Understanding the Impact of Cultural Identity on Communication: A Reflective Essay

In this essay we will discuss about business communication and below are the summaries point:- The essay discusses the concept of diversity and its impact on communication, including cultures, languages, and religions. Cultural identity plays a significant role in shaping our communication patterns and behaviors. Personal and social/relational identities influence our interactions and communication with others, impacting our attitudes and perceptions.

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Business Communication

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Introduction
The essay brings about the discussion on the concept of diversity including various
aspects such as unique cultures, languages, and religions. Communication works as bridging
the gap between these aspects and allow an individual to share information either by writing
or talking in different ways. It also improves the ability to share diverse cultures, opinions,
value system, and knowledge (Ting-Toomey & Dorjee, 2018). As multifaceted individuals’
related to different arenas, the identities can be personal, social, and cultural. On the other
hand, cultural identities based on socially developed categories teach us a way of behaving in
the society, which is acceptable and desirable. Thus, it is the reflective essay, which enlists
about the personal viewpoints and experiences, and how they affected the communication
with others.
Impact of Cultural identity on our Communication
It requires great efforts to recognise the relationship between culture and identity as
both terms are socially constructed. The term ‘culture’ refers to the shared values, and norms
that a group of people holds within community. These values affect our thinking,
understanding, and specially the way we act and respond to the people. It has been analysed
that our experiences, perception, and the cultural background has great influence on the way
we talk; thus, it shapes our communication. Therefore, the discussion stated about a strong
relationship between the cultural identities and communication amongst the members within
a community (Ting-Toomey & Dorjee, 2018).
Now, the essay will determine the relevance and impact of the cultural identities,
which consists of three sub-parts, i.e. personal, social/relational and communal identity, and
the impact on communication.
Personal identity
In my opinion, the concept of personal identity is more influential in affecting the
communication with the people around us, i.e. our friends, family, or society. The aspect of
personal identity consist of the factors such as past experiences, beliefs, values, norms, and
perception towards life. For an instance, I can relate it to one of the experiences; I had in the
past years, when I was in school. It was about a project wherein we worked together as a

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team, and I had negative thoughts about one of our team-members, which had affected our
flow of communication (Seyranian, 2014).
On the other hand, the attribute of undertaking risky tasks or jobs, represented a good
sign of effectiveness at work that developed a positive image amongst my superiors, and
peers at the workplace. This demonstrated the aspect of positive effect on my communication
with other members of the group, as it has been evident from the change in my attitude and
behaviour with others.
Social/Relational identity
The factor of social or relational identity has found relevant to the concept of self-
concept or self-esteem, and the way it affects communication with people. It has been
described as the manner through which one views or perceives oneself as a part of the group
or community they belong to and live around. Therefore, to explain the relation between the
social identity and communication, I will explain the importance and role through the
experiences of religion, my school years, and job (Lee, Park & Lee, 2015).
I belong to the Hinduism which is the third largest religion, that do not support
maintaining relationships or friendship with people from few religions, thus it is one major
aspect, which affected my interaction with peers. On the contrary, I worked in a healthy and
open environment, which has a friendly atmosphere and it encouraged me to talk and interact
with each person and enhance my communication skills.
Communal identity
The concept or idea of communal identity explains the socio-cultural background of
an individual, and the way it affects the communication. The aspect of communal identity of
an individual includes the factors, like gender, ethnicity, religion, and the socio-economic
status. These factors affect the communication to a major extent, and it shapes our ideology
or perception towards communication. For an instance, the religion of Hinduism that I follow
and Christianity has created issues in gender relations with my friends, and other peers. Each
of these aspects led to the problem of interacting with others. Another instance from the
socio-economic status is that I live in a well-developed society wherein, the members lived in
the society, which accepts people from different religions; therefore, it improves relations
(Michel, Possamai & Turner, 2017).

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To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that the communication is one
of the vital factor in development of an individual. The aspect of communication helps to
spread knowledge and information amongst people therefore, it is necessary for development
of a healthy relation. The essay mentioned certain factors, which are also termed as cultural
identities shapes the communication with people in the community.

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References
Lee, J., Park, J. G. & Lee, S. (2015). Raising team social capital with knowledge and
communication in information systems development projects. International Journal
of Project Management, 33(4), 797-807.
Michel, P., Possamai, A. & Turner, B. S. (2017). Religions, Nations, and Transnationalism
in Multiple Modernities (pp. 19-36). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Seyranian, V. (2014). Social identity framing communication strategies for mobilizing social
change. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(3), 468-486.
Ting-Toomey, S. & Dorjee, T. (2018). Communicating across cultures. United Kingdom:
Guilford Publications.