{"id":104,"date":"2023-12-04T03:28:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T03:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openbook.ums.edu.my\/internationalmanagement\/chapter\/topic-2-4\/"},"modified":"2024-09-18T01:50:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T01:50:52","slug":"topic-2-4","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/openbook.ums.edu.my\/internationalmanagement\/chapter\/topic-2-4\/","title":{"raw":"Steps to Overcome International Communication Problem","rendered":"Steps to Overcome International Communication Problem"},"content":{"raw":"Co-Authors: Lim Li Xin BB21110617, Lim Ziaojune BB21110200, Ou Ke Ying BB21110601, Ruth Maureen Loh Xhin Ying BB21110058, Sherry Yong Jing Ru BB21110122, Tan Pei Hui BB21110715<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/youtu.be\/erdLGyEliEg?si=LfkZEcsv-8-unKyz[\/embed]\r\n\r\n\"Understanding communication for the workplace\"<\/a> by Study Work Grow is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSteps 1 : Understanding and respecting cultural differences\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\"Cross-Cultural Training through Education and Personal Experience: Low and High Rigor\"<\/a> by Laura Radtke is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>\r\n\r\nAll communication is intercultural. Successfully communicating across cultures requires understanding and respecting how the culture or cultures you represent differ from those of the people you\u2019re communicating with. While you may think that you should just follow the golden rule and treat everyone else the way you would like to be treated yourself, the more you travel to distant lands, the more you realize that cultural conventions and expectations for how people would like to be treated are relative. One culture will place a high value on a friendly handshake and eye contact, while you would come off as aggressive or awkward if you did those things well in another. While we may be members of many different cultures, we tend to identify with some more than others.\r\n\r\nThough you can\u2019t be expected to know every little custom across the planet, having a general sense of large-scale cultural differences and a willingness to learn the details as necessary can save you from embarrassing yourself or offending people of different cultures when interacting with them. An open approach to cultural differences can also impress your audiences in ways favourable to your reputation and the organization you represent. With these goals in mind, let\u2019s consider the following dimensions of cultural difference from the perspective of social anthropology. In other hand, if you\u2019re ethnocentric in the sense of being fearful, intolerant, or even just avoidant towards those other cultures\u2014be they on the other side of the planet, country, province, city, building, counter, or desk\u2014you limit your opportunities for success in the globalized market. Even engaging other cultures with simplistic, preconceived notions informed by media stereotypes reducing everyone in a culture to a one-dimensional character or prop will similarly lead you into serious error. As such, If your work brings you into contact with cultures that you know little about, forget the stereotypes and learn about their culture by both researching it and talking to them respectfully.\r\n\r\nSourced adopted from \"Unit 49: Intercultural Communication\"<\/a> by Jordon Smith is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>\r\n\r\nSteps 2 - Meet your global colleagues in person<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn today's workplace, our colleagues may not be located in the same office, city, or even country. A growing number of tech companies have a global workforce of employees with varied experiences and perspectives. This diversity allows companies to compete in the rapidly evolving technological environment. Communication can deteriorate, misunderstandings can happen, and teams may stop trusting each other\u2014all of which can affect the success of the company.For example, Americans communicating with Japanese colleagues, for example, should pay attention to the non-verbal cues, while Japanese communicating with Americans should prepare for more direct language. The best way to build long-lasting relationships is to meet your team members in person. If your company can afford it, arrange for this to happen. Meeting colleagues with whom you have been working will likely strengthen your relationship with them. The companies I have worked for have a strong record of periodically sending US team members to other countries and global colleagues to the US office.\r\n\r\nAnother way to bring teams together is to attend conferences. This not only creates educational and training opportunities, but you can also carve out some in-person team time.\r\n\r\nIn today's increasingly global economy, it is becoming more important for companies to maintain a geographically diverse workforce to remain competitive. Although global teams can face communication challenges, it is possible to maintain a high-performing development team despite geographical and cultural differences. Share some of the techniques you use in the comments.\r\n\r\nSourced adopted from \"Think global: How to overcome cultural communication challenges\"<\/a> by Avindra Fernando is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>\r\n\r\nSteps 3- Cross-Cultural Training through Education and Personal Experience: Low and High Rigor<\/strong>\r\n\r\nCurrent research suggests that cross-cultural training can influence cultural intelligence. At a basic level, you can acquire cultural intelligence by taking classes in your program. Research has shown that taking cross-cultural management courses can enhance cultural intelligence (Ramsey et al., 2013).\r\n\r\nFor example, in a study of 152 MBA students, researchers found that the cultural intelligence of the students increased after they took a cross-cultural management course. In another longitudinal study, researchers found that studying abroad has a significant impact on the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of cultural intelligence. How do multinationals approach cross-cultural training? The above provides examples of low-rigor training, in which individuals are exposed to critical information to help them understand the realities of a different culture but are not actively and directly engaged with the culture (Lenartowicz et al., 2014). In such cases, instructors transfer basic information and knowledge to students through lectures, books, and case studies.\r\n\r\nCompanies can also rely on high-rigor methods of training, in which participants are actively engaged in the process and can learn some tacit aspects of cross-cultural differences (Lenartowicz et al., 2014). Examples of high-rigor training include classroom language training, case studies, and sensitivity training. High-rigor training also includes more experiential approaches such as role-playing, simulations, and field experiences. Some MNCs (multi-national corporations) also offer on-the-job training, during which employees are coached and trained while working at their jobs. This method allows the trainee not only to see a new culture but also to learn how that culture interacts with the work environment. The advantage of this method is that it enables the participant to be much more actively engaged in learning, thereby facilitating the transfer of knowledge. But as you might have guessed, high-rigor training is much more expensive to provide.\r\n\r\nWhich method works best? Experts agree that it depends on the nature of the assignment. Longer and more complex international assignments benefit from higher-rigor training (Lenartowicz et al., 2014). Furthermore, because international work assignments tend to be more short-term in nature, ways to enhance the metacognitive aspects of cultural intelligence are necessary (Mor et al., 2013). Today, because more leaders tend to have more frequent but shorter assignments to international companies, having metacognitive skills is critical. As a result, brief lectures or other low-rigor methods that simply provide information may be useful in helping develop the cognitive aspect but not metacognition. In such cases, high-rigor methods that allow participants to be much more actively engaged with culture will work well.\r\n\r\nSourced adopted from \"Cross-Cultural Training through Education and Personal Experience: Low and High Rigor\"<\/a> by Laura Radtke is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>\r\n\r\nSteps 4: Recognise the Cultural Characteristics\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIndividualistic versus Collectivist Cultures<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe Dutch researcher Geert Hofstede explored the concepts of individualism and collectivism across diverse cultures (Hofstede, 2005). He found that in individualistic cultures like the United States and Canada, people value individual freedom and personal independence, and perceive their world primarily from their own viewpoint. They perceive themselves as empowered individuals, capable of making their own decisions, and able to make an impact on their own lives.\r\n\r\nCultural viewpoints are not restricted to either\/or dichotomies but are rather distributed across a continuum or range. You may belong to some communities that express individualistic cultural values, while others place the focus on a collective viewpoint. Collectivist cultures (Hofstede, 1982), including many in Asia and South America, focus on the needs of the nation, community, family, or group of workers. Ownership and private property is one way to examine this difference. In some cultures, property is almost exclusively private, while others tend toward community ownership. The collectively owned resource returns benefits to the community. Water, for example, has long been viewed as a community resource, much like air, but that has been changing as businesses and organizations have purchased water rights and gained control over resources. How does someone raised in a culture that emphasizes the community interact with someone raised in a primarily individualistic culture? How could tensions be expressed and how might interactions be influenced by this point of divergence? In the following sections these viewpoints will be examined.\r\n\r\nUncertainty-Accepting Cultures versus Uncertainty-Rejecting Cultures<\/strong>\r\n

\"\"\"DIVERGENT CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS\"<\/a> by <\/span>Arley Cruthers is licensed under <\/span>CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/p>\r\nWhen people meet each other for the first time, they often use what they have previously learned to understand their current context. People also do this to reduce uncertainty. Some cultures, such as the United States and Britain, are highly tolerant of uncertainty, while others go to great lengths to reduce the element of surprise. Cultures in the Arab world, for example, are high in uncertainty avoidance; they tend to be resistant to change and reluctant to take risks. Whereas a U.S. business negotiator might enthusiastically agree to try a new procedure, the Egyptian counterpart would likely refuse to get involved until all the details are worked out.\r\n