Intercultural Business Communication: Strategies and Challenges

Running head: INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
intercultural business communication

INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 1
Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Misunderstandings between the parties.................................................................................................2
Hofstede Framework.........................................................................................................................2
Power Distance Index....................................................................................................................2
Masculinity and Femininity...........................................................................................................2
Individualism.................................................................................................................................2
Uncertainty Avoidance Index........................................................................................................2
Long-Term Orientation..................................................................................................................3
Trompenaars cultural dimensions......................................................................................................3
Participants Behaviour...........................................................................................................................4
Strategies for promoting Intercultural Business Communication..........................................................4
Develop Intercultural sensitivity........................................................................................................4
Acknowledge Differences.................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................6

INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 2
Introduction
Intercultural communication can be described as a communication that is being used
by different cultures and social groups. It is used to define a range of communication
problems that occur within an organization among the individuals which are related form
different ethnic, religious, social and educational backgrounds. This report provides a detailed
information that is being used to influence cross-cultural communication in international
teamwork. This report is grounded on a communication scenario of a Swedish Company. The
company had set up clear buying rules for all its subsidiaries around the world (geerthofstede,
n. d.). But one of the managers of Chinese subsidiaries does not follow the rules and work as
per his own will which is not acceptable by the Anders, regional manager of South East Asia.
This causes in occurring the communication differences between the both. Thus, this report
discusses the behavior of participants as defined in the scenario and the main problem in
intercultural business communication along with the use of specified frameworks for defining
the intercultural business communication. The report mainly uses the understanding of the
Hofstede’s framework for the better understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of the
participants in the given case study. At the end of the report, a conclusion has been provided,
which summarizes the overall understanding of the report to provie=de an overview to the
reader.
Misunderstandings between the parties
Hofstede Framework
Hofstede model of organizational culture is a framework developed by Geert
Hofstede which describes the impacts of the social values and cultures of the members of an
organization. It also describes that how these values are related to the individual's behavior
with the help of factor analysis (HITCHCOCK, 2017). These five factors are Power Distance,
Masculinity and Feminity, Individualism, Uncertainty Avoidance Index and Long-term
orientation.
Power Distance Index
It is a cultural dimension that expresses the extent to which the least powerful
members of the organizations and institutions of a country have a common view that the
power it has been distributed unequally. The countries whose power distance index high tend
to have the power to centralize the decisions
Masculinity and Femininity
It is a cultural dimension that expresses the behavior of society in terms of gender
values and roles. As per the definition of Hofstede for this dimension, a masculine society is
based on competition, success, and achievement whereas a feminine society is driven by
emphasizing the quality of life and to maintain a balance between family and work in context
to business. For example, men are considered more focused and considered on facts while
women are considered more emotional in their life (Dzenowagis, 2008).
Individualism
This dimension expresses the degree to which, the participants are dependent on each
other. This dimension shows the existence of ‘I' and ‘We" factor in the minds of the
individuals. Here ‘I' is considered for the individualistic tendency and ‘We' is considered for
the collectivistic tendencies (Jha). With collective tendencies, the individuals are not allowed