How Culture Affects Communication

This report discusses the impact of culture on communication in the workplace. It explores how different cultures have different communication styles and how these styles can affect interactions and understanding. The report also highlights the importance of cross-cultural communication in today's globalized world.

CROSS CULTURAL
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Main body........................................................................................................................................3
Culture affect communication......................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Cross culture management is the best way to manage number of applicants in workplace
belong to different cultures. It happens when leaders or managers oversees staff from culture
other than their own (Nguyen and et.al., 2015). When applicants on unit is from different nations,
cross culture management is required at the movement. It helps companies to manage and deal
with employees coming from several cultural backgrounds. It also helps to understand different
cultures, cross culture management is very essential in today's world because firm are going
global where they have to interact with number of people belong to unique culture. For cross
culture management to be excellent, the administration has to acknowledge and identify
differences in practices, preferences and cultures of group members. The present report is based
on one topic that is how culture affect communication and justifies the more information related
to this. This study also, explain the different communication styles across cultures and their de-
and encoding.
Main body
Culture affect communication
Culture-
Culture is the knowledge and characteristics of specific group of individual,
encompassing social habits, arts, religion, music and cuisines. The customs, outlook, morals and
attitudes shared by community. It is the set of patterns of human action within society and
symbolic framework that give important to such activities. Dress, traditions, law and
architectural style are the relevant examples of culture components (Seo, 2015). In addition to
this, culture offer essential economic and social benefits with improving health as well as
learning, chances to come together with others and increased tolerance, it enhances the quality of
life and also increase the well-being for communities & people effectively. It encompasses of
food, religion, what people wear, how they wear it, their language, music, marriage, what they
believe is wrong of not, how individual sit at table, how they meet or greet visitors, how people
behave with a million other persons and with loved ones. Western, eastern, Latin and middles
eastern culture are the four kinds of cultures in the world. Before people talk about cultural
differences, they first have to clearly in which way the culture is used. It is defined in many
terms, some usually applied explanation view culture as patterned ways of reacting, feeling and
thinking, common to specific group and that is transmitted & obtained through use of symbols.

Communication-
It is defined as two-way procedure of reaching common understanding, in which people
not only encode-decode information, feelings, news and ideas, but they also develop and share
useful meaning (Westmyer and Warren, 2015). In general, communication is means of
connecting places or people together, without effective communication individual cannot be able
to interact with other, it is quite essential for person to have good communication skills that help
to build strong connection between its management and co-workers. Different types of
communication tools or methods available, that person can use to communicate to its family
members, friends and other people's effectively. In simple term, communication is exchanging,
giving, receiving ideas, signals, messages and information through suitable media, enabling
people or individual to persuade, to seek data, to provide important information and to express
personal emotions. Human communication includes informal interviews, team meetings,
conversation, informative speeches and briefings and persuasive presentations. Email, cell
phones, telephones, mail, computers, web and video conferencing, smartphones etc. are the
different types of communication tools used for personal and professional reasons.
Relationship between communication and culture-
Culture is created effectively through effective communication, communication is means
of people interaction through which culture characteristics, whether roles, rituals and rules, is
shared and developed (Berkenkotter and Huckin, 2016). The concept of culture as something that
is mutual means that it is very essential to understand communication and culture. The
connections between both, in all their forms, it tightly interlinked and interwoven. With the help
of understanding different cultures within workplace, employees can communicate to other
people effectively, as it help to build positive work environment around working area.
Communication, culture and community are not different from each other. In order to build
strong relationship, culture plays essential role as term which these connections are shared or
expressed, but at the same period there must be capable communication. Reflection on various
terms in which person is understood is also very vital.
To cope up many challenges and prejudices, it is specially significance to know the
relationship between culture & communication and role they play within ecclesial community.
Without comprehension culture of other, communication is not possible, it creates different
barriers that effect workers performance as well as business practices (McQuail and Windahl,

2015). Culture informs communication, it carries perceptive to communication through same
background of shared histories and experience. Individual of different culture normally share
geographic location, it common geography also impact team of group in that they can share
common experience of topography and weather. Shared experience over thousands or even
million of years develop culture that supports to communication and comprehension.
Culture impact communication-
Cultural back, experience and other things greatly affect the way people behave and talk.
It plays significance role in shaping style of communication, in which person is socialized
influences way they interact, and the way they communicate can change culture. Culture is
difficult phenomenon that incorporates all aspects of experience shared by person, and it is
culture that dictates community expectations people must adhere to belong to their social units.
Culture affects business communication by maximizing relevance of cultural understand and
knowledge (Hall, Covarrubias and Kirschbaum, 2017). Workplace is progressively more diverse,
management hire applicants from different culture, they have different norms, beliefs and feeling
that affect communication procedure. Culture is handed lay from one generation to another, it
offers individual their way of interpreting life and seeing the world. Culture diversity in
workplace makes communication challenging as the mindset of workers of different culture is
different, signs, language and symbols is also different. Different cultures have assorted of
behaviours, gestures and words, it also gives rise to ethnocentrism, opinions, prejudices and
manners. Culture forms way person behave and thinks, when employees belong to different
cultures communicate, these elements become barriers.
The way people communicate is affected by culture were staff brought up in, culture is to
wider extent, determining by way people communicate to each other. Culture and
communication is greatly influence on each other, without increasing the understanding of
cultures in workplace communication is not possible it directly affects management activities in
businesses (Guchait, Paşamehmetoğlu and Madera, 2016). Influence of culture in business
communication is sometimes benign and often subtle, but potential for issues exists. By
understanding how culture affect communication, it help to prevent negative results.
Verbal, non-verbal and oral are the forms of communication used to communicate with
people. When two different cultures speak same language, they cannot be able to speak it in
same manner. For example, Americans and Indians both speak English, but there are some terms

that have not other meanings, depend on which nations they are in. In Australia, people
communicate effectively and freely because it is the part of their culture.
In context of business, there are number of candidates work together who belong to
different culture, they do not understand all the languages that affect communication procedure
negatively. Without communication work will not be done on time that impact on business
performance without specific sector. All these occur when diverse workforce is available in
workplace with different culture, which create difficulties to interact with each other. People
with other culture cannot be able to communicate its team members, as it is one of the biggest
challenge that they face. Communication is important for management in companies to work and
perform common functions of administration for example, organizing, controlling, leading and
planning as well (Ramdhani, Ramdhani and Ainissyifa, 2017). It helps leaders to perform their
jobs and complete accountabilities, through effective communication they can guide and direct
its team which is quite essential in order to make work done on desirable time.
When person do not understand the culture of each other, they cannot be able to
understood and express their feelings which affect productivity as well as performance of
individuals. Culture is usually as set of shared values that each person holds, such norms affect
how they think, act and react, more essentially type of criteria by which they judge others.
Various cultures develop their own languages as part of its heritage, workers is comfortable
communicating in their own languages. Hire people from different culture bring challenges and
obstacles in communication activity, that is not suitable for healthy environment around
workplace.
Culture diversity is the key to business success, but it creates issues in case of Airbus
success. Company faced major problem, that is delay in bringing Airbus A380 in market, the
main reason for delay is cultural differences that affect communication process negatively, it is
the main cause of delay that made negative impact on business performance and productivity
within marketplace.
Communication issues derive from common differences is belief between cultures,
cultural differences causes personality & behaviour differences like thinking, manners, body
language and norms, which leads to communication. Because of belonging to different nations or
states workers face issues while communication to others. It creates many challenges when
employees speak different languages. For instance, individual from different cultures react

differently to physical closeness and eye to eye contact. Some cultures make premium on
emotional privacy and control, on the other hand others express their feeling openly.
In regard to business, communication likely to include contact with consumers and
workers from different cultures and with organization in different nations. A lack of cultural
comprehension cost businesses a contract, it creates difficulty performance and stress in
workplace. Cultural differences is the reason of poor communication that affect bottom line,
without learning about foreign cultures, any organization cannot be able to succeed in
international market. Without considering cross cultural communication the growth and success
is impossible as it is essential skill.
Culture effect on communication in workplace that come from nonverbal
communication. Different culture is major barrier between effective communication, it come in
form of language differences, where some people in group are not perfect in all languages in
which businesses are conducted (Ramdhani, Ramdhani and Ainissyifa, 2017). It takes long time
to communicate their feeling and creative ideas, they are unable to get their information or
message across properly, or staff members not been able to take their opinion seriously because
of their poor knowledge of other culture that affect communication. It is included everything that
is man made, culture is communication and communication is culture. Both are terms which
present two different methods or point of views of representation of structured and patterned
interconnectedness.
On the other hand, it can be said that culture make positive impact on communication,
exposure of various cultures affect the ability of workers to communicate with others in way that
leads to positive results. By having the diverse workforce in workplace and workers belong to
different cultures, it increases more awareness helps people to manage their own cross cultural
behaviour and that of others as well.
Different communication styles across culture and its en- and decoding-
Every culture has different communication style, a way in which people exchange and
interact information with others. Passive, aggressive, assertive and passive aggressive are the
four basic communication styles.
Non verbal communication across cultures understanding is very essential, it is quite
important to know differences between low and high context cultures. It refers to the data that
surrounds an activity and it is tied up with that functions.

High context, communication tends to harmoniously structured, indirect and understated.
In conversation, individual expected to speak on after another in orderly. High culture s rely
totally on non-verbal communication, using components such as strict social hierarchies,
closeness of their relationship and deep cultural knowledge to convey meaning. On the other
hand, in low context cultures communication is depended widely on words themselves. It tends
to direct, connections tend to quickly and to begin, and hierarchies is more relaxed. It is
significance to note that no culture is amended than another communication styles, easily convey
differences more than high quality.
Within high context culture, disagreements is personally threatening, it is very essential
to solve issues immediately in order to work to continue. While in low context culture,
communication tends to be dramatic, open, precise and linear. Because terms is highly valued,
people are used almost perpetually. Verbal message are direct and explicit, words is valued about
individual context.
In many Asian cultures, people avoid eye contact, it is seen as sign of respect, whether
eye contact is made, how long it lasts and who makes is varied hugely in meaning. However, in
North and Latin America eye contact is considered as important for conveying equality among
people. In additional to this, in Ghana, when young people look an adult in eye, it is considered
as act of defiance, the eye contact is form of communication style that is not appropriate
according to the culture of Ghana.
Through touch, great number of cultural expressions is achieved, for example in
America, companies using handshake it is considered right to greet another business professional
and stranger. In France, it is common to hug someone peoples greet, touching children on head is
good in North America (7 Cultural Differences in Nonverbal Communication, 2017). Yet in
Asia, touch is considered highly unacceptable or inappropriate, as head is a scared part of human
body. In Middle east, last hand is habitual used to mange bodily hygiene, therefore, using left
hand to shake hands and accept gift is considered highly rude. There are broad range of cultural
point of views on communication and proper rules regarding non verbal and verbal
communication are opposite and similar.
Furthermore, gestures convey broadly different meanings, peoples in US use OK sign to
express that something is acceptable. In Japan, same hand sign means money. Belgians,

Portuguese, French and Argentinians all use symbol to mean nothing or Zero. Still, other nations
in Eastern Europe think that same sign is offensive swear.
Physical space is communication style used across culture, nations that densely populated
commonly have much less need for personal space more than those that is not. In Latin America
less personal space is needed. In Japanese, less likely to act strongly to accidental touch by other
person or stranger than America.
Encoding or decoding is translation of message that is effectively understood by other.
When people decode message they have to extract meaning of that message in way that make
some sense to them. British relatively used indirect communication, the strongly avoid
developing conflict. The encoding of indirect communication will be clear, the written words
used in this procedure that easily understood by other.
CONCLUSION
From above analysis, it has been concluded that differences between cultures make
barriers in communication. Culture affect communication as it create difficulties to interact
people and understand their feelings. It has been summarized that different culture used different
communication styles that help to decoding and encoding information effectively.

REFERENCES
Book and Journals
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