Intercultural Communication Issues - Essay Example

Culture and Communication Variables that can lead to miscommunication between speakers from different cultural backgrounds Communication involves both the transmission of words and messages, and of feelings and emotions. When a person understands the words of the other person but wrongly attributes an emotion, such as anger, to the words, there is miscommunication. Of course, miscommunication also takes place when the meaning itself is misunderstood. There are several factors that lead to miscommunication when people belonging to different cultures speak to each other. These factors originate from the nature of communication and the psychological factors that affect it. Culture is an element in shaping these factors as well as the underlying attitudes about various issues such as work, success, wealth, authority, equity and so on. Some of the important variables that affect communication in an intercultural scenario include: Language differences: One of the major causes of miscommunication is the use of language. This can happen even if two people speak the same language, because of differences in usage. Frequently, people from different cultures speak different languages. In these cases, communication occurs through a process of translation. Unfortunately, translation often fails to convey the spirit of the communication. In some cases, it changes the meaning altogether, and in others it has unintended connotations. A couple of examples cited by Ekwulugo (94) illustrate the impact of language differences and how they can make communications go haywire. The first concerns General Motors’ popular automobile brand Chevy Nova, a name that is well known and popular in many countries of the world, and associated with an efficient and prestigious car. In Spanish, this name means “Does not go”, which grossly misrepresents the message that the company wants to convey. Perception: Different people perceive things differently. One of the reasons for this difference in perception is the way people have been conditioned. Perception is the way people process information. Raw data that comes to a person is converted to information because of such processing. Different words and symbols acquire different meanings in different cultures. For example, making a circle with the thumb and index finger means “okay” in America, signifies money in Japan, and is the equivalent of showing the soles of one’s feet in Thailand. Torn and shabby clothes are a sign of poverty to Indians, while in parts of Europe they signify freedom. It is clear that when an American is trying to say Okay, a person from Thailand will understand it as an offensive gesture (Pickton & Broderick 53) Values and beliefs: Values and beliefs also affect communication and the way people express themselves and understand each other. Values are certain qualities that we feel one should possess and practice. (Mullen and Johnson 31). Beliefs are cognitive evaluations that are shaped by cultural and social factors. (Pepitone 140) Values and beliefs influence the way a person perceives things. In an experiment to understand variations in perceptions, a control group was shown a clipping in which a white, middle aged and well dressed individual was shown in the act of mugging. Although the act of mugging was very clear in the picture, most observers could not associate mugging with the person they saw. Consequently, people who saw the clipping described the person as young – in his teens or early twenties – rough looking, and shabbily dressed. Many described him as a black. In intercultural communications, value system becomes a barrier between the sender and receiver. As Chapel observes, “Communication problems arise, however, when stereotypic information is processed in biased ways" (171) Cultural Dimensions: This concept was originally proposed by Geert Hofstede, and has a great bearing on intercultural communications. Hofstede proposed four cultural dimensions: Individualism, Power Distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity. (Doole& Lowe 98) These cultural dimensions shape the attitudes of persons towards work and life, which in turn affect perceptions. Attitude towards time is a good example of how intercommunication can be affected. In western societies great value is accorded to time and phrases such as Time is money” are often heard. In several Asian countries time does not have the same importance. Punctuality at meetings and subsequent reactions can vary between two individuals from these cultures. One would take it as an indifferent attitude towards the business and interpret it as a message that the opposite party is not interested in doing business. The other person might be surprised at the undue importance given to a minor matter, and may believe that this indicates an attempt to avoid doing business. Non-verbal cues: Another factor that contributes to miscommunication between cultures is the interpretation of non-verbal cues. Hall proposed that cultures can be classified as high and low context cultures. This classification also serves to highlight the factors that can lead to miscommunication between persons from different cultures. In Low context cultures, which are typically found in Western countries, there is less involvement between people communicating, and the actual communication is explicit and mostly verbal. (Bradley 103) In high context cultures, to which most Asian countries belong, more meaning is attached to personal factors, and communication is verbal as well as non-verbal. Thus a person from an Asian culture may be looking for a lot of non-verbal cues, while his counterpart from the west may be blissfully unaware of this, and may not be sending any signals at all. Conversely, a person from the Asian culture may be giving out these signals, but this may be ignored by the other person. The experience of French Conglomerate BSN, while introducing its yoghurt products in Japan provides an excellent example of such miscommunication. Field surveys prior to the introduction of the product showed that the product had a good market, but when actually introduced, the product failed. It was later found that the Japanese considered it impolite to answer in the negative to dichotomous (yes/no) questions. (Hibbert as cited in Doole and Lowe 152). The process of encoding/decoding: Even the simplest of communication takes place through an encoded set of messages and rarely conveys the actual thing. For example, a person conveying that she is hungry may say so using words or gestures, but will never transmit the pangs of hunger to the person with whom she is communicating. (Newcomb, Turner, and Converse 186) More complicated messages undergo encoding/ decoding to a greater degree. For example, a simple communication such as “I don’t agree” may undergo coding and decoding depending on the culture of the person. In most cultures, it would be considered impolite to say so explicitly. This may cause miscommunication, because when one person is saying he or she disagrees, the other person might interpret it as agreement and happiness with situation. For example, a person may say, “I see your point and I would agree but for a minor problem.” The other person may take the “minor” part literally. Para-linguistic factors: Miscommunication can arise between two people speaking the same language using the same words, because of factors such as emphasis placed on particular words or intonations. The example of a West Indian Bus driver in a London bus, who announced “Exact change, please” illustrates this well. Although the same words are routinely used by several bus drives in London, passengers found this particular driver rude, because unlike the other drivers, this particular driver placed an emphasis on that last word, which is normal among West Indians, but signified rudeness to the average Londoner. (Chapel 173-174) To conclude, the variables that lead to miscommunication between speakers from different cultural backgrounds include language, para-linguistic factors, perception, conditioning, learning, values and beliefs. In addition, the cultural context and cultural dimensions constitute other variables that lead to miscommunication. In what ways can we endeavour to reduce intercultural (mis) communication The above discussion gives an insight into some of the reasons why miscommunication occurs in an intercultural context. The answer to the question as to how miscommunication can be reduced can be derived from these causes themselves. One of the reasons that cause miscommunication is the difference in perception and understanding. Proper training and briefing in intercultural aspects can reduce this problem substantially. Thus before two persons from different cultures communicate with each other they should be made aware of the cultural differences. Thus if an official from a Western country such as UK or USA is being sent to conduct negotiations in an Eastern country such as Japan or China, he or she should be briefed about the cultural differences. The second way to reduce intercultural miscommunication is to raise the general awareness of all the people who are likely to be involved in such communication. To some extent this is already happening as the world is increasingly becoming a global village. Many authors now question the validity of stereotyping individuals based on assumed cultural characteristics. To some extent greater interaction between people has already reduced such differences. This opens up a third alternative to further reduce miscommunication, which is to provide greater exposure to people. Make communications more explicit People involved in intercultural interactions and communication should be briefed to rely more on explicit verbal communication as far as possible. These people should be specifically trained on the dangers of assumptions made on the basis of one’s own cultural background. Another way to reduce miscommunication is to counsel the concerned people to ask for clarifications in case of doubt. Verification Another strategy that can reduce miscommunication between people from different cultures is to check back on what has been understood. People should be instructed to repeat or summarize what they have understood to be the crux of the massage that the speaker is trying to communicate. This should be prescribed as a standard procedure even in cases where the listener feels that he or she has understood the message. Simulation exercises Persons likely to be involved in cross cultural communication may be exposed to simulation exercises in which they communicate with someone who simulates the communication style of the other culture. This exercise could be used to identify the most common misunderstandings that arise and make the person aware of these. In the final analysis, the key to reducing intercultural miscommunication is to create better awareness and provide adequate training to the people who are likely to engage in such communication. This would be somewhat similar to the process of learning a foreign language, which is essential if two persons talking different languages wish to communicate with each other. 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Social Psychology: The Study of Human Interaction. 2nd Rev. ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966. 8. Pepitone, A. 12Beliefs and Cultural Social Psychology. In Cross-Cultural Topics in Psychology, Adler, L. L. & Gielen, U. P. (Eds.) (pp. 139-152). Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994. 9. Pickton, David and Amanda, Broderick. Integrated Marketing Communications: Second Edition. Essex, England: Pearson Education Ltd, 2005. Read More