The Development of Intercultural Communication with Globalisation

The phrase 'Intercultural communication' was first used in 1954 in a book by E.Hall, Culture as communication, (Kulikova, 2004; Mindess, 1999) and was described by (Ozdemir, 2011) as different cultures sending and receiving messages with each other and meaning these messages. (Leontovich, 2007) simply described it as its own independent science, which I feel is accurate as intercultural communication is an art that is constantly changing and evolving as the world around us becomes increasingly connected with improvements in technology and an ever changing ‘culture’, something (Williams, 1987) described as one of the most complicated words in the English language. In this essay I will compile various studies from over the years together to analyse 4 issues with intercultural communication as well as looking at a commonly cited model devised by Hofstede.

One of the main issues faced with intercultural communication is Ethnocentrism. This is the belief that your own cultural way of doing things, norms and ways of thinking are better to that of your cultural groups (Hybels & Weaver, 2009). This is not the same as Patriotism, which is defined as “devotion to your country.” Ethnocentrism causes a person to think that’s impossible for someone else’s culture to be better than theirs in any way (Hybels & Weaver, 2009). This makes it an issue in intercultural communication as it can prevent you from even attempting to see any other point of view. It’s one of the quickest ways to “create a barrier that inhibits, rather than enhances communication” (Jandt, 2012), and acts as a barrier to both the sender and receiver of the communication. It commonly referred to as “culture shock” and is an increasingly important barrier to overcome, as in America a nurse is more likely to encounter a patient that speaks a different language. It is vital therefore that this intercultural communication barrier must be overcome in order for nurses to effectively carry out their jobs.

A stereotype can be defined as “Widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing” by the Oxford English Dictionary however (Lipman, 1922) referred to them as “pictures in our heads” which I feel is a more appropriate definition. The problem with stereotyping comes when we use our stereotypes to tell us how group members would typically communicate (Krauss & Fussell, 1991). However these predictions typically may not be accurate and as a result it can lead to miscommunication and communication breakdowns. Stereotypes become more serious when they are negative and rigid. Research into this topic shows that, once a stereotype is formed, it is very difficult to discard. This is because people remember information supporting a stereotype before they process information that may contradict it (Hamilton, Sherman, & Ruvolo, 1990). This can lead to problems in organisations where a worker may base assumptions on a person based on their race, gender or sex. This can lead to the wrong person being selected for the job and therefore in efficiencies and problems within the business leading to a potential loss of profit.

Prejudice is another issue that plagues intercultural communication and falls hand in hand with stereotyping. (Hybels, 2009) states that prejudice is, “a negative attitude toward a cultural group based on little or no experience.” The difference between stereotyping is that where stereotyping tells us what a group or culture is like, prejudice is about how we feel towards said group (Newberg, 1994). However some scholars such as (Hecht, 1998) believe that it may not have such a close relationship to stereotyping but instead stems from negative feelings towards one group and positive feelings towards your own, or even genuine threats. Prejudice causes issues when communicating as it causes entire groups of individuals to be left out or treated differently (Barna 1997). An example of this is could be in a large company with a diverse work force such as Deloitte. Entire departments may be reluctant to share information with each other due to a prejudice against each other and as a result there could be a breakdown in communication resulting in a Deloitte not being as efficient as possible and losing out on potential profit.

Language is perhaps one of the most obvious issues that can arise with intercultural communication. (Jandt, 2000) described language as the set of symbols that is shared by a community to allow them to communicate experiences and meanings to each other. Given that this is the main way we communicate, intercultural communication will break down if the sender of the information cannot send it, the receiver cannot understand it, or both. Language is vital for a person’s self-identity as it allows them to express themselves, speak, and convey complex messages with emotion that would otherwise not be possible. Language is one of our greatest mediators that enables us to understand and relate to each other (Imberti, 2007). These issues become apparent when it comes to ordering food in a language that you aren’t fluent in. Miscommunication and a struggle to obtain accurate information about the food presented on the menu are the biggest problems that customers ordering in a foreign language face. This will affect their decision when it comes time for them to order because they are not accurately informed as to what each dish offers. This can result in embarrassment and anxiety. Many customers also experience fear, possibly related to “face consciousness.” This involves being embarrassed in front of peers or servers and can be a stressful burden for many people. (Ho, 1979) described face consciousness as “the reputation and the credibility one has earned in a social network.” There is evidence to show that Asians are more face-sensitive than their Western counterparts (Ho, 1991), however anyone who has been in this situation before will know all too well that it can be both stressful and embarrassing. Different people try to cope with these break downs in intercultural communication in different ways and coping behaviours can be severely affected by the attitude of the person serving them.

An attentive server can help to overcome these language barrier issues associated with intercultural communication by being welcoming and encouraging to a customer. In contrast a less attentive server who is less experienced when communicating in an intercultural fashion may get impatient. This may result in the customer feeling discriminated against and could negatively affect the business and result in bad publicity all because of an issue caused due to a break down in intercultural communication. Service recovery to customer complaints will increase satisfaction and loyalty according to (McCollough, et al., 2000), and therefore training employees regarding cultural backgrounds and teaching them to be more attentive and friendly to customers is essential.

Hofstede, 1991 suggested a multi-dimensional model based upon the national values. Therefore, it is also known as the Hofstede cultural value model. Hofstede interviewed Hofstede surveyed more than More than 88,000 employees of a large multinational firm based in 66 countries in order to develop this model. This allowed Hofstede to identify four dimensions including power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism, and masculinity-femininity and these were identified as the dominant patterns. With the help of Bond and a survey, Hofstede was able to identify another cultural classification called the “the Confucian Dynamism.” This mainly applied to cultures from East Asia such as Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. One of these areas that I find most appropriate towards the topic of issues that can arise through intercultural communication is masculinity-femininity. This area of the model looked into how in many societies the male would carry out the assertive and ambitious jobs whereas the secretary job may be left to be the Woman (Dadfar, 2001). This would definitely be an issue with intercultural communication as men from societies where this is most prominent, such as Saudi Arabia, may treat woman from countries with a Low MAS (masculinity index), such as those in Scandinavian, with less respect than they feel appropriate and this could conflict in both social and business settings.

I myself have faced some issues with intercultural communication, with the most notable occurring during a cross community trip to America. Initially I made the mistake of speaking to people in slang as if they were my friend living here which often caused confusion and a lot of awkward silences and as well as a constant “excuse me?” One of the most problematic phrases I was using was the greeting, “what’s the craic” or “any craic”. This wouldn’t raise an eyebrow to someone from Northern Ireland however it managed to raise multiple in The States with several people thinking I was offering them drugs or asking for them! Thankfully, I was able to iron out any problems before they escalated however it goes to show that there are issues that arise with intercultural communication even when you speak the same language. Over the course of the month I feel like I really improved my intercultural communication skills as our group dealt with some of the main reasons behind the division in Northern Ireland. Everyone in the group had come from different cultural backgrounds and that made intercultural communication all the more important as we all had our own individual experiences with some people coming from segregated schools and some not. This gave me an insight into different people’s cultures as everyone had come from different backgrounds yet through the use of intercultural culture we were able to come together to carry out valuable community work whilst out there. A strong understanding of intercultural communication was also needed for this as I needed to interact with disadvantaged people of all ages and not discriminate through stereotyping or prejudice which as I have previously discusses are huge barriers to intercultural communication. I had to try and overcome my accent as the Americans found it hard to understand and it could result in miscommunication. This is not the only time that I have demonstrated my use of intercultural communication as I have also had to demonstrate these skills when coaching a youth football team. Due to the popularity of football, kids from all backgrounds and ethnicities would turn up for training and this required a clear use of intercultural communication in order to effectively carry out the training session. The first challenge was establishing ground rules as many of the kids had different ideas of what was within the laws of the game, whether it be from the teaching of their parents or because of where they were originally from. Intercultural communication proved vital for this as I had to communicate with each team member differently.

An ever changing world brought upon by globalisation has made intercultural communication more important than ever. Businesses are becoming more diverse as they employ people from all backgrounds of life and it is making over coming barriers to effective intercultural communication such as stereotyping, prejudice and Ethnocentrism, crucial to everyday business activities. It is important to read different situations and approach them with caution, especially when dealing with people who don’t speak the same language as miscommunication can lead to inefficiencies in everyday business. To summarise intercultural communication is a skill we all need to value and continue to improve upon in our everyday lives in order to improve our social skills, as well as in our professional lives as it is a skill that will allow you to network effectively with clients and colleagues from all around the world.