Culture and Communication in Business

This assignment explores the impact of culture on communication in a business setting, focusing specifically on Sport Love. It discusses how cultural diversity affects communication patterns, business etiquette, and overall interaction between employees and customers. The report highlights challenges that can arise from cultural differences and emphasizes the importance of addressing these barriers to achieve effective communication and business objectives.

BUSINESS
COMMUNICATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Challenges and barriers to communication .....................................................................................1
Strategies to overcome communication barriers .............................................................................2
Impact of culture on communication...............................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Communication is defined as the ability or methodology to exchange or express the ideas,
beliefs and opinions. The effective communication skills are essential for assuring the self
development as well as for the growth of business organisations. The improper communication
skills can have adverse impact on business because it may lead to failure to express the message
and services provided by the business organisations (Yeo and Pang, 2017). The report will
analyse the barriers to the effective communication skills and goals and strategies to overcome
these barriers. It will also analyse the impact of culture on communication skills by analysing the
case study of Sport Love. The organisation is experiencing the poor response from customers as
a result of inefficient communication skills of its staff members.
Challenges and barriers to communication
There are several factors or challenges which can affect the communication outputs and
serve as the barrier to deliver the desired information to the receiver through communication
path.
Cultural differences: it refers to cultural barrier such as language, background, etc. This
barrier is clearly visible within Sport Love. The trainers and other employees belongs from
different cultures and thus the cultural diversity prohibits them to initiate a communication. This
attitude results in less productive business outputs and strategies as employees of organisation
does not participate in the planning with effort or as a team.
Perceptual differences: it means difference in perception, thinking, behaviour, etc, of
people. The staff members of Sport Love does not give any proper response to the customers
which is causing the reduction in their membership (Fang, 2014). One of the key reason for this
is that management does not monitor the behaviour of staff members and thus they are not
serious or interested in making any conversation with the people.
Physical barriers: it means barriers like walls, doors, etc. that exists within organisation
which can interrupt sending or receiving of message. This is one of the most dominating barrier
in the organisational culture of Sport Love. There is no interaction between management and
staff members thus this barrier always prohibits the communication. The improper meeting
timings and lack of seriousness towards the meetings does not allow any flow of information
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among staff members. The physical disabilities or the lack of ability to understand the gestures
and emotions can also serve as the communication barriers.
Emotional obstacles: it refers to emotions of people. It is also possible that the employees of
Sport Love lack confidence or another communication skills. They may desire to communicate
with consumers and to solve their queries but they may not have confidence or necessary
knowledge. The psychological factors and emotions such as anxiety, pride and anger can also
affect the communication.
Language differences: it is referred as differences in languages that is spoken, written, etc. The
cultural diversity may bring this difference. The lack of ability to understand each other's
language restricts the communication among team members and customers (Voinea and et.al.,
2015).
Technological barriers: The insufficient knowledge of technology can also prevent individuals
from interacting with one another and to accomplish their business tasks with efficiency. The
staff members may not be fully trained to understand the technical aspects of equipment’s and
thus they hesitate in communicating with the customers.
Gender barriers: At Sport Love this barrier can also be one of the factor which is causing poor
outputs due to lack of communication channel. The colleagues may not feel comfortable while
speaking or dealing with the customers or staff member of opposite gender. These differences
can also affect the business relation between management and staff members.
Challenges in communication
Lack of plan – having a lack of proper plan is major challenge in communication. It can result in
ineffective sending and receiving of message.
Poor structured content - the content must be properly structured. Without it the meaning of
message is changed. the message will be misinterpreted by audience.
Strategies to overcome communication barriers
If Sport Love wants to eliminate the communication barriers then, it is required that it
must follow certain strategies which could enhance the interaction among its team members.
 The individuals must respect the cultural diversities and differences. When they will
respect the culture of each other it will become easy for them to communicate.
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 Sport Love can also organise training and skill development sessions which can train
employee so that they can communicate with each other with confidence. If there are
technical barriers then the development sessions must address them so that staff members
can resolve the queries of customers and can provide them better service experience
(Locker and Kaczmarek, 2009).
 In order to resolve the language barriers Sport Love can use different methods such as
translation tools or inter-mediators, video and message delivery of information so that the
language issues can be solved.
 The management of Sport Love must motivate its employees so that they can understand
their responsibilities and importance of customer retention for the success. It will help
staff members to overcome their perceptual and emotional barriers (Yeo and Pang, 2017).
Impact of culture on communication
The culture plays a significant role in influencing the communication skills of an
individual. The cultural diversity is an important aspect in the business environment of Sport
Love. This diversity directly affects the communication capabilities. The culture has great role in
defining the ethics, values and ideology of individuals. These elements are directly reflected in
the practices and behaviour of individuals in particular situations. For instance one culture may
consider it inappropriate to interact with the opposite gender while the other culture may support
it.
Thus, definitely there will be huge difference in the communication pattern in the
presence of gender differences. The business etiquettes are also influenced by the cultural
variations. The mixture of informal communication is appreciated in business operations in some
culture while there is possibility that some staff members of Sport Love may not consider it good
to involve informal communication at workplace (How Culture Controls Communication, 2011).
Similarly, the business hierarchy and extent of business ethics is also varied in different cultures.
Thus, the way individuals react or communicate is greatly the output of their cultural beliefs.
CONCLUSION
From the report it can be concluded that for achieving the business objectives there must
be regular and quality communication between customers and service providers. The report has
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discussed various challenges which can overshadow the effectiveness of communication. In
order to achieve profit goals the business groups must overcome these barriers. It has been also
analysed from the report that the culture has significant impact on this essential attribute of the
business. Thus, it can be concluded that the cultural diversities must be addressed so that they
can align with the communication goals.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fang, T., 2014. Understanding Chinese culture and communication: the Yin Yang
approach. Global leadership practices. pp.171-187.
Locker, K.O. and Kaczmarek, S.K., 2009. Business communication: Building critical skills. New
York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Voinea, D.V., Busu, O.V., and et. al., 2015. Embarrassments in managerial
communication. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 11.
Yeo, S.L. and Pang, A., 2017. Asian multiculturalism in communication: Impact of culture in the
practice of public relations in Singapore. Public Relations Review. 43(1). pp.112-122.
Online
How Culture Controls Communication. 2011 [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2011/11/28/how-culture-controls-
communication/#37729833263b>
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