Importance of Effective Cross-Cultural Communication in International Business - Essay Example

Discuss the importance of effective cross-cultural communication in International business, taking into account various issues including but not limited to language, culture, time and technology. Table of contents- 1. Introduction 2. International businesses and cross-culture 3. Issues in cross-cultures 4. Conclusion 5. References 1. Introduction- This essay deals with the discussion on the importance of effective communication between teams working in cross-cultural environments and further identifies the different issues in international businesses that employ a diverse workforce with different educational, technological, cultural and demographic backgrounds. The growing trend in international businesses to employ a diverse workforce to leverage the advantages of the diverse skills has also brought about different issues relating to the communication, understanding of time, technology, traditions and culture which inhibit the effective harnessing of these skills. We discuss the various issues relating to the diverse workforce and how these influence international business and its effectiveness. As it is observed that the communication barrier is the most influencing in the cross-cultural businesses, its importance and the possible ways to address this aspect to improve the effectiveness of international business is identified and discussed prominently. Finally, the results of the study are discussed and the discussion is concluded with recommendations. 2. International businesses and cross-culture - There is a growing trend among multi-national companies to employ diverse workforce, diverse not only in the functional and technological skills they possess, but also from various ethnic, cultural and demographic backgrounds. It is observed that "successful businesses are depending more on effective globalization, which in turn depend on the diversity in workforce" (Toomey, 1999: 4). This is due to the fact that they recognize that a cross-cultural team with its unique abilities can be an asset to the business and that it can contribute to the process of problem-solving owing to its diverse nature (Gupta, 2008 and Barrett, Davidson, 2006: 1). Gupta notes the comments of the SPHR, Delicia Del-gardo, "diversity can result in better business solutions" (2008). There is much evidence as to how these teams thrive on the diversity of skills, knowledge and culture to effectively approach problem-solving in various situations at work. As it enables them to leverage different approaches to solve a particular professional issue, there is a conscious effort by many teams to employ a diverse workforce. It can also be observed that this practice brings multi-dimensional advantages to the company. Along with the advantage of effective problem-solving, which is of importance in cross-cultural environments as they are prone to conflict, this practice of a employing a diverse workforce also brings an advantage to the business in terms of market share. With cross-cultural teams being employed, there is more exposure to the different cultures and also different markets, as with virtual teams, hence, these businesses can penetrate foreign markets with ease due to the inherent knowledge and skills available within (Guindi, Kamel, 2003). These teams are usually trained to communicate the importance of awareness that diversity exists and the need to identify and find ways to work towards a shared goal of the business, in spite of the differences. Hence, the responsibility lies on the management to train the workforce to be aware of the existence of differences and avoid any conflict rising due to these differences. The managements are responsible to communicate and ensure proper strategies to convey the shared goals and values that the employees need to inculcate to avoid any conflict and work on common grounds (Guindi, Kamel, 2003). However, there are still hoards of conflicts inherent in the cross-cultural businesses that they need to effectively address to ensure its smooth and profitable working. 3. Issues in cross-culture- Owing to the diversity of the teams in cross-cultural businesses, Laroche has observed some factors like Communication, time consciousness, relationships, value systems, work habits, and team structure that usually contribute to most of the conflicts (2003: 4). Kotelnikov (n.d.) observes that "cultural differences in cross-cultural teams lead to a lot of misunderstandings" and these usually are not recognized by the team members and hence the trust is affected. He further notes that to establish certain amount of credibility in the other member's view, trust is important and is the key to building cross-cultural teams. Further, the teams have to work synergistically to achieve the common goals and hence need to share a common vision for which the management is responsible. As the diversity in the teams is a necessity in the globalized world, there is a need for higher level of commitment and interdependency among the team members which calls for increased communication. Harlverson and Tirmizi observe that "Globalization and technology have contributed to layers of meaning to the organization of work which has resulted in people becoming more dependent on each other to realize their goals and mission successfully and effectively. They further infer that the notion of interdependence is the key to defining and understanding the teams and their working in the diverse and complex environment" (2008: 3). This dependency more often leads to conflicts at workplace. Guindi and Kamel (2003) note that "conflict is inherent in multi-cultural teams in corporate environment and the corporate culture can help reduce these conflicts as there is uniformity and understanding of the goals and conduct. Further, it is observed that the organisation's management plays an important role in transmitting these values and culture to the different teams, thus managing and reducing conflict". Gupta (2008) notes "conflicts are primarily caused due to communication issues". As Sinha observes, there is the issue of "national culture" (2006) that cross-cultural teams have to deal with apart from the corporate culture issue and most of the factors like communication, orientation of time, values, etc. fall into this category. With different people from different cultural backgrounds in the team, there is bound to be a difference in the way they perceive these factors and hence need to be addressed in these cross-cultural teams. There is a need for effectively communicating the visions of the organization and this can be achieved by way of training the team of the same and also on the techniques to handle the differences arising due to differences in the national culture in the team. Sinha observes "Superior sustainable team performance can be achieved only if team members learn to take into account dimensions of organizational culture and those of national culture like orientation to time, communication styles, etc." (2006). Training is imparted to ensure the team's commitment to achieve performance goals, by imparting knowledge on the existence of differences in various issues and the probable strategies of the organisation to handle the same. CHRM in an article on how to mange a multi-cultural team stresses on the need to establish "harmonious relationship between heterogeneous teams and identifies language as the main barrier for effective communication leading to conflict, and that this issue can be addressed by imparting of training to the members of the team to realize the cultural differences and how they can avoid conflicts and work in a uniform environment thus generating trust. It also identifies the need for organisation to stress on team building as it can help recognize the role played by other members of the team thus eliminating many issues relating to communication to contribute to the organisation's success" (2009). Toomey observes that "to communicate effectively with dissimilar others, every global citizen needs to learn the fundamental concepts and skills of mindful intercultural communication" (1999: 5). Hence, its is observed that apart from imparting training, corporate culture also needs to be developed to enable the various activities helpful in reducing conflict and ensure the effective working of multicultural teams. The corporate culture stresses the corporate hierarchy, the corporate strategy, corporate values and leadership and management styles that are found to be unique for each organisation based on the outlook they adopt towards the existence of multiple cultures and their effects on the organisation's performance. In addition, the awareness of national culture and techniques to effectively handle the conflicts arising or avoid such conflicts go a long way in building cross-cultural teams in international businesses. The key to the harmonious working in such teams is found to be effective communication at various levels. First, the corporate culture needs to be communicated effectively to the team to ensure a shared vision for the efficient operations and second, the national culture is to be addressed, owing to the multi-cultural team and their increases inter-dependency in achieving the objectives of the organization. Also, it can be observed that the team members need to commit themselves to stick to the shared vision and bury the national differences to work towards the common organizational goal. This, if nothing else, requires common sense as it is about surviving in the highly competitive globalized economy. 4. Conclusion- Cross-cultural teams are found to be inter-dependent in their daily activities and need a high degree of communication to achieve the corporate goals. There is a need for multi-level communication to transmit the corporate vision and team vision to achieve these goals for the profitable running of the businesses. While it is observed that there are various factors like corporate culture, national culture, which includes style of communication, time consciousness, work habits, individual value systems, work habits, relationships, etc., it is observed that communication is the key to effective team building and hence efficient business. Hence, it is imperative to communicate effectively the organisational goals to the team along with the techniques to handle differences in the diverse environments. The key to efficient businesses lies in effective communication among its team and the organization as well. Successful businesses today have learnt the art of effective communication for efficient business. 5. Refereneces- 1. "Managing a Multi-Cultural Team", CHRM, 2009, Accessed on June 01st, 2009 http://www.chrmglobal.com/Articles/400/1/Managing-a-Multi-Cultural-Team.html Barrett, Mary, Davidson, Marilyn (2006), "Gender and communication at work", Published by Ashgate Publishers Ltd. 2. Guindi, El. Amira, Kamel, Sherif, "The role of virtual multi-cultural teams in corporate culture", Published by IGI, 2003, Accessed on June 01st, 2009,Article review available online at http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfmid=960188 3. Gupta, Sangeeta, "Mine the potential multi-cultural teams- mesh cultural differences to enhance productivity", Published by BNET, October 2008, Accessed on June 01st, 2009 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_10_53/ai_n30956481/ 4. Halverson, B. Claire, Tirmizi, S. Aqeel (2008), "Effective Multicultural Teams", Published by Springer. 5. Kotelnikov, Vadim (n.d.), "Team Building and Teamwork", Published by e-COAHCH, Accessed on June 01st, 2009 http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/team_main.html 6. Laroche, Lionel (2003), "Managing cultural diversity in technical professions", Published by Butterworth-Heinemann. 7. Sinha, Rana, "Key Factors of Multicultural Team Management & Leadership", Ezine articles, Published on September 08, 2006, Accessed on June 01st, 2009 http://EzineArticles.com/expert=Rana_Sinha 8. Toomey, T. Stella (1999), "Communicating across cultures", Published by Guilford Press. Read More