Overcoming the Cultural Barrier in Business Communications - Essay Example

Essay Plan Culture by definition segregates people of different nations. It implies a patterned way of ‘thinking, feeling and reacting acquired andtransmitted mainly by symbols...” (Tung. P.2) Rosalie Tung identifies five cultural dimensions which impact cross-cultural business communications. (p.5) She goes on to explain that failure to understand cultural differences in the context of these cultural dimensions can result in misunderstanding, mistrust, conflict and even hostility. (p.5) Overcoming the cultural barrier in business communications mean more than understanding a language. Understanding cultural differences is the key to successful international business communications. (Zachry. P.1) Professor Geert Hofstede identifies five ‘independent dimensions’ (p.1) of cultural differences. The significance of Hofstede’s independent dimensions is a method of avoiding misunderstanding and conflict in international business negotiations. Gary Emmons in his article The New International Style of Management, suggests that the new corporate culture may be sufficient to overcome the difficulties arising out of national cultural barriers. (p.2). A new and increasing global style of business management might transcend anticipated conflicts resulting from cultural barriers. Essay Cultural dimensions impacting cross-national business communications are: High-versus low-context cultures, monochromic versus polychromic time, silent language, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and Maruyama’s epistemological types. In high context cultures such as China and Japan, communications are conducted in an implicit manner. In low-context cultures such as the United States and many European nations, communications are conducted in an explicit manner. (Tung p.5) In many high context cultures, gift giving is prevalent and a failure to understand this aspect of the culture is liable to lead to a misconceived implication of impropriety. Moreover, when engaging in the gift exchange cultural mode with high-context cultures it is important to avoid gifts which imply bad luck or ill will. This very simple failure to understand the nature of high-context culture communication modes can lead to serious conflicts in international business communications. (Tung p.6) Cultures operating on monochromic time (m-time) believe in performing one function at a time. On the other hand, cultures operating in polychromic time (p-time) function while performing several different tasks. P-time cultures have a propensity for mixing business with pleasure and will often put personal concerns ahead of business concerns. This of course can cause conflicts in international business communications as a p-time national will easily sever communications if distracted by a personal commitment. (Tung p.6) Silent language refers to nonverbal communications. (Tung) A hand shake among Americans generally mean that a deal has been successfully negotiated. However, in many Middle Eastern countries a hand shake merely means that serious business negotiations are set to begin. It is easy to anticipate how a misunderstanding in this method of communication can lead to conflict among these two different cultures. Hofstede examined over 70,000 IBM employees in over 50 countries and he identified five cultural dimensions. They are: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity and long- versus short-term orientation. (Tung p.9) Maruyama maintains that conflicts and basic misunderstandings arising out of communications between two diverse cultures is a direct result of differences in ‘value priorities, behavioral patterns and logical epistemological structures.’(Tung p.9) Maruyama uses the phrase ‘epistemological structures’ to refer to the manner in which people ‘process and interpret information’. (Tung p.9) M. Zachry cautions that it is essential that professionals engaging in intercultural communications have some insight into the foreign culture that they are aspiring to reach. For instance, Pepsi’s ‘come alive’ advertising campaign literally translated into ‘Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave’ in Chinese. (Zachry p. 1) If you go into a business meeting with a foreign based enterprise armed only with knowledge of the language you might come away from the meeting ill-informed. For instance, ‘reticence for one culture may indicate polite consideration of proposals, and for another, disdain.” (Zachry p.1) Professor Geert provides some insight into avoiding the embarrassment and conflicts arising out of cross-cultural business communications. He uses the term , ‘Power Distance’ to explain the separation of powers within organizations (such as the family) and how this inequality of power structure is accepted and expected. ‘Power and inequality, of course, are extremely fundamental facts of any society and anybody with some international experience will be aware that all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others. (Hofstede p.1) Individualism versus collectivism is used by Hofstede to explain the manner in which individuals are segregated into groups. In individualist cultures people are loosely connected, people generally look out for themselves and their families. In collectivist cultures, ‘we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.’ (Hofstede p.1) Masculinity versus Femininity is used by Hofstede to refer to the various gender lines existing in different cultures. In Middle Eastern countries for instance, women are subservient and this could be an important factor in international business communications. It may be unwise to send a female employee to an Arabic concern for the purpose of conducting business communications. Hofstede coins the phrase ‘uncertainty avoidance’ to refer to the importance of knowing which culture is liable to avoid ambiguity and which culture is not. (Hofstede p.1) For instance Americans are known for being rather straightforward, whereas Japanese are indirect. Going into a business meeting unaware of these cultural differences can lead to conflicts and misunderstanding. Long-term versus short-term orientation resulted from a study conducted by Hofstede of students in 23 countries . Values attributed to Long Term Orientation ‘are thrift and perseverance’ (Hofstede p.1) whereas values attributed to Short Term Orientation ‘are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting ones face.’ (Hofstede p.1) Gary Emmons in his article The New International Style of Management is of the opinion that new and increasingly growing international styles of international management may just be enough to overcome cultural barriers. (p.2) ‘As high-performing global companies implement transnational strategy and strive to achieve competitive advantage, decision making by those firms and their individual managers seems to rise above national influences and toward a commonality shared by other top firms in the international arena.’ (Emmons p.2) We are witnessing an entirely new generation of international business groups. There is a common ground among international business which transcends cultural differences. They obviously have differences in their individual business practices, but many observe a common business protocol. They ‘do share certain qualities and practices not observed in firms that fall short.’ (Emmons p.2) The culture gap is a reality and certainly poses some difficulties. However, a young and ‘growing cosmopolitan business class is bringing different worlds closer together.’ (Emmons p.1) They are coming together via education and are knitting together a popular global and business culture that promises to extinguish the culture gap. Works Cited Emmons, Gary. The New International Style of Management. http://hbswk.hbs.edu/cgi-bin/print Viewed August 2, 2006 Hofstede, Geert. A Summary Of My Ideas on Cultural Differences. http://feweb.uvt.nl/center/hofstede/page3.htm Viewed August 2nd 2006. Tung, Rosalie. Culture and International Business. http://www.cbe.wwu.edu/cib/papers/tung.PDF Viewed August 2, 2006 Zachry, M. How Significant is Culture in International Context? http://www.cbs.curtin.edu.au/files/culture_lectures.doc Read More