Intercultural Communication: Strategies for Businesses

This essay examines the significance of intercultural communication in the modern business environment. It highlights the increasing need for organizations to navigate cultural diversity effectively, particularly in a globalized world. The essay discusses how businesses can leverage intercultural communication to gain a competitive edge by attracting a diverse talent pool and catering to a global customer base. It emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting different cultural backgrounds, addressing communication barriers, and promoting a transcultural mindset. The essay also explores the role of ethnocentrism in hindering effective communication and suggests strategies such as simplifying communication processes and being aware of verbal and non-verbal cues across cultures. It concludes by stressing the importance of intercultural understanding and respect in fostering successful business interactions and overall communication.

Running Head: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Intercultural Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Topic- Essay on promoting intercultural communication
The technological advancements have brought people closer to each other. It has now
become easy to reach people across the globe with the help of just few clicks. In the highly
competitive industry, organizations are trying to get global talent pool and enrich the
competencies of the organization. The aim of the paper is to describe some strategies which can
be used to promote effective intercultural communication. It helps a particular company to gain
competitive advantage over the market rivals. The business industries expand for the sake of
reaching the global customers and generate more revenues. According to Thill and Bovee
(2005), when a particular company steps out to do business with other countries and cultures,
inter-cultural issues and communication issues come up as hurdles on the way. It has to be taken
into consideration that people are coming from different parts of the world with different cultural
backgrounds. Hence, communication issues will be there due to language and cultural barriers.
Hence, it is the responsibility of the staffs and the managers to understand the cultural diversities.
In some of the cultures, there are people who are loud and blunt and in other cultures,
there are soft-spoken using indirect language. Hence, in the organizational context, it is
necessary to communicate with everyone in order to understand their ways of speaking. Since
the tendency of the arrival of people from different cultural backgrounds is increasing day by
day, the organizations need to communicate both externally and internally and address the
changing demographics. It should be done because culture affects communication up to greater
extent. Notably, establishing and effective intercultural communication is not that easy. First of
all, an environment of motivation needs to be built up. Becoming transcultural having
preconceived notions about other person’s culture can pose as hurdle in the communication
process (Thill & Bovee, 2005). A person should simplify the communication process leaving the

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ethno-centricism in order to accept other cultures. In order to achieve effective intercultural
communication conscious efforts, need to be there in order to achieve communication
dissonance.
Before interacting with a different cultured people, the ethnocentric feelings need to be
driven out. One should not esteem a person’s nationality, ethnicity and culture. Moreover, in a
multicultural setting, the notion that a person’s culturally accepted style of communication is
perfect to be used in any setting is a type of ethno-centricism. Hence, a person needs to be aware
of verbal and non-verbal communication for different cultures without esteeming it in one ‘s own
culture. However, the aim of effective intercultural communication is not to assert that all the
cultural rules are good, but an understanding has to be built in order to enhance the
communication and respect of other cultures. As per the view of Thill and Bovee (2005), the
alternative way is by simplifying the situation. It has to be noted that culture is a complex topic
but simplifying the ways can facilitate strong communication among the diverse clients/ workers
or customers. On a concluding note, it can be said that communication is an essential part of any
business and in everyday lives too. Hence, it should be promoted by understanding and
respecting the cultures of each other without having a preconceived notion about the opposite
different cultured person.

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Reference
Thill, J. V., & Bovee, C. L. (2005). Business communication today. Pearson/Prentice
Hall/Pearson Education International.