Cross Cultural Communication: Importance and Barriers

This article discusses the importance of cross cultural communication in organizations and the barriers that can hinder effective communication. It explores the impact of cultural differences, language, stereotypes, and values on communication. The article also presents strategies to overcome these barriers, such as cross culture awareness, knowledge of international language, clarifying ideas prior to communication, being a good listener, and avoiding traditional thinking. Additionally, it introduces two main theories of cross cultural communication: the face negotiation theory and the interpretive theory.

INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF ORGANIZATION
Cross Cultural Communication

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Cross cultural communication is defined as the communication which takes place between
people who differs in working style, age, race, nationality, ethnicity, gender. Sexual orientation
and many more. Cross cultural communication can also be denoted as the attempts which are
generally made in order to exchange and negotiate the existing cultural differences through
language and body gestures1. It shows how people from many cultures communicates with
each other. Cross cultural communication has become vital for the companies and industries
because of the merging trend in the global business and technologies and uses of internet as
well. Such a way of communication includes a proper understanding of how person form
several cultures observes the worlds and society around them. Those companies which have
diverse workforce and those who take part in global economy, basically gets involved in such
type of communication. So, this has become very crucial for the employees to know all the
major factors which takes part in a nominal and miscellaneous workforce2.
Let us take an example of how cross cultural differences can create hindrances inside an
organization. John works as a manager at a New Mexico based retail conglomerate. He went to
japan to talk over a prospective partnership with a local Japanese company. He came across his
counterpart in a Japanese organization named Jack. John being new to japan and its cultures
had to face several obstacles such as understanding language which may be a biggest barrier
for the successful business meeting3.
Despite of various successful organization, there exists few obstacles which affects the overall
activities of a company. Some of the barriers are listed below.
Miscommunication: Miscommunication leads to misunderstanding and it basically takes
place because of the differences in culture and language. It leads to huge level of
nervousness and ambiguity.
Values and beliefs: These terms differ from person to person. In today’s generation, an
individual belief is totally dependent on region, language and culture. An organization
1 Betancourt et al., 2016. Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing
racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care.
2 Pym, A., 2017. Exploring translation theories.
3 Bochner, S. ed., 2013. Cultures in contact: Studies in cross-cultural interaction.

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must be capable of understanding those values and beliefs so that it communication
channel can work more precisely.
Language: Language plays a vital role in any organization. Correct pronunciation of
words can help in better and effective communication inside the organization.
Stereotypes: These people are one of the major cause of ineffective communication.
People become stereotype because of the absence of knowledge about nationality,
gender, caste, culture and race. Person fails to communicate and thus creates barriers4.
These barriers can easily be surmounted using these ways listed below.
Cross Culture Awareness: One must be aware about different culture, values, norms,
customs and beliefs in order to overcome cross cultural communication barriers.
Knowledge of international language: Learning international language involves skills and
knowledge. Additional learning of language helps to provide respect to different culture
and customs.
Clarifying ideas prior to communication: While sending information to different people,
the aim must be clearly identified and known to counter person in the most convenient
language. The entire conversation can be misleading if the main idea of the
communication will remain unclear due to any reasons.
Good listener: Both, the sender as well as receiver must have the skills to listen
carefully. They must be capable of listening the things with full attention and patience in
order to avoid miscommunication.
Neglecting traditional thinking: One must avoid thinking traditionally. One can think and
learn about several traditions and customs and norms but this can be limited up to an
extent. This must not create problem in the way of thinking and comprehending cultural
differences. An individual working inside the organization must be kind, polite and
straight forward while communicating which can help in better communication5.
The two main theories of cross cultural communication are given below.
4 Burgoon et al., 2016. Nonverbal communication
5 Carbaugh, D. ed., 2013. Cultural communication and intercultural contact.

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The face Negotiation theory: The theory was found by Ting- Toomey. According to her, face is
considered to determine the self-worth of an individual. Today, it has been found that in every
culture, people are highly concerned about serving the faces. She also believes that conflict
which takes place in any organization is just because of the process involved in the face
negotiation where an individual always either have their face threatened or interrogated.
The theory fails to explain the creative insights. The theory is more focusing on predictable
aspect rather than focusing on creative aspect6. One cannot identify all major and minor
variables which can affect the communication channels in nay organization. Sometimes, it
becomes quite difficult to recognize the facial expression of an individual and one may hide
his/her actual feelings and this may lead to incorrect decision and miscommunication.
Interpretive Theory: This theory believe that reality is an external factor to human beings. This
belief has a minor element of the semiotic model of language, customs, culture and media
analysis of those things which have inappropriate meaning or those which cannot be easily
understood. So, the culture by changing their languages and norms have identified those things
and changed their name so that it can easily be understood. This type of theory involves human
experience is made of communication and is subjective in nature. Human nature cannot be
easily predefined and predetermined7.
Again, this theory also has few limitations. There are only limited number of people who can
study this theory of intercultural communication. Many researchers are under investigation
which defines that they are not able to present the right patterns of communication that takes
place inside the organization.
Thus, it can easily be stated that all communication is cultural by nature. It depends on how we
speak and how to create nonverbal messages to communicate in nay organization. One cannot
communicate in the similar pattern everyday due to the fluctuation in the factors like mood,
choices, personality and cultural influences8. In order to run business successfully and globally,
6 Keith, K.D. ed., 2019. Cross-cultural psychology: Contemporary themes and perspectives.
7 Kinloch, P. and Metge, J., 2014. Talking past each other: problems of cross cultural
communication.
8 Martin, J.N. and Nakayama, T.K., 2013. Intercultural communication in contexts.

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one must be able to understand cross cultural communication because it works as a booster for
the company to understand other culture. Languages, values and norms and then work
accordingly.

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References
Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., Carrillo, J.E. and Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I.I., 2016. Defining
cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health
and health care. Public health reports.
Bochner, S. ed., 2013. Cultures in contact: Studies in cross-cultural interaction (Vol. 1). Elsevier.
Burgoon, J.K., Guerrero, L.K. and Floyd, K., 2016. Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Carbaugh, D. ed., 2013. Cultural communication and intercultural contact. Routledge.
Keith, K.D. ed., 2019. Cross-cultural psychology: Contemporary themes and perspectives. Wiley-
Blackwell.
Kinloch, P. and Metge, J., 2014. Talking past each other: problems of cross cultural
communication. Victoria University Press.
Martin, J.N. and Nakayama, T.K., 2013. Intercultural communication in contexts. New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
Pym, A., 2017. Exploring translation theories. Routledge.