Intercultural Communication in the Workplace

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Intercultural Communication in the Workplace
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Culture

• Learned patterns of behavior and attitudes shared
  by a group of people - languages, practices,
  beliefs, values, rituals, and relationships.
• Learned Behavior

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Cultural Identities

• Who are we?
• How are we influenced by cultures we belong to?

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Personal Space

• Bubble size depends on your cultural background
• Contact culture stand close together, more
  touching, more eye contact, speak more loudly
• Noncontact culture stand further apart, less
  touching

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Speaking Styles

• Pause Time serves as a way of taking turns in
  conversation.
• Silence duration varies from culture to culture.
• Non-natives clocked at .9 seconds.
• Navajo/Apache 1.5 seconds.
• Jewish communities 0 pause time - enthusiastic
  support.
• Terry Tafoya

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Use of Time

• Monochronic concept of time values punctuality,
  completion of tasks, adherence to schedules
• Polychronic orientation schedules are less
  important, flexible

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Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Individualism self-reliance independent as
  it refers to communication people who value
  individualism tend to value more direct forms of
  communication and conflict resolution.
• Collectivism expectation to be more responsible
  or caring for other family members People in
  collectivist societies may employ less direct
  communication and more avoidance-style conflict
  resolution.

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Why is it important for organizations to be
culturally competent?

• Demographic changes/immigration patterns.
• Improve quality of social and healthcare
  services.
• Decrease the likelihood of liability/malpractice
  claims.
• Telecommunications/Transportation Technology

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Migration Patterns

• Employment
• College
• Family
• Health Care
• Natural Disasters

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Building Blocks

• Culture
• Communication
• Context
• Power

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Barriers to Effective Intercultural Communication

• Ethnocentrism
• Stereotyping
• Prejudice
• Discrimination

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Competence

• Unconscious Incompetence
• Conscious Incompetence
• Conscious Competence
• Unconscious Competence

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Color Blindness

• Discourages meaningful conversations about race
  relations.
• When we pretend we dont see differences, we
  disregard identities and support racial
  inequality.

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Works CitedMartin, Judith N. and Nakayama,
Thomas. (2007). Experiencing Intercultural
Communication, An Introduction (3rd ed.). New
York, NY McGraw Hill
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Nell Eby, MSPRCultural BrokerElk River Cultural
Connections 406-671-6054ez2bneb_at_wildblue.net