Communicating in a World of Diversity

Opportunities and Challenges of Intercultural Communication

Opportunities in a Global Marketplace
 Thanks to communication and transportation technologies, natural boundaries and national borders are no longer the impassable barriers they once were.Local markets are opening to worldwide competition as businesses of all sizes look for new growth opportunities outside their own countries.
FACTS: 

• Thousands of U.S. business rely on exports for significant portions of revenue.

• These companies export hundreds of billions of dollars worth of materials and merchandise, along with billions more in personal and professional services.
• Of the top 10 export markets for U.S. products, only two, Canada and Great Britain speak English as an official language.

Advantages of a Diverse Workforce
• Even if you never visit another country or transact business on a global scale, you will interact with colleagues from a variety of cultures, with a wide range of characteristics and life experiences. 
• Diversity is simply a fact of life for all companies

"More diverse teams tend to be more innovative over the long term than more homogeneous teams"

 -IBM's Ron Glover

Challenges of Intercultural Communication

• Today's increasingly diverse workforce encompasses a wide range of skills, traditions, backgrounds, experiences, outlooks, and attitudes toward work, all of which can affect communication in the workplace.

• Culture influences everything about communication, including:

1. Language
2. Nonverbal signals
3. Word meaning
4. Time and space issues
5. Rules of human relationships

• The interaction of culture and communication is so pervasive that separating the two is virtually impossible. The greater the difference between cultures, the greater the chance for misunderstanding.

Example:  The American-made movie Hollywood Buddha was advertised with posters showing the star of the movie sitting on the head of a statue of Buddha:

Such a depiction may have few spiritual implications for non-Buddhists, but it was a serious insult to many Buddhists - so much so that Buddhists in a number of countries took to the streets in protest.

Enhancing Your Sensitivity to Culture and Diversity

The Concept of Culture

• Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior. Your cultural background influences the way you prioritize what is important in life, helps define your attitude toward what is appropriate in a situation, and establishes rules of behavior.

• You belong to several cultures, each of which affects the way you communicate.

• Learning culture directly: you are explicitly told which behaviors are acceptable.

• Learning culture indirectly: you learn by observing which values work best in a particular group.

Overcoming Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping

Ethnocentrism: The tendency to judge other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one's own group.

Xenophobia: A fear of strangers and foreigners.

• Distorted views of other cultures or groups also result from stereotyping, assigning a wide range of generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular culture or social group.

Cultural Pluralism: The practice of accepting multiple cultures on their own terms.

Three habits to help adapt to new cultures:

1. Avoid Assumptions. Don't assume that others will act the same way you do, use language and symbols the same way you do, or even operate from the same values and beliefs.
2. Avoid Judgments. When people act differently, don't conclude that they are in error or that their way is invalid or inferior.
3. Acknowledge Distinctions. Don't ignore the differences between another person's culture and your own.

Recognizing Variations in a Diverse World

Contextual Differences

Cultural Context: A pattern of physical cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that conveys meaning between members of the same culture.
High-Context Culture: People rely heavily on nonverbal actions and environmental setting to convey meaning.
Low-Context Culture: People rely more on explicit verbal communication.


Legal and Ethical Differences

• Making ethical choices across cultures can seem complicated, but you can keep your messages ethical by applying four basic principles:

1. Actively seek mutual ground. To allow the clearest possible exchange of information, both parties must be flexible and avoid insisting that an interaction take place strictly in terms of one culture or another.
2. Send and receive messages without judgment. To allow information to flow freely, both parties must recognize that values vary from culture to culture, and they must trust each other.
3. Send messages that are honest. To ensure that information is true, both parties must see things as they are - not as they would like them to be.
4. Show respect for cultural differences. To protect the basic human rights of both parties, each must understand the other's needs.

Social Differences
• Social norms can vary from culture to culture in the following areas:

1. Attitudes towards work and success
2. Roles and status
3. Use of manners
4. Concepts of time
5. Future orientation
6. Openness and inclusiveness

Nonverbal Differences
When you have the opportunity to interact with people in another culture, the best advice is to study the culture in advance and then observe the way people behave in the following areas:

1. Greetings
2. Personal space
3. Touching
4. Facial expressions
5. Eye contact
6. Posture
7. Formality  

Want to be more competitive when doing business across borders? Executive Planet offers quick introductions to expected business practices in a number of countries, from setting up appointments to giving gifts to negotiating deals. Visit: www.executiveplanet.com.