Challenges Of Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is unavoidable as a result of globalisation. Today’s classroom, business and community is characterised by communication with other cultures. With the rapid technological advancement, whatever written theses days might be read by a person from a different culture. Being culturally sensitive is significant in any professional field and in consequence knowing how to communicate with other cultures became an essential skill that attention should be drawn to.

It is not that easy to define culture even thought that it defines how people come in contact with the world around them. Culture is the ideas, values, customs, and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society. People within the group often identify

Businesses are becoming more diverse in terms of employees and clients, and service providers (including media) are dealing with a more diverse audience. Cultural sensitivity in communication becomes of great import, assists in improving the productiveness of communication, creates better relationships, advances team work and creates an environment of mutual respect. In a time of intense global competition where people coming from various cultures are customers, competitors, and employees, teams with a mixture of gender, racial and ethnic backgrounds produce multidimensional and innovative

In a global, diverse world we live in today, organizations and individuals must learn to adjust to a range of cultural differences. What a culture might perceive as an ethical behavior, another culture may not. Actions that are misunderstood and mismanaged when it comes to ethical conduct in question may lead to legal problems for organisations and individuals. To stay away from highly priced lawsuits, organizations need to invest in time and resources to provide training on cultural sensitivity and ethical decision-making. Both ethics and cultural sensetivity should be top priorities for developing and managing individuals that work effectively within an organisation’s culture. Successfully starting with knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity and sensitivity, as well as educating individuals withing, will create a more proactive future for the organization.

It’s important to consider the audience when deciding on the content of instructing cultural sensitivity. One of the main issues experienced in cultural sensitivity instruction provided by organizations is that they mainly target one group. Cultural sensitivity rarely include the topic of ethics, which are affected by culture, value, faith, education, race and economic influences. Many of these cultural sensitivity awareness strategies focus their attention on acknowledging and accepting cultural differences, but not embracing ethical