Communication at its most basic form of a sender, the message and the receiver with some noise or distractions formulating between the sender and receiver and often times it is difficult to perform this action in a normal office setting. This could be for a number of reasons such as fax machines, incoming email or text messages or other conversations nearby. On a global scale this simple process snowballs into a giant interwoven ball of challenges.
In order to communicate with another culture we must understand both verbal and nonverbal variables. While verbal differences are readily apparent, some countries place more significance on it than others. Non-verbal and challenges are not. These include: “attitudes, stereotype, social organization, thought patterns, roles in society, space and time sense” are listed by Samovar and Porter (Moran, Harris and Moran, 2011)
In his article, Culture in Business Communication, Morgan Rush states: “Culture directly affects business communication, both verbal and nonverbal. Some cultures, including Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany, place high significance to the words actually spoken. Other cultures, including Japan and Arab cultures, still place significance on the spoken word, but also place great significance on the context of the conversation. Silence carries significance in all cultures, and this might be interpreted in different ways during cross-cultural business meetings.
With so many variables between countries working together in a global business partnership it is amazing communication can happen effectively. In order to be successful in cultural communication we must revert back to first understanding the culture of the people we are communicating with. “By assessing in advance the roles these variables play in business communication, one can improve one’s ability to convey those messages effectively to an audience from a different culture. As they, provide an underlying foundation on which one can construct a framework for understanding the businesspeople from other cultures.”(Victor, n.d.) In other words effective communication goes back to the old adage of public speaking ….. know your audience!
References:
Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., & Moran , S. V. (2011). Managing Cultural Differences. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Rush, Morgan, 2015, Culture in Business Communication Retrieved from:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/culture-business-communication-2922.html
Victor, David A, N. D. , CROSS-CULTURAL/INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION retrieved from: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Cos-Des/Cross-Cultural-International-Communication.html#ixzz3RG2b2d3A
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