Analysis of Intercultural Communication in Ibis West Africa Essay

This essay critically analyzes the article by Abdulai, Ibrahim, & Mohammed (2017) on communicating across cultures in multinational Ibis West Africa. It defines key concepts like intercultural and cross-cultural communication, and examines the role of expatriates, highlighting challenges such as language barriers and cultural conflicts. The essay discusses the impact of globalization, the dominance of English, and the concept of 'strangers' in intercultural settings. It explores solutions like non-verbal coding systems, team formations, and language learning. The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural differences and the need for effective communication strategies to foster positive organizational behavior in multinational companies. The essay also emphasizes the need for more research on the influence of cultural communication within businesses.

Abdulai, Ibrahim, & Mohammed. (2017).
Communicating across cultures in
multinational Ibis West Africa. International
Journal of Intercultural Relations, 58, 42-53.
Effective Business Communication
Institutional Affiliation(S)
Student Name

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Essay
The globalisation of businesses has increasingly diminished the significance behind
borders that impacts the mobility of labour and have benefitted various countries with
political, social and economic wellness. In this context, Abdulai, Ibrahim, & Mohammed
(2017) observed that in 21st century, making direct contacts within cultural environment
requires skilful and knowledgeable minds so that effective intercultural communication can
be seen within global citizens. The author makes an examination of effective communication
at Ibis in West Africa. After conducting a qualitative research, the authors find that amidst
multi-varied cultures, many misinterpretations and misconceptions from both non-verbal and
verbal communications created differences in the meaning of messages and interactions made
between local staff and Ibis expatriate workers. After making a case analysis of organisations
in Ibis, the authors reviewed literature related to concepts behind effective communication
which will be analysed in this essay from different authors perspectives. Alongside, this essay
intends to make discussion on five selected and key themes/definitions to evaluate the article
critically from academic lenses.
Intercultural communication can be defined as a process in which sending and
receiving of messages takes place between people who belongs to diversified cultures and are
driven by certain situations to interpret verbal and non-verbal messages differently (Malhotra
& Arora, 2014). Cross-cultural communication, on the other hand has become a new trend
that developed due to modern technology and internet. Such interventions have opened
various opportunities for businesses to promote and allow marketing in new geographic
regions and cultures. Since, working in a global atmosphere has become much easier now,
cross-culture has become an increasingly new norm in multinational organisations. Though
cross-cultural communication deals with involving people from diversified cultures to
establish and maximise strong cultural relationships, it comes with additional failures also.
Many international companies face conflicts and communication issues that creates cultural
differences and thus hinders the overall organisational behaviour. Similar issue has been
identified by Abdulai, Ibrahim, & Mohammed (2017) in Ibis that have made the company
focus upon, “empowering the poor and the marginalised no matter social status, race, gender
and ethnicity” (p. 43). Arguably, Kei & Yazdanifard (2015) states that previous studies made
on intercultural communication illustrates how poor communication results in impacting
organisational performance negatively, and how communication is crucial for every
employee including both executives and subordinates. However, the ability to communicate

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effectively usually remains challenging in global environment that creates misunderstanding
among people which further gives rise to cultural conflicts. Therefore, it is significant to
understand the globalisation influences on intercultural communication so that businesses
attempting to create competitiveness are provided with benefits from motivated and cross-
cultural teams.
Expatriation can be regarded as an expensive strategy in human resources, still it
remains viable within international organisations due to facilitation of global competencies
skills gained by expatriates. However, Kataria & Sethi (2013) argues that the task performed
by expatriates remains complicated as per differences seen in countries labour market,
culture, economic and legal systems. Moreover, while working in an international
environment, the work quality of expatriate employees seems to become more critical than
performed by local staff. Therefore, multinational companies need to provide them with
effective training, including foreign language fluency and ability to perform in teams
comprised of diversified cultures. Moreover, recent developments in businesses also reveals
that global firms focus upon negotiation skills and intercultural communication that can help
them gain prominence in international marketplace. This calls for development of specific
etiquettes like expected behavioural pattern required for managing inter-cultural
communication that have become significant due to mobility of people. Most of the
researchers stresses that learning and development skills of proper etiquette while preparing
for international projects is one of the crucial necessity of businesses to succeed in
competitive context. As stated before, behavioural rules act as formal and articulated
guidelines that set certain parameters while enabling informal and learned skills over the
time. Once management starts noticing and appreciating such values and respect for
culturally diversified people, the organisation develops a positive understanding of its people
behaviour that provides them with better understanding of how to interact with them while
prescribing tasks (Okoro, 2013).
According to Abdulai, Ibrahim, & Mohammed (2017), the global processes have
made Ibis move out of their domestic area to the origins of Africa and Latin America where
they can provide services to impoverish communities. Since Ibis is a Danish International
Non-Government company that worked in around 13 countries globally, it was selected by
the authors for the study to explore how expatriate workers are influenced by cross-cultural
communication. Imhonopi & Urim (2014) claims that in today’s world, the dominance of
monolinguistic culture favours ascendancy of English language that creates inequality in

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which native speakers are placed in better position and out competes non-native speakers
wherever present in globalised arrangements. Thereby, a great concern is shown by the
authors regrading cultural development in African countries non-native speakers due to
growth seen in Englisgh language speakers in countries like Asia, America, Europe and
Australia where more proficient English speakers and writers dominates communication
strategies and enjoys competitiveness and relevance in global communities. Even Okoye &
Nwaigwe (2015) claims that “the process of globalization is considered to have become the
major source of conflict in Africa” (p. 30). The author revealed that in spite of various
contributions made by globalisation to develop world economy, it has created circumstantial
deficiencies that ignites conflicts among nations and nearby communities. Such cultural
differentiation puts in front various questions like, if globalisation is ubiquitous and pervasive
to influence and redefine character and nature of society, has globalisation helped in
improving written and oral communication of expatriate’s workers in every country? If not,
what challenges are faced by global company’s diversified culture employees and how can
cultural conflicts be reduced?
Conflicts can be referred to as a form of friction, discord or disagreement arising
within communities or groups when the action or beliefs of one or more group members are
either resisted or unaccepted by other members. Conflicts can take place among same group
members known as intergroup conflicts or between more than two groups that many involve
violence, psychological tension and interpersonal discord, known as intergroup conflict
(Mba, 2015). The biggest issue in multinational organisation’s while dealing cross-culture
communication is the language barriers. For instance, Ibis workers who flows to Japan for
discussing potential partnerships with local companies over there may feel hesitant while
making dealing due to ineffective communication established between both the parties. In
such conditions, only strategic communication ways can be used to establish a good rapport
with Japanese’s clients and initial conversations can be made using facial expressions,
emotions and other nonverbal ways. Cross-cultural companies like Ibis can even hire
employees who are proficient with various languages to build effective relationships with its
foreign collaboratives (Mba, 2015). Moreover, Vlad & Stan (2018) stated that, “Culture
influences the individuals’ behaviour and shapes group identity” (p. 409). The cultural
dimension theory laid by Hofstede represented distinguishing members of one group to the
other along with a collective programming in minds. Hofstede argued that due to geopolitical
boundaries, regional or cultural levels inclusive of different cultural dimensions like

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individualism, power distance index, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, short-term and
long-term orientation and masculinity defined a specific area or country. Due to such
arguments and complex views, it can be said that cultural systems provide companies with
lots of resources like identity and differences.
“The concept of the stranger and effective communication” addressed by Abdulai,
Ibrahim, & Mohammed (2017) calls for giving an explanation behind communication made
between people belonging to same or another group in which strangers are defined as people
who belongs to both near and far distances at the same time. In this context, it can be said that
communication between local staff at Ibis and expatriate workers are regraded as ‘strangers’
since they belong to different community from the members of their host culture. Such
dimensions in culture necessarily influences overall communication processes in
multinational companies that operates across cultures and barriers to effective communication
can be found due to creation of layers among different cultural people holding divergent
objectives. Padhi (2016), revealed that cross-cultural communication barriers can be
perceived because of managerial styles, negligence while comprehending relationship
between staff and management, language barriers, workers expectation and power distance
prevalence. Such issue impacts overall communication processes, thereby adding
complexities within situation and thus, the author suggest that knowledge creation of non-
verbal coding systems can considerably help in establishing sound communication
relationship especially in intercultural organisations. Non-verbal coding system may involve
body movements, gestures and facial expressions that can be displayed through non-verbal
cues. From practical as well as theoretical perspective, potential solution for cross-cultural
problems can be knowledge transfer and spreading awareness about its benefits. Since most
of the multinational companies have several issues in verbal communication, values, social
systems and beliefs, the possible effectual remedy can be creation of team formations,
learning and educating foreign languages etc. however, such remedies may further depend
upon management capabilities and applicability (Kesari, Soni, & Khanuja, 2014).
The discussions made in the above essay were based upon a selected article that
revealed reasons behind misunderstanding seen in communication between local staff and
expatriate workers while in Ibis. After defining the key terms associated with intercultural
and cross-cultural communication, the essay discussed about expatriate’s role in
multinational companies and how communication between them can get enhanced through
creation of positive organisational behaviour. Since global firms faces issues in cross cultural

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communication due to dominance of English speakers in most of the countries, the essay
suggested that global firms can introduce new and effective non-verbal coding systems that
can facilitate communication effectively. The essay also recognised conflicts taking place
between cross-cultural communications and the context related to ‘stranger’ that are referred
to those people who belongs to outside community than other members of the organisations.
All the discussions and findings highlighted in the essay provides new insights into various
concepts of intercultural communication. All the new concepts identified new perspectives
however, more study is required to reflect upon cultural communication impacts on
organisations to provide the readers with complete knowledge on intercultural
communication significance in multinational companies.

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References
Abdulai, M., Ibrahim, H., & Mohammed, M. A. (2017). Communicating across cultures in
multinational Ibis West Africa. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 58,
42-53.
Imhonopi, D., & Urim, U. M. (2014). The Impact of Globalisation on the Oral and Written
Communication of Students in the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta
(Funaab). New Media and Mass Communication, 22, 1-13.
Kataria, N., & Sethi, S. (2013). Making Successful Expatriates in Multinational Corporations.
Asian Journal of Business and Economics, 3(3.4), 1-12.
Kei , S. S., & Yazdanifard, R. (2015). The Significance of Intercultural Communication for
Businesses and the Obstacles that Managers should Overcome in Achieving Effective
Intercultural Communication. Global Journal of Management and Business
Research: A Administration and Management, 15(4), 7-12.
Kesari, B., Soni, R., & Khanuja, R. S. (2014). A Review on the Need of Cross Cultural
Management in Multinational Corporations. International Journal of Advanced
Research in Management and Social Sciences, 3(8), 120-127.
Malhotra, K., & Arora, T. (2014). Cross Cultural Communication: Need of Global Business.
International Research Journal of Management and Commerce, 1(5), 59-75.
Mba, I. N. (2015). Conflicts Encourntered by Multinational Corporations in Cross-Cultural
Communication and its Solutions. Journal of International Business and Economic,
3(1), 86-92.
Okoro, E. (2013). International Organizations and Operations: An Analysis of Cross-Cultural
Communication Effectiveness and Management Orientation. Journal of Business &
Management, 1(1), 1-13.
Okoye , H. N., & Nwaigwe , L. C. (2015). The Impact of Globalization To Business and The
World Economy. International Journal of Business and Management Review, 3(5),
17-32.

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Padhi, P. K. (2016). The Rising Importance of Cross Cultural Communication in Global
Business Scenario. Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science, 4(1), 20-
26.
Vlad, M., & Stan, S. O. (2018). The Influence of Cultural Differences and Its Application in
Multinational Organizations. Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy,
6(3), 405-422.