The CrossCultural Communication Environment

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The Cross-Cultural Communication Environment

• Chapter 5

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What Is Communication?

• Communication is the process of transmitting
  information and understanding between two or more
  people.
• Information.
• People.

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What Is Communication?

• Technically speaking, communication is successful
  only when mutual understanding results, that is,
  when one transmits information and makes oneself
  understood by others.

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THE COMMUNUICATION PROCESS
Idea The message to be communicated by the
sender is identified.
Encoding The appropriate words and symbols
required to effectively communicate the message
are identified
Channel The appropriate channel(s) of
communication transmission- written, verbal, or
nonverbal-is(are) identified.
Receiving The receiver reads, hears, or sees the
message.
Decoding The receiver tries to understand the
message.
Action Receiver acts on the message (either on
the basis of an understanding of the message as
intended, or a misunderstanding).
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THE IDEATION STAGE

• At the ideation stage, senders (communicators)
  must identify clearly and specifically what it is
  that they want the receivers (the listeners) to
  do as a result of the communication.

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• When individuals are communicating in cultures
  different from their own ( and realistically,
  differences do not occur only across nations
  they can often be found within nations, as well
  as within nations regions, cities/towns, and in
  cities such as New York, within blocks and even
  apartments in the same building), they should ask
  themselves two basic questions
• In light of the culture, is the objective
  realistic?
• In light of the culture, is the time frame
  realistic?

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ENCODING STAGE

• After the message to be communicated has been
  ascertained, the next step is to determine and
  organize the words, expressions and nonverbal
  signals needed to communicate the message
  effectively.
• In translating intended meaning into symbols for
  cross-cultural communication, the sender must use
  words, pictures, or gestures that are appropriate
  to the receivers frame of reference.

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• Language and cultural differences existing among
  nations, and often within nations, for example
  Canada has two official languages, Switzerland
  has four, and China, has more than 50 dialects.
• These create difficulties in identifying the
  words, expressions, and nonverbal signals
  required to communicate effectively across
  nations and cultures.

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• In this case, the encoding process for
  cross-cultural communication must take into
  consideration many language and cultural
  differences existing throughout the globe.
• Some of the differences are languages, letter
  characters and alphabets, expression and
  nonverbal communication, role of formality and
  informality in communication.

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Encoding Tools

• Unique idioms, slang, similes, metaphors, and
  jargon are components of languages which people
  use without being aware that they are doing, and
  many are not easily translatable from one
  language to another.

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• Americas Colgate-Palmolive Company introduced
  its Cue brand of toothpaste in French-speaking
  countries. The word cue translates into a
  pornographic word that offends many
  French-speaking people.
• How does a non-English-speaking person using a
  language translation dictionary readily translate
  the English term as easy as duck soup or a
  ballpark figure or a monkey on my back or a
  pain in the neck into his or her language?

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• In America, tabling something means postponing
  it in England it means discussing it now. In
  Canada, a pothole is where one goes swimming
  in New York City it is where one smashes an
  automobiles wheels and shock absorbers.

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• Even among English-speaking countries, words may
  have different meanings, as experienced by a U.S.
  banker in Australia after a business dinner. To
  show appreciation, he said he was full
  (interpreted by his hosts as drunk) as the
  silence spread at the table, he tried to correct
  himself by saying he was stuffed (a word used
  locally in a sexual context).

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CHANNEL STAGE

• The type of medium or channel chosen for the
  message depends on the nature of the message, its
  level of importance, the context and expectations
  of the receiver, the timing involved, and the
  need for personal interaction, among other
  factors.
• Typical channel include letters or memos,
  reports, meetings, telephone calls,
  teleconferences, or face-to-face conversations.

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• International dealings are often long distance,
  of course, limiting the opportunity for
  face-to-face communication.
• Global telecommunications and computer networks
  are changing the face of cross-cultural
  communication through the faster dissemination of
  information within the receiving organization.

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RECEIVING-DECODING STAGE

• In intercultural communication, decoding by the
  receiver of signals is subject to social values,
  and cultural variables not necessarily present in
  the sender.
• The most effective way to understand
  intercultural communication is to focus on the
  decoding process and the role of perception in
  communication.

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• Communication itself is best understood from the
  perspective of the receiver, not the sender, nor
  the channel or the encoded message itself.
• This suggests that an effective sender of a
  message understands the receivers perception,
  which in essence means that he or she is both an
  encoder and a decoder.

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• For effective communication to take place when
  the sender does not understand the receivers
  perceptions, the receiver must understand the
  senders perceptions he or she is both an
  encoder and a decoder.

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ACTION STAGE

• Managers communicate both through action and
  inaction. Therefore, to keep open the lines of
  communication, feedback, and trust, managers must
  follow through with action on what has been
  discussed and then agreed upon, typically a
  contract.

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• Trust, future communications, and and future
  business are based on such interpretation, and it
  is up to the manager to understand them and to
  follow through on them.
• The management of intercultural communication
  depends largely on a managers personal abilities
  and behavior. Those behaviors that researchers
  indicate to be most important to intercultural
  communication effectiveness are listed below as
  reviewed by Ruben

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Behaviors most important to intercultural
communication effectiveness

• 1. Respect (conveyed through eye contact, body
  posture, voice tone and pitch)
• 2. Interaction posture (the ability to respond to
  others in a descriptive, non-evaluative, and non
  judgmental way)
• 3. Orientation to knowledge (recognizing that
  ones knowledge, perception, and beliefs are
  valid only for oneself and not for everyone else)

• 4. Empathy
• 5. Interaction management
• 6. Tolerance for ambiguity
• 7. Other-oriented role behavior (ones capacity
  to be flexible and to adopt different roles for
  the sake of greater group cohesion and group
  communication

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What Is Effective Communication?

• Effective communication across nations/cultures
  can only take place when the sender encodes the
  message using language, idioms, norms and values,
  and so on, which are familiar to the receiver or
  when the receiver is familiar with the language,
  idioms and so on used by the sender.

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• Attaining familiarity of language, slang, norms
  and values, and so on concepts are often not
  easily translatable and sometimes not
  translatable at all from one culture to another.

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• Words often have different meanings when
  translated into another language.
• For instance, Americas general motors
  corporation advertised on many of automobiles it
  produced that the body was made by fisher (body
  by fisher). The Flemish interpreted it to mean
  corpse by fisher.

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• The above suggests that communication is bound to
  create many problems for people conducting
  international/cross-cultural business.
• International managers cannot generally be
  effective if they do not possess strong
  cross-cultural communication skills.

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Difference Between Communication Effective
Communication

• The difference between communication and
  effective communication is the consistency of
  meaning.

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• Although all jobs involve communication to some
  extent, by its very nature a managers job
  requires more time spent communicating than most
  others.
• Because of the frequency and audience variation,
  communication must be consistent in meanings for
  organizational objectives to be achieved.

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Language of Communication

• English is relatively accepted as the language of
  communication in the transition of international
  business.
• Verbal English language appears to be emerging as
  the accepted language of communication in global
  business transactions.

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• Even though English is accepted as the language
  of communication in the transaction of global
  business, people who know English as a second or
  third language prefer that communication take
  place in their first language.

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Communication Clarity Versus Ambiguity

• American texts overwhelmingly preach clarity.
  Writers are urged to keep messages short and
  simple, use concrete vocabulary, and get to the
  point quickly.

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Clarity is not necessarily a universal valued
quality

• However, clarity is not a universally valued
  quality.
• Japanese, for example, use ambiguity and
  indirectness as a tool to save face and give
  instructions politely.
• Asian cultures also are often wary of words and
  the misunderstandings they can provoke.

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• Communication must become much more adept at
  interpretation and translation, at functioning in
  high-context environments (e.g. the Asian market)
  in which indirectness, ambiguity, silence and
  absence may convey much of the meaning of the
  messages.

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The Art of Listening in Communication

• Listening is a vital aspect of communication for
  managers in a multicultural environment.
• This does not mean simply learning the language.
• It also means developing behaviors and
  sensitivities that enable the manager to
  accurately understand not only the words, but the
  person speaking.

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• Managers spend more of their day listening than
  engaging in any other communication activity.
• When a cross-cultural dimension is added to the
  already difficult task of listening, it is easy
  to understand how miscommunication may occur.

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• However, when managers fail to listen, employees
  become hesitant to talk. Such an environment
  fosters higher turnover, lower job satisfaction,
  and less employee commitment and participation.

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• Managers must strive to listen with objectivity
  and to understand the issue or problem from the
  point of view of the person speaking.
• Only then will managers encourage employees to
  communicate their concerns upward, to participate
  in decision-making, and to collaborate with their
  colleagues.
• Creating an environment of trust and information
  sharing becomes a key management function.

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INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIONSLANGUAGE TRANSLATOR

• To help eliminate the verbal and non verbal
  barriers, the parties involved in the
  communication process must often employ a
  language translator.
• Translating one language into another is a huge
  problem confronting cross-cultural,
  cross-national communications.
• To overcome translation problems of
  communications, international business people
  often use the dual-translation approach.

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• This involves using a translator in the home
  country interpreting the message into the foreign
  language, and before the message message is
  communicated, another translator in the foreign
  country interpreting the message back into the
  home countrys language.

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• For example, a communicator interpreting a
  message from the United States to an Angolan in
  Angola, (where Portuguese is spoken) first has a
  translator of English to Portuguese in the United
  States interpret the message from English to
  Portuguese.
• The translated message is then sent to a
  translator of Portuguese to English in Angola to
  be interpreted back to English.

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• The sender will transmit the message after he or
  she has been assured that the translated message
  will be understood by the receiver(s) as
  intended.

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The Role of Translators

• Translators act as interpreters for two or more
  people who wish to communicate with each other
  but speak different languages.
• The interpretation may involve written messages,
  verbal (oral) messages, non verbal messages, or a
  combination of the three types.
• The translators jobs are very complex, as they
  must effectively decode the senders message and
  encode it into the receivers language, and then
  decode the receivers (now the senders) reply
  and encode it into the senders (now the
  receivers) language.

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Oral Translators

• There are two types of oral translators those
  with simultaneous interpretations and those with
  sequential interpretations (Sussman Johnson,
  The Interpreted Executive Theory, Models and
  Implications, The Journal of Business
  Communication 30, no.4 (19993) 415-434)
• Simultaneous oral interpreters are usually used
  by speakers in formal presentation situations,
  such as conference, where the audience (the
  receivers) and the speaker (the sender)
  communicate using a different language.

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• In this situation, the translator interprets the
  senders formal presentation and passes it on to
  the audience. (This type is used in the United
  Nations meetings).
• Usually, the speaker communicates a small group
  of words, pauses to allow the interpreter to
  translate them and pass them on to the audience,
  and so on.

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• Sequential oral interpreters are typically used
  by clients involved in cross-language business
  negotiations and social functions.
• Unlike the simultaneous interpreter, the
  sequential interpreter normally require
  negotiation and diplomatic skills, the ability to
  transmit personality and style as well as
  knowledge of the language and culture.

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Characteristics of Effective Translators

• It is obvious that the lack of an effective
  translator will lead to problems. Several factors
  help define the effective translator.
• The characteristic of the Message Itself.
• Characteristics of the Language involved.
• Interpreters Relationship with the Client.
• Context.
• Interpreters Skills
• Characteristics of the Parties
• Cultural Norms and Values

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Identifying The Right Transmission Channel Stage

• Written or spoken message?
• Individuals in high-context cultures, which value
  trust, prefer spoken communication and agreements
  where as people in low-context cultures, which
  value efficiency, prefer written communication
  and agreements.

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Identifying The Right Transmission Channel Stage

• Format of messages.
• There is no universal written message format.
• For example, standard paper size differ among
  many companies.
• This can create filing, printing, duplicating,
  and other problems.
• Body language.
• Eye contact and hand movements.
• Physical distance and touching.
• Pointing and facial expressions.
• Transmission of messages through mediators
• Communication principles

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Developing Cross-cultural Communication Competence

• Acknowledge diversity.
• In communication, acknowledging diversity is a
  way to develop cross-cultural communication
  skills.
• Organizing information according to stereotypes.
• Posing questions to challenge the stereotypes.
• Thinking and knowing.
• Doing and achieving.
• The perception about self in different culture.
• The organization of society.
• The universe.

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Developing Cross-cultural Communication Competence

• Analyzing communication episodes.
• Generating other-culture messages.
• Body language includes eye-contact, physical
  distance and touching, hand movements, pointing,
  and facial expressions, and which vary across
  cultures, affect the transmission of a message.
• For example, in conversation, Italians typically
  use more non-verbal gestures than Scandinavians.

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• To select an effective language interpreter, it
  is advisable to make sure that the interpreter
  has lived in both countries for long periods of
  time.
• High-context cultures make agreements on the
  basis of general trust while Low-context cultures
  like agreements to be specific and legalistic.

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Rubens Rules for Intercultural Communications
Effectiveness

• Respect
• Interaction posture
• Orientation to knowledge
• Empathy
• Interaction management
• Tolerance for ambiguity
• Other oriented role behavior

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Managing Cross-cultural Communication Effectively

• Developing Cultural Sensitivity
• Careful Encoding
• Selective Transmission
• Careful Decoding of Feedback
• Follow-up Actions