Intercultural Communication: Theories and Business Management Essay

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of intercultural communication, examining its core concepts and practical applications within a business context. The essay begins by establishing the strong relationship between cultural identity and nationality, illustrating how a person's national affiliation shapes their cultural background, values, and behaviors, with examples from multinational corporations. It then identifies the crucial skills managers require to navigate intercultural interactions effectively, including respect for cultural differences, adaptability, language proficiency, and negotiation skills. The essay also addresses the complexities inherent in intercultural business communication, highlighting language barriers, differing communication styles, and the impact of perceptions and diplomacy on business outcomes. The essay emphasizes the importance of addressing these complexities to foster effective communication and achieve business goals in a diverse global environment, referencing key academic sources to support its arguments.

Intercultural Relations
1. Cultural identity is related to nationality

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Nationality is something that binds a person with an identity of the nation. There is a very
deep relation between the cultural identity and the nationality. The belongingness to a
particular group on the basis of cultural variances is known to be as the cultural identity.
Cultural identity is a feeling or the identity of belonging to a group. Most of the time, it is
understood as the self-perception and self-conception of an individual. Any person belonging
to a particular nation has same cultural identity. Cultural identity gets developed because of
the nation they belong to. For example a person from the particular country will have a
specific cultural background this will be reflected in their cultural identity (Samovar, Porter,
McDaniel & Roy, 2014). Like in the case of cultural identity people are generally attached to
the same ethnicity which could be seen through the stuffs they wear. In the business
organisations especially the multinational organisations have people from different cultural
background. This can be seen through the country of their belonging. Their traditional values
like the festivals and the practices can be somehow determined by the nation they are from.
For example an Indian working in the big IT firm like Microsoft in America will still
celebrate the festivals of their own irrespective of the fact that their host country is different.
For another person this cultural identity helps them to easily understand that the person
belongs to which country. At times it is seen that the people from the other nation might have
some different special traditions. This tradition automatically highlights and attaches them to
a particular nation (Neuliep, 2017).
Culture is largely developed according to the history that a country had in the future. The
socio-cultural history that a company had in the past always moulds the cultural identity of an
individual. Most of the time, the language that a person speaks is enough to identify that from
which country they might have link to in the past (Gallois & Giles, 2015). With the
increasing mobility, people have generated bicultural identity which they have generated
because they have lived in both these companies. With the increasing influence of multi-
national companies in the countries, the culture of the cities is changing. Many cosmopolitan
cities have emerged in various parts of the world having no specific cultural identity. This
defies the fact that cultural identity relates to nationality. Nations have provided a framework
for the cultural identities called as external cultural reality. This is having effect on the unique
internal cultural realities of the individuals within the country. Nation has a very larger role in
the cultural complexity as it is the foundation of the individual’s identity but it might contrast
with one’s cultural reality. Many countries that are based on the cultural basis are
contributing high to the development of the cultural identity (Ting‐Toomey, 2017). This can

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also be seen by the organisational culture present in any company. It will reflect the country
from where it originates or the place from where their owners are from.
2. Skills that are needed by managers for intercultural communication
Various types of problems arise in intercultural communication. In order to reduce these
problems, it is essential for the modern day managers to build certain kind of skills.
Effectiveness of communication depends on the type of skills that is present in any person.
This becomes further crucial for the managers in the multi-national organisation as there are
many people from different countries having diverse cultural backgrounds (Hua, 2013). If the
managers do not have intercultural skills, it is always difficult to manage day to day
operations. It is further difficult for human resource managers as they have to deal with
various aspects of employee development and assessment. In the age of interconnected
business, intercultural communication is the key to expand the business as well as ensure
smoothness in the business in various parts of the world. There are certain skills that are
developed by an individual in due course of their life while there are some skills that are
present by birth.
Intercultural differences are common and can be on the basis of various aspects like
standards, customs, behaviour, thought pattern, practices social norms. These are the traits of
cultural identity. The first skill that a manager must have is to respect these aspects (Jackson,
2014). He or she must be capable enough to understand the differences and then react to it.
This understanding capacity helps the managers to know the needs of the individual which is
highly essential for the development of the employees. Another crucial skill that a manager
must have is the capacity to accept the diversity and adapt accordingly. This is necessary for
making the comfortable environment. Language barrier is most common in the intercultural
communication. This calls for the need that a manager must have the knowledge of at least
the languages that are common around the location of the company (Oetzel, 2017).
Apart from this it is also essential that manager must have the knowledge gaining skills. This
would help them in gaining knowledge related to the history of the culture or nation they
belong to. This helps in making a stronger relationship with the customers at the time of the
communication (Bennett, 2013). Managers should also have the art of negotiation since
negotiating skills plays a very crucial role in the intercultural communication especially the
business communication. A manager must have the skill to apologise to the counterpart in
case any differences arise in between the two. A manager also needs to have good team

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management skills as it helps in increasing the bond with the other person. Skills such as
behaviour analysis is required in the intercultural communication as the understanding the
behaviour is the priority in the intercultural communication. A manager should be a positive
influencer as it is essential for making a healthy communication. Active listening is another
important skill that a manager must have as it helps in improving the understanding capacity
(Waisbord, 2018). Since tone and gestures matters a lot in the communication process hence
a manager must be capable to understanding the gestures and react accordingly. Staying
positive is a very essential aspect in the intercultural communication and it helps in
improving the interaction quality.
3. Complexity in the Intercultural business communication
With the increase in the multinational organisations, intercultural business communication
has become an essential aspect. At the workplace that is having huge cultural diversity, this is
a bigger issue. In any multinational there are certain levels of organisational structure and
hence effective communication becomes highly essential. It is the organisation’s role to
reduce the complexity in such communication. The reasons for complexities in the
intercultural business communication are very diverse. The most crucial reason for
complexity is the language barrier. Most of the time language acts a disruption in the
communication process (MacDonald & O’Regan, 2013). This is due to the fact that they are
unable to understand the thing that another person waned to say. Gestures or ascent also acts
as a reason for increasing the complexity in the process.
The complexity of the communicational processes also increases due to the way in which
certain things are said in the conversation which might differ from culture to culture. This is
also because the understanding gap arises in the process. A person must always avoid doing
something creative as it may result in negative sense. In any intercultural business
communication, negotiation has an important role and if not done properly might increase the
complexity. People usually negotiate in a very different ways in case of inter cultural and
intra cultural communicational process (Kent & Taylor, 2011).
Ineffective inter cultural communication might lead to business loss or breaking of business
relationship. One of the critical aspects that are influencing business communication is the
perception that is made about each other. Whenever a perception is created about the
counterpart, it is always difficult to understand each other. For example a person from
Australia will have a different perception about the person from Japan and will have other

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perception for the people from United Kingdom. This lack of understanding might be
dangerous for the communicational process. It is also seen that complexity is added in the
process of communication when the people from two different cultures are not able to
understand the things that is actually being communicated to another person (Gradproskills,
2015).
Diplomacy is extremely difficult in the case of intercultural communication. The process of
communication becomes difficult when an essence of diplomacy comes into the
communicational process. In order to achieve goals a manager must be able to communicate
the values and objectives of the company to each and every employee which cannot be
possible without removing such cultural gap. In the greater context it was seen that the people
that are from the lower cultural backgrounds always feels themselves to be on the weaker
side of the business communication. This creates more complexity in the intercultural
communication (MacDonald & O’Regan, 2013). Floor managers need to rethink about the
complexity patterns that might be generated due to the diversity at the workplace. In order to
reduce the complexity in the business operations a company must be able to deal with the
challenges of diversity.

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REFERENCES
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