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 their personal experiences in relation to prejudice and discrimination.
Typically, the opportunity of sharing real-life experiences of others has a natural tendency to increase intercultural sensitivity through several different mechanisms: by personalizing general perceptions, by allowing individuals from different groups to consider things from the perspectives of other groups, by appreciating some of the specific experiences of others in relation to discrimination and prejudices, and by demonstrating the commonalities between members of different social groups (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2003; Blair, 2003). More focused methods of reducing communications barriers in the workplace involve specific guided discussions in which individual members...
Intercultural Communications -- Definitions -- In its most basic form, multicultural communication is a way of understanding how people from different cultures communicate, behave, and perceive the world. One scholar defines it as the "interpersonal interaction between members of different groups, which differ from each other in respect to the knowledge shared by their members and in respect of their linguistic forms of symbolic behavior" (Knapp in What is Intercultural
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
Some cultures are overtly emotional, while there are others which believe in keeping emotions concealed, or only reveal them to a "rational" degree. Naturally such differences often lead to problems. Following are two examples from international diplomacy, cited by the University of Colorado's Conflict Research Consortium, which illustrate that lack of awareness of a certain culture and its values can result in longstanding misunderstandings, whereas accommodating cultural differences and
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
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
In addition to vocabulary shaped by environment, different languages also develop arbitrary differences in idiomatic expression. For just one example, modern Hebrew has a word pronounced "dafkuh" that does not translate directly into English. It is used to denote "just at that time," or "exactly that person," or "that very day" in a manner that suggests either irony, coincidence, misfortune, or even sarcasm, in the following manner: "I knew someone
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