The Problem of Intercultural Factors Impeding Communication - Essay Example

The problem of Intercultural factors impeding communication and the measures needed to resolve the Problem (Word count - 2006 excluding References) Introduction: 'We have seen all people commit intended cultural offenses. In response we feel hurt for the victim, shame for the act, and disgust for the perpetrator. But we have also seen people, including ourselves, commit unintended cultural blenders. While we meant no harm by such gaffes, the actions often caused harm, regardless of whether we acted out of ignorance, carelessness, or misunderstanding' (Van Rys, Meyer & Sebranek 2006, p71) These actions of unintended cultural blunders are called failure of intercultural communication. The term Intercultural communication is used to the communication between those of different cultures, where there is understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures. In multicultural environment, intercultural communication is an important issue. Sometimes innocuous blunder may occur through minor mistake causing insult and hurt and for the perpetrator may result in shame and embarrassment. Normally respect and approach will follow where there is understanding, but the way understanding takes place is complex (Pettigres, 2000). Studies have shown that in many cases the awareness, that understanding is needed, is often lacking, which unfortunately forms the route cause of misunderstanding. Main body: In this globalized economy where the boundaries of countries are disappearing, the intercultural communication is finding its importance. We take example of this business meeting between a Vietnamese business team with US business team. Let us assume that each team is reasonably well prepared for the meeting. The language is not the problem, members of both the teams are well conversed with English. However to iron out minor language hiccups, each team also included a good translator. The members of both the team comprises men and women, all are meticulously dressed in business dress. Both the teams are punctual and the meeting starts on time. The meeting being a daylong affair, the lunch has been arranged at a local restaurant. Proper planning is made in advance in choosing the menu beforehand so that potential cultural issues on food habits can be prevented. The organizer expected all to go well as the perceived threat from lack of communication have been taken care of. However there arose problems. Initial shaking of hands went well as this has become universal custom for English knowing people to shake hands. The problem started with greeting; both the parties did manage to greet the other in a wrong way. In UK the family name is given at the end of the name. For example Peter Smith is known as Mr. Smith, not other way round as Mr. Peter, whereas in Vietnamese the family name comes first thus making Mguyen Van Khai, Madame Nguyen. But in the meeting Mr. Smith was greeted as Mr. Peter whereas Madame Nguyen was greeted as Madame Khai. The Vietnamese delegation took more offence than their counterpart, the UK delegation, as they perceived it as disrespect. However the meeting continued with the initial hiccup starting with a sore note. The second misunderstanding occurred, this time around with the UK delegates, when one of their team members was referred by someone as his sister. The UK delegates took the meaning literally, but actually it was meant to denote close friendship. The main problem started with the way the Vietnamese men were interacting with their female counterpart of UK delegation. They expected the women delegates would prefer to mix with other women of Vietnamese delegation and left them, which was perceived as disrespect by the female members of UK team. There was another major goof up when during lunch break one of the Vietnamese delegate placed his hand on the elbow of a lady UK delegate to show her the way, when they were leaving for lunch. In Vietnamese culture this is seen as sign of respect and as non-sexual, undertaken between members of the same as well as opposite sex. In UK normally hands off approach is followed and in this case the involved lady delegate felt offended as she took it as a sign of proposition. When we analyze the above case we find that the difficulty starts with the way culture is viewed. Both the teams found common trait in the meeting and showed by the way of shaking hands, being punctual, in proper dressing, showing respect for each others' and common culture. However problem started with body language, in small seemingly innocuous behaviors. To avoid the cultural clashes one needs to find out the ways in which the potential problem can be overcome, starting point of which should be to understand what culture is and how misunderstanding emerges between different cultures. How do we define culture To quote from Paperstore article; 'culture is the manifestations of a large number of divergent factors, these may include language and values as well as signs and symbols which are seen in the way communication and the sharing of knowledge takes place at verbal and non verbal levels as well as in the social structures and hierarchies as well as other aspects as expectation (Huczyniski and Buchanon, 2003)'. Hofstede takes a different holistic view in defining culture from a national dimension. He argues that it is the 'mental programs in people in general, and values and culture in particular' (Hofstede, 2003). He also asserts that the culture is the collective programming of the mind, which distinguishes the member of one group or category of people from another (Hofstede, 2003:5). Trice and Bayer describes culture as collective, emotionally charged, historically based, inherently symbolic and dynamic (Trice and Beyer, 1993). Culture can be seen in organizational level, community level, national level and regional level. The smaller subgroups like organization or community or in regional level usually have understanding of the larger cultural background in which they operate. Main problem arises when the two divergent cultures from different regions come together. For example; Eastern and Western Cultures, where one can hardly finds any common frame of reference. The present level of Globalization has created conducive atmosphere for increased levels of international contact and exposure creating increased understanding on both sides. But Pettigrew (2000) suggests that increased understanding will not necessarily increase understanding. To avoid culture clashes and for creating understanding, there should be a process of learning of other cultures. Kelly (1963) implies that this means more than simply being in the vicinity of the area where events occur. The learning process does not come merely from experience; there should be conscious understanding and the ability to transfer the lessons learnt from one scenario to another. Merely witnessing and experience may not be enough. The issue is not about learning and understanding another culture, but also requires change of attitude of those who are involved. The basic problem arises while assessing other cultures from the natural tendency of to be focused on one culture and the tendency of judging all other cultures from the point of our own set of values. Understanding does not remain only an issue of observing, but also involves removing preconceived notions of the existing cultural perspective and inculcating the other perspective. Anthropologist Broinislaw Malinowski undertook this exercise to understand the different culture of the people of Trobriand Islands by living with them. He tried to learn and understand the culture of the people in functional terms, looking into as how their society was created and maintained, instead of reading about them or observing them from outside as has been done by other anthropologists before him. The researchers gained new insight by this approach of living with the subjects of their research projects (Ember and Ember, 2002, Womack, 1997). That is why we often see the trend in companies seeking to develop intercultural strategy in recruiting staff with an international attitude, people who have lived and worked in other countries and who have been thickly involved in other cultures. Many companies seek international students or students and employees with international experience, even if the experience may not be same culture or country where they are dealing. People who have immersed in separate cultures posses increased external awareness and required sensitivity. Companies sometimes send their employees abroad to spend time in international environment. The key issue to increase understanding is education and change of attitude, not only with one culture, but also of many wherever the need to interact arises. The people who wants to meet and need to deal with people from other culture need to have access to information which would help them in understanding the other culture. They also need to have the motivation needed to access and then to utilize that information. It should be the management responsibility to make the information available; this may be done by meeting and talking to the cultural advisor of that country or with the use of crib sheets. There is an argument that crib sheets are not effective, but they may help in preventing cultural mistakes from being made, or for the mistakes committed by others to be misinterpreted. The next important aspect is social values. Values are not always visible and sometimes can be sublime. Values reflect issues such as needs and rights that plays important role in society. Different societies have different values in similar kind of situation. In the present case of UK and Vietnamese delegation, the values made an issue; the Vietnamese men thought they have been considerate and thoughtful in leaving the women to talk between themselves, without it being meant to be an insult, however the women delegates of UK thought they were being snubbed. The elbow incident is another case of different values. In Vietnamese culture, holding hands and touching arms and elbows are not taboo and are seen as interaction between people who are comfortable to each other and never seen in a gender biased move. However touching head is prohibited in Vietnamese culture, as head is seen as the home of the soul. But this gesture is taken in an offensive way by the UK lady delegate as in UK the value system forbid men to touch women. On the other hand, the Vietnamese man who has shown this gesture would have been highly offended, if he knew that his this gesture is taken as advances by the UK woman. If the woman would have shrugged off the gesture it would have meant as an insult to the man. Here the basic problems were with the value system. Each society has different sets of values and they cannot be interpreted from the other society's perspective. Conclusion: As we have seen on the case of interaction between the business delegates of UK and Vietnamese delegates, the failure of Intercultural Communication played a very important role in spoiling the meeting. Intention of both the teams were good, they have prepared themselves for the occasion, and however they have not prepared themselves for the Intercultural communication. In this age of globalization it is very important that proper care is taken to build up intercultural communication. Companies are realizing the need for the same and are taking necessary action to better the intercultural communication. In the conclusion we will like to reproduce the Key points of Intercultural communication as given in career Library of Jobweb.com1: 'Key points of Intercultural communication: When communications cause conflict, be aware that problems might have more to do with style or process than with content or motives. Learn to understand different communication styles-you could even benefit through expanding your repertoire. Communicating across cultures requires extra effort. Good communication requires commitment and concentration. Although culture affects differences in communication patterns, there are many exceptions within each group depending on class, age, education, experience, and personality. Remember that communication is a process and that the process varies among cultures. Look at what might be getting in the way of understanding. Constantly ask, "What's going on here" and check your assumptions. Avoid jokes, words, or expressions that are hot buttons, such as those that are based on ethnicity, race, or gender. Use language that fosters trust and alliance. Respect differences; don't judge people because of the way they speak.' References Ember Carol R; Ember Melvin. 2002. Cultural Anthropology. Prentice Hall. pp. 97-102, 221. Hofstede Geert (2003), Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations, London, Sage. Huczyniski A, Buchanan D, (2003) Organisational Behaviour, London, Prentice Hall Jobweb website, http://www.jobweb.com/Resources/Library/Workplace_Culture/Key_points_of_13_01.htm Kelly, George (1963). A Theory of Personality. New York: Norton. Murata, Kumiko, (2007, March), Unanswered questions: cultural assumptions in text interpretation, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 17 Issue 1, p38-59. Paperstore article, www.paperstore.net Pettigrew, Thomas F.; Tropp, Linda R. (2000). Does Intergroup Contact Reduce Racial and Ethnic Prejudice Throughout the World In OskampStuart (Ed.), Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Trice, H.M; Beyer, J.M. (1993), The Cultures of Work Organisations, Prentice Hall. Womack Mari. (1997), Being Human. Prentice Hall. Read More