Intercultural Competency in Business

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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