Preaching the Importance of Intercultural Communication

Introduction:

It is impossible to live in the world without interacting with others and thereby communication has become an essential part in life. Intercultural communication or communication between people of distinct cultural environment has always been and will possibly remain an important prerequisite, of human co-existance on earth. The ability to successfully form, foster, and improve relationships with members of a culture different from one's own…is based on knowledge of many factors, such as the other culture's values, perceptions, manners, social structure, and decision-making practices, and an understanding of how members of the group communicate verbally, non-verbally, in person, in writing, and in various business and social contexts (Shum Su Kei & Rashad Yazdanifard, Jan 2015).

Here in the chapter, the author describes various opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication in a global market place and the ways to succeed in dealing the restricting attitudes like ethnocentrism and stereotyping. Also tells the need of understanding cultural differences by quoting the six groups of it. Most importantly, he endorses seven points to write understandably in global business multilanguage environment. In this assignment, I will be discussing about the advantages and challenges of intercultural communication, importance of cultural pluralism to overcome the barriers, and how to improve intercultural communication skills.

Powerful intercultural communication helps to get rid of communication deterrents like language barriers and stereotypes from international business. As a consequence, of the rapid development of international business, more attention is being paid to the importance of intercultural communication (Shum Su Kei & Rashad Yazdanifard, Jan 2015) intercultural communication is particularly important to avoid conflict caused by a diverse cultural working environment.

Advantages of Intercultural Communication

The most important advantage of having intercultural communication is multi viewpoint. People from different backgrounds bring their own unique cultural experiences to the real time situations in the business activities and thereby distinct and innovative ideas mix together to resolve any business conflicts amicably. Here in chapter, Gordon Nixon says ”if we succeed at leveraging the current and workforce, we will have unrivalled advantage. But if we fail we will pay a heavy opportunity cost for our citizens and will face an uphill battle to maintain, let alone enhance, our quality of life”. The second advantage is immense scope for the companies with multi-cultural workers since they can uplift their business to worldwide recognition, for example, the company is capable of spending more of their time and resources to engage in business instead of solving internal and external communication problems (Hilton, 2007).

Challenges of Intercultural Communication

Employees in firms come from various walks of life and distinct cultures thus resulting in different personalities. When such diverse individuals work in a firm to achieve a common goal, it is common that the disputes between personalities occur, causing interpersonal tension, resentment and frustration (Jia-Chi, 2010).This can lead to a decline in overall group performance.

Ethnocentrism: It is generally a disposition where a group of people believe that their values, beliefs, standards and norms are superior to that of others.(Vincent A. Onodugo1 , Bamidele S. Adeleke2 , Ruby N. Ike, Feb- 2017). Ethnocentric persons encourages in-group relationships and competes with out-group members. Although ethnocentrism is generally thought to be a negative trait, Sharma, Shimp, and Shin argue that ethnocentrism fosters in-group survival, solidarity, conformity, cooperation, loyalty, and effectiveness(S. Sharma,. Shimp, T.A. and Shin, J.1995)

Stereotyping: Stereotypes are standardized and simplified grouping conceptions based on some prior premises.For instance, African stereotype: Television, books, comic strips, and movies are all abundant sources of stereotyped characters. For much of its history, the movie industry depicted African-Americans as being unintelligent, lazy, or violence-prone and all African Americans outside of the United States are poor. As a result, of watching these stereotyped pictures of African-Americans, for example, prejudice against African-Americans has been encouraged (Teacher, Law. (November 2013) The above barriers can be tackled by avoiding assumptions, judgements and accepting the differences between cultures.

Improving Intercultural Communication Skills

Studying Other Cultures

It is becoming clear that for building communities that are successful at upgrading conditions and fixing problems, we must understand and appreciate many cultures, initiates relationships with people from cultures other than our own, and build strong alliances with various cultural groups. Each culture has a unique strength and outlook that the larger company can benefit from. We are in need of wide range of ideas and brilliance to sort out issues and thereby promote fresh perspectives. Since understanding different cultural aspects will help us to tackle and deter racial and ethnic divisions. In the decision making procedure, people from different culture have to be present in order for policies to be effective and fruitful.

Studying Other Languages

Learning different languages creates job assurance. When the working atmosphere becomes global, It is indispensable that the employees do what it takes to stick on to their work. The individuals who can speak multiple languages are well ahead of their challenger in the workplace. The capability of speaking different languages not only creates job security but also results into career promotion. While doing a business with someone abroad over telephone, the mastery for interaction is inevitable. Learning other language is necessary for flourishing global relationships. Global relations are paramount for global recognition and universal thinking. When people learn multiple languages, their worldview changes for one step ahead

Writing Clearly

The written word generally stands in place of a spoken word. The attributes of good writing are meeting reader’s expectation, clear and concise, efficient and effective. While writing, the first thing we need to consider is to place words appropriately since it has the ability to carry the meanings so far, the next recommendation is be concise, it’s better for easier understanding by keeping the words simpler. The third recommendation is using transition phrases for the readers to get the continuity of meanings. Avoid using native slangs for getting confusion among the audience is the next

Conclusion

In my point of view, the author is successfully executed his work by instilling the importance of intercultural communication both in the business environment and in the social structure by presenting his innovative thoughts to the readers in the simplest way. I understood that one of the most important skills that an employer seeks is the ability to communicate and is the universal talent including the ability to speak and understand other languages. In the communication process, when the reporter is well aware of the way of conduct of others, will eventually leads to high quality intercultural communication. I totally recommend this text to others to get a deep insight of intercultural communication in this competitive business environment.