Chapter 1 Intercultural Awareness A Focal Point for Business Communication Changing Nature of Business o Getting more international need to understand in a global context o Steadily growing minority classes within the U S Recognizing the Meaning of Culture o Definition coherent learned shared view of a group of people about life s concerns that ranks what is important furnishes attitudes about what things are appropriate and dictates behavior o Attitudes Behaviors and Values give the foundation of culture Values Shape beliefs Judge morality and assess competence Common Errors in Intercultural Business o Impossible to memorize a full list of do s and don ts when practicing for international business must instead learn the why behind the behavior o People like to assume that were all pretty much the same deep down this process called projected cognitive similarity is very dangerous to business o Generalizations Benefits good starting place Disadvantages if we look at generalizations too narrowly they become a stereotype point of view see below o Stereotype mental representations of other peoples cultures that fit into specific pre judged behavioral patterns Can be dangerous leads to assumptions and overly generalizing an entire Use a prototype approach instead culture Culture will prototypically include exceptions to the rule Allows some initial thoughts based on stereotypes but keeps interpretation flexible leaving room for differences between individuals High Context and Low Context Cultures o Provides useful and logical means of examining cultural differences o Context the situation of the communication not necessarily the words spoken Setting Environmental Gestures Rank of people communicating Any other nonverbal communication Time of day o High Context rely on the context of the message to relay a majority of the important information Establish social trust first Value personal relations and goodwill Agreement by general trust Slow and ritualistic negotiation Much more subtle South and Central America Africa Southern Europe Middle East and Asia Message is behind what is spoken Do not trust language as much as the unspoken things Pays attention to the smaller details o Low Context rely on the words spoken in a message to deliver and understand the communicated information straightforward gets down to business first Expect all important content to be delivered directly via language very Value expertise and performance Agreement by specific legalistic contract Negotiations are as efficient as possible United States Canada New Zealand Australia and most of Northern Europe Say what they mean and mean what they say o Hierarchal vs Egalitarian Culture Hierarchal makes for more difficult communications across the class boundaries because some people have more power than others and speaking up down the power chain can be difficult How Language Plays a Part in Intercultural Business Communication o An individual might be fluent in language but not necessarily the culture thus the two concepts are intertwined and interdependent o The Meaning of Words False cognates Many words are spelled the same way in different languages but mean very different things Similar sounding syllables Words might sound similar in pronunciation despite highly different Coca Cola in China sounds like their phrase kekou kele which means meanings to bite the wax tadpole Words can have varying differences of meaning when translated from one language to another o Choosing the Company s Language depends on where business is being conducted and what type of staff the company employs Ethnocentric Staffing primary language used for international business will be the same no matter of the location of its offices All managers at different locations of office hired from the same home country Different managers would need to know the host country s language or rely on interpreters or translators Was a long time norm but gradual changes have led this method to be seen as insensitive to other cultures Managers are hired from their host countries Matches up the theory that local managers will do a better job understanding and accessing the needs of the local workforce Different languages between branches and management can cause inter firm communication issues Polycentric Staffing Geocentric Staffing Most idealistic approach Requires that person hired as manager in the headquarters or subsidiary location be the best person for the job regardless of national cultural or linguistic background Official Company Language All written and oral communication within the company done primarily in this language English is unofficial business language of world thus is most common Some see this as an innate advantage for American businessman o Role of an Interpreter Typical Communication When two speak the same language SENDER encodes the message RECIEVER decodes message encodes feedback which original sender then decodes essentially a simple loop Loop is often taken for granted Interpreter must be fluent in both the language and the culture Mumbling background noise poor acoustics uncomfortable Barriers to Communication environment etc Facilitates communication between two who don t speak the same language Interpreter decodes senders message then encodes for the third person who encodes feedback for interpreter to decode and recode for the original sender Doubles the chances of miscommunication Makes the loop into a far more complex double loop General Differences and Guidelines o Numbers and Dates Often have the opposite appearance from U S Prices can also be confusing commas and decimal points are often reversed from country to country o Idioms a k a idiomatic expressions are phrases commonly used but do not literally state what they mean Break a leg means have good luck not literally break a leg Vary widely among regions and cultures Often last part of a language learned so new speakers often have trouble understanding o Sports war terms and metaphors heavily used in US Difficult for foreigners to interpret thus be careful and try to avoid Examples a ball park figure a shotgun approach having a price war going on the offensive in marketing etc o Two Word Verbs difficult for non native speakers Two words combined have a different meaning than the two separate words alone Often not described that well in dictionaries Common examples and substitutes Figure out solve Blow up explode Give up surrender Hurry up accelerate Think up imagine
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