Intercultural Communication - Report Example

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Student’s name Code & Course Professor’s name University City Date Contents 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 Intercultural Communication and Healthcare 3 3.0 Intercultural Communication and Social Media 4 4.0 Power Distance and Adaptation 5 5.0 Adaptation of Cultures 6 6.0 Discussion 6 6.1 Immigrant Workers and Occupational Health Safety 7 6.2 Intercultural Communication and Social Media 8 7.0 Conclusion 9 8.0 Reference List 11 Intercultural Communication 1.0 Introduction The diversification of different nations and people in the world has greatly influenced the interconnection and mutual interdependence of such parties globally. Communication is an essential ingredient of such diversity, and though it is defined as the allotment of meaning and understanding, culture has had its effects on such a phenomenon and as such, a new terminology has evolved which is referred to as intercultural communication. The complexity of this notion has led to the typical definition of it as communication between national cultures and individuals with differences in relation to each other (Croucher, 2015). This has had impacts in the global context in areas such as globalization, technological advancements health and cultural adaptation. Such communication requires intercultural competence. As such, this paper highlights some of the experiences related to intercultural communication with discussions on the same. 2.0 Intercultural Communication and Healthcare Healthcare as well as intercultural communication is affected by same communication problems hence they benefit from the expertise of each other. Healthcare quality is affected by several specific intercultural issues (Alexander et al., 2014). Disparities in the approach to treatment and medicine are linked to differences in repertoires that are communicative. Pain is expressed differently according to culture, for instance, with some cultures going for internalization of pain while others are expressing it openly. Such disparity creates problems in the assessment of pain levels the patients are in, and this has numerous consequences in curbing it and causes trauma for personnel eventually prejudice, thwarting as well as incorrect diagnosis and treatment (Pedersen, 2013). Differences in understanding of medicines by staff and patients affects the expectations as far as diagnosis and treatment provided or received is concerned. Intercultural communication is key in the identity of such differences. Communication is of great essence in the establishment of rapport between healthcare providers and patients. Poor communication impedes the development of relations thus hinders the process of healing (Croucher, 2015). Lack of trust affects the willingness of patients to follow the treatment thoroughly and in circumstances where a common language does not exist language translators are used in conveying information although it poses numerous setbacks. Studies have established that translations solve less because patients usually require broad cultural know-how regarding the health system and subsequent procedures. This enlists the necessity to have much more cultural brokerage as pertains to healthcare that is accompanied by an approach centered on patients in which the requirements, expectations, and narrations of the patients orient the process of healthcare (Croucher, 2015). As a result, development of healthcare practitioner’s cross-cultural sensitivity towards differing expectations and requirements is an issue that is imperative in the enhancement of healthcare as regards the intercultural framework. Due to inadequacy of research on such an issue, more efforts need to be put in the research to explore means of training personnel together with identification and addressing of difficulties of patients. 3.0 Intercultural Communication and Social Media Both cross-cultural communication and social media share relevant interests in research as regards to acculturation, identity and integration and power and cultural relations. Face-to-face communication issues translate to online communication to some extent in some issues (Johnson, 2013). Presenting oneself in online and head-on contexts employs the impression that people are actively involved as far as the expression of characteristics that vary by cues that are different contextually is concerned (Bouvier, 2012). In most cases, people use traditional identity groups in social media, for example, ethnicity or nationality. This thrives under the common assumption that online spaces allow individuals establish and renew the range of the available categories of identity. Results from studies on the two different cases depict a discrepancy, one being that the present processes of globalization seem to develop ‘cultural spaces independent of traditional ethnic or geographical identifications’ (Johnson, 2015), and the other that traditional means used in categorizing self-are still in use. Discussions on online identification methods enlist ways in which culture is build and negotiated by people and institutions. Social media are key in the examination of the chemistry between the use of power and culture relations. In Chen and Dai (2012), it is stated that western references on culture dominate in the present online world (for instance: materially by use of programs, linguistically through the use of English and by making references to the culture that is popular). In cases where the face-to-face interface is absent, it not necessarily implies that cultural indicators are absent as they are incorporated in social media and brought forth by persons that use depictions of culture by different means. Fresh studies on media are the next leading edge as far as intercultural communication is concerned, and more research is essential in keeping the concepts and studies in correspondence to the present advancements (Shuter, 2012). With regard to this discussion, there is an intertwine meant in intercultural communication and social media, and there is a significant interdependence among them. 4.0 Power Distance and Adaptation In many cases, workers are less conversant with their interests and rights. Societies that have high power distance culture display measures of centralization of leadership autocratically and authority centralization. Less powerful people in society and organizations agree and expect that leadership be distributed non-uniformly. In such cases, relationships are ordered by differences in status. As such, people are not resilient to accept the positions that they hold in the hierarchy and fulfill the roles that they are supposed to play within it with no resistance to the orders given. Hierarchical relationships and high power distance make labor unions to be less powerful in some countries as compared to the others. The gap in power distance in the cultural context indicates a strong tendency towards hierarchy, putting the executives in the top positions in the most important roles. 5.0 Adaptation of Cultures This is a process that is of vital concern to scholars, policy builders, populations, countries, and personalities. There are several models used in the process of adaptation of cultures. It’s a dynamic process in which persons, on relocation to new or unaccustomed environments launch or reestablish and keep comparatively firm, mutual and practical relations with such surroundings. Intercultural communication as a field focuses on several study fields as well as contexts. It is as well reaching out into other fields of study as discussed above, such as social media, healthcare and power distribution. 6.0 Discussion Significance increase in immigrant rates, especially in the western countries that are industrialized, has led to significant changes in the socio-demographic organization over the decades that came after the completion of the Second World War. Increased maternal rates until the late sixties were subsequently followed by a significant decline in fecundity in most industrialized countries. Immigration has led to the subsequent cultural diversity in such countries. Health institutions have the little knowhow and do not value specific ways of doing things depending on the culture, and they do not patients to act, feel, or define health and sickness the same way. This creates a monoculture organization that may tacitly participate in the segregation of susceptible social groups to the advantage of the overriding mainstream (Cote, 2013). Health doings may lead to cultural dilemma, myths as well as wrong diagnoses. Deviating and or inconsistent global views concerning health and sickness may occur in health encounter. There has been increased research on the different measures that can be put in place to deal with the differences in culture. Cultural upbringings need to be considered in the provision of healthcare facilities. The differences in understanding between the healthcare providers and the patients bring a setback to the entire process of treatment and generally healthcare provision. 6.1 Immigrant Workers and Occupational Health Safety Immigrant workers are the susceptible members in a working organization. several difficulties for instance challenge them: firstly, access to health care and reimbursement, secondly their deliberation to sectors with high risks, thirdly prevalence in tiny or medium sized diligences, fourth labor division on the basis of the status of immigration, fifthly discernment, being bullied as well as being harassed, sixth being less conversant with the rights of labor and laws and seventh barriers of languages and cultures and competence in linguistics. Cultural matters are not enlisted and, as a result, they are viewed as explanations that are hypothetic for the variances existing among workers who are immigrants when dealing with the system of healthcare and reimbursement. Better knowledge of the routes of migration in relation to the precise races or racial categories sources a peculiar understanding of the likely sequences of integrating work among some definite groups (Cote, 2013). Work-related convalescence systems and dues are written by members of the family and the respective employers. As a result, they are largely likely to incur litigation medically and legally and unlikely to acquire a specific or exact judgment. The above discussion on intercultural experience in the healthcare perspective deduces to the below-enumerated conclusions about the impacts of cross-cultural communication in the field of health concerning immigration (Cote, 2013). Firstly, the differences in culture may eventually lead to deviating and contradictory representation of health, sickness as well as a diagnosis that as a result hampers the process of healing or cause it to its failure. Secondly, the cultural aptitude in healthcare is multi-faced individually, organizationally and policies related to health, and as such it is increasingly an aspect that cannot be avoided in the development of adapted cultural mediations. Lastly, the health assessment and sickness representation helps health workers to enable cross personal communication and establish a beneficial coalition. Cultural competence is a hopeful notion to be applied in rehabilitating occupations with regard to changes in demography and increasing migrations across countries. 6.2 Intercultural Communication and Social Media Social media is key in the transformation of communication across different cultures. It brings with it determination and hence allows individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds to establish a link and enables communication between individuals that would not have occurred. Therefore, social media communication eases the burden for people of different cultures to communicate and this may be a leeway of discovery and learning more about other cultures (Bhangay, 2014). Despite being of significance importance, social media also has its negative implications as far as cross-cultural communication is concerned. As such, some measures need to be put in place in order to curb the challenges as illustrated by the following points. We should use interacted means to diminish bias in cultures. A setback on the part of the western countries to look for understanding is demonstrated in criticizing the sympathy. Last but not least, we need to put up the relevant tools that can be used to curb cultural crime, especially on social media. 7.0 Conclusion Intercultural communication as a tool in the present world plays a very significant role in the day to day life. Such a phenomenal idea has led less research done on it yet it is key in the various sectors. From the above essay, it is clear that intercultural communication goes hand in hand with areas such as healthcare care, social media and cultural adaptation. It is significant in such areas, and though it mostly has positive effects, critics have argued the other side of the story. Firstly, developed countries that have significant reliance on immigrants to withstand their increase in the populace and labor force face intercultural issues of communication in different sectors. For instance in healthcare and working recuperation, language and cultural barriers negatively affect the process of recovery thus training personnel properly on intercultural competence will help to construct care and services that are adapted culturally. Countries that have high cases of immigration with dominating patterns of culture need to reflect on their healthcare systems as products of culture shaped in particular contexts where there is evolvement in different knowledge categories. Secondly, social media should be used as a platform to enhance intercultural communication and promote unity globally. People should encourage discussions about different cultures on different social platforms to get to know and understand each of the cultures. Social media should not be used as a tool to criticize other cultures but rather as an instrument for the enhancement of cultural diversity. Lastly, though cultural adaptation is seen as a good practice that people do in order to fit in the society that they are thriving in, it should not be seen as an instrument that makes one to fit in a given culture and earn the favors in such organizations, people should accept their cultures and the dominant cultures should not look down upon the minorities but instead have to accept them and treat them as equally as the others. This, therefore, leaves a question to the global community of how the world is working to improve intercultural communication and the measures that are put in place. 8.0 Reference List Bouvier, G. (2012). How Facebook users select identity categories for self-presentation. JournalofMulticultural Discourses, 7(1), 37–57. doi:10.1080/17447143.2011.652781 Chen, G. M., & Dai, X. (2012). New media and asymmetry in cultural identity negotiation. In P.H. Cheong, J. N. Martin, & L. Macfadyen (Eds.), New media and intercultural communication: Identity, community and politics (pp. 123–138). New York, NY: Peter Lang Cote D. (2012).Intercultural communication in health care: challenges and solutions in work rehabilitation practices and training: a comprehensive review. Croucher S. M., Sommier M. & Rahmani D. (2015). Intercultural Communication: Where we’ ve been, where we are going, issues we face.Communication Research and Practice, 1:1, 71-87 Johnson, R. L., Saha, S., Arbelaez, J. J., Beach, M. C., & Cooper, L. A. (2004). Racial and ethnicdifferences in patient perceptions of bias and cultural competence in health care. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 19, 101–110. Alexander, R., Cooper, K., Beach, T. &Halualani, R. (2014). Identifying key intercultural urgencies, issues, and challenges intoday’s world: Connecting our scholarship to dynamic contexts and historical moments. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 7, 38–67. Pederson, J., Tkachuk, H., & Allen, M. (2008). How perceived situational frequency and situationalImportance affect communication apprehension: A cross cultural analysis. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 37, 189–198. Shuter, R. (2012). Intercultural new media studies: The next frontier in intercultural communication.Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 41, 219–237. Read More