Intercultural Communication in the Workplace

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Scenario
Conclusion
Reference list

Introduction

Today’s competitive world wide economy leads to people moving from one region or country to another. This leads to growth in cultural diversity at workplaces. These might also lead to breakdown in communication among staffs. For a long time, very few people have shown concern in handling the critical problems that exists cross cultures, making their relations ambiguous. It is no wonder that scores of societies worldwide have portrayed diverse modes of conduct, conventions and ideals. It is very detrimental for any institution to fail to come up with inter cultural communication mechanisms. This paper endeavors to look at a situation where intercultural communication is a crucial subject. The paper aims at analyzing the problem and coming up with strategies that can facilitate conquest over the numerous problems that might result from intercultural misunderstandings.

The Scenario

A pharmaceutical company located in San Francisco California, has just endorsed the promotion of an operations administrator in its intercontinental headquarters in India. In an effort to fit in the Western culture, he is commonly known as Roger but his authentic name is Rajamid Sodhi. His assistant director, an American lady, is known as Jill Scott. She resides in California and has been working with the pharmaceutical company for the last twenty weeks. On her first encounter with Roger, she developed an industrious and submissive feeling towards him. She straight away imagined that Roger was the kind of a person who is smart, forthcoming, snobbish and exceptionally devoted to religion. She suspected that Roger was a married man who could not establish an intimate relationship with anybody. They had a brief chat pertaining American politics and the interesting things they could do along the Bay area in San Francisco. Without wasting much time, Jill took this opportunity and offered to show Roger around the city. She felt that this was a way to pick his brain and create a sense of friendship.

Women from California are often more aggressive and straightforward than other women around the world. In America, women together with their male counterparts habitually attend social places jointly as friends. This may include, going out for dinner, social gatherings, movies and so forth. For this to happen, both men and women do not have to be in a relationship as it happens in many cases.

Conversely, Roger imagines that Jill is interested in him and that she would readily accept his engagement. His culture does not support the casual relationship between, men and women. Females, in his community, are not allowed to go out with men unescorted and should not be aggressive in their behavior. If a woman proposes to meet a man, then the reason for such a meeting, according to Roger, is romance. He developed the idea, from watching variety of movies from America. He is of the opinion that majority of women in America are intimately mixed up with are several men. In his own country, such people are considered to be morally loose. He misguidedly perceives this as an opportunity to have a potential sexual relationship with Jill. He pictures that Jill, like every other woman in America has loose morals. He justifies himself when he senses her friendliness, smiles, and attention toward him. Although Jill did not mention a husband, she wore a ring on her left hand, and Roger chose to ignore it. During one afternoon, they decided to drive to a cool place for lunch, where Jill was surprised at his conduct when he placed his hand on her leg. Given her appalled reaction, she does not understand why he is doing this. She confronts him and thrusts him off causing him to swerve. At first, he felt sure that she was only joking. Afterwards, she makes it clear to him that she is not interested because she is a married woman. It is then that Roger realizes that Jill is not attracted to him. He feels upset and bewildered. Jill is angry and concerned that this will affect her position at work.

The Diagnosis

In this scenario intercultural conflict has occurred. Roger and Jill are both guilty of generalizing, assuming, and being ignorant of each other’s true cultures. They have conveyed through both verbal and body language an interest and consequently, they misunderstand each other. According to Knapp (1998) Intercultural conflict is defined as the apparent or definite inaptness of values, averages, procedures, or goals between at least two cultural factions over substance, characteristics, relational, and routine issues. In this case, neither person communicated effectively, nor was the message being conveyed received as intended. This creates a sense of vulnerability and frustration.

Strategies

It is important to note that people from different cultural backgrounds are programmed differently and have little or no knowledge about each other. If a need to communicate arises, they have to be able to communicate in such a way that makes their meaning clear and not provoke unnecessary misunderstanding. The intended message may be anything from a major negotiation to a simple sales pitch. The goal of the communicator is to deliver a well-defined reaction to the message being conveyed. The challenge is to get the desired reaction from the communication. To do this, one must practice cultural awareness and effective communication. Successful intercultural communication is a fine balancing act that requires interest and a willingness to overcome cultural barriers.

In business matters, it is very significant to appreciate the morals and customs that determine people’s way of life. If we become conscious of the benefit s of understanding the cultures from different communities, we would learn to identify with and appreciate their behaviors and hence cement the relationship between the various communities found in the world. We should learn to practice active listening skills. Holstede (1997) provides a very descriptive way of understanding ethnocentrism.

When we go beyond our cultural boundaries, we take our axiomatic meaning structure from our home culture and continuously choose measures that we can easily recognize and identify with. Unless we become aware of the ethnocentrism that exists between our cultures, and take appropriate measures against it, communication breakdown will occur in our workplaces. We should not judge other cultures using our own standards.

Conclusion

If the situation with Jill and Roger had been revisited, utilizing the strategies listed above; the set-up would have played out significantly different. Roger now being intercultural competent would have known that in America relationship development between a man and a woman in a corporate setting, outside of work, would not necessarily have been romantically related. Jill, also being intercultural competent, would have been aware of India’s practices and would have approached the situation carefully and would have expanded on a purely work related outing. Both would have practiced active listening and rephrased, given vocal cues and would have made sure the meaning behind the words were understood by the other individual. By being culturally aware, open, and receptive to verbal and non-verbal communication and clues both individuals would have avoided the intercultural misunderstanding.

Reference list

Holstede, G. (1997). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind – Intercultural Co-operation and its Importance for Survival. AMED USA. Web.

Knapp, K. (1998). Interkulturelle Kommunikationsfähigkeit – Linguistische Perspektiven. München: Judicium. Web.

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Intercultural Communication in the Workplace

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