intercultural environemnt of business (2)
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Business communication across
cultures:1. Communication in interculturalsettings2. English for professional
communicationAnna Szczepaniak-Kozak, PhD
Emilia Wsikiewicz-Firlej, PhD
Stanislaw Staszic HVSS in Pia, Poland
Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna, Poland
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Introduction
All comunication consists of encoding andsending messages through language and
receiving and decoding these messages. Messages dont usually contain a single objective
meaning.
Instead messages are given meaning first by the
sender and then by the receiver.
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Introduction
The meaning given to the message by each
person is rarely exactly the same;When you communicate across cultures, the
chances of miscommunication are even greater;
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Taking turns at speaking
Individuals contribute to conversations and
discussions in meetings in different ways. Some people allow you to finish before they start
to speak. Others speak at the same time. Othersallow a moment of silence before speaking.
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Culture
Culture relates to a system of shared assumptions,ideas, beliefs, and values that guide human behavior
Hall: Culture is communication and communicationis culture.
There is not one aspect of human life that is not
touched and altered by culture
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Differences in listening patterns acrosscultures
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Differences in listening patternsacross cultures Use of time: in cultures that structure time and
do one thing at a time, turn-taking may be
structured more formally; turns occur whensomeone finishes talking, there are rare overlapsor pauses;
In cultures with a more fluid approach to time,
turns overlap and people tend to speak at thesame time;
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General tips
When communicating across cultures, do notassume that your message will be easily
understood;When communicating in a lingua franca, e.g.
English, and not your first language, fullunderstanding is even rarer.
In contact with native speakers people often feelconfused, frustrated, annoyed
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Pragmatic failures in IChttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b-ACqKkAMQ
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Clarity skills for less advanced or non-native speakers Speak clearly and slowly
Pause and emphasize key words
Increase redundancy Do not translate word for word from your first
language
Use prefabs phrases and sentences learnt by
heart to gain thinking time
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Clarity skills for less advanced or non-native speakersAsk for repetitions and explanations
Ask your interlocutor to speak more clearly,
slowly and simplyAsk your interlocutor to remember that you are
using a foreign language
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Listening actively to createundestanding Show you are listening by maintaining the right
amount of eye contact and nodding
Check whether your interlocutor understood andwhether you understood too
When a misunderstanding occurs, repair itimmediately
Summarize what you have understood
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Listening actively to createundestanding Bear in mind that international communication
usually takes longer.
Clarify by summarizing and paraphrizing notonly what others have said but what you havesaid
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Speaking transparently
Because there is a higher risk of communicationbreakdown in intercultural interactions, you
need to work harder to be transparent. This means communicating clearly both your
message and intention.
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Speaking transparentlybetter
Id like thatreport by theend of the day
Id like that report by the end of theday. Its very importnat for me to havetime to read it before the meetingtomorrow.
I disagree withyou.
I disagree with you. Its nothingpersonal, I just think theres anotherway to do it.
We need towork harder. Ive been thinking about this and Ivecome to the concusion that we need towork harder. Its the only way we willsurvive.
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Structuring and labelling
If you are giving a presentation say:
Ive divided it into three parts
If youre running a meeting say:
There are three items on the agenda.
If you are on the phone:Ive got two points. The first is
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The language of active listening
Showing you are listening:Right, OK., I see
Testing your own understanding:If I am not
mistaken, you are saying; What I understood is; Correct me if Im wrong but what youresaying is .
Testing the understanding of your interlocutor:
Did I get that accross OK.? Shall I repeat?
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The language of active listening
Summarizing:Let me go over that again. Just torecap.
Repairing misunderstanding:
There seems to have been a misunderstanding.
I think we may be getting something wrong
Let me correct a false impression.
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IC adventurehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSt_op3fQck
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Culture
Geert Hofstede, the well-known Dutchorganizational anthropologist, views culture as a
collective mental programmingof people. The software of the mind, or how wethink and reason, differentiates us from othergroups.
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Cross-cultural differences
Teamwork. What should managers do if foreign and
domestic nationals dont get along with each other Lifetime employment. Workers in some Japanese
companies expect to work for the same company duringtheir careers; how should a foreign firm handle this?
Pay for performance system. In China and Japan, a
persons age is important in promoting workers. Yethow do such workers perform when merit performance-based measures are used?
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Cross-cultural differences
Organizational structure. Preferences forcentralized, bureaucratic structures may deter
information sharing. Union-management relationships. European firmshave generally evolved into a business culture in whichworkers enjoy a more equal status with managers.
Attitudes toward ambiguity. If you are not
comfortable working with minimum guidance or takingindependent action, then you may have difficulty fittinginto some cultures.
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Cultures Role in International Business In the West, the customer is king, but in
Japan, the customer is God;A densely populated and homogenous society
has encouraged the development of a cohesiveand polite culture that rewards harmony.
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Multiple Layers of Cultural Influence
Employees are socialized into three overlapping cultures:
national culture
professional culture
corporate culture
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Multiple Layers of Cultural Influence
The influence of professional and corporate culture tendsto grow as people are socialized into a profession and
workplace. Corporate and professional cultures are embedded in
national cultures.
Even within a country differences are striking- Lloyds, alarge British insurance firm, has a conservative culture
that may be slow to change. Virgin, the British musicand travel provider, has an experimental, risk-takingculture.
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High Context Cultures A high-context culture emphasizes nonverbal messages and use
communication as a means to promote smooth, harmonious relationships.
Prefer an indirect, polite, face-saving style that emphasizes a
mutual sense of care and respect for others; careful not to embarrass oroffend others.
In East Asian cultures, showing impatience, frustration, irritation, oranger disrupts harmony and is considered rude and offensive.
In Japan, superiors are given favored seating as a show of respect, i.e.farthest away from the entrance to the room.
To succeed in Asian cultures, it is critical to noticenonverbal signs andbody language.
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Halls high and low contextNiemonaw ywietli obrazu.Na komputerzemoebrakowa pamicido otwarciaobrazu lub obrazmoeby uszkodzony.Uruchom ponowniekomputer, anastpnieotwrz plik ponownie.Jeliczerwony znak x nadalbdziewywietlany,ko niecznemoeby usunicieobrazu,a nastpnieponownewstawieniego.
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Possible sources of misunderstadings
abundance of informationprovided by low-contextcommunicators may even
irritate or make high-contextcommunicators impatient
members of low-contextcultures, who expect detailed,clear-cut messages, feel
uncomfortable when providedwith a limited amount ofinformation (cf. Samovar etal, 1998: 81)
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Perception of silence in highand low context cultures high-context cultures : silence a valued, effective
means of expression; silent messages oftenperceived as more credible than verbal ones;
silence is a communicative act rather than a merevoid in communicational space. Lebra (1987: 343)
low-context cultures: talk is more significantthan nonverbal information and silence is rather
avoided; silence generally causes discomfort andpeople try to fill it with talk(cf. Mare, 1990).
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Perception of time
Time talks. It speaks more plainly than words.The message it conveys comes through loud andclear. Because it is manipulated less consciously,it is subject to less distortion than the spoken
language. (Hall, 1959: 1).
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Perception of Time Time dictates expectations about planning,
scheduling, profit streams, and what constitutestardiness in arriving for work and meetings.
Longer planning horizon- Japan- preparestrategic plans for the decade.
Shorter planning horizon- Western companies-strategic plans-several years.
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Orientation: past, present andfuture past-oriented cultures believe that plans should be
evaluated in terms of their fit with establishedtraditions, thus innovation and change are infrequent.
Examples: Europeans tend to be past-oriented;Australia, Canada, and the U.S. are more focused onthe present.
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Past, present and
future orientations in
selected countries
(adapted fromTrompenaars, 1993:
114)
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Monochronic vs. PolychronicOrientation Monochronic - rigid orientation to time in which the individual is
focused on schedules, punctuality, time as a resource, time is linear,time is money.
Investors are impatient, and want quick returns. Managers have arelatively short-term perspective; performance is measured on aquarterly basis.
Polychronic- A flexible, non-linear orientation to time in which theindividual takes a long-term perspective and is capable of multi-tasking;time is elastic, long delays are tolerated before taking action.
Punctualityper se is relatively unimportant, time commitments are
flexible, relationships are valued, future-oriented performancetargets- 10 years, lifetime employment.
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Nonverbal communicationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxoB6MhmbIg
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Perceptions of (Physical) Space Conversational distance is closer in Latin America than in Northern
Europe or the U.S.
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Perceptions of (Physical) Space
Those who live in crowdedJapan and Belgium have
smaller personal spacerequirements than those
who live in Russia or theU.S.
A swimming-pool in Japan
A crowded street
Yokohama:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l1mV5p_0HY
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Perceptions of (Physical) Space In Japan, it is common for
employee workspaces to becrowded together in the
same room- one large officespace might be used for 50employees.
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Perceptions of (Physical) Space North American firms partition individual workspaces and
provide private offices for more important employees.
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Perceptions of (Physical) Space In Islamic countries,
close proximity maybe discouraged
between a man and awoman who are notmarried.
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Managerial Guidelines forCross-Cultural SuccessGuideline 1: Acquire factual and interpretive knowledge
about the other culture; and try to speak their language.
Guideline 2: Avoid cultural bias. Self-reference criterion: The tendency to view other culturesthrough the lens of one's own culture- understanding this is thefirst step.
Critical incident analysis: a method for analyzing awkwardsituations in cross cultural interactions by developing empathyfor other points of view.
Guideline 3: Develop cross-cultural skills. Cross-culturalproficiency is characterized by several personality traits.
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References
This presentation is mainly based on
chapter 5 of Cavusgil, Knight and Riesenberger
(2011).International business strategy.Management & the new realities. New York:
Prentice Hall.
and
chapter 7 of Comfort, Franklin (2008).Mindfulintercultural manager.York: Kogan
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Mulumesc mult
Thank you for your attention.