MAN 4605 Cross Cultural Management Quiz 2 Communicating Across Cultures Cultural Gaffe Mistakes done in other cultures due to miscommunication and difference in cultural meanings ex In US we give a dozen roses but in Romania it is custom to give an odd of flowers Hand gestures can be miscommunicated as well Ex the okay symbol in US means okay but in other countries it is an obscene gesture Commiunication is the exchange of meanings The exchange of meaning Any behavior that another person perceives and interprets It includes verbal and non verbal messages It includes consciously sent messages as well as messages that the sender is totally unaware of having sent The Communication Process Sender meaning encode Message Medium Receiver decode meaning Noise culture Feedback Noise Anything that serves to undermine the communication of the intended meaning Mood affects the way we interpret things The process of translating meanings into words and behaviors and back again into meaning is based on cultural background The bigger the difference in cultures the bigger the difference in meanings attached to particular words and the greater the noise Cross Cultural Communication Occurs when a person from one culture sends a message to a person from another culture Cross Cultural Miscommunication occurs when the person from the second culture does not receive the sender s intended message Causes of Cross Cultural Miscommunication Misperception Misinterpretation Misevaluation incorrect judgment about message Perception The process by which an individual selects organizes and evaluates stimuli from the external environment to provide meaning to him or herself Perception is Selective Learned Culturally determined Consistent Inaccurate Interpretation Sterrotypes Effective Stereotypes We don t notice everything ex color of the floor in classroom We see what we expect to see Interpretation occurs when an individual gives meaning to observations and their relationships It is the process of making sense of perceptions We group perceived images into familiar categories that help us to simplify our environment Ex different style doorknobs but we still know they all open doors by turning them Problems occur when we place people and things in the wrong category A form of categorization that organizes our experience and guides our behavior toward ethnic and national groups Stereotypes never describe individuals Stereotypes describe the norm for members of a particular group Ex all Muslims are terrorists Consciously Held Realize you are doing it Descriptive Describe characteristics not negative judging Accurate True First Best Guess Usually correct Modified by Experience Accept changes if wrong Sources of Misinterpretation Subconscious Cultural Blinders Too strong of stereotypes and won t see truth or anything else Lack of Cultural Self Awareness America Projected Similarity Assume that everyone thinks the same as you American s view of the European was closer to the American s belief than what the European had actually said what do you want to get out of work was the question Cross Cultural Misevaluation Evaluation involves judging whether someone or something is good or bad We use our own culture as a standard of measurement Since no other culture is like ours we tend to judge all others as inferior Use own culture as a standard Tend to judge others as inferior Cultural Variables in the Communication Process Attitudes Thought Patterns o Noises are created by ethnocentric attitudes o US uses deductive reasoning top down approach o Other cultures use inductive reasoning Bottom up approach o Asians think inductively Language o Frequent causes of miscommunication o Translation 5 words in one language can take 5 minutes to translate in a different language o US has a lot of slang Verbal Communication Styles High context societies do not come right out and say something US and Canada say it as it is Verbal Communication Styles Exacting Style Americans and British Succinct Style Japan o Instead of saying No like the U S would say in Japan they would say That would be very difficult The Impact of Culture Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication gestures EXAMPLES o In U S at a funeral you wear black Asians wear white o Arabs speak loudly signifies strength and sincerity o Philippines speaks softly which signifies well educated people Nonverbal Communication Monochronic time schedule Europe and U S Polychronic time schedule Latin America Accurate Interpretation Silence Intelligence o Japanese use silence more often o Latin American people talk over each other o Don t assume grammatical mistakes means less intelligent