Comprehensive Report: Intercultural Competence in Business Challenges

This report delves into the critical aspects of intercultural competence within a business context. It begins with an introduction defining cross-cultural environments and their impact on organizations, highlighting both merits and demerits. The core of the report analyzes a case study where Anna faces intercultural challenges in China, focusing on communication barriers, cultural differences in space and time perception, and improper delegation. It explores potential solutions, emphasizing the importance of understanding cultural practices, bridging cultural gaps, and adapting negotiation styles. The report further examines Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory to compare cultural differences between Germany and China. Finally, it provides actionable advice to Anna, including recommendations for negotiation dynamics, cultural learning, and diversity training. The report concludes by summarizing the essential role of cultural understanding in achieving business efficacy and enhancing productivity in a globalized market, emphasizing the need to overcome barriers to effective communication and decision-making.

Intercultural
Competence in
Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK A (Case study 2)...................................................................................................................4
Where did Anna go Wrong?........................................................................................................4
Ways to better understand a cross culture problems...................................................................5
Cultural theory.............................................................................................................................6
What would be your advice to Anna?..........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Cross culture refers to environment in which the people from different background and
perspective live in a particular country, region or organisation. As the companies are becoming
globalised they are more focusing on becoming a cross cultural organisation in that they
encourage the people who belong to different background or culture to join their organisation.
The cross culture environment provides both merit and demerit to the organisation. Merits me
include diversify ideas, innovation in performing the work, more suggestions on the table and the
like. The demerits may include barrier in communication which may result into
misunderstanding, increase in conflicts, decrease in productivity and much more. This report
discusses about a case study where a girl name Ana faces some cross cultural issues in another
country, China. The theories of inter cultural has been discussed along with some suggestions to
overcome the problem of cross cultural (Abduh and Rosmaladewi, 2018).
TASK A (Case study 2)
Where did Anna go Wrong?
Anna is facing problem in dealing with Chinese people, and there are various aspects in
which Anna faced problem which are elaborated as under:
Communication: Communication were the major problem in which Anna went wrong
because every culture is having their own way to communicate and in terms of Chinese people
Anna was lacking behind in communicating with their employees due to which they were not
able to take active participation in problem solving activities. This is necessary that the message
sent by Anna is delivered by her as well in the same manner and if it is not then understanding
problem may be created. In the context of Anna she faced the problem that her staff is opposing
in providing suggestion and this may be due to improper communication (Kuzior and Sobotka,
2019).
Space: This is described as physical space within two people that means level of comfort
created within two people even when they belong to varied culture. In this way Anna is facing
difficulty as Chinese culture is having different boundaries, due to which people are not
comfortable in standing nearby each other. During meeting when Anna is asking for suggestion

due to discomfort Chinese people are not willing to address problems and they do not take
participation in decision making processes.
Time: Time is defined as performing various activities on the basis of time and in this
context Chinese peoples are prone to perform multi-tasking activities and they are not willing to
take participate in those activities which may waste their time. So in this context Anna faced
difficulties in involving them in decision making process. On the other work Chinese are focused
over quality working which obtains higher responsibility for them to perform their given task. In
this manner those people do not involve in decision making skills (Orazbayeva, Baaken and
Meerman, 2016).
Improper delegation: Anna is lacking behind in delegating authorities in which she is
not giving proper authorities to personnel due to which people are not participating in decision
making activities. Decision making activities can be performed when overall delegation is made
in effective manner. This is the major reason that Chinese are not participating in problem
detection and solving activities as they are not authorised to do the same.
There were various reasons due to which Anna faced difficulty in connecting to people
working with her. These were the major reason that she was lacking behind in fuller productivity
and effectiveness as well. On the other hand as employees of Anna were not willing to discuss
any objection which is required to be inhaled and in these manner loopholes in working were
remained untouched. Besides this team were lacking in confidence due to which they were not
sure about major reason for occurrence of problem. On the other hand due to improper
delegation employees were not willing to participate in decision making activities and this made
Anna to feel disinterested employees (Søderber, 2017).
Ways to better understand a cross culture problems
When an individual who belongs to different background and culture work in an
environment or a culture which is far more different from which he belongs , he might face
various problems in settling in the different culture. The problems through which that individuals
my through include:-
Cultural practices:- the cultural practices performed by the people belonging from a
particular culture is different which might not be same to the culture in which he is working. To

work properly in that different environment and culture the individual supposed to know the
other side of culture. In the case with Anna where she faces some communication barrier with
Chinese people to surmount this problem she needs to understand the behaviours and the
attitudes of Chinese people. By knowing the true behaviour and their perspective she might able
to crack the communication style and also can get to how to get the required information from
them.
Cultural gap:- the gap between any two culture always present. It may be in terms of the
language people use, the way of performing the things, the attitude and perspective towards a
particular topic and etc. The individual was try to bridge the gap which is present between these
two culture. He can bridges the gap by bringing out the practices on exercise performed by these
people on a common ground (GarrettRucks 2016). As with Aana the cultural gap can get Bridge
by knowing the time and punctuality and matter with the culture of her and bring at a common
ground. By bridging the gap Anna might receive some help in getting touch with the actual
cultural practices of China.
Negotiation style:- people belonging to different culture have different style for
negotiations. An individual who belongs to to the cultural background of Germany has different
time for negotiation as compared to the person who belongs to China. As in the case with Aana
where she find difficulty in getting the actual feedback from Chinese people she might it has to
research about the negotiation styles adapted by the Chinese people. The research can be through
the observation only where she observe the negotiations style of Chinese people and figure out
the ways to have proper communication with them. Through this proper communication she
might get to know about the negatives or the actual objectivity about the topic.
Cultural theory
Hofestede cultural theory
This particular theory is divided into six elements upon which the two different cultures
are compared and differentiate. The culture from which Anna as belongs and the culture of China
differentiate on the following basis:-
Power distance index:- It refers to the level of inequality exercises in the country. It has been
observed that the Germany country does not exercise any inequality among the men and women

or minority vs majority. But as in the case with China the power distance index is quite high as
compared with Germany. This means that some degree of inequality does present in the country.
Individualism vs collectivism:- In this the culture is divided on the basis of collectivism and
individualism. Individualism refers to a state where a person only thinks about his and his
immediate family. Collectivism refers when a person cares about his immediate family along
with the family of his relatives. It has been observed that China exercises the collectivism where
is Germany country exercises the individualism (Deardorff and Arasaratnam-Smith, 2017).
Masculinity versus femininity:- masculinity refers to the country which is powerful strong and
has the strength whereas the femininity refers to the culture which is weak and focuses more
upon peace and harmony. China is a country which comes into the category of masculinity where
is Germany's taken as a femininity country as they put major focus upon maintaining relationship
with people.
Uncertainty avoidance index:- it refers to a degree to which a country can cope up with anxiety
full stop it has been observed that put the countries China and Germany has the capability to
cope up with the change and anxiety which they may face.
Long vs short term orientation:- it has been observed that put the countries China and
Germany focuses upon their long term orientation. The makes the plan which benefit them in the
long run.
Indulgence versus restraint:- places of the culture with the high IVR faces many restrictions
and gratification in their actions. These gratification curbs the freedom of people. The degree of
gratification is seen higher in China as they have many restrictions upon the gratification
activities of human. But whereas these gratifications are not much present into Germany state.
They give much freedom to their public (Arasaratnam-Smith, 2017).
From the above model it has been noticed that both the country Germany and China have
some common ground in the terms of culture they follow. As both the countries follow the long-
term orientation and have the high uncertainty avoidance index.
What would be your advice to Anna?
Anna is facing problems related to inter-cultural insight within her workplace due to
worker are not sharing their grievances and problems which may create barrier in organisational
success. On the other hand these activities lead in lesser productiveness due to which goodwill of

the company may hamper. There are some suggestion which are given to Anna for improving
command over inter cultural aspects, these are elaborated as under:
Negotiation dynamics: The major aspect within inter-cultural dimension is to manage
negotiation in proper manner. For this Anna is required to manage various activities through
which barrier in communication can be minimised. This is helpful in managing relation with
employees in effective manner so that any grievance can be shared and managed in prominent
manner (Gut, Wilczewski and Gorbaniuk, 2017).
Learning regarding varied culture: Anna is required to develop understanding
regarding various culture so that differential aspects of Chinese culture can be understood by
Anna. In this way Anna can develop understanding and learn about the manner in which these
people can be dealt. This may help Anna is hearing people and involving them in decision
making activities in order to frame effective decisions as well.
Employ diversity training: As Anna is having diversified workforce so she is
recommended to employ diversified training as well so as to make their employees highly
effective in dealing with problems and complexities as well. By employing diversified training
employees under Anna can learn regarding ways of working with team and differential staff. On
the other hand diversified training is helpful for dealing with employee emotions in specific
manner which fulfils all the expectations of employees (Deardorff and Steve, 2017)
.
CONCLUSION
From the above detailed report this can be summarised that with a company and
individual culture and beliefs are playing essential role. Behaviour and attitude of different
culture people are formed in order to attain business efficacy and higher productivity. For
obtaining higher efficacy in business businesses are requisite to undertake and interact with
varied culture people and employees so that overall productivity can be enhanced. On the other
hand there are various barriers which are required to be eliminated so as to shape different values
and beliefs of individual. These barriers create difficulties in understanding people from different
background due to which process of decision making becomes tough. In current time diversity is

defined as one of the major constraint of business which is required in order to get success over
global market.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abduh, A. and Rosmaladewi, R., 2018. Promoting intercultural competence in bilingual
programs in Indonesia. SAGE Open. 8(3). p.2158244018788616.
Arasaratnam-Smith, L. A., 2017. Intercultural competence.Intercultural competence in higher
education: International approaches, assessment and application.
Deardorff, D .K. and Arasaratnam-Smith, L. A. eds., 2017.Intercultural competence in higher
education: International approaches, assessment and application. Routledge.
Deardorff, D.K. and Steve, J., 2017. Chinese perspectives on intercultural competence in
international higher education. Intercultural competence in higher education:
International approaches, assessment and application.
GarrettRucks, P., 2016. Intercultural competence in instructed language learning: Bridging
theory and practice. IAP.
Gut, A., Wilczewski, M. and Gorbaniuk, O., 2017. Cultural differences, stereotypes and
communication needs in intercultural communication in a global multicultural
environment. The Employees’ perspective. Journal of Intercultural Communication.
43(1). pp.1-20.
Kuzior, A. and Sobotka, B., 2019. Key competencies in the modern business services
sector. Organizacja i Zarządzanie: kwartalnik naukowy.
Orazbayeva, B., Baaken, T. and Meerman, A., 2016. Intercultural Knowledge Transfer in Teams.
Findings based on a Case Study. Callaos, N.; Hashimoto, S.; Horne, J, pp.190-195.

Søderberg, A.M., 2017. 19 Experience and cultural learning in global business
contexts. Intercultural communication, 9, p.415.