International Cross Culture Communication

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Contents

Introduction

International and intercultural communication and negotiation provides corporate organizations with several difficulties. Due to different values and cognitive styles, communicating during international collaborations is even more important than during mono-national collaborations. Miscommunication can be caused by misunderstanding different code, because code is dependent on culture-specific communication rules and underlying value/cognitive styles. Different styles may come in a variety of forms, it may be how individuals speak, what non-verbal cues they give or where they position their main point in conversation. In this paper different forms of cross cultural communication are examined, and examples are given as to how confusion could occur within a business environment, real organisations have been used where possible.

Styles of Communication

Communication is highly important when conducting business across different cultures. As this analysis will show, issues arise when different cultures try and communicate with each other. “Communication is only possible between people who to some extent share a system of meaning” (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner: 1997: 74). The systems of meaning can create solutions for intercultural communication .as well as presenting new problems. As a result, intercultural communication issues arise. Cross cultural styles of communication are a vital aspect to many businesses that look to expand into new markets or deal with individuals of other nationalities. Culture matters, as the head of strategy for Accenture in Europe stated “Every CEO who has been through a cross-border merger says he knew culture was going to matter but did not realise how much” (Gapper, 2008). Across cultures there are a variety of styles in which different nationalities communicate, this is particularly true with regard to the quantity of information within a message that is valued and delivered. There are three primary styles; elaborate, exacting and succinct (Mooij, 2011). An elaborate style refers to the use of expressive and articulate language, the exacting style indicates that communication is precisely as long as necessary to make the point needed, and the succinct style incorporates the use of silence and understatements as part of the communication (Massey et al, 2001).

Different nationalities tend to favour different methods of reaching the main point within their conversation. This can often lead to difficulties when there are inter-cultural differences within a business environment. For instance, as a general rule, Americans “believe that words should say what they mean and people should be accountable only for what they say in words” (Tannen, 1984). This ‘exacting’ style of communication is at odds with the ‘elaborate’ style favoured by the Arab nations, where indirectness is the more commonly used. These differing styles would naturally raise issues if businessmen from America and an Arab nation were to work together. Whereas one individual would wish to get straight to the point of the conversation, his counterpart would aim to talk around the main topic, causing frustration for both individuals. In countries, such as China, where succinct communication is the norm, businessmen and women of other nationalities should be aware that talking too much is viewed as a sign of dishonesty (Desai, 2010, pg173). This cultural diversity increases complexity, confusion and ambiguity within communication, the challenge of working in groups is therefore increased (Shachaf, 2008). Such cultural differences are attributed to the majority of merger failures (Gitelson et al, 2001).

In addition to the styles of communication employed by different nationalities, there are a number of other factors which can vary. These include issues such as when to talk, what to say, pacing and pausing, intonation and cohesion and coherence (Tannen, 1984).

In 1997 Wal-Mart took over from Wertkauf in a bid to launch the Wal-Mart brand internationally (Brunn: 2006). One of their failures was a lack of awareness with regards to the communication style the German people are used to. In general, the communication style of the Germans is to be reserved with strangers and formal in their work interactions. In contrast, the management style of the American firm Wal-Mart, tends to prefer to break the ice quickly and be informal in their work communications, allowing action to take place quickly (Nees, 2000). Similarly, the German customers were annoyed by being greeted at the door and found persistently helpful clerks an intrusion on their privacy.

High and Low Context Communication

It is viable to say that people are influenced by their own cultural norms, thus when communicating with other cultures, confusion can occur. Intercultural styles of communication vary due to factors such as language, communication methods and idioms. Intercultural communication has been categorised by Thomas (2002) as high or low context correlating to the amount of context given.

The level of context is the amount of surrounding information that is given, for example in a written text or verbal communication. The amount of context given can vary and this has implications for a ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

High and Low Context Communication

“In low-context cultures, the message is largely conveyed by the words spoken. In high-context cultures, a good deal of the meaning is implicit and the words convey only a small part of the message” (Thomas: 2002: 121).

As a result of these methods of communication, the original method may be delivered with clarity, or have to be interpreted by the receiver.

These indirect and direct styles can be associated to different cultures;

“In the United States, effective verbal communication is expected to be explicit, direct and unambiguous” (Thomas: 2002: 120)

From David Thomas’ example, it can be seen that the United States has a culture of direct communication. The result is clarity and communication being quicker but at a cost of little context. Low context communication is often straight to the point and heavily coded (Thomas: 2002). In other cultures such as Indonesia, cultures are “considerably more inexact, ambiguous and implicit” (Thomas: 2002: 120). This indirect communication is less coded and involves a lot of verbal and expressive delivery.

In low context and explicit communications, body language, innuendos and assumed understandings count for little. (Steers: 2010: 218). This is the message content being directly delivered, as opposed to the message context. In contrast to this, high context and indirect communications tend to rely more on personal relationships, reputations and perceived mutual understandings. The result is that the receiver has to interpret the message content out of the high context given (Steers: 2010: 218)

The high and low context methods can be related to Geert Hofstede’s ‘Cultural Dimensions’;

“High and low context communication styles can actually help to perpetuate collectivism and individualism” (Thomas: 2002: 121).

The relation can be seen when considering dimensions. An individualistic culture is more likely to adopt an explicit communication style. This is because individuals work in isolation and when interaction takes place, the message has to be direct, due to the lack of collectivism. Oppositely, a collectivist culture is likely to adopt a high context and implicit style. This is because each team member has understanding of each other and personal relations are. Therefore they are more likely to interpret an implicit message better. (Hofstede Website)

The issue of high or low context information can be applied to Wal-Mart, the retailer from the United States of America. The company has to deal with the issue in all of its business activities internally, with employees and externally, with customers (Brunn 2006). When marketing a family orientated product, Wal-Mart alters their strategies between countries;

“The direct communication in the German flyers with women and children in a family context differs from the covert inferences of family life in the ASDA flyers in the United Kingdom” (Brunn: 2006: 156).

The given example shows how Wal-Mart changes its marketing due to different communication methods in cultures; Germany is given an explicit message whereas the United Kingdom (UK) is given implicit information. The result in UK aims to “evoke family life without naming or displaying it”(Brunn: 2006: 156).

Wal-Mart also demonstrates a similar strategy in China, giving high-context and implicit messages to the customers;

“There were also many small signs in the store (in China) that do not specifically address the store or products” (Brunn: 2006: 161).

This is an example of giving high context in China, a country that is classified as having a high context method of communication (Thomas: 2002: 120). Overall, Stanley Brunn demonstrates that Wal-Mart must undertake such adaptions to be successful in foreign markets;

“Wal-Mart must overcome both political and cultural obstacles, which requires considerable adaptation and compromise” (Brunn: 2006: 311).

It is clear that Wal-Mart is dealing with the issues of intercultural communication with flexibility. This results in the company having better communications with local cultures at the compromise of global standardisation. Standardisation would bring lower costs due to economies of scale, but adaption allows the company to be apart of the local cultures and ultimately due to this, more successful.

Cultural Norms and Scripts

Cultural norms and scripts are acceptable standards of behaviour that are shared by members of a cultural group. Brislin (1981) states that cultural scripts are the proper mix of socialization and parental discipline that shape individuals attitudes, behaviours and personality. They guide our speech and behaviour and help us interpret others speech and behaviour. Therefore cultural norms and scripts influence the way we speak and act and interpret what others say and do- intercultural misunderstanding can result in potential irritation, conflicts and can cause offence (Zimmerman, 2010). An example of cultural norms is how to conduct a business meeting.

Norms are the mutual sense a group has of what is right or wrong. Norms can develop on a formal level as written laws, and on an informal level as social control. Norms consciously or unconsciously, give us a feeling if this is how I normally should behave. When you think of norms you also have to think of values as these are closely interlinked as shown by Trompenaar. “He believes that a culture is relatively stable when the Norms reflect the values of the group” (F.Trompenaars and C. Hamden-Turner, 22, 1997). Social scripts are both verbal and non-verbal.

When looking at US hotel chain The Four Seasons moving to Paris there were certain cultural differences that impacted the cross cultural communication. Hofstede indicated a great disparity between North-American (US+Canadian) national culture and that of France. The French culture is not confrontational like the North-American culture is, it is much more congenial and positive. It is very important in France to save face and preserve the dignity of the person being reviewed. Therefore the communication style between managers and employees is completely different and the Four Seasons managers had to be very much aware of this so that they knew how to communicate with their employees in the correct way.

Non Verbal Communication

Samovar and Porter (8:1991) define communication as a “dynamic transactional behaviour-affecting process in which people behave intentionally in order to induce or elicit a particular response from another person”, however critically analysing this, there may exist unintentional stimuli, which occur unconsciously, that can result in misinterpretations; one example of this being non-verbal communication. One aspect of nonverbal communication commonly referred to, is paralanguage. Poyatos (1992) refers to this as the “range of nonlinguistic elements of speech, such as facial expressions, gestures and the use of time and space”.

Zimmerman (2011) provided examples of segmentation of non-verbal communication in five areas: Kinesics, Occulesics, Proxemics, Haptics and Chromatics which are the study of body movement and facial expressions, eyes contact and gaze, physical space, bodily contact and colour respectively. Knapp and Hall (2001) introduce further segmentation in addition to Zimmerman in the areas of; Vocalics, Appearance, Environment, Artifacts, Olfactics and Synchrony which are the study of vocal cues (accent, loudness, tempo, pitch, cadence, tone), look and physical appearance, the value of the physical space, the communicative aspect of apparent visible objects, smell, and amount of coordination in people’s behaviour (mirroring, mimicry, behaviour meshing).

A company that excels in exemplifying and exploiting non-verbal communication to use as a competitive advantage is Apple Inc. Steve Jobs, Apples’ CEO, delivers multiple key notes annually, utilising non-verbal communication in his delivery. His gestures and body language (Kinesics) are open, where receivers will interpret honesty and trust. His loudness, tempo and tone (Vocalics) deliver enthusiasm towards the company, whilst confidence and belief portrayed by the lack of hiding his hands, pecking nose, reading from paper and so forth (Appearance). This non-verbal communication extends through to the development of retail stores. Employees do not wear suits but rather informal t-shirts (Appearance) conveying a friendly and approachable message as well as there being usable products to sample (Artifacts).

An overview analysis and evaluation of this would show that Apple adopt and have a high level appreciation of non-verbal communication as a vital element of their competitive advantage.

Holistic Communication

Zimmerman references holistic communication as the clarification of all the details and relevant context first, and then an agreement or decision after. It derives from the Greek word, Holism with the concept that all individual elements (including linguistic) can’t be concluded nor deduced from the individual elements alone, but the collective, as a whole determines how the elements behave. Aristotle (1966) summarized holism as “the whole is different from the sum of its parts”.

Andrea Zahumensky, recently gave a lecture at Raymond Walters College on holistic communication. She works for Procter and Gamble and is specifically responsible for the Crest toothpaste brand management. In 2010 a case study was conducted trialling holistic communication for Crest, to raise its popularity from being a low interest product. When asking students in the lecture hardly any could reference the brand of toothpaste, even less the type of toothpaste and none knew the flavour.

Procter and Gamble developed the Crest Whitening Plus Scope Extreme with the tagline “Irresistible fresh breath”. However in addition to this they developed an “Irresistible IQ test”, and also teamed up with celebrities to endorse the product and advertise it on television shows and magazine coverage. Further research was conducted in bars, where adverts were played in bathroom stalls and sweepstakes on text competitions recorded data.

As a result of this holistic approach to communication Zahumensky illustrated that Procter and Gamble saw significant sales grown from the launch. As from this case study, all the details were decided first and then through different mediums of communication the product was promoted inductively and associatively through the mediums of celebrities.

Linear Communication

Shannon (an engineer at Bell telephone laboratories) and Weaver (1949) developed a reduce transmissive model of communication which elaborates the process of ‘transmitting information’. Fiske (1982) gives strength to the model as being “widely accepted as one of the main seeds”. The model involves information sources, creating specific messages to sent to transmitters. These transmitters signal to receivers who then deliver the message to the destination. A more complex model was developed by Schramm (1963), adding feedback loops, defined as “field of experience and exchangeability”. Feedback is the return process where the owner of a message acts as a recipient usually somehow as a result of the initial message.

An example of linear communication taking place in a firm would be Jet2.com; online booking for flights. The online system initially core information about which airports you want to fly from, the dates you want to fly around and the number of people traveling. This method of communication is in essence gathering the basic principles; where later the other details such as luggage excess, insurance, seat location, flight choice, inflight meals and so forth, can be clarified systematically, a rather analytical approach; which then allows consumers to decide upon whether to purchase based on price, which is displayed at each stage.

Conclusion

Cross cultural communication has a significant impact upon the dealings of multinational companies serving different countries. Companies which originate from different countries and cultures should do research into the cultural norms of the organisations they are looking to work with as a necessary must. As seen in the communication methods listed above, there is a lot of room for miscommunication and misunderstanding. Individuals may cause offense by failing to recognise certain cultural norms or by pulling a facial expression that they are not aware of.

Our research has led us to recognise that there are larger, more recognisable differences between some cultures compared to others and a certain level of generalisation is applied to theory. Contrast between the brash, exacting style of Western culture, led by the Americans is at complete odds with the reserved, succinct culture of the East, such as the Chinese. The cultural norms and different contexts within both cultures, in some situations, would cause confusion and negate cohesive behaviour in a work environment.

It would be an unrealistic expectation to think that cultural differences can be learned to their fullest extent before moving into a country, but so long as recognition is given and efforts are made to address major issues, cooperation in another country will not be affected and business efforts will prosper.

References

Anon. Youtube [online].

(Accessed on 08-05-11)

Anon. Youtube [online].

(Accessed on 08-05-11)

Argyle, Michael (1991) Intercultural Communication. In Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter: Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Wadsworth, Inc., CA:USA.

Aristotle, (1966) Metaphysics. Trans. Hippocrates Gorgias Apostle. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press

Bovard, R. (2007) The Activist: P&G tries holistic approach in marketing Crest [online].

(Accessed on 07-05-11)

Brislin, Richard W. (1981). Cross-Cultural Encounters-Face to Face interaction, Allyn and Bacon, Singapore.

Brunn, S.C. - Editor (2006) Wal-Mart World: The World's Biggest Corporation in The Global Economy. Routledge. London.

Desai, M. (2010). A Rights-Based Preventative Approach for Psychosocial Well-Being in Childhood. Springer. New York.

Fiske, John (1982): Introduction to Communication Studies. London: Routledge (Chapter 1, 'Communication Theory' is a good introduction to this topic)

Gapper, J. (2008). Corporate culture shock is a big deal [online].

(Accessed on 12-05-11)

Gitelson, G., Bing, J.W., and Laroche, L. 2001 The Impact of Culture on Mergers & Acquisitions

Guffy, M.E., Rogin, P. and Rhodes, K. (2010) Business Communication: Process and Product (3rd ed.). Toronto, Nelson Education Ltd.

Anon. Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions [Online]: http://www.geerthofstede.nl/culture/dimensions-of-national-cultures.aspx. Last Accessed 02/05/2010.

Hallowell, R. & Bowen, D. & Knoop, C. (2003) Four seasons goes to Paris: “53 properties, 24 countries, 1 philosophy” Harvard Business School.

Knapp, M.L. & Hall, J.A. (2001). Nonverbal communication in human action. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Massey, A.P., Hung, Y-T.C., Montoya-Weiss, M. and Ramesh, V. 2001. When culture and style aren’t about clothes: perceptions of task-technology “fit” in global virtual teams. GROUP '01 Proceedings of the 2001 International ACM SIGGROUP Conference on Supporting Group Work, New York, ACM.

Mooij, M. (2011). Consumer Behaviour and Culture: consequences for global marketing and advertising. SAGE Publications, London.

Morris, D. (2002) Peoplewatching: The Desmond Morris Guide to Body Language (2002)

Nees, G. (2000). Germany-Unraveling an Enigma. Intercultural Press.

Poyatos, F. (1992). Advances in nonverbal communication. Amsterdam: Benjamin

Samovar, L.A. and Porter, R.E. 1991: Basic Principles of Intercultural Communication. In Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter: Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Wadsworth, Inc., CA:USA.

Schramm, W. (1963). The science of human communication. New York: Basic Books

Shachaf, S. (2008). Cultural diversity and information and communication technology

impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study. Information and Management, 45, 131-142.

Shannon, Claude E. & Warren Weaver (1949): A Mathematical Model of Communication. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press

Steers, R.M, Sanchez-Runde, C.J and Nardon, L. (2010) Management Across Cultures: Challenges and Strategies.

Tannen, D. "The Pragmatics of Cross-Cultural Communication." Applied Linguistics 5(1984):3.189-95.

Thomas, D.C (2002) Essentials of International Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks.

Trompenaars, F. and Hampden-Turner, C. (1997). Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London.