The Importance of Effective Cross-Culture Communication in Businesses Today - Coursework Example

The importance of effective cross culture communication in businesses today Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Cross-cultural communication has been the major issue that has influenced the competitive advantage of many organizations. With the developments in globalization, the globe has been flattened and this means that employees come from different cultural backgrounds (Cheng & Seeger 2012). In this effect, the management of organizations should consider the best ways on which communication can be improved by eliminating the cultural differences in communication. The traditional barriers to communication have been managed by removing them and this has improved communication in organizations creating competitive advantage for many organizations. The intention of this discussion is to present the importance of cross-cultural communication in organizations. Key words: Cross cultural communication, business communication, international business and globalization. Various sources have examined the reasons why cross-cultural communication is important in business today. In the first place, cross-culture communication helps to influence the mergers and acquisitions which happen internationally. From the research that was conducted, the communication was determined to be the key concept that helps to acquire and merger with other companies globally. During the acquiring process, the parties involved are uncertain about the cultural integration process. Effective communication and organizational culture are linked and this is because communication influences culture and the culture influences communication (Cheng & Seeger 2012). In the international businesses, cross cultural communication helps to develop an organizational culture that helps to accommodate the cultural differences. For instance, the culture of doing business in Taiwan is different from the culture of doing business in Germany. In order to integrate the two cultures, it is important for the merging organizations to ensure effective cross cultural communication and this will help to ensure success of the mergers and acquisitions. In addition, the cross cultural communication helps to ensure that the acquire employees are able to adapt the national culture. This is because through acquiring new employees through mergers and acquisitions, the cross cultural communication can enable the new employees understand the national culture by understanding the reasons why the business is done the way it is done (Lee et al 2014). This helps to manage the cultural crashes. Furthermore, cross culture communication helps to improve the competitive advantage of an organization. This is because through effective communication, the cultural issues affecting the business operations like marketing can be managed effectively. The cross cultural dimensions like promotions and advertising will be considered effectively. This helps to improve the competitive advantage since the culture will improve the perception of the company positively (Guang & Trotter 2012). There are numerous issues that the business students should be aware of in relation to the importance of cross-cultural communication in business productivity and goal achievement. Three of these problems are the right to culture which makes the employees behave the way they do because the employees come from different cultural backgrounds (Xiaohui 2013). The other issue that arises from the cross cultural communication is language that is being applied by various employees from different backgrounds (Tiang & Trotter 2011). This means that in the global business, the language that is applied in business like the advertisement language should be understood well so that the culture can be integrated. The issue that arises from cross cultural communication is the business relationship. The business partner relationship can be different during the cross culture communication hence these issues should be considered during cross culture communication (Brydon, K & Liddell, M 2012). This will help to improve the success of an organization in the international business. Business can apply arrange of business strategies or approaches to overcome cross cultural communication problems. Three of these involve social constructivist, developing organization communication culture and anthropological approach that can be applied especially in the marketing function so that the diversified needs of the customers can be taken into consideration while marketing the products and services (Tian & Trotter 2012). The social constructivist is the strategy that helps to build good relationship between the employees and the employers. This means that the management of the organization should develop teams and team working strategy in accomplishing the business operations. In this effect, there will be social relationship among the employees from different cultural backgrounds hence the issues regarding the culture will be managed appropriately. On the other hand, the management of the organization should develop diversified policies that guide communication throughout the organization (Lee et al 2014). When developing organizational culture, it will be possible for the diversified culture to be integrated during acquisition and post acquisition relationship. These will help to eliminate the cultural differences during cross cultural communication. The anthropology approach will also be applied to ensure that the cultural diversity of the customers is taken into consideration while doing the market operations like promotions (Ling & Lei 2014). This will help to eliminate the cultural barriers thus improving cultural integration. Many businesses have been successful in dealing with cross cultural communication problems, while others have not shared this success. One that has been successful is Volvo Construction Equipment while one that has not been unsuccessful is BenQ Company which is based in Taiwan. The Volvo Construction Equipment successfully acquired Samsung Korea by ensuring that the acquired employees understand the national culture of doing business in Taiwan (Lee et al 2014). Cross cultural communication was the key component that made the acquisition successful. At first, the employees were negative about the national culture but due to cultural induction, the acquired employees developed positive culture which led to the success of the acquisition. The approach that was applied by the company was social identification and this helped to eliminate the cultural differences between the national culture and the resistance to post acquisition integration. On the other hand, BenQ Company was not successful in the cross cultural communication and this led to the failure of the merger with Siemens Germany. The main issue that affected the relationship between the two companies is cultural differences (Cheng & Seeger 2012). The management of the company considered cross cultural communication as expense and they perceived time differently. Speed of doing things was also perceived differently and this led to the loss of BenQ Company and this affected the brand of the company. Cross cultural communication was the main issue that affected the cross cultural communication and this led to the failure of the merger (Guang & Trotter 2012). In this effect, the BenQ failed because of the cultural differences hence it has not achieved the intended goals and objectives. Conclusion Cross cultural communication is important in businesses today as it helps to hire employees from the global labor market and also helps to ensure success of mergers and acquisitions. However, there are issues which arise when doing cross cultural communication and these issues include language barriers, cultural barriers and partnership relationship. However, these issues can be managed by employing social constructivist and applying anthropology approach to organizational management. In conclusion, it can be determined that cross cultural communication is important in businesses today as it helps to improve the competitive advantage of the global organizations. In the writer’s opinion, the management of the organizations should consider the application of cross cultural communication so as to improve the competitiveness of the organization. References Brydon, K & Liddell, M 2012, ‘Supporting international students undertaking Australian university studies’, Social Work Education, December, vol. 31, no. 8, pp. 995 – 1011, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2011.610786 Cheng, S. S & Seeger, M. W 2012, ‘Cultural differences and communication issues in international mergers and acquisitions: a case study of BenQ,’ International Journal of Business and Social Science, February, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 116 – 127, accessed May 3rd 2015, < http://ijbssnet.com/journals/ Vol_3_No_3_ February_2012/12.pdf >. Guang, T & Trotter, D 2012, ‘Key issues in cross-cultural business communication: anthropological approaches to international business,’ African Journal of Business Management, June 6th, vol. 6, no. 22, pp. 6456 – 6464, DOI: 10.5897/AJBM11.2673 Lee, SJ, Kim L & Park BI 2014, ‘Culture clashes in cross-border mergers and acquisitions: a case study of Sweden’s VOLVO and South Korea’s SAMSUNG,’ International Business Review, October, pp. 1-14, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2014.10.016 Ling, S & Lei, W 2014, The Culture Shock and Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Chinese Expatriates in International Business Contexts, International Business Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-12, doi: 10.5539/ibr.v7n1p23 Xiaohui ,Y 2013, Managing Language and Cultural Challenges in Cross-border Deal-making, China Media Research, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 1-5. Read More