Australian Business Communication Style Assignment 2022

Australian Business Communication Style
The ever increasing internationalisation of business along with the realization that the
manager’s personal values are moulded differentially owing to the greater cultural
environment wherein they socialise, has resulted in considerable interest in the cross-cultural
difference between employees from varied ethnicity. One can see significant realistic interest
with respect to making sincere efforts to understand the similarities as well as differences in
order to provide improved cross-cultural business meets. Communication styles tend to vary
significantly across the globe resulting in an incredible array of business styles. A proper
understanding of value-system similarities as well as differences can lead to meaningful and
effective interactions between the international managers as well as the country units of
multi-national corporations. Australian society tends to mirror its British colonial history
along with the ensuing deluge of migration from other continents. The Australians, also
known as Aussies, have shown flexibility in being able to adapt their cultural roots in
accordance to the changing environment, climate as well as the country resources. Modern
society has been able to assert and present itself as confident, having a distinct identity owing
to factors such as its diversity, architecture, languages, the ‘Australianised’ cuisine, as well as
its expertise in sports. Personal values do get honed by the wide cultural settings wherein the
individuals socialise. Managers hailing from various cultural contexts are therefore expected
to imbibe the different work as well as business-related values. In spite of Australia being a
multilingual nation, having over 100 languages that are spoken by the various sections of
immigrant population that have emigrated from across the globe, English remains not only
the official language but is also the most commonly-spoken language.
Academic Literature Review
Non-verbal communication

When it comes to non-verbal communication, Australian civilians have the tendency
to greet a person they meet for the first time by the shaking of the hands; they simply grip the
individual’s right hand and gently shake it up and down ("Australian Culture - Core
Concepts", 2019). This greeting act also finds use in business context as a sign of greeting,
congratulation as well as farewell. Moreover, the manner of greeting people in case of close
relations like family and friends by Australians tends to be far more intimate like hugging as
well as kissing on the cheeks. Nevertheless, they are conscious of their personal space while
striking a conversation. In case of business discussion, the Australians normally stand at an
arm’s length distance from the speaker out of politeness and courtesy for the colloquist.
Furthermore, another aspect of the Australians is their being extremely particular about the
eye contact during conservation. Therefore, the Australians generally use eye contact just to
let the speaker know that he or she has their attention as well as interest in the matter and
convey their extent of trust and willingness in the matter ("Communicating effectively for
business", 2019).
The thumbs-up gesture could be considered as rude by some. To signify approval or
even agreement, the commonly accepted gesture would be to make a circle with the thumb
along with the forefinger and the other fingers being extended. The use of modest gestures
for articulating as well as expressing concepts and ideas is common across all the realms of
communication ("Australian Culture - Core Concepts", 2019).
A customary greeting would involve a friendly but firm handshake along with a
warm smile. Women friends would probably greet each other by hugging and kissing. As
far as men are concerned, a slight friendly pat on the back is regarded as normal in case of
close friends. Respecting the personal space of others, while talking to people has become
the accepted norm. Another significant etiquette practiced would be Queuing ("Australian

Culture - Core Concepts", 2019). The Australians neither barge in nor jump the line. They
are patient as well as polite enough to follow the queue and wait for their turn.
Verbal communication
In the case of verbal communication, Australia follows a low-context culture, which
implies that civilians tend to be direct when it comes to the expression of personal opinions as
well as feelings through their talks (Neese, 2016). Being direct is a standard practice followed
by several westerners in their communication since they opine that it is preferred to speak
directly on the context than going the periphrasis way ("Australian Communication Styles",
2019). Australians have a straightforward approach in their business dealings, which implies
that they do not waste much time in building rapport while engaging in professional setups.
In short, they are open to new thinking. Hence the Australians tend to be extremely direct in
the manner in which they communicate. Their directness at the cost of diplomacy could be
regarded as blunt and rude on occasions, more so by people hailing from cultures wherein the
majority are cautious so as to not create any negative emotional impact on the person they
speak to. Nevertheless, being direct is a virtue cherished by the Australians and failing to say
what you mean or, for that matter, mean what you say could be interpreted as being evasive
or a hypocrite.
Australians are quite creative when it comes to creating their sub-language. To cite an
example, they came up with the word ‘Aussie’ for Australian and ‘arvo’ for afternoon.
Australian culture is among the few cultures wherein humour is all-encompassing, even
across business situations. Humour is not only acceptable in all situations, but is expected too
("Australian Culture - Core Concepts", 2019). Hence, one often finds element of humour,
usually self-disparaging, in their speech. One shouldn’t underestimate an Australian senior
manager on the basis of him or her using humour even at inappropriate times. Moreover, the
humour could probably be laced with sarcasm. Hence, it could be a challenge grasping the