Barriers to Intercultural Communication in Tesco

Running Head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

2BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Introduction
Culture and language are interlinked with each other and both play a crucial role in
business communication. Every multinational company have a unique culture to offer which
determines its diversity and sets the tone of communication within a workplace. Here a case
study report is being produced which will discuss barriers to intercultural communication in
Tesco and how these barriers can be addressed to improve business communication.
Three levels of culture
Edgard Schein has an important contribution to the understanding of organisational
culture because of his theory of the three levels of culture (Ladegaard and Jenks, 2016). Each
of these levels goes from a superficial position towards a more genuine one. Similarly, Tesco
has been influenced by the following:
 Artifacts: Artifacts are those aspects of culture that remain at the surface, such as what
people wear or how they style themselves. These aspects can be discerned easily
however, they are still hard to understand fully. This is the first level of culture.
 Espoused Values: Underneath the first level of culture lies the second one that is, the
espoused values. These values are conscious goals, planning or strategies,
philosophies followed while goal attainment, etc (Jenifer and Raman, 2015). These
direct the actions of an organisation along with its employees acting as a guide.
 Basic Values and Assumptions: Basic values and assumptions are the third levels of
culture which lies at the core of the culture, it is the essence of culture. This level is
represented through the underlying basic values and assumptions which are covert
within an individual as they lie at one's unconscious level (Froese et al. 2016). Due to
their placing at the unconscious level of individuals, they are not easy to discern still
they are able to provide the answer for the questions regarding the way things happen
and the reason behind it. These assumptions are formed around deeper sections of the
existence of humans, for example, their nature, the way they act, how they perceive
truth and reality and the relationships they develop.

3BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Relationship between language and culture
Culture and language are deeply rooted in Tesco that means language is used to
convey and maintain cultural ties and culture of the organization. Various ideas origin from
the use of different languages in organizations culture and the intertwining of such relations
start with engaging with the employees and co-workers in the workplace. Language conveys
cultural ideas and practices. It is the way through which two people communicate. An
employee learns about his culture with the help of language. When an employee interacts in a
language, it also means that he is interacting with the culture from where that language arises.
Culture gives birth to an organizational language and language, in turn, helps to convey
culture and ties of culture through generations after generations (Han and Beyerlein, 2016).
Barriers to intercultural communication
Organisations in the contemporary world have employees that come from various
demographic backgrounds with a different culture. This means that the workplace becomes a
meeting place of different cultures that come together to work towards certain goals. Tesco
being an international organisation too has employees with diverse cultural backgrounds.
Some of the cultural barriers that affect the unity and efficiency of the organisation are
discussed below
 Body language: Different cultures have different body languages while some of the
body languages are considered acceptable or even friendly in some cultures are
avoided in others (Tenzer and Pudelko, 2017). Differences in body language and
misunderstandings can lead to employees getting offended.
 Feelings and emotions: Display of feelings and emotions taken differently in different
cultures (Binder, 2016). For instance, people from Japan or the United Kingdom tend
to not freely express their emotions and feelings. On the other hand, people from
France, Italy or Spain find it more comfortable and preferable to display their
emotions and feels.
 Level of context: The level of context in the communication of different cultures vary
as well (Binder, 2016). For instance, the level of context of the Englishmen is low.
Therefore they practice and tried to