Cultural Intelligence and Business Communication Essay - MGMT1201

This reflective essay explores the concept of cultural intelligence and its impact on business communication, drawing from the author's personal experiences within the Sikh culture. The essay highlights the influence of cultural background on thought processes, actions, and communication styles, emphasizing the importance of understanding diverse cultures to foster effective collaboration. The author shares personal challenges faced in the workplace, including issues related to religious expression, acceptance of cultural differences, and communication barriers. The essay concludes by emphasizing the significance of cultural awareness and the need to address discrimination and promote inclusivity to facilitate personal and professional growth. The author provides insights on how cultural intelligence affects their experiences and overall business effectiveness.

Human resource management
Business Communication
Student’s Name

Business Communication 1
Introduction
Culture is the set of shared values that the group of the individuals holds. Such values
majorly affect how individuals think and act and most importantly, the kind of criteria by
which the individuals judge others. Every culture has some certain rules, knowledge, beliefs,
values, phobias, and anxieties and all individuals act and communicates accordingly (Goman,
2011).
Cultural identity shapes through personal, social and communal relations which
highlight distinctive personalities or the character, qualities ( personal identity), our roles and
responsibilities towards workplace, family (social identity) and those facet influenced by our
cultural context are highlighted under cultural or (communal identity) (Ang, & Van Dyne,
2015).
Main body
According to my perception, cultural intelligence has a greater impact on business
effectiveness. Our cultural background has a major influence the way we think, the way we
act and the way we communicate or interpret each other. Our achievements and failures of
communication are majorly dependent over the understanding of the different culture of the
employees and generate fruitful collaboration in those situations where cultural differences
play a major role. Knowledge about the different culture of the others and ours, for instance,
enable one’s plan on the event so that we have the best chance for enabling the
communication to run smoothly in between us. This also helps in satisfying our curiosity and
knowledge about the other culture custom and norms and their meanings associated with the
simple actions, react accordingly, and prevent our self from misunderstandings (Ecoggins.
2017).

Business Communication 2
I belong to Sikhism culture, and I have faced many cultural issues while
communicating at the workplace and faced different life experiences. Likewise, if we
compare the western culture people are more forward while accepting anything but in our
culture, we do not adopt or accepts different religion, languages, and others. Secondly, in the
workplace, the major problem was the acceptance of the turbans (Wagner, 2016). People use
to humiliate us, as people are not aware of our culture and due to this, it was difficult for me
to sustain the social life and communicate or interact with the people. Moreover, when I
approached for higher job profiles, I faced the challenge of appearance difference and was
given the opportunities to present my skills at the workplace (Blake, 2015).
Other than this, at my workstation, there was an open communication system and
often resulted in an offensive environment, as my perceptions were not considered and
generate dissatisfaction in my personal and professional life. As per the Sikhism culture and
beliefs, it is important to wear turbans and does not cut their hair, due to this belief I faced the
major problem during my interview sessions. A panel of interviewers does not allow us for
the interview because acceding to the formal procedures the interviewee must be formally
dressed and appearance (Querrey, 2019).
Another problem, which I faced, was lack of understanding of the other languages
whi9ch leads to difficulty in nonverbal communication and finally results in mix messages
which overall creates a bad impression and hampers the growth of the business. In addition,
the employees shared the false information so that it leads to a bad impression of mine over
the company and the company takes actions against me.
Moreover, I have also faced many issues regarding acceptability the culture of
different countries. This was all because of their customs, traditions, beliefs, values that are
very different from the other culture. Moving or shifting to the other culture, there was not

Business Communication 3
enough freedom to express my thoughts. Other than this, acceptance of festivals was also one
of the major hindrances in terms of culture as other people are unable to accept the beliefs
and the tradition of Sikhism (Henderson, Stackman, & Lindekilde, 2018).
According to my personal experience, which I had faced during my first interview
was the inconvenience while communicating with diverse cultural personalities. Their body
language, their actions towards me was different. This generated a negative impact and hence
generated pressure in my mind to still I that particular environment.
Conclusion
From the above essay, it was concluded that Sikhism culture acceptability by every
other country and their culture was the major hindrance. As due to this, many Sikh people
faced many obstacles while applying for the jobs or while acceptance of the other country
and their people. In all this generates the major roadblocks in the success and the personal
growth of the Sikh people in respect of their culture and communication at the workplace and
the other countries. According to my perception, in all, it creates a threat for the Sikh people
to follow their culture due to high discrimination and regulation of the laws, which are
against the Sikhism culture.
References
Ang, S., & Van Dyne, L. (2015). Handbook of cultural intelligence. London: Routledge
Blake, P. (2015). My Religion and Me: We are Sikhs. Hachette Childrens Group

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Ecoggins. (2017). 8 factors that impact cross culture communication in the workplace and
beyond retrieved from: https://toughnickel.com/business/Factors-that-Impact-Cross-
Cultural-Communication
Goman, K.C.(2011). How culture controls communication Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2011/11/28/how-culture-controls-
communication/#4fb23fb6263b
Henderson, L. S., Stackman, R. W., & Lindekilde, R. (2018). Why cultural intelligence
matters on global project teams. International Journal of Project Management, 36(7),
954-967
Querrey, L.(2019). Examples of communication problems in the workplace. Retrieved from:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-communication-problems-workplace-
11243.html
Wagner, R. (2016). The invention of culture. London: University of Chicago Press