn how to effectively communicate with people from a variety of cultures.
The assigned chapters for the final week of Communication for Leadership discussed the importance of international communications and effective external relations. Chapter 13 discussed how leaders should communicate with their employees. This chapter also gives insight on how to strengthen internal communication within the workplace. According to the text, “Good internal communication enables the smooth operation of the organization when interwoven seamlessly into all other processes of the organization” (Barrett, D., 2014). Good internal communication is effective in the workplace prevents any issues that may arise from non-communication.
The client should be honest with the counselor, discuss concerns, and listen to the counselor. I would expect students to trust in their abilities to make their own choices get in touch with their feelings. I believe client roles are resourceful in helping people take more responsibility for their lives and solve their own problems. I believe the client is fully capable of fulfilling their own potential for growth.
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.
Daniels, J. D., Radebaugh, L. H., & Sullivan, D. P. (2011). International Business (Environments and Operation. (13ed.). Prentice Hall.
Many people who go to visit or work in another country suffer some misunderstanding from the local people, because they have a different culture. Different culture will cause disparity points of view about almost everything. In the article, Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks by Laray M. Barna, there are five stumbling blocks mentioned that are seen in a cross-culture communication. These blocks are: language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, the tendency to evaluate and high anxiety. Barna wants to use these stumbling blocks to show the common blockades between different cultures. I agree with what she thinks about the language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, and the tendency
With an increase in globalization, many people venture into other countries to seek employment and education opportunities. The United States-based corporations employ over 100 million overseas workers. They also hire a large number of locals who then move to take roles in other countries where the company has operations (Reichard et al. 2015). This means that Americans are exposed to a high number of people from other nations with diverse cultures in their workplaces, schools, neighborhoods and other social places. Therefore, people need to improve their intercultural communication skills to enable them to interact efficiently with people with diverse cultures. The improvement of technology has made the media an agent for enhanced
Yeomans, L. (2009) Internal communication, in Tench, R., and Yeomans, L. (2009) Exploring public relations, 2nd Ed., Financial Times/Prentice Hall, pp. 317-337
Ball, DA, McCulloch, WH, Frantz, PL, Geringer, JM & Minor, MS (2001) International business: The challenge of global competition, 8th Edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin
It is essential to encourage cultural and personal systems of language metaphors, worldviews and meanings in the present diversified workplace. Intercultural communication has aroused great interest in scholars over the years and some empirical studies have been done on the same. However, authors have varied perspectives and emphasis on intercultural communication. Most clashes in perspectives evolve around methodology or the question of the way to study this phenomenon. To have a balanced view of the issue, it is important to read from various authors and this paper has attempted to do so. However there is more research needed on the effect of technology on intercultural communication especially communication via Internet.
Daniels, J. D., Radebaugh, L. H., and Sullivan, D. P., (2011). International Business: Environments and Operations. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Stonehouse, G., Campbell, D., Hamill, J. & Purdie, T. (2004). Global and Transnational Business (2nd ed.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.