Intercultural Communication in the Workplace:
As the world continues to experience globalization because of the numerous technological advancements, intercultural communication has become an important element in today's working environments. Intercultural communication is critical because workplaces are currently made up of people from diverse backgrounds, races, ethnicity, and cultures. Therefore, understanding intercultural competence and communication is vital since it helps in promoting effective communication in the workplace. Such understanding also helps in dealing with various intercultural issues that may arise in the working environment from time to time. When the intercultural communication issues are dealt with in the workplace, the organization enhances effective communication.
Description of Intercultural Communication Issue:
Intercultural communication is an important aspect for organizations and companies that are involved in international businesses. These companies need to consider the complexities of intercultural communication as part of enhancing effective communication and productivity. Some of the major ways for such firms to consider intercultural communication difficulties include knowledge of potential customers and understanding the cultural influences of these customers ("Intercultural Communication," 2007). These two factors are critical before the organization can make these potential customers its actual customers. This is primarily because the failure to understand the cultural differences between the organization and its global customers can result in the failure of its business even before it gets started.
As examples of an intercultural communication issue between a company and its customers is Disney. The firm was quite successful in opening theme parks in Japan and the United States to an extent that it assumed...
He must instead keep aware of the accepted verbal and nonverbal communication gestures of other cultures. He should break out of the habit of preferring or revering his own verbal and non-verbal communication over those of others. Cultural relativism views all cultural practices as good. But unlike cultural relativism, effective intercultural communication does not state that al cultural practices as good. Rather the effective intercultural communicator exerts efforts to
Intercultural Communication When people from different cultural backgrounds interact with each other, they face various problems in effectively communicating their messages and expressing their thoughts, expectations, and beliefs (Paulston, Kiesling, & Rangel, 2012). These problems lead to serious intercultural communication issues in multicultural societies. Researchers have found that difference in languages is not the sole reason of intercultural communication problems; people fail to effectively communicate due to different cultural dimensions that
Within my team of Americans are several African-Americans and three Latinos. In the book Intercultural Communication: A Reader (Samovar, et al., 2008) the authors point out what scholars, sociologists and alert journalists have known for a long time: "…Although Latinos are generally aware of the Black experience, there is little understanding of Black culture. Equally problematic is the lack of awareness among Blacks about Latino culture" (Samovar, p. 183). Albeit
3. Diagnosis The previously presented situation can be analyzed from two different standpoints, also perceived as communication norms. On the one hand, there is the language barrier which can easily come between representatives of different nationalities. In this order of ideas, Anrai Brogan was an Irish of Gaelic descent, born and brought up in the old tradition. Even the native language he spoke bore little resemblance to the Irish language, as
Mixed working groups naturally promote better mutual understanding and can often reduce biases and negative expectations such as those attributable to ethnocentrism and prejudices (Blair, 2003). More active methods of reducing discrimination and stereotyping include practical group demonstrations led by experienced counselors and organized discussion groups (Myers & Spencer, 2004). Specifically, organized discussion groups provide an opportunity for members of different social groups to raise their concerns and to express
Q5. How will you deal with others in your workplace who feel they have no biases but you are aware that they do? I think that sensitivity training and diversity education should be mandatory components of all workplaces. This type of training should include self-administered questionnaires like the HIAT to raise awareness about the commonness of prejudice and also role-playing and discussions about different assumptions and communication styles. I should note
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