Intercultural Competence in Business: Case Study Analysis

This case study analysis focuses on the problems faced by John due to cross-cultural differences while representing his company in a meeting with Mr. Khalid. It suggests various intercultural theories and communication strategies to overcome these problems.

Intercultural
Competence in
Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Where did John gone wrong?......................................................................................................3
How could you help John better understand this cross culture problem?...................................3
Use of intercultural theories to explain it and support your discussion?....................................4
What would be your advice to John? .........................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Inter culture is a situation which occur between two or more culture. This problems occur in an
organisation when they has people of different culture and background (Curran, 2018). This
create various problems in organisation as conflicting situation and also not allow company to
focus on their goals ad objectives. In this case. John is a person who is facing issues related to
cross culture due and does not create favourable situation for company. This Project report
includes discussion of problems of job and also helps John to understand problems of inter
culture. This report also includes discussion of different theories of intercultural and also
suggestion to John in order to overcome of problem.
MAIN BODY
Where did John gone wrong?
There are various cross culture problem occurred in business including ethnocentrism,
psychological barrier, stereotyping, geographical distance, language distance, conflicting values.
As per this case study, John is facing cross culture problem which can create impact on their
meeting. In meeting with Khalid, John stated normal conversation as he know there is a culture
of starting normal conversation. John has stared conversation by talking about whether and his
flight. He also talk about golf match which is good initiate to start a conversation (Ennis and
Riley, 2018). Mr. Khalid then talk about health of John's father and John respond to him without
any delay that his father was fine when he last saw his father at nursing home before several
moths. Mr. Khalid is a Omani industrialist living in Arabic country and culture of that country is
different from European country. As people of European country is living away from their
families whereas people of Arabic countries are more Family oriented. Mr. Khalid when get to
know that John as only meet once with his father as time when his fathers is facing health issues.
It create bad impression in minds of Mr. Khalid and they made perception about him as
irresponsible person.
How could you help John better understand this cross culture problem?
Cross culture problems refers to those problems which occur with comparison of
different culture (Murawski and Bick, 2017). There are various problems occur in case of John
which are as follows:

When Mr. Khalid is asked to John about his father, John did not wait for a second and
reply to their question that his fathers was doing fine and he saw him last time several moths ago.
John should need to take pause and then respond to Mr. Khalid as it is a formal meeting. Mr.
Khalid is a person who belong to different culture so, it is duty of John to first understand
situation and then respond.
John also should start with meaningful conversation as they he is doing formal business
meeting. He should talk about some business terms and market (He and Qin, 2017). As
communication is one of important aspect in cross cultural problems which helps them develop
mutual understanding which is important in business.
John while communication with MR Khalid is over franked and due to which he has not
taken time and respond to Mr. Khalid. All he needs to do is listen to Mr. Khalid and understand
before answering as it can create impact on their meeting with Mr. Khalid.
Use of intercultural theories to explain it and support your discussion?
There are different intercultural communication theories which can be adopted by business in
order to overcome of problems of cross culture. Some of these theories suggested to John are as
follows:
Social Science Theory: This theory is concerned with observing behaviour of an
individual from different cultural aspect which helps them to describe as well as compare with
different culture. It also helps to examine different ways with which individual ca adjust
communication with other person in different situation depends on with whom they are talking.
Interpretive Theory: Interpretive theories is one of theory which is concerned on
accumulating knowledge related to culture from communication in manner of share stories
supported on subjective as well as individual experience (Holliday and Macdonald, 2020). Main
focus of this approach is on intercultural communication which is used in specific communities
where major role is played by ethnography. It is important for this theory in individual context
that it needs not strive on general prediction which is based on findings.
Dialectical Approach: It is one of theory which examine every aspect of intercultural
communication in manner of six dichotomies. These includes individual culture vs namely,
contextual vs personal, history vs future vs past, similarities vs differences, dynamic vs status,
disadvantage vs privilege. This approach also helps in thinking about inter culture and culture

communication in difficult way which helps to avoid categorisation in organisation by adopting
broader approach as well as acknowledging stress and tension which can be negotiated.
Critical theory: This theory is one which examine different culture as per differences
which can be compared to culture of researcher (Mikhieieva, 2017). This approach is one of
difficult approach in implication and is also multifaceted. This helps to lead understanding of
intercultural communication approach.
What would be your advice to John?
As per case study, John is a employees of a software company which is representing
company while meeting to Mr. Khalid in Gulf country. It is suggested to John to communication
very carefully to other person in formal manner with putting image of company in his mind. It is
important for John to have knowledge about different aspect of culture as he is the one to whom
company is sending for meeting of joint venture. In this situation, he must have knowledge about
cross cultural (Jackson, 2017). It is advised to the John that he should represented connective and
supportive nature in front of other parties that enhance their trust towards him as well as make
them interested to perform business deals with him. ension also culture of Gulf countries. As
these countries are family oriented country where people start normal conversation before
starting business meeting. This helps them to understand each others and also to establishes good
relation with other people.
It is also advised to John that he should maintain image of organisation while
communicating with others. John is representing their organisation while meeting with other
company so, it is important for him to maintain etiquettes while communicating. They should
also be formal while conducting meeting with other organisation and should avoid slag and over
friendliness (Portera and Grant, 2017). This helps John to maintain flow of communication and
also helps to get positive response for company.
John should also speak slowly and speak effectively. He should avoid communicating
unnecessary things was it create good image of organisation in minds of consumer. One of most
important things which is suggested to John is that he should listen to other person carefully and
should understand situation before answering question.

CONCLUSION
From above mentioned project report, it can be concluded that inter culture is a tern in which two
or more culture are involved and a person compare one culture of another culture. It is one of
problems for business when they hire people of different culture as it may create problems of
conflict and also does not allow business to focus on their goals and objectives. In order to
overcome of these problems, business needs to adopt various communication strategies and also
adopt different theories of inter culture. These theories of inter culture includes Interpretive
theory, dialectical approach, critical theory, social science culture and many more. This
approaches helps a person to overcome of problems of cross culture and also allow to make
communication effective in organisation. It also allow a person to understand diversity of culture
and importance of understanding cultural differences for an employee.
RECOMMENDATION
From above mentioned discussion, it can be recommended that cross cultural problem is one of
biggest issues in international business. It is important for business to overcome of this problems
which can be solved with effective communication as it helps in maintaining competence of
culture. John is one of an employees of software company who is representing their organization
while meeting with Mr. Khalid. In this situation John should understand diversity of culture and
should consider this factor while communicating person with different culture. This helps them
to build good relationship with other person and also get positive results for company while
dealing with joint venture.
It is also suggested to John to formulate various strategies which helps them to overcome of
cross culture problems and helps them to understand how to deal with cross culture differences.
John before dealing with Omani industrialist, need to understand their culture before meeting
them. John should also consider attachment of people of gulf countries with their family and
should respect their feelings. John should also pay proper attention to other person while
listening as it helps them to avoid misunderstanding and also create favourable situation for
business.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Curran, K., 2018. Developing global resonance for global leadership. In Leadership and Power
in International Development. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Ennis, M. J. and Riley, C. E. eds., 2018. Practices in intercultural language teaching and
learning. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
He, Y. and Qin, X., 2017. Students' perceptions of an internship experience in China: A pilot
study. Foreign Language Annals, 50(1), pp.57-70.
Holliday, A. and Macdonald, M. N., 2020. Researching the intercultural: Intersubjectivity and
the problem with postpositivism. Applied Linguistics, 41(5), pp.621-639.
Jackson, J., 2017. Optimizing intercultural learning and engagement abroad through online
mentoring. In Intercultural interventions in study abroad (pp. 119-136). Routledge.
Mikhieieva, O., 2017, September. Competency-based approach for managing international
project teams. In 2017 12th International Scientific and Technical Conference on
Computer Sciences and Information Technologies (CSIT) (Vol. 2, pp. 145-149). IEEE.
Murawski, M. and Bick, M., 2017. Digital competences of the workforce–a research topic?.
Business Process Management Journal.
Portera, A. and Grant, C. eds., 2017. Intercultural education and competences: Challenges and
answers for the global world. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.