The Role of Intercultural Business Communication in Business Management in Italy - Case Study Example

Intercultural Business Communication Intercultural Business Communication: A Case of Italy Introduction Business communication and management in the 21st century is a challenging due to the increasingly complex and dynamic global environment. According to Bird and Stevens (2003: p. 395), globalization drives a global culture that threatens national cultures across the world. The process of socializing members into the global culture is affected by the differences among various national cultures. Therefore, people and companies involved in international business communications and management needs to adopt communication strategies and management styles that fit the national cultures of the regions of the world in which they operate. Managers seeking to expand their operations in international markets and remain competitive in those markets need to develop business communication strategies that will enhance effective communication when working with people of other cultures (Deresky 2014: 29). Communication is considered to be an effective tool in cross-cultural management, especially in countries where relationships and trust are essential. The success of businesses operating in international markets depends largely on the ability of managers to communicate across boundaries. This essay analyzes the role of of intercultural business communication in business management in Italy. Italian Republic is a unitary parliamentary republic geographically located in Southern Europe. The country’s capital city of Rome is considered as a leading religious and political centre of Western civilization. Therefore, this country is mainly characterized by western culture with western foods and Christian religion. The Roman Catholic culture is the common Christian culture in Italy. The Roman culture characteristic of the Republic of Italy is also characterized by unique Italian cuisine and architecture. Renaissance, a period of the revival of arts and culture originated from Italy. 2. Literature Review a. Culture Culture is defined as a set of norms, values, attitudes and experiences shared by members of a given community. Hofstede (2000) defines culture as software of the mind. It is the way members of a group interact and solve their problems and reconcile their dilemmas. It is about the habits that define a given society or group of people such as family, school, country, clan, region, friends and colleagues. Furthermore, culture determines the most important values of the society furnishes the attitudes of its members, and defines their behaviour. According to Varner and Beamer (2005), culture has three dimensions. First, culture is coherent. This means that the whole tapestry of culture determines each fragment of culture. In this case, each culture has unique and strange things. For instance, Italian culture has a unique thing – Roman Empire rules and art culture. Secondly, culture is learned. This means that people learn various elements of culture through school, friends, colleagues and families. Lastly, culture is seen as a view of a group of people. In this case, various groups have their own cultures including nations, regions, clans, families and organisations. There are also three layers of culture: artifacts and attitudes, norms and values, and basic assumptions. The artifacts and attitudes of a culture show the explicit level or behaviour of the society is viewed. Norms and values define the system of each culture and the basic assumptions of each culture are unique and difficult to describe and explain. The role of culture in society is that it determines how people see the world and how they associate within the society. Culture also enhances knowledge development; hence influences the intellectual level of members of a given community. Culture also defines situations and conditions; e.g. what people eat, what people wear, and how they interact with others. Culture also determines how we differentiate good from bad and wrong from right (Bruner, 2002). It determines people’s values and attitudes towards various issues such as family, marriage religion, status, etc. Culture also shapes people’s culture. It defines individual goals and provides alternative means of achieving them. Culture therefore directs human efforts towards a specific direction and position in the society. National culture is an important element causing cultural differences that affect cross-cultural business communication. It defines the macro level of culture and determines the laws and economic institutions of a nation (Bruner, 2002). It is also affected by the physical environment as well as the history of the nation. One of the countries in which history determines its national culture is Italy whose culture is mainly influenced by the ancient Roman Empire. National culture is influenced by different institutions including family, religion, education, media, and multicultural corporations. Hofstede’s model can be used to study national culture. In this theory, Hofstede defines culture in terms of six dimensions: individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity, indulgence and pragmatism. Power distance refers to the extent to which members of the society with less power accept that power is unequally distributed (Soares et al, 2007). In this case, people in higher levels of the organisation have more power over those in lower levels. Individualism refers to the extent to which members of the society depend on each other. Members of individualistic societies take care of their own interests with those of their immediate families while collectivist societies take care of each other’s interests and show loyalty to their groups. In terms of masculinity, some national cultures focus on success, competition and achievement (masculine) while others tend to focus on welfare and quality of life (feminine). Masculine societies are concerned with winning and becoming the best while feminine societies are concerned with helping others. Uncertainty avoidance refers to how societies react to the fact that they are likely to face uncertain situations in future. Pragmatism involves the views of societies concerning their past and future goals. Non-pragmatic societies keep their norms and traditions and oppose changes while pragmatic societies prepare for the future by using thrift efforts and modern education to adapt to changes in preparation for the future. b. Inter-cultural communication Intercultural communication is a form of communication that involves the process of sharing information across various cultures. It entails the processes of communication that occur between various individuals within an organization or a country. Intercultural communication tells us how people from different countries communicate with each other and understands the world around them (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turne, 2012). Culture determines how people encode messages, what medium of communication they use to pass messages, and how messages are interpreted. Other authors also suggest that intercultural communication refers to how people interact across cultures. Intercultural communication occurs when a member of one culture sends a message to a member of a different culture. When the message is received by the receiver, it is decoded or transformed. This transformation is influenced by the receiver’s culture, which also becomes part of the meaning of the message. Intercultural business communication is also known as cross cultural communication and builds cultural intelligence through training in different aspects of business communication; including cross-cultural communication, conflict resolutions across cultures, and negotiation across cultures. The ability of managers and business people to communicate, work and negotiate effectively across cultures is important in international business (Bruner, 2002). Business communication is considered as an important tool for clear and concise interaction; hence encouraging efficiency and effectiveness of businesses. This is even more so in international business because people from different cultures need to share ideas in order to come up with solutions and new products in the marketplace. The national cultures of different countries therefore influence how business is communicated among various members of an organisation who may be coming from different cultural backgrounds. The ability of people to communicate with other people from other national cultures depends on the similarity of our expectations with those of the other people (Wiseman & Speech Communication Association, 1995). Cultural gaps in intercultural communication can therefore be overcome through learning and understanding the differences that exist in terms of expectations in business communication. There are various problems that can be encountered in intercultural communication in international business. This is because communication can only be effective between people who share a system of meaning (Kocbek, 2008). In terms of verbal communication, differences in language are a major problem in cross cultural communication. If people don’t understand each other’s language, then they may end up misunderstanding each other. In verbal communication, different cultures also differ in terms of where each member should intercept (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turne, 2012). For instance, in the case of the Anglo-Saxons, B starts talking where A stops. In the Latin context, B keeps intercepting A in order to show how he/she is interested with the communication. Intercultural communication is also affected by the problem of attribution. This refers to the process in which someone looks for the explanation of another person’s behaviour in an intercultural communication process (Young, 1996). In this case, someone may not be able to understand another person; hence they blame the other person for being crazy, deceitful or stupid (Deresky 2014: 133). This causes misunderstanding and may lead to disagreements or even conflict in communication. Another problem in cross-cultural communication is the tone of voice. While some communities use a monotonous style of communication, others use ups and downs which seem to be exaggerated ways of communication (Krishna et al, 2004). Oriental communities have a flat tone of voice while Anglo Saxon communities have more ups and downs while the Latin communities have the most ups and downs and exaggerations in their tone of voice. National cultural variables across countries also affect communication process by influencing the perceptions of other people. Some of the cultural variables across countries include attitudes, social organisation, language, roles, and non-verbal communication (Deresky, 2014). Attitudes affect the way individuals communicate and behave. It also affects how people interpret messages from other people. For example, noise in cross cultural communication is mainly caused by ethnocentric attitudes. Differences in attitudes also result in stereotyping whereby members of different cultures assume that every member of a given community have the same characteristics. People’s perceptions are also influenced by the differences in priorities, values and approaches that are defined by the social organisations where they belong. Thought patterns also affect communication process across cultures because they differ from one national culture to another. Non-verbal method of communication is also an important part of intercultural business communication. According to Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (2012), 75% of all communication is non-verbal. In western cultures, eye contact is an important form of non-verbal communication because it shows interest by the communicator. Non-verbal communication includes kinesic behaviour, occulesics, proxemics, paralanguage, and object language (Deresky, 2014). Kinesic behaviour entails the process of communicating through body movements e.g. gestures, facial expressions, postures and eye contacts. People from different national cultures have different meanings of body movements. Occulesics is an example of kinesic behaviour and entails eye contact and conveyance of information through eyes (Jandt, 2004). Proxemics involves the use of space or proximity to communicate. Paralanguage refers to the process of saying rather than doing – tone speech rate, laughing and silence. Object language involves the use of material artifacts to communicate. Effective cross-cultural communication is also characterized by trust (Hamilton, 2013). Informal understandings among parties in an international business communication or negotiation result in effective intercultural communication and effective collaboration across cultures. However, how trust is developed and communicated varies across cultures. In some communities, successful intercultural communication depends on the long-standing relationship between the parties involved in communication (Deresky, 2014). Understanding between parties when they are communicating across cultures arises if the parties have a mutual trust. Trust enables parties in intercultural communities to overlook each other’s cultural differences. 3. Country Study Italy’s national culture is a unique culture shaped by history, local patronage and power centres and regional customs. The culture is mainly characterized by architects, scholars, and artists who made a significant impact on Italian culture. This has led to a large number of paintings, monuments, literature and music. Italy has diverse architectural styles which led to a lot of architectural achievements during the ancient Rome, including domes and arches. Italian paining is also commonly characterized by warmth of colour and light. In terms of religion, Roman Catholicism is the leading form of religion in the country. Most Italians believe in God as a force of life. Therefore, Italy richly practices Roman Catholic culture. Most martyrs, popes and saints were Italians. Other minority Christian religions include Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostalism and evangelism (Rogers & Steinfatt, 1999). These religions affect international business because Roman Catholicism is considered as the applicable religion in anything concerning religion in business. Therefore, international businesses need to practice Roman Catholic practices while conducting their religious practices in Italy. The main language of Italy is Italian. An estimated 55 million people speak Italian in Italy and 6.7 more speak Italian outside Italy. Nearly 150 million other people across the world use Italian as a second or cultural language. In this case, a business conducting business in Italy should train its people to learn the Italian language which is used widely across Italy. In terms of non-verbal communication, Italians use eye contact for a long time as a way of showing interest during intercultural communication (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turne, 2012). Italians also identify themselves with communication activities through facial expressions to express their emotions. Italians consider emotions as part of a business communication. Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture can also be used to explain the role of Italian culture in intercultural communication. First, Italy scores average on power distance, which means that like other western cultures, Italy prefers respect decentralization of power and decision making (Bruner, 2002). The country prefers equality in sharing of power and resources. In this case, communication in Italian culture is open and collaborative, up-down and bottom up; hence encouraging feedback and contributions of junior staff in cross-cultural communication. In terms of individualism, Italy has a high score. This means that Italian culture is concerned with people caring for their own interests and those of their immediate families The (Hofstede Centre, 2014). In this case, communication involves speaking for oneself rather than the group. Therefore, one needs to develop his/her own personality and negotiation powers when communicating within Italian culture. Italy is also a masculine society which encourages competition and achievement. Therefore, when communicating with the Italians, managers need to talk of their individual achievements rather than welfare of the society. Italian society is also not comfortable with uncertainties as shown by a high score on uncertainty avoidance. Therefore, intercultural communication with the Italians should not include conversations that encourage uncertain projects or decisions. The combination of high masculinity, individualism and uncertainty avoidance makes life in Italy difficult and stressful (The Hofstede Centre, 2014. Therefore, intercultural communication should relief such stress through relaxation. In terms of pragmatism, Italy scores high; hence communication should be based on context and time rather than traditions and norms. The communication should adapt to changing situations. 4. Conclusion In conclusion, it is clear that Hofstede’s dimensions on national culture are important in explaining the influence of Italian culture in cross-cultural communication. Italian society has a high score in pragmatic dimension, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and power distance. It has a low score in indulgence. The high scores in most of the dimensions results in stressful and difficult lives of Italians. Therefore, intercultural communication should take place in relaxed environments. Furthermore, Italians believe in expression of feelings and the use of eye contact in communication; hence intercultural communication with Italians should encourage such behaviours so that the business communication or negotiation becomes successful. References Beamer, L., & Varner, I.I. 2005. Intercultural communication in the global workplace. Boston, Mass: McGraw-Hill. Bird, A. and Stevens, M.J. 2003. “Toward an emergent global culture and the effects of globalization on obsolescing national cultures”, Journal of International Management, Vol. 9, pp. 395–407 Bruner, M L 2002, Strategies of remembrance: The rhetorical dimensions of national identity construction, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia. Deresky, H. 2014. International Management: Managing Across Cultures 8th Edition, Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow. Hamilton, C 2013. 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