Intercultural Business Communication: Importance, Barriers and Mitigation

This report discusses the importance of intercultural business communication, identifies possible barriers to communication, and provides recommendations to mitigate these barriers. The Hofstede model is used to analyze intercultural differences between Australia and China.

Running head: INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The report has shed light on the importance of intercultural business communication and also
identifies the possible barriers to intercultural communication. There are some expressions and
non-verbal languages help in this kind of situation. As mentioned in the case study, Hofstede
model analyzes the intercultural difference between these two nations and also justify all the
marking through valid points. Practical and dynamic approaches have discussed in that scenario
and through this communication, a better result can be expected from Jonathan Jones.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Objectives........................................................................................................................................3
Methodologies.................................................................................................................................3
Information Analysis.......................................................................................................................5
Findings...........................................................................................................................................7
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
Appendix........................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The intercultural communication is a verbal and non-verbal interaction between people
from different background and to understand the culture of the diverse nation through the
communication. In most of the cases, foreign languages are creating a threatening situation for
business professional as they have to visit another country to understand their business culture
and how it useful for the parental company is also a concerning situation (Guffey and Loewy
2012). In this given case study the same situation has also been faced by Jonathan Jones,
marketing professional of Australian Alpaca Clothing Pty. Ltd., and in that situation, the person
has to understand the negotiation with the Chinese company and leading the business objectives
whether they meet with the parental company or not. So in case of expanding their business
intercultural communication is an important step to be taken by the Australian company.
Objectives
 To build cultural build up that provided better opportunities for business expansion.
 To spread the cultural identity of a nation to another one and embed the cultural
assimilation.
 To identify the possible barriers of intercultural communication and think about the
mitigation process.
 To enhance the business peripheral by making the legitimate relationship between the
two nation and to understand their culture and deliver as per the situation.

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Methodologies
In this section, a firm level of communication and their style of communication have
discussed. In case of business enhancement, intercultural communication can play a good role
and that somehow affected the extension of business. In this methodology section, the prime
focus of the matter is the argument of cultural diversity and the possible actions taken by the
business management to mitigate this situation (Neuliep 2017). Change in economic
development through the result of cultural dimension is a concerning factor that engaged with
different sources. Similarities and resources are the concerning things that identify the culture of
business communication (Sigmar, Hynes and Hill 2012). As mentioned in the given case study,
Jonathan Jones belongs from Australia and the nation is full of multicultural activities, still, the
ethnic policy and complex situation have risen when for the business extension the woman has to
go China. In that case, the Chinese approach to the cultural groups are definitely different from
Australian, in that case, business negotiations are not placed due to the way of communication
(Samovar et al. 2014). The first approach in that situation is the cross-cultural engagement and
this is completely based on the cultural belief and practices that hidden in every people. These
verbal of nonverbal behaviors are evolved in such particular situation where people do not
understand what to do.
An approach like individual collectivism pursues strong personality trait and tries to
maintain the social relationship through intercultural communication. Cross-cultural engagement
is introducing individualism and provides a cultural benefit to people (Thill and Bovée 2013). In
that case, a traditional aspect of intercultural relation has defined the fact of business expansion
and also delivers the operation process in own segment. The concerning situation also consists of
some nonverbal facial expression and these are also stated as one of the fine ways of interact

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with people (Martin and Nakayama 2013). Understanding and engagement of practices and
mitigate those communication barriers are the major aspect of this and that evolved through the
time, period and engagement. Hofstede model is used in that case to analyze or understand the
basic comparison between Australia and China. The change cultural angle is present in that
comparison through the six aspects of comparison.
Information Analysis
In use of Hofstede model, this fact has come and these are directly related to the culture
of both the nations. Power distance is the first aspect that differentiates the cultural framework
and China is far away from Australia in terms of accommodating culture. The major reason
behind that is the popularity of people and their understanding of culture (Okoro and Washington
2012). China has world’s largest population so it is quite simply that they have different kinds of
community, culture and their government power make them under the stress of the same
umbrella. On the other aspect, their individualism is less than Aussies, as an autocratic country,
Chinese people have not this power to make their individual move or any move against their
government. So Australia is far better as the democratic nature of the nation and people can state
their view to the government. In case of third segment masculinity both the countries are
matched up their level as in case of fundamental issues or to motivate people for the
development of business or culture is persisted in that situation (Liu, Volcic and Gallois 2014).
Shared values and conflict situations will arise in case of communication too but these are
nullified also in order. Uncertainty in culture is expected in both the countries due to the huge
change in community and culture but in between them, the situational belief and try to enhance
the business opportunities people change their territory in another nation for the development of
the business. Long-term orientation and change in their past dealing need to be changed in that

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scenario; the reason behind the change is getting more opportunities in business and exit the
business in a better form (Wang, Harding and Mai 2012). The last one is considered as the desire
and impulses of communication and the fact is depending on the importance of business and
tends towards the optimism (See Appendix 1). In that Scenario, High context communication
theory and Low context communication theory is viewed as the base of cultural use. The
management styles and the behavior is the most important section of this. The information or the
communication is depending on the each other, and through this process, a high-end
communication context can be evolved.
On the other hand, kind of aligned or fragmented individualism and state their view of
business presentation is the main aspect of this low context communication system.
Economically fast, satisfying and the values are not delivering the influence in terms of business
acceleration (Wang 2012). There are some barriers to intercultural communication. Language
difference is the first part that cretin problem in negotiation, though through the facial expression
something can be understood most of the language of the case is a definite barrier to better
business dealing. Body language is another differentiation that noticed in case of intercultural
communication (Arasaratnam 2015). Communication performs through the whole body and for
that reason sometimes through the body language some unheard lines can be delivered. Like
Latin American people are standing closer to the client rather than North America, French people
smile less or Europeans are doing more eye contact rather than anyone (Guang and Trotter
2012). So these are these are the differentiation that impacted the communication. Socio-cultural
adjustment is an effective new cultural movement that specifies several components of
communication. In case of communication research project, the desirable outcome and level of
difficulties cannot understand if the situation is not faced practically. In this case study, Jonathan

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Jones faced the particular situation and that is the reason assuage and cultural transmission is
reflected through their communicational process. Culture-sensitive knowledge and practice of
communication are different in both the nation (Zhu, Anagondahalli and Zhang 2017). Australia
has a different worldview language system so as China, but most of the cases in business
enhancement between countries, marketing professionals are not aware of this and this is the
reason behind problem situation. Cultural objectivity and different thinking perspective may
consider as a barrier to intercultural communication.
Findings
All the intercultural communication issues are concern thinking for the business of
Alpaca Clothing Pvt. Ltd. From the above discussions, it is quite clear that communication and
effective way of handling is not considerable from Jonathan Jones and due to that reason, need of
learning the way of communication and process to mitigate that situation arises. Understanding
the culture and the essence the nation is sometimes imposing as a challenge and the level of
difficulty rose due to the communication (Tupas 2014). Nervous feeling, insecure condition
understanding and change in lifestyle also show the different arena of communication and that
completely different in China and Australia. Things are very common in Australia are quite rare
in China. The reason behind the change is the cultural difference. Each country has a particular
ethics and they have built their formation surrounding that, in case of communication same
situation has portrayed. These are depending on the cultural assimilation and accustomed to the
facilities and lifestyle that China is habituated but Australia is not (Zhang and Fan 2014). For
example, Chinese experience that all men are intuitive unequal and they ought to all follow the
verdict of the authority. Whereas Western citizens consider that all men are born equivalent and

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they can build autonomous decisions and proceed on their individual choice, cultural difference
is shown in that situation.
Recommendation
The most important recommendation for Jonathan Jones is to try to understand the
feeling of those Chinese administrative through the body language, facial expressions and also
interact with them in activities through the body. They also understand the person is trying to
deliver the best possible way of communication, in case they also used their by language more
rather than verbal interaction (Liu, Volcic and Gallois 2014). Another policy can be adopted by
the woman is to understand their culture and make the situation for the favor and deal with deal
with them in a confident way so that cultural assimilation or the learning curve can be
maintained throughout the time. Interaction with migrant people and know about the Chinese
culture can help to understand the business profit and perspectives. All the recommended
statements are not mitigated the cultural distance but can deliver a legitimate way to sustain the
deal so that Australian Alpaca Clothing Pvt. Ltd. can expand their territory and do their business
with Chinese fiber.
Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that misunderstanding in case of negotiation occurs if there
is any gap in between communication. This gap has come up as the intercultural communication
in that case and Australian Jonathan James is not able to synchronize with Chinese culture and
this has turned up as a gap. In that situation, the complex cross situation also comes up and that
deliver proper condition for business expansion. The intercultural approach to communication is

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also delivering in that situation and different models also discussed so that expressing the right
way of communicating with people.

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References
Arasaratnam, L.A., 2015. Research in intercultural communication: Reviewing the past
decade. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 8(4), pp.290-310.
Guang, T. and Trotter, D., 2012. Key issues in cross-cultural business communication:
Anthropological approaches to international business. African Journal of Business
Management, 6(22), p.6456.
Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., 2012. Essentials of business communication. Cengage Learning.
Liu, S., Volcic, Z. and Gallois, C., 2014. Introducing intercultural communication: Global
cultures and contexts. Sage.
Liu, S., Volcic, Z. and Gallois, C., 2014. Introducing intercultural communication: Global
cultures and contexts. Sage.
Martin, J.N. and Nakayama, T.K., 2013. Experiencing intercultural communication. McGraw-
Hill Higher Education.
Neuliep, J.W., 2017. Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Sage Publications.
Okoro, E.A. and Washington, M.C., 2012. Workforce diversity and organizational
communication: Analysis of human capital performance and productivity. Journal of Diversity
Management (Online), 7(1), p.57.
Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E., McDaniel, E.R. and Roy, C.S., 2014. Intercultural communication:
A reader. Cengage Learning.

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Sigmar, L.S., Hynes, G.E. and Hill, K.L., 2012. Strategies for teaching social and emotional
intelligence in business communication. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(3), pp.301-317.
Thill, J.V. and Bovée, C.L., 2013. Excellence in business communication. Pearson.
Tupas, R., 2014. Intercultural education in everyday practice. Intercultural education, 25(4),
pp.243-254.
Wang, Y., Harding, R. and Mai, L.W., 2012. Impact of cultural exposure on young Chinese
students’ adaptation in a UK business school. Studies in Higher Education, 37(5), pp.621-639.
Wang, Y., 2012. Mainland Chinese students' group work adaptation in a UK business
school. Teaching in Higher Education, 17(5), pp.523-535.
Zhang, M.M. and Fan, D., 2014. Expatriate skills training strategies of Chinese multinationals
operating in Australia. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 52(1), pp.60-76.
Zhu, L., Anagondahalli, D. and Zhang, A., 2017. Social media and culture in crisis
communication: McDonald’s and KFC crises management in China. Public Relations
Review, 43(3), pp.487-492.

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Appendix
Appendix 1:
Figure 1: Country Comparison between Australia and China
(Source: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/australia,china)