...Journal of International and Intercultural Communication Vol. 4, No. 4, November 2011, pp. 246Á251 (Re)conceptualizing Intercultural Communication in a Networked Society Damien Smith Pfister & Jordan Soliz We offer four theses about how intercultural communication is altered in a digitally networked era. Digital media shape intercultural communication by (1) producing new public fora capable of (2) hosting rich, multimodal ‘‘spaces’’ of contact on (3) a scale of many-to-many communication that (4) challenges traditional modes of representation. Keywords: Digital Media; Intercultural Communication; 2009 Iran Protests; Networked Communication As internetworked media technologies gradually diffused throughout the world, they have often been sparks for intercultural dialogue. Internet websites enabled web-savvy organizations, like the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, to circulate their views throughout the 1990s. The power of citizens to communicate directly with each other through digital media was not fully apparent until late 2002, when the pseudonymous Salam Pax began reporting through his blog what life was like for Iraqis in the run-up to the 2003 combat operations. Since then, citizens have relied on the tools of digital media to coordinate protests internally and communicate with outside audiences in a number of colorful revolutions: Rose (Georgia, 2003), Orange (Ukraine, 2004Á2005), Saffron (Burma, 2007), Green (Iran, 2009), and Jasmine (Tunisia...
Words: 2781 - Pages: 12
...Business Communication Assignment [Name of Writer] [Name of Institution] [Date] Contents Introduction 3 Intercultural Issue 4 Verbal Issue 5 Non-Verbal Issue 5 Hofstede Cultural Dimensions 5 Strengths 6 Weakness 6 Case Study Issues 6 Recommendations: 7 References: 8 Executive Summary: The given report is Intercultural Communication and Negotiation Skills and the given barriers that occur in form of verbal and non-verbal communication. The selected framework is Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions which gives analysis various cultural factors in a business environment and the implication of theory on organization. The model and framework strength and weakness is discussed. The end part highlights the case study issues and the given recommendations to remove such barriers. Intercultural Communication and Negotiation Skills Introduction The influx of information technology and mass globalization in terms of markets and economies it is imperative for businesses and their employees to develop the art of cross-cultural interaction process which ensures negotiation and decision making ability. The method of making a particular decision is to reach a point of agreement to build general acceptance among all the key stakeholders. The establishment of various organizations doing business around the world by engaging in strategic alliance and ventures require that the managers and employees are accustomed to cross-cultural communication skills and...
Words: 1687 - Pages: 7
...uk/fac/cross_fac/globalpeople/resourcebank/researchpapers Achieving Mutual Understanding for Effective Intercultural Management Helen Spencer-Oatey Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick WORKING PAPER Abstract Purpose – To introduce an approach to managing intercultural communication that is effective for achieving mutual understanding among people in culturally complex situations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a ‘meaning negotiation’ approach to the intercultural communication process. It argues against a generalised ‘differences/adaptation’ approach, and maintains that people need to interact in contextually sensitive ways. Findings – The paper outlines a set of strategies that can help people in intercultural interaction contexts negotiate and agree the messages they are trying to convey. It draws them together into a conceptual framework of intercultural communication competencies. Research limitations/implications – The paper only focuses on the communication of messages, not the use of language to manage relationships. It also does not attempt to suggest practical techniques for helping managers and their staff develop competence in using the strategies. Practical implications – Since mutual understanding is achieved through meaning negotiation, it is important for managers and their staff to know how this takes place and to develop a communication strategy for implementing it. Social implications – Without adequate mutual understanding, people...
Words: 6858 - Pages: 28
...10 Incorporating Cross-cultural Communication in ELT: A Pedagogical Approach ■ Y. Suneetha Rajeev Gandhi Memorial College of Engineering & Technology, Nandyal G.M. Sundaravalli Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupathi ABSTRACT: Cross-cultural communication has become ever more significant through the globalization of markets, affairs of nation-states and technologies. Consequently, the cultural quotient (CQ) is becoming increasingly important, especially in the context of the changing dynamics of work culture around the world. This paper makes a case for the need to pay attention to intercultural communication and discusses some specific approaches and strategies in the teaching of intercultural communication in the classroom. These approaches include addressing issues like learning to honour one’s own culture and sharing it with others while developing a capacity to be open to other cultures. Other strategies include progressing from an ethnocentric to an ethno-relative state of understanding and acceptance of cultural differences and increasing one’s ability to communicate with non-native speakers. Specifically, classroom practices and strategies suggested include intercultural explorations, use of texts, films, short stories and other multi-media resources, contrastive case studies of cultures, group encounters and role plays. Introduction Sir Francis Bacon said that if a man was gracious and courteous to strangers, it showed that he was a citizen of the world, and...
Words: 4779 - Pages: 20
...INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION Introduction Due to globalisation and the rapid development of multinational firms, intercultural communication poses new challenges to the managers. In specific, the companies who extended their businesses in foreign countries faced the cross-cultural communication problem, where greater the cultural difference is more likely problem in communication. In order to achieve the goal of the organisation by the way of communicating with each other, it is an important approach for the organisation success, especially for firms that operate with subsidiaries in other countries. However, it is imperative to understand the diverse culture in an efficient way of cross-cultural communication to achieve the firm success (Bennis & Nannis, 1985; Erez, 1992; Chaney & Martin, 2011). More importantly, managers have the ability to understand the reasons at the back of action of business partners and attempt to point out ways to adjust the communication in an efficient manner. As stated by Hofstede (1997, p.4), culture is a mindset that influences directly the people’s way of behaviour and thinking. Business Case The present report critically analyse the real business situations of how international clients behave, in this case the behaviour of Swedish and Chinese staff. The scenario in this case is to identify the misunderstandings between the participants involved regarding their business, intercultural and communication strategies. In addition...
Words: 2654 - Pages: 11
...Cross-Cultural Communication Essay Nguyen Hong Minh Business Communication October 30, 2013 Douglas Foster Cross-Cultural Communication Essay Different cultures lead to different way of thinking and behaviors (Hofstede 1991). For this reason, many problems in communication across countries occur when people are unaware of culture differences, especially to high-context culture. Hall (1976) suggested that one must put great efforts to understand the message from a context-dependent communication. It is essential that business people bear in mind that learning cultures and intercultural communication are vital. In the current increasingly diverse world, intercultural communication obviously plays an important role (Germaine, 2006). As a developing country with high-context culture, Vietnamese workers should be well prepared to overcome difficulties when dealing with other cultures in global business integration process. This essay will look at specific aspects of cultural elements of communication in Viet Nam and compare barriers in Viet Nam to those in the UK. Through these boundaries, the essay suggests several intercultural competencies that Vietnamese managers should train their employees in order to work well under multi-cultural environment. Communication in Viet Nam According to Das and Kumar (2010), Viet Nam’s culture, which is among Asian countries, is classified as high-context. In this system, communication...
Words: 1899 - Pages: 8
...The Impact of Cultural Communication Barbara E Wilson January 5, 2016 COM-223 Deena Shehata, The Impact of Intercultural Communication Case Study One Sweden/China Sweden is the Parent Company to China which is one of many Subsidiary Companies around the world, in which they provide high quality products worldwide. They easily communicate problems, they prefer to use a project team to solve problems that arise, and for major projects they involve all departments. (Liu, 2010) The Sweden management style is known for their high standards, to where China is more flexible looking only to the outcome. The main issue for the company is the tremendous cultural gap due to the way the subsidiary company in China is managed. China Chinas way of communication is more a routine there is no personal initiatives. When there is a problem it is reported to a superior then the superior makes the decision on how to solve the problem. Meanwhile, the subordinate wait for official orders. The only time that a problem is handled without notification to a superior is when it is an emergency and there is no time to wait. As for the context of communication, understanding, as well as relationships amongst the people is the high and low context. The high context culture individuals are usually deeply involved with each other however, the relationships between them is complicated especially when it involves the work place. Keep in mind that communication between individuals in...
Words: 695 - Pages: 3
...题目：Japanese System of Bilingual Education: Connecting Intercultural Communication with Bilingualism (跨文化传播、双语形象与多元文化主义：以日本双语教学为例) 研 究 生： 阿夏 指导教师： 安然 学 号： 201122800213 学 院： 新闻与传播学院 专 业： 传播学 华南理工大学研究生院 二〇一二年七月 Abstract The concept of "bilingualism" (two-, multilingualism) has become a symbol of the XXI century. Bilingualism is a way of thinking, perception of the world, self-identity. Open borders within the Schengen Zone, simplified procedure of obtaining temporary visas due to lack of human resources within the countries, etc. caused the significant increase of the immigration processes. Moving from one country to another, people are introducing traditions, lifestyle and language of the country of origin to the new ground. (Intensive processes of integration taking place in modern global community, could be characterized as comprehensive and multifaceted, and can be analyzed from different perspectives, theoretical frameworks and approaches. It should be noted that these processes determine the complex, multifaceted problems, among which there is a multilingualism, the most common variant of it - bilingualism. ) Bilingual education is a form of education in which information is presented to the students in two (or more) language (Bilingual education). English has been playing a central role in the cross-cultural communication as the common international language for linking people...
Words: 3941 - Pages: 16
...Saborio Business 600 Final Paper August 27, 2012 By Keith Alston In today's workplace, communication is the key of every aspect of your job. With the increased globalization of workplace settings across most industries, today’s managers need a more precise understanding of intercultural communication in an effective management strategy. It is important that managers proactively engage in communication skills assessment and make necessary adjustments in order to address the current needs of today’s increasingly diverse workforce. When assessing intercultural communication, it is important to have a plan in place and keep these points in mind like knowing your team and doing your homework. While getting to know as many cultures as possible is a noble endeavor, in reality managers are strapped for time like everyone else. If your functional outsourcing group is diverse, or you have recently hired a new group of employees, or your company is reaching out to more overseas investors, then you have a great opportunity to develop more effective intercultural communication skills that will be most applicable to your team. Just as in any group, there are differences among individuals, and understanding general distinctions within a cultural group is important. Do your homework without singling out individuals. One major area is religious beliefs. After honing their own intercultural skills, managers should be able to lead effective training sessions to explain nuances of several...
Words: 3320 - Pages: 14
...Group & Organization Management http://gom.sagepub.com/ Assessing Communication Competency for Intercultural Adaptation Brent D. Ruben Group & Organization Management 1976 1: 334 DOI: 10.1177/105960117600100308 The online version of this article can be found at: http://gom.sagepub.com/content/1/3/334 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Group & Organization Management can be found at: Email Alerts: http://gom.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://gom.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://gom.sagepub.com/content/1/3/334.refs.html >> Version of Record - Sep 1, 1976 What is This? Downloaded from gom.sagepub.com at University College London on July 15, 2014 Assessing Communication Competency for Intercultural Adaptation BRENT D. RUBEN of the recurrent problems associated with interpersonal, group, organizational, and intercultural training in communication is the assessment of outcomes. An approach is suggested for the evaluation of training and selection of programs utilizing behavioral assessment of One participants’ or communication competence. The method involves the systematic collection and analysis of behavioral observation data along one predetermined dimensions by one or more observers. Prelimiof pilot instruments indicates that the methodology provides a relatively...
Words: 8347 - Pages: 34
...ISSN: 1943-6114 © InternationalJournal.org Business Communication between People with Different Cultural Backgrounds Livia Ablonczy-Mihályka, Széchenyi István University, Hungary Abstract At present every aspect of our social, scientific and mental life is subdued to accelerated development. In our globalised world, the amount of cross-national communication increases drastically and in recent years many researchers have emphasised the importance of awareness of different cultural norms as globalisation has brought about a growing trend to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds. This paper argues for a revaluation of how we approach the topic of business communication and for greater emphasis on successful business communication as the goal of better understanding in global business setting. The ideas which are presented in this paper have been derived over a period of two years of our own research and through the reading of research literature. The research to be discussed in the paper is connected to one of the major research lines at Széchenyi István University, titled The dialogue of professional, organisational and national cultures. The purpose of the present paper is to present the results of a survey conducted with professionals who communicate with foreign business partners. The data were gathered by means of a questionnaire. At the root of the argument is the hypothesis that communication rules and norms between people with different cultural...
Words: 3718 - Pages: 15
...have different culture background, that is , fathom the culture before you’ve made up your mind to interact with others. So there comes the first question, what role does culture play in our daily life? And how does culture affect the way we communicate? This may be explained from the original aim and principle of communication. First, senders and receivers of messages constitute the two side of the conversation. However, the role is not limited one person, we are not only senders, but also receivers. When we say something and try to make our thoughts and expressions understood by others, we are senders of the message, but when we are the listeners and try to get it, we are receivers. But can we convey messages? We use languages. Language is a tool which we can use to convey messages, and it is language that forms different styles of culture. Language is a kind of magic code, we weave the code by the medium of language, which tells you how to decode it, and the receiver use the same principle to translate the code into messages. Form the program of communication, we can reach the point easily that it is language that forms the difference between communications. Then you may ask, now I believe that language affects the way of decoding when conveying messages, but how can you clarify culture affects the way we communicate? Well, I have to say that it is impossible to separate our use of language from our culture. In its most basic sense, language is a set of symbols and the...
Words: 932 - Pages: 4
...PREFACE Thank to God who has given grace and mercy to the author so we can successfully complete this paper timely, with title "Intercultural Communication". We would like to thank our friends who have been taking part in the making this paper until finish eating, and also to all those who helped in the completion of this paper. We realize that in the preparation of this paper there are still many flaws and is far from perfection. Therefore, critics and suggestion is needed here for the improvement of this paper.. The writer hopes that this paper will be useful not only for the writer but also for the readers. Bandung, September 2015 Author Table Of Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1 3 Introduction 3 1.1 Issue background 3 1.2 Purpose of the paper 4 Chapter 2 5 Theory and Discusion 5 2.1 Notion and Principle of Intercultural Communication 5 2.2 Misinterpretation Intercultural Communication in the Lecture 7 2.3 Obstacle in Intercultural Communication 9 Chapter 3 12 Conclusion 12 Bibliography 13 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Issue background The world today is filled by an ever growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Not just happen out of the country, Indonesian society has always been known to be very heterogeneous in many aspects, such as the diversity of ethnicity, religion, language, etc. Is common as an Indonesian citizen with...
Words: 2535 - Pages: 11
...12-ICIT 9-11/4/07 in RoC Going for Gold ~ Best Practices in Ed. & Public Paper # : 07-08 Page- 1 /7 Challenges of Intercultural Management: Change implementation in the context of national culture Prof. Taina Savolainen School of Business, Management and Leadership, University of Joensuu, Finland taina.savolainen@joensuu.fi ABSTRACT This keynote address considers change implementation in the globalizing business environment in the context of culture. Organizations seek ways to cope with new situations in order to survive and be competitive. The primary strategic challenge in multicultural change processes is managing and implementing change successfully. The paper discusses the means of creating readiness for change and challenges they present to intercultural management. Keywords: Change, coping, culture, intercultural, implementation, middle management, readiness 1.0 Introduction Sustaining competitiveness force business organizations to adapt major changes and seek strategies that may be realized in varying, different cultural environments. This presents challenges to multicultural management, in general, and change implementation processes, specifically. Change implementation does no more concern organizational culture only. It is also dependent on understanding different national cultures and having behavioural skills accordingly. Organizations face, thus, constant challenge of change in management (Ascari, Rock & Dutta, 1995). Economic and social forces...
Words: 3836 - Pages: 16
...Professor Mark Wasden Communications 101 Persuasive Speech Non -Verbal Communication and Different Countries Specific Purpose: I am going to persuade the audience to really think about the differences in cultures and the Non- verbal some countries allow and do not allow. Thesis Statement: I want to show the audience the major differences there is from country to country and how we can learn more about these differences pertaining to non –verbal communication. Introduction I. The meaning of a text can be communicated to the readers and listeners only through non-verbal signals. Both the oral and written styles will be perfect with the usage of non-verbal cues. The meaning of a text can be relayed clearly to the readers and listeners only through non-verbal signals. A. Right now as I tell you all this there is thousands of people living amongst a wide variety of rules and customs that are very different from what we would ever imagine. B. This is more than just different cultures and practices, this is the way many humans live and needs to be learned and treated with respect to show we care for the other cultures beliefs and customs. II .Thesis Statement: I want to show the audience the major differences there is from country to country and how we can learn more about these differences pertaining to non–verbal communication and discuss how we can gain more knowledge of this matter. III. Connect: Although many of us do not realize it this subject is very detrimental...
Words: 1429 - Pages: 6
