Intercultural Competency in Business

This report discusses the importance of intercultural competency in business and explores different cultural frameworks, such as Hofstede's Dimension of Culture and the Lewis Model. It also demonstrates how these frameworks can be applied to understand different interpersonal interactions in business situations. Additionally, the report applies intercultural communication theories to practice in various business situations. The aim is to provide knowledge and understanding of cultural interactions and effective communication practices in a business context.

Intercultural
Competency in Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Different cultural frameworks.....................................................................................................1
Demonstrate how these frameworks can be applied to understand different interpersonal
interactions in business situations...............................................................................................3
Apply intercultural communication theories to practice in various business situations.............5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Globalisation and technology are the major drivers of international business and
organisations moving to different cultural places for conducting their purchasing and selling
transactions with the motive of earning profits and fulfilling needs of individuals (Gowindasamy,
2017). Cultural difference is a common barrier that organisations and employees face while
working or moving to new work environment for fulfilling the motives of organisation. The
present report is based on two case studies of Frank and Anna who planned to move to new
locations for work purpose and faced some cross cultural problems. The present report will be
discussing some cultural frameworks that are most commonly used and applicable by businesses.
Moving along these frameworks will be applied to improve the interpersonal interactions in both
business situations or case study. Moreover, lastly the assignment will be using intercultural
communication theories to practice and apply them to both the case studies.
MAIN BODY
Different cultural frameworks
HOFSTEDE’S DIMENSION OF CULTURE
The first common cultural framework which is used by several business owners was
established by a psychologist named Dr. Geert Hofstede. the psychologist performed extreme
and extensive study by interviewing more than 100,000 international business management
employees to understand the concept of cultural difference. By using the study and with the help
of the survey conducted Hofstede find out about four dimensions that distinguish cultures and
then later on added two more extensions dimension to it. All the dimensions of the cultural
model iare as follows:
 Power distance index (PDI)- The power distance index dimension reflects upon and
measures to the extensiveness of a members of a particular culture accept and expect
unequal power distribution within their culture and society. The power distance index
also measures how a society manage inequalities among them and their respective
members. In common words higher the power distance index higher will be the
acceptance of a hierarchical societal structure and lower power distance index reflects
upon the strive for culture to be equalised and equally distributed power.
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 Individualism vs Collectivism (IDV)- The next dimension is of individualism and
collectivism. Individualism is known as the norm their members are expected to care
about themselves and their family members. On the other hand collectivism is exactly
opposite of it. Higher individualism culture reflects upon the care people have for
themselves and their family member’s on the other hand lower individualism culture
represents the society who lives as a whole.
 Masculinity vs Femininity (MAS)- The third culture where uh the competitiveness in the
culture is measured as well as the extent to which heroism, assertiveness and material
rewards are valued for recognising success. On the other hand the feminine culture which
shows lower MAS is there Modesty and caring for others is rendered importance
(Matveev, 2017).
 Uncertainty avoidance index (AVI)- the basic aim and core of this culture is how
members of a particular society adheres to uncertainties. Cultural with the high
proportion of UAI are intolerant to the behaviours which are uncertain on the other hand
low UAI cousins have a major paradigmatic view of the society and the principles.
 Long term orientation vs Short term normative orientation (LOT)- The dimension
reflects upon traditional and non-traditional norms of a society. Here low LTO score
reflects the traditional norms of a particular culture and the high LTO culture encourages
modernization and progress.
 Indulgence vs Restraint (IND)- The dimension measures the extent to which a culture
allows gratification. The higher ratio of the dimension shows the culture full of
enjoyment and having fun. While the low IND shows the suppresses gratification and
strict use of respective norms and rules.
THE LEWIS MODEL
The second cultural framework is The Lewis Model which was founded by Richard D.
Lewis (GarrettRucks, 2016). The framework is objective FIDE to improve interactions between
different cultural and societies as well as to define and simplify intercultural analysis. The
cultural model has 3 approximate categories that are as follows:
 Liner actives- The people belonging to linear actives culture performs actions in a linear
action on a particular time and according to respective schedules. The people belonging
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to such culture are efficient it in their respective fields and work and are often refer their
work with logical excuses and suggestions.
 Multi actives- The second category is of multi actives people of a culture who are more
social than linear active counterparts. The people belonging to this dimension of a
culture value relationships and work with too many tasks in parallel. The members of
such society are often described as emotional and caring individuals.
 Reactives- The third and the last category of the model is of reactive culture where
courtesy is valued and people are known as good listeners. In reactive culture members
seek principal rather than planning to think and spend their time on fixed plants or with
intention. Members belonging to such culture also have several characteristics such as
they prefer to communicate face to face rather than talking behind the back as well as the
avoid any confrontations and preserve peace and harmony. Most commonly Chinese
society members are referred to belong to this culture set (Deardorff and Arasaratnam-
Smith, 2017).
Demonstrate how these frameworks can be applied to understand different interpersonal
interactions in business situations
The first business case is of Frank McDougal, who is setting up a branch office of their
engineering consultancy firm in Korea. The company is planning to transfer six engineering
consultants to Korea who are Americans. According to the case Frank is not in support of such
decision rather than that his approach is to employ local person with excellent accounting skills
to handle the company there. The key motive behind such aspiration is Frank was thinking to use
local competency of the foreign culture to maintain their books and run the accounting
operations of their branch in Korea.
In order to proceed with the plan Frank initiated the recruitment process by using help
office friend from rotary club. Through his friend Frank lead to four excellent candidates
surprisingly turn him down and all of them prefer to stay with their current employer rather than
joining a new venture which is American (Dervin and Gross, 2016). All four of the candidates
were very pleased and appreciative of being considered for the position by Frank but did not
accept it. In such scenario the uncertainty avoidance index dimension of Hofstede’s cultural
model is applicable.
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The uncertainty avoidance index dimension of the cultural model reflects and measures
the level of uncertainties and unknown situations can be faced by members of a particular society
and culture. The four candidates Frank approached through his friend were low in the index
which seated and evidenced their rejection of the position of a by Frank. Hence, the model
dimension can help Frank in better understanding cross culture and the problem which he needs
to overcome in regards to cross culture differences (Zhang and Zhou, 2019).
The second case is of Anna a German manager you have recently started her sales
practice in Chinese Market with Chinese clients. In the beginning she was very comfortable and
charmed by Chinese parties with whom she was conducting business as they were really nice and
soft with her. With the passing of time she recognised this as a problem for her working
scenarios as she was facing critical problems to look over the pros and cons of all the aspects
related to business and work. Anna's partners and clients always very nice to her used to reply in
positive context with all the aspects and were really using negative statements while making
business interactions and conversations.
The Chinese culture can easily be defined through the Lewis culture model and one of its
category that is reactive. The third category of the model that is reactive group is majorly located
in Asian countries accept the Indian subcontinent. The Chinese people are soft and with field
with positive aspects. Chinese people with whom and I was working but good listeners and
always combat on actual principles and reacts to the actions that looks appropriate. Chinese
members are never interested in confronting conversations and adopt diplomacy over truth
conducting business. They are patient enough and conduct the social and professional
perspectives with one another in order to work with people (Feng, 2016).
This is there Anna was going wrong, she was unaware about their culture and their
practices which created difficulties for her while dealing with the Chinese clients and making
sales efforts. Anna needs to overlook and understand the cross culture diplomacy which are
being adopted by Chinese people while working and conducting business with the. As per the
requirements she has to change her approach and interactive attitude. She needs to take up the
effective understanding of the Lewis cultural framework and adjust herself according to the
requirements of their culture and accordingly make her business conversations.
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Apply intercultural communication theories to practice in various business situations
Intercultural communication is a practice that revolves around the aspect of
communication across different cultures and social groups and how communication is affected in
intercultural perspectives. The intercultural communication process involves wide range of
communication aspect such as problems that are naturally appeared in front of an organisation or
a social group which have moved internationally to conduct their business operations belonging
to different religions and cultures (Jingzi, Wenzhong and Dimond, 2016).
There are different theories and models that are applicable to different business situations
like Anna and Frank's. The first theory which is being discussed is cross cultural communication
theory. The model refers to the communication between people who have different sizes and
variances in the following factors like age, nationality, ethnicity, race, gender and sexual
orientation. the cross-cultural communication process refers to the attempt made by individuals
to exchange negotiate and mediate cultural differences by mean of language, gestures and body
actions. This is the practice by which people belonging to different cultures communicate with
one another and exchanges their messages. Every individual is different from each other hence
their practices of conducting conversations vary (de Hei and et. al., 2020). The same happened
with Anna where she faced difficulties in long run while conducting business conversations with
her Chinese clients. They always used to take up positive aspects and approaches while
commenting and rendering feedbacks to her in regards to their business. And on the contrary
Anna likes to look over both pros and cons of the reflective topic. Therefore cross-cultural
communication theory is a suitable approach that should be applied to the business situation
where both the parties will be making arrangements to come on certain agreements and
effectively communicate with one another.
The second business situation is of Frank where he faced difficulties in negotiating and
communicating in appropriate manner with the efficient candidates for the position of accounting
staff the Korean branch of his organisation. Frank was unaware about the cultural differences
and aspects of Korean individuals which made him lose them as he was American and they were
more comfortable in working with their existing employers rather than joining a new American
firm. In this business situation the social support communication theory can be applied through
which the assistance can be gathered by the individual belonging to different culture from his or
her fellow beings or friends. Here Frank could have taken his friend support in order to
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understand the communication criteria and the best effective interactive practice for convincing
the appropriate candidates for the job (Savicki, 2020). Also he Frank and make use of the social
support network and learn supportive communication through the network for better practices to
be conducted in future.
CONCLUSION
The above report is developed on cultural competencies and frameworks which countries
that every culture is different from one another hence it needs to be thoroughly understood by the
individual or group of people moving to new cultural location for business purposes. The aim of
the report is to render knowledge about different cross culture frameworks that are applicable
and useful for different business situations and scenarios. Hence, Hofstede’s and Lewis cultural
models are discussed and applied for the same for knowing and understanding the importance
and need for making cultural interactions and taking up appropriate interactive practices.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
de Hei, M. and et. al., 2020. Developing intercultural competence through collaborative learning
in international higher education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 24(2),
pp.190-211.
Deardorff, D. K. and Arasaratnam-Smith, L. A. eds., 2017. Intercultural competence in higher
education: International approaches, assessment and application. Routledge.
Dervin, F. and Gross, Z. eds., 2016. Intercultural competence in education: Alternative
approaches for different times. Springer.
Feng, J. B., 2016. Improving intercultural competence in the classroom: A reflective
development model. Journal of teaching in international Business, 27(1), pp.4-22.
GarrettRucks, P., 2016. Intercultural competence in instructed language learning: Bridging
theory and practice. IAP.
Gowindasamy, M., 2017. A Case Study on the Implementation of Reflective Development
Model in Improving Intercultural Competence among Business Student in Stamford
College. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(12), pp.168-174.
Jingzi, D., Wenzhong, Z. and Dimond, E. E., 2016. The Integration of Intercultural Business
Communication Training and Business English Teaching. English Language
Teaching, 9(2), pp.77-83.
Matveev, A., 2017. Intercultural competence in organizations. Management for Professionals.
Savicki, V. ed., 2020. Developing intercultural competence and transformation: Theory,
research, and application in international education. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Zhang, X. and Zhou, M., 2019. Interventions to promote learners’ intercultural competence: A
meta-analysis. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 71, pp.31-47.
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