The Effect of Integrating Globalization - Case Study Example

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date How Chronemics, Proxemics and Hierarchical Structures in the Business World Are Affected By Globalization Processes Introduction Within a global setting, Matthews and Thakkar (2012, p.325) posit that the capability to effectively communicate may be an issue. Even when the language spoken by both parties is the same, misunderstandings may exist because of cultural and ethnic differences. Comprehending globalization impact on intercultural communication is vital for business world considering that they are seeking to generate a competitive advantage within a globalised market (Guffey & Loewy, 2010, p.103). Businesses require communication so as to modernise their errands. So, organisational communication is the process of sending as well as receiving all messages of the organisation through informal and formal group (Widhiastuti, 2012, p.185). Undoubtedly, globalization is a multifaceted and complicated sensation, and may be defined as the process of global integration wherein international exchange of cultural and national resources takes place in the process. Lots of factors fuelled the development of globalization, but most important factors include advancement in communication as well as transportation (Boudreaux, 2008, p.7). The essay seeks to analyse the how chronemics, proxemics and hierarchical structures in the business world are affected by globalization processes. In addition, the essay will analyse how globalisation impact how people from different cultures perceive time, use space and recognise authority. Discussion Basically, the effect of integrating globalisation and new media are summarised by Chen (2012, p.3) into five particular impacts, specifically, hastened global and local cooperation, a shrinking world, space and time compression, close interaction in various social aspects, and global connectivity. That is to say, thanks to globalisation, the human societies’ boundaries with regard to time, space, hierarchical structures, beliefs, and value are rapidly transforming and changing into a novel pattern of interconnectedness and similarities. Still, even though the mutually dependent association of globalisation and new media is obvious, the exact relationship between the five characteristic features of new media (specifically, virtuality, hypertextuality, convergency, digitality, and interactivity), as well as the five noticeable characteristics of globalization (that is, collectively universal, culturally crossbred, dialectically dynamic, holistically interrelated, and exclusively authoritative), need further research and review (Chen, 2012, p.3). Globalisation has made nonverbal communication to get much attention, especially in areas of sales and marketing, business presentation, as well as the social skills development (Gitimu, 2005, p.1). However, the attention offered in communication generally is little in spite of key variances in cultural practice as well as understanding of expression, body language, individual space and other tools for nonverbal communication. Betts (2009) estimates that not more than 10% of interpersonal communication contains words, the remaining percentage comprises of sounds, voice tone, as well as a range of devices like chronemics (time) and proxemics (space). In this case, proxemics is based on use of space: both interactive space as well as the space in cities, environs buildings, and rooms. Globalisation has made the use of space to hugely vary between diverse cultures in addition to the fact that it is a continuous basis of misunderstanding in intercultural communication. On the other hand, chronemics is based on time, and globalisation has created the need to be conscious of cultural customs concerning the utilisation of time since judgements concerning others’ trustworthiness, attitudes, and dependability are made based on ‘time’. For instance, in the context of western world, people normally make an apology when they arrive late for an appointment, and this is an indication of respect with the intention of reinstating any harm to their repute (Betts, 2009). Therefore, professionals in Western cultures are anticipated to keep time, and if they break time ‘rules’ by becoming late or making use of the set time incompetently, they may be considered unreliable or incompetent. Globalisation has made professionals to be more conscious of the various expectations as well as utilisation of time across the globe. As mentioned by Sehgal (2008, p.104), there are lots of proofs regarding communication ineffectiveness in hierarchical structured organizations. Hierarchical communication as per Hardt (2001, p.117) can be defined as information exchanges and impacts the members of the organisation since there connection amongst one another. In general, low context cultures are inclined to have additional distances as compared to high context cultures, even though this is not applicable to cultures in south-east Asian, who prefer a bigger distance and are correspondingly high context cultures. For instance, the culture of handshaking is extremely disregarded by the Chinese, whereas shoulder tapping, which is practiced frequently by Americans, may erroneously be understood as hostile by people in Northern European. Normally, individuals are not aware and conscious regarding Proximics; however, the distance impacts interpersonal communication. So, Individual space in globalisation era is an imperceptible rule or factor, while space between individuals specifies relationships and simultaneously is an interpersonal communication dimension. As mentioned by Lardbucket (2012), cultural patterns control interpersonal communication as well as personal space, while personal distance is governed by invisible and unspoken rules. Time perception (Chronemics) is an element of nonverbal communication, and globalisation has made people to become more time conscious. For instance, in the United States is a time conscious culture and timekeeping is measured as an affirmative feature not just for appointments and business meetings, but as well for engagements within the society. Given that China is shifting toward a market-based economy, Lin (2005, p.45) poosits that the Western idea of ‘time is money’ is turning out to be increasingly popular, particularly in the business world, who holds the view that timekeeping for business engagements is associated with effectiveness and efficiency. Today, an individual’s rank as well makes a variance in timekeeping, whereby, individuals with not as much of bargaining power in a deal within the business normally have to arrive earlier than the time appointment or before the other party so as to show their interest, respect, or honesty (Lin, 2005, p.45). Delay or promptness expresses unpleasant and pleasant attitudes as well as feelings. According to Lichtenstein and Brain (2007, p.1), modern firms know that for knowledge workers to carry out routine work, get efficiencies, and create innovations, knowledge that has been fragmented have to shared frequently across boundaries in the organisation. Countering this obvious need, scores of companies set out an organisational strategy for knowledge sharing. But for these strategies to be completely operational, the main stimuli that allow or constrain knowledge sharing, such as organisational culture and structure have to be handled. Basically, globalisation is impacting key dimensions of the organisation; that is culture, structure, and strategy. All dimensions have an effect on one other and impact the sharing of knowledge. In hierarchical structures, Lichtenstein and Brain (2007, p.4) assert that specific units are coordinated through knowledge sharing on account of employment-established relationships. In these structures, a number of managers will logically hold back knowledge from staffs for political-related reasons, in so doing, restraining the vertical sharing of knowledge. In globalised world, knowledge that is deeper is needed from knowledge workers and as a result, specialisation carries on, occasionally resulting in a specialist culture. Besides that, in specialised hierarchical structures, workers have a tendency to search for only knowledge pertinent to their work; as a result, it reduces the opportunities of learning and sharing across units (Lichtenstein & Brain, 2007, p.4). In the novel ‘self-managing’ teams that have been empowered, managers play a crucial role since they act as knowledge broker whereby they transfer crucial knowledge in and out of the team. But still, as mentioned by Lichtenstein and Brain (2007), these managers experience problems familiarising to new roles of entrepreneurship as well as leadership and frequently return to recognised dictatorial roles arising from traditional hierarchical structures. Space usage as well as population density have an effect on the development of various cultural insights of how materials and space are utilised (Victor, 2003). Therefore, how individuals design or utilise domestic housing, office space, as well as buildings generally differs from one country to another. For instance, in scores of countries a message is communicated by the furnishings, layout, and size of a business office, but the message differs from country to county. These variances can be obvious or subtle. In scores of Middle Eastern, Southern European, Latin American, as well as Central African cultures, a comfortable distance for conversation is being closer. Certainly, in most countries, pleasant or serious talks are carried out more closer so as to feel the speaker breadth. The Northern Europeans and Americans uninformed of this can experience an extremely uncomfortable situation, simply because they prefer a certain space between the speaker and the listener. This in the business world may be catastrophic since the speaker with the closer individual space perception may possibly feel mistrustful and even rejected by the listener with bigger space perception. Contrariwise, the individual with bigger individual space perception may have the feeling that the encroaching speaker is aggressive, excessively forceful, or discourteous. In globalized world, business communication is as well impacted by cross-cultural dissimilarities in time-based conception or the comprehension of time. Scores of businesspeople in Northern Europe as well as U.S. do not have a universal perception of time; rather they consider time as an inflexible thing (Victor, 2003). How time is utilized, therefore, can overwhelmingly impact the manner in which business is carried out in numerous countries with different cultures. Often, people in different cultures recognize authority within their society in a different way. This cultural variation dimension is recognized by Berry (1992, p.48) as power distance, and has been defined as the level to which people in the society agrees that authority in organizations and institutions is unequally distributed. The perception of authority in any society impacts communication significantly in the business setting considering that it outlines how the message will be obtained founded on the rank or authority of the message's sender. Therefore in a business environment that is comparatively decentralized, Victor (2003) posits that people normally listen to an individual based on how the argument set forth is convincing, irrespective of that individual's status or rank in the society or organization at large. Contrary, in a culture that is highly centralized, a communication from a fairly influential individual is taken extremely seriously, even if one does not agree. Globalization has evidently impacted business relations with society, and so successful leaders in business world have to balance objectives of the organization with external worldwide problems (Matthews & Thakkar, 2012, p.3). While organizations turn out to be more interrelated the leaders’ role in managing teams in a global setting is becoming more and more imperative. Succeeding in navigating through different cultural distinctions is an essential skill for leaders in a global setting. Worldwide technology has been heightened by globalization, and this has as well impacted effective communication and purchase of products. Basically, as mentioned by Boudreaux (2008, p.8), globalization connects cultures as well as global relations on a range of levels; socially, politically, economically, and so forth. Businesses have utilized globalization to achieve their objective: of comprehending different cultures. Business relations concentrate on how organizations, people, and countries interrelate and the contribution of globalization in this has been profound. Therefore, comprehending globalization, culture, as well as business relations is imperative for the businesses’ future. In modern progressively turbulent and interdependent world, business relations with different cultured societies has been and will continue being imperative. Conclusion In conclusion, it has been argued that as business continue to shift towards an integrated world market so as to meet its goals, objectives, and needs, the challenges of communicating in a globalized world has turned out to be more and more widespread. Insufficient knowledge arising from ignorance or ethnocentrism of culturally based traditions mistakenly deemed to be widespread may intensify to fruitless conflict amongst individuals of opposing cultural orientation. Besides that, in the current globalized market, it has become more difficult for organizations to exclusively carry out business in the secure business environment. Considering that the need to handle cross-cultural communication hindrances as well as intercultural differences has increased also. Devoid of understanding cultural differences, then communicating across different cultures may be unsuccessful and can even result in business failures. 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