Intercultural Competence in Business: Understanding Cross-Cultural Problems

This report discusses intercultural competence in business and how to understand cross-cultural problems. It includes a case study, suggestions for better communication, and recommendations for establishing effective cultural competence.

Intercultural
Competence in
Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Where did John go wrong?.....................................................................................................3
Suggestions to John for better understanding cross-cultural problem....................................4
Intercultural theories...............................................................................................................4
Advice to John........................................................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Intercultural communities are used to describe the deep understanding which provide
suitable respect to all the cultures. Here, intercultural communication tends to put emphasis on
mutual exchange of cultural norms and thoughts for the overall development of significant
relationships. It is one of the critical technique which helps in making sure that the people are
capable enough to deal with the changing nature within the dynamic environment considering
the effective management of intercultural differences (Xiao, 2019). The following report is based
on the case study identification of the overall situation that occur among the organisations and
individuals due to the intercultural differences. In regard of this, there is the requirement of
proper evaluation of the basic mistakes that occur due to the cross cultural issues and suitable
advices that can be developed in terms of dealing with the problems related to the functioning of
organisation.
MAIN BODY
Where did John go wrong?
John was a retired military officer who have proper experience in the overall working since
he was working in the Middle east and also hired in the English software company to represent
in the Persian Gulf countries. For that objectives, John meet to Al-Amrani Khalid, (an
industrialist) as they both start discussing regarding the joint-venture scenario. Both of them
belongs from the different countries where the culture and suitable values are quite different
from the each other. Before, starting the conversation, Khalid ask John about is elder father and
at that time John give his wrong statements by saying “he is fine”.
Meanwhile, before few months ago, he saw his father at the nursing home and he lost some
weight as well. Therefore, this scenario reflects the cross-cultural aspect and lack of truth as the
conversation went wrong. Due to this, John was not invited for the further discussion on the joint
venture process of the company. Along with this, the ineffective communication and proper
discussion is the major issue that takes place in the discussed case study (Chadraba and Springer,
2020). Therefore, John failed to tell the truth about the company and it leads to generate
differences among their working pattern and further the proceeding of joint venture. Hence, there
is the need of proper understanding to develop trust among them before the proceeding of joint
venture process.

Suggestions to John for better understanding cross-cultural problem
Cross cultural issues occur due to the differences in different manner in which people are
thinking and perceiving for their functions. It occurs due to the different way of perceiving
several functionalities in organisations. The issues and differences occur among John and Khalid
and some suggestions are given to overcome from these issues:
 John should take proper decisions as per the culture as the all the decisions are impacted
the cultural norms, expectations and framework. Here, proper decisions are provided to
perform several functions in different manner.
 John need to level different languages specifically in which they operate their business
and communication styles so that can easily communicate to all the given information in
the best possible manner as he is appointed at the post of English software company to
represent them to the other Gulf countries (Schenker, 2019). In different culture, other
phrases and terms are used to convey different meaning. With the help of differing
learning languages, they can easily communicate and represent the organisation
efficiently in the other countries.
 John also know regarding the different attitudes towards the revelation that means that
some cultures are not frank regarding the emotions, personal information and other
reasons of issues. Here, John give wrong statement and does not tell truth about his
father. Hence, due to this, they need to keep things in mind at the time of performing
several functions or discussion with others.
 John also need to maintain proper etiquette in communication while communicating with
others. He also need to listen things prominently and answer all the questions in an
effective manner.
 John also need to develop meaningful conversation with others and also enhance cross
cultural communication within the workplace. Hence, individuals need to communicate
in an effective manner with clear meaning that leads to facilitates to convey the message
in the efficient manner while developing mutual understanding which is important for
running the business effectively (Kireyeva, Lakhonin and Kalymbekova, 2019).
Intercultural theories
Intercultural communication is describing as the communication between two or more
people with different cultural backgrounds. There are some theories that different organisations

have adopted that explains how particular norms and conditions help them to adopt new cultures.
These theories have helped people in understanding the perspective of other people and how to
act in different situations without disrespecting the culture of people. The concept of intercultural
communication creates cultural diversity among people. To operate at international level
companies, adopt these theories. According to the case study John is hired to represent software
company in other countries. Some of the intercultural theories are described below:
Cultural convergence: According to this theory the interaction increases when two
cultures interact more with each other. Their values, ideologies, art and behaviour will start to
reflect each other. Cultural convergence provides an opportunity to know people closely. In
closed system where communication is unlimited among the people (Patil Vishwanath and
Mummery, 2019). The whole seems like intersecting for a specific period of time and there is
high cultural uniformity. If there is a restricted communication in a country, then the system is
defined as diverge towards diversity. In context of case study, the communication is open but
with some restrictions that impacts the overall communication.
Communication accommodation theory: According to this theory people adjust their
behaviour while having a conversation. The people modifies the manner of talking with each
other in order accommodate other one in particular manner. To make the conversation
understandable people change their dialects in particular language. This theory helps in
explaining how people adjust or modify their communicative behaviour while having social
interaction (Guidikova, 2018). This theory helps an individual to adjust behaviour according to
the situations. In the context of case study, John and other members start having a conversation
with each other in order to make common understanding among each other.
Co-cultural theory: Co-cultural theory of intercultural communication refers as the
people belonging to different parts of the world share certain characteristics and those having
similar interest and characteristics come together to have a conversation about it. Various people
from different parts come together and communicate with each other in order to share some
values and ideas of their cultures (Hastjarjo and Nuryana, 2018). In the context of case study,
both the members are from different countries and culture that provides them an opportunity to
understand the ideas and concepts of each other effectively. Therefore, it is important to maintain
co-cultural environment that could increase the mutual understanding between the people.

Advice to John
There are several strategies that are useful for the businesses to enhance their better
understanding and intercultural communication. It is important to communicate the message with
the clear objective and understandable perspective. Along with this, John was appointed at the
job post at which he need to represent the overall organisation and due to the lack of trust and
miscommunication, it leads to develop negative impact over the functioning of company. For
this, to complete the define job role, it tends to become the important for John that they have
proper knowledge and understanding about the several cultural values of the country with the
respective company in which they want to do collaboration by joint venturing (Luthfia and
Sofian, 2018). After the proper understanding of culture, John can effectively communicate all
the norms and other concerning details in an effective manner. For this, there are several advices
that are provided and also helpful to John to work in the international and multicultural business
environment efficiently without making the culture as an issue.
Apart from this, John also need to respect the foundations of intercultural communications.
By respecting the others and their words, he can create faithful relationship with other parties and
also make effective deal for the businesses as well. It is also advised to John to effectively
measure and check all the respective things effectively for eliminating the negative factors of
intercultural communication. He also need to stay positive even in the conflict situation and to
resolve them, he need to identify the issues and develop several strategies to overcome these
conflicts.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To establish an effective cultural competence there is a need of effective communication.
John was representing the software company in different countries. Here are some
recommendations which could help John to perform with efficiency:
 It is recommended to John that in order to attain his goals and objectives he must
understands the cultural differences. He must work on developing relationship with
country that could help in establishing join venture.
 By adopting effective manners or set of process all the misunderstandings in the software
development could be easily resolved. It also provides guidance to perform effectively.

 It is highly recommended that John should improve his listening skill and must listen
carefully to all the information provided than give reaction according to the cultural
requirements.
As in the case study cross-cultural conflict has been founded that impacts the overall
conversation and deals of organisation. Through developing effective strategies these cultural
barriers could be overcome.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that intercultural communication plays a
significant role in accomplishing business operations in diverse cultural environment. It is very
important to understand the culture and language of other countries in order to establish a
business there. This will help in understanding the needs and demand of the citizen of that
country. Conducting business in other countries comes with various cross-cultural issues. There
are some intercultural communication theories such as functionalism, internationalism and
conflict theory that could be implemented in order to perform effectively in other countries.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chadraba, P.G. and Springer, R. eds., 2020. Business strategies for economies in transition: book
of readings on CEE countries. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Guidikova, I., 2018. Intercultural Integration: From an Ideology of the Oppressed to the
Mainstream. In Intercultural Cities (pp. 55-63). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hastjarjo, S. and Nuryana, A., 2018, February. Intercultural communication training in
vocational and industrial education training. In IOP Conference Series: Materials
Science and Engineering (Vol. 306, No. 1, p. 012115). IOP Publishing.
Kireyeva, A.A., Lakhonin, V. and Kalymbekova, Z., 2019. Digital transformations to improve
the work and distribution of the state scholarships programs. The Journal of
Distribution Science, 17(3), pp.41-47.
Luthfia, A. and Sofian, F.A., 2018. Role of Social Media in Improving Intercultural
Communication Competence: A Comparative Study of European Students in Indonesia
and Indonesian Students in Europe. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities.
Patil Vishwanath, T. and Mummery, J., 2019. Reflecting critically on the critical disposition
within internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC): The developmental journey of a
curriculum design team. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(2), pp.354-
368.
Schenker, T., 2019. Fostering global competence through short-term study abroad. Frontiers:
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 31(2), pp.139-157.
Xiao, Y., 2019, October. Training Strategies for Cross-border E-commerce Business English
Talents under the background of" Internet+". In IOP Conference Series: Materials
Science and Engineering (Vol. 631, No. 5, p. 052012). IOP Publishing.