Cross-Cultural Awareness and Challenges - Coursework Example

Media Analysis: Cross culture Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Cross culture is where there are many cultures within the same business environment. When two or more people from different cultural backgrounds meet in the same organization, there is cross culture in that organization (Ting-Toomey & Oetzel 2001). It is important to understand the different cultures of the people someone works with so that it will be easy to develop appropriate strategies that can help the organization achieve its objectives. In this report therefore, I will discuss two different case studies of Naomi and Amanda going to China. Naomi and Amanda had different approaches to approaching China. Amanda did not succeed in her operations in China because she did not consider that she came from a different cultural background from that of China and therefore she could not incorporate and manage the two different cultures (Irene 2012). Naomi on the other hand, perceived and understood the culture of the Chinese people before going there and therefore she could easily interact with the people of China. In this effect, I will discuss the different principles to consider when handling cross cultural issues. I will finally give the conclusion based on the findings of this report. Cross-cultural awareness In order for communication to be good between the East and West cultures, one has to be aware of the differences and similarities between the West and East (Deardorff 2009). For instance a leader taken from the US to the Chinese business will have to understand the way people interact there and how they socialize and carry out their duties. The person has to fully understand the global culture and learn to appreciate other people’s culture of communication and socialization. In this case study for instance, Amanda who is a business lady wanted to expand her business to China but she did not consider the culture of the people there especially the employees. The culture in China is that employer and the employees do meet and discuss issues during breaks like the lunch break. This was not considered by Amanda as she liked not to mix her employees like having tea breaks together. This did not impress the Chinese employees as they did not have the opportunity to express their views as they are used to that culture. In this regard, there was poor communication between Amanda and her employees and therefore the business could not get along well because of lack of team building between the employees and the employer. On the other hand, Naomi who had a chance to host delegates from China also wanted to go and visit China and hold meeting there. After holding the first meeting in the US, she became aware of the differences in cultures between the East and the West. She collected some issues and found out that there were some similarities although there many differences too. She read more about the cultures and developed strategies to appreciate the Chinese culture and incorporate it when communicating with the Chinese people (Jandt 2012). So when Naomi was communicating, she fully understands the Chinese culture and she could not do something that will offend them. From this experience, it is clear that Naomi learnt to appreciate other people’s culture and that is why she learnt more about the Chinese culture. For effective communication to take place between two different cultures, the communicator should learn the different ways of communicating between the cultures so that he or she cannot offend the other party hence communication objectives could be achieved like Naomi did. Understanding other people’s culture is a major component in cross-cultural communication. Acknowledging the cross-cultural challenges On the other hand, to promote effective communication between cross-cultural parties there is need to understand and acknowledge the challenges that may arise. In normal circumstances, there are challenges of operating in a new cultural environment and this fact has to be acknowledged. There is need to find better strategies to deal with the challenge of cross-cultural experiences. In this effort, the employer needs to hire both local and international employees (Hua 2011). The local employees will help the other employees to understand their culture and learn to appreciate it. For instance if the employer does not consider the cross-cultural differences in communication, this issue will grow to be a big issue and affect the operations of the business. This is because there will be misunderstandings in the management like the hierarchy and the style of negotiation between the employer and the employees. In this case study of East and West cross-cultural case study, Amanda did not take into account the issue of cross-culture. She did not take time to collect relevant information concerning the Chinese culture otherwise if she could have done this she could have been able to find the challenges and learn to appreciate them while finding a solution (Gudykunst 2005). She could have hired the Chinese people into the management who could have advised her on the management style as well as communication. By doing this, she could have minimized the challenges of management like the hierarchy and the negotiations with her employees. Therefore it is important to appreciate the challenges in cross-culture business and find solutions by understanding the culture through hiring both local and international employees to management. On the other hand, Naomi succeeded in her communication with the Chinese counterparts because she took time to learn and appreciate the cross-culture challenges. From her first encounter with the Chinese people, she was able to learn the differences in the East and West cultures and went ahead to find ways in which she could communicate effectively. She learnt better ways of commutating with the Chinese people like the facial expressions thus she could not use a language that could offend her counterparts from the East was successful in her agendas unlike Amanda who failed to appreciate the other culture leading to her failure in business. Building multicultural team Another principle to promote cross-cultural functions between the East and the West is to develop a team of multicultural team building (Gudykunst 2005). This is the team which is responsible for addressing the multicultural issues when there is international association of people who come from different cultures. The purpose of this team is to consider different cultures which might be available among the employees and develop strategies of integrating these cultures to fit into the organization so that there will be free environment to interact and solve issues. This is achieved by promoting good communication among the employees and the ways in which people interact within the organization to share ideas which will be helpful in improving the productivity of the organization. Multicultural team building can be achieved when the organization encourages employees from different cultural backgrounds to interact positively and learn to appreciate each other’s cultures. In this case study of East and West cultures, Amanda did not consider this issue of multicultural team building and that is why she did not succeed in expanding her business to China. She did not take into consideration the Chinese culture and incorporate it into the business. She could promote multicultural team building by developing a team whose responsibility was to oversee the different cultures and ensure they develop appropriate organizational culture to accommodate all the cultures available in the organization (Deardorff 2009). In the Case of Naomi, she was able to communicate well with the Chinese counterparts because she was able to understand that the Eastern and Western cultures are different and therefore developed better ways to communicate with the Eastern culture of the Chinese people. This helped her to effectively communicate with people from multicultural backgrounds and succeeded in her objectives and went back to US satisfied unlike Amanda (Irene 2012). In this regard therefore, the above principles of cross-cultural studies should be considered if one wants to engage in international business where there are different cultures. Without learning and understanding the different cultures and appreciating other people’s culture, it will be hard for any person or business to start operating internationally because there will be misunderstandings due to poor communication and therefore management could be a problem. Conclusion Cross-culture is when there are many people from different cultures having a common goal to achieve. This is especially when one wants to expand the business into the international market which will attract employees from both East and West with different cultures. Understanding other people’s culture is important because it helps in the communication of issues and promotes sharing ideas leading to team building which will improve the performance of an organization. In this regard therefore the principles for handling cross-cultural issues include being aware of the different cultures, learning and understanding and acknowledging the other people culture and the challenges and finally practicing multicultural team building. These principles could have enabled Amanda to overcome the challenges of communication and she could have done better in the Eastern market. References Deardorff, D 2009, The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Gudykunst, W 2005, Theorizing About Intercultural Communication, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage. Hua, Z 2011, The Language and Intercultural Communication Reader, New York, NY, Routledge. Jandt, F 2012, An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global Community, 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Irene, T 2012, Cross-cultural Case Studies: The East and West, viewed on 23rd August 2013 at http://www.dumplingmag.com/2012/04/cross-cultural-case-studies-the-east-and-west/ Ting-Toomey, S & Oetzel, G 2001, Managing Intercultural Conflict Effectively, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Read More