Intercultural Communication in the Australian Business Environment - Case Study Example

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN AUSTALIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Name of Student Institution affiliation Date INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN AUSTALIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Culture and communication form the backbone of any business. In his case communication and culture define the relation of the different individuals within an organization through creating religious, social, ethnic relation. Businesses globally have embraced intercultural communication in order to boost teamwork and work efficiency in their organization. On the other hand through embracing culture the effort to make the world a global village has been achieved. An organization embracing culture and communication in Australian has therefore led to sharing of ideologies, technologies, and thoughts. This has boosted the growth of Australian business sector and the economy at large. This paper, therefore, seeks to highlight the impact of culture and communication in Australian business sector. The rate at which the world is becoming a global village is increasing day by day. This is attributed to many businesses embracing intercultural communication. Australia as a country has a relative blend of different individuals with different language, religion, and place of origin. This has led to these organizations and business embracing intercultural communication with an effort to foster their operation (Bakacsi 2012). Intercultural communication has enabled business entities and organization within Australia to share views, economic and business activities, technologies and social, political innovations, and local and global resources. Due to the current growth and development of national societies and international contacts becoming increasingly common intercultural communication can therefore no longer be ignored in the business domain especially in Australia. Judging by the current business trend one will notice that corporation and governments are increasingly being involved in situations where intercultural communication is embraced (Trompenaars 2014). However embracing intercultural communication whether in an organization or business come with many unforeseen problems. Since meeting are common in business and organizations intercultural communication might result to language barriers especially to new employees or those not fond of a particular language. On the other hand, an ordinary communication between two individuals who are from a different culture is also full of foreseen problem. This might result due to the difference in practices, way of life and environment. In this particular communication, it is common for tension and uneasiness which results to intercultural miscommunication. Scollon and Scollon (1995) claims that this factor of intercultural communication lies on the participants own culture and he rules and regulation entwined in this culture. The other issue of contention concerning intercultural communication can best be shown through a comparison of the Australian and Chinese culture. In this case in Australian culture use of formal title shows respect of an individual however non-formal titles can also be used since they perceive an aspect of friendliness towards a particular individual. However in the Chinese culture, this is completely different since names are based on kinship ties, situation or past relations with someone. In this referring to Mr; Wing-Leung Lau as Mr; Wing-Leung would make Mr; Wing-Leung Lau furious since according to his culture that a sign of disrespect. However for an Australian depending on his culture that absolutely fine considering that it is a show of friendliness. In this case, the cultural difference might cause a negative impact on intercultural communication for either an organization or business. This shows that intercultural communication is a quite sensitive issue in contemporary international business. However, it can also be noted that mistakes in intercultural communication are bound to happen despite the efforts of both communicating parties being culturally sensitive (Szabo 2012).   Since everyone has his own culture, we, therefore, display ethnocentrism through evaluation of other cultures from our own culture's value system. This is, therefore, another unforeseen problem which comes along with intercultural communication. In this case, our ethnocentrism which we use in evaluating other cultures is commonly the reason for the inability for two individuals from a different culture from understanding each other while communicating. The ethnocentrism, in this case, forms a barrier that prevents these parties from being considerate of each other’s culture during their communication (Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck 2012). This has proven to be a huge problem in Australia considering the cultural blend in this country which has led to some country opting not to embrace intercultural communication. The other problem brought by Intercultural communication is ethnocentrism in culture. Culture is quite different in thought and perception. In this case, Australians are known as modest people. Therefore, they prefer working with modest people as well, however, relating or communicating with individuals who are not modest as well would lead to ineffective communication (Peterson 2013). This, therefore, results in reduced operations for the business or organization at the long end. Consequently, intercultural communication comes with various advantages. Creation of balance in either business or organization is one of the benefits brought along by intercultural communication. Due to this type of communication is not limited to any culture, this allows diversity in culture and communication. In this case, the employees within the business or organization can easily adapt to a particular culture despite them being expatriates or immigrant. In this case individuals from different countries have been able to adapt to the Australian culture easily, therefore, boosting intercultural communication in the businesses and organization within this county. In this case, these individuals are forced to forget their own cultural codes and habits (House 2012). With human beings being the best masters in adapting to any environment this means that we can relatively adapt to any culture. Intercultural communication, in this case, will help in bringing out specific information on individual and their real picture, this will be beneficial for the organizations and businesses in Australia. Intercultural communication also boosted Australian growth and expansion due to the fact that it fosters globalization. In this case intercultural communication as entwined Australia with multiple corporates, businesses, and organizations which have expanded into the country due to intercultural communication enjoyed by these organizations, businesses, and corporates. This has enabled Australia to host various summits and conference which were in attendance by many entities from different cultures (Javidan and House 2012). This has perceived the picture that the country’s highly views intercultural relationships with other countries, therefore, fostering intercultural communication within the country. This explains why Australian is considered as a hub for various cultures. However, the country’s business and corporate sector embracing intercultural communication are also facing some difficulties in implementation this issue that is fundamental in the contemporary business environment. Intercultural communication has proven to be task demanding and intensive for the country and organizations with this country. Due to “one size fits all” analogy in intercultural communication it is even much difficult to create a successful environment where individuals from different countries work together. This requires a lot of efforts in building a common trust and understanding in these individuals from different national cultures. However, the disparities ‘of intercultural communication slowed the Australian course in the creation of an intercultural communication environment in the country. Creation of such environment will require the country to connect with what is important to these individuals from different cultures in order for them to blend in with the Australian culture. However due to the fact that value of each individual varies it is difficult for the county to connect with all these individuals in fostering an intercultural communication environment in the country (Hymes 2012). In the creation of this environment organization located in Australia will have to assess whether these individuals from a different culture are task or relationship oriented. This will define their strategy in the creation of an intercultural communication environment. In this case, the organizations and businesses will determine whether to start by fostering a relationship with these individuals first or dive into the task right away. On the other hand, the organization will also have to consider the culture these individuals are coming from. Here it will juggle whether these individuals are coming from a low-trust or a high-trust society. This will determine the easiness to build trust with these individuals or how difficult this will be. For instance individuals from countries like Germany, Denmark and Japan will mean that the country will be required to a high-trust relationship due to the societies in these countries. On the other hand for the individuals from China, France, and Mexico the organization will need more time to “prove” due to the societal nature in these countries which fosters low-trust (Trompenaars 2014). However some aspects the process of creating an intercultural communication environment for these organizations varies for instance; sharing of information which might either be willingly or unwillingly depending on the culture. This shows how complex this process can be for an organization especially if a country does not embrace intercultural communication environment (Szabo 2012). On the contrary, some problems may arise from this process for instance stereotyping. Due to the fact that some cultural dimension lacks an explanatory aspect, this can lead to stereotyping which might hamper the intercultural communication environment creation process by these organisations in Australia. On the other side, the descriptive aspect of these cultural practices might not be entirely true. Therefore, this might hamper the understanding of a particular culture as perceived and organization effort to create an intercultural environment. References Bakacsi, G. et al. 2012. Eastern European cluster: tradition and transition. In: Australian Journal of Business 2002, 37, p. 69–80 Peterson, R. B. 2013. The use of expatriates and inpatriates in Central and Eastern Europe since the Wall came down. Australian Journal of Business, 38, 55–69. House, R. et al. 2012. Understanding cultures and implicit leadership theories across the globe: an introduction to project GLOBE. Australian Journal of Business, 37, 3–10. Hymes, D. 2012. The ethnography of speaking. In Anthropological Society of Washington W.D.C. Ed., Anthropology and human behaviour pp. 13-53, Washington. Javidan, M., & House, R. J. 2012. Leadership and cultures around the world, findings from GLOBE: An introduction to the special issue. Australian Journal of Business, 37, 1–2. Kluckhohn, F. R., & Strodtbeck, F. L. 2012. Variations in Value Orientations. Elmsford.] Szabo, E. et al. 2012. The Germanic Europe cluster: where employees have a voice. Australian Journal of Business, 37, 55–68 Trompenaars, F. 2014. Riding the waves of culture. Understanding diversity in global business, Burr Ridge. Read More