BUS709 Reflective Report: Analyzing Intercultural and Team Dynamics

This reflection paper delves into the critical aspects of intercultural and team communication within a business setting. It highlights the importance of intercultural communication for smooth business operations, especially in diverse workplaces and customer interactions, suggesting the adoption of a second language to bridge cultural gaps. The paper also explores the significance of team communication, emphasizing the benefits of teamwork, such as brainstorming and collaborative problem-solving, while acknowledging challenges like social loafing. It reflects on the stages of team development, from forming to adjourning, and differentiates between a group and a team, ultimately advocating for well-coordinated teams with strong leadership for achieving business success. The paper concludes that both intercultural and team communication are essential for businesses aiming for international growth and recommends fostering a team-oriented environment to overcome communication barriers and achieve common objectives. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar assignments and resources.

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Reflection Paper on Intercultural Communication and Team Communication
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Reflection Paper on Intercultural Communication and Team Communication
Introduction
There are some basic things in business that people may take on a light note but they are
very crucial. Business communication is very crucial because people can’t transact when people
don’t literally understand each other (Kernbach, Eppler & Bresciani, 2015, pp. 170)). In
business, people come from different cultures and as its well known, different cultures talk and
communicate using different languages. There must be a solution to make sure that business still
goes on as planned. Intercultural communication comes in hand in this part. Intercultural
communication is the ability of different people from different cultural backgrounds to
communicate with each other smoothly (Neuliep, 2017, pp. 0). Teamwork is an important part
of a business. It said if one wants to go far, one needs a team. In a team, people have different
specialization skills hence they end up helping each other while solving different problems. In
this context, I will be reflecting on the issues of intercultural communication and team
communication to make a business successful.
Intercultural Communication
Starting with intercultural communication, As indicated earlier, it is simply the act of
people from different communities to communicate smoothly in a business (Jandt, 2017, pp. 0).
In business, there are employees who come from different backgrounds. Most of the large firms
have a different kind of employees, for work to be done, I as an employee need coordination
with other employees or instructions from the employer. Therefore, there is the need for a
common language between the two parties. On the other hand, there are customers; there is no

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way one can restrict the customers that come to a business to get the services he/she needs. The
business should have a common language with the customer to ensure there is a connection
otherwise the business will lose. That shows how this intercultural communication is crucial to a
business.
As a business analyst, I can use different models to make sure that intercultural
communication is enhanced. One of the models that I can put into use is the model of
acculturation (Allen et al. 2016, pp. 650). In this model, it suggests there can be a second
language which both parties clearly understand. It is the most common methodology or model
used and is still the best so far. A second language is a language that is not associated with a
certain culture. It’s a language that takes the concepts of other minor languages and becomes one
common language. If I use this language, people can communicate confidently without one
knowing a person’s origin or culture hence people will be safe. Through the 6 dimensions of the
Hofstede’s model of culture, he clearly states that peoples mind tells a person that he/she is
unique because of the difference in culture (Piller, 2017, pp. 0). However, from the theory mostly
the first dimension, there can be an issue in a business environment where a certain culture is
under looked while another is given a better privilege. There can be a sort of inequality in
business which can hinder the development process of a firm. To solve this, the second language
comes into use because one will hardly know the culture of an individual hence people will live
in peace in the firm.
Team Communication
The team communication as stated earlier is a very important necessity in a business
environment (Le Blanc, 2015, pp. 180)). A team is a group of people working together to achieve
a certain objective. That’s definition is what that makes the team unique. I would prefer working

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with a team compared to working alone. There is a fact that working alone makes one move
faster but to be able to thrive in the world of business, one needs partners who will be a team
who can help me in case there is a problem or whom I can help when their issues. A team brings
up the concept of brainstorming. While we are in a team, I come up with an issue and that issue
is solved at ease because we bring great minds together and work towards a common goal.
People join groups mostly under a scenario when things are not flowing in the correct direction.
It is a similar case to me, if things are not going well when am alone, I try and find a group of
people who can help me solve my issue. Its human nature that we need people when we are in
need. It is also human nature that when we are natured and satisfied, we also think that we can
make it without groups again. That’s why people leave the group, because a problem has been
solved and because I want to move faster, I will be forced to quit the group until the time that I
will have an issue again.
When issues arise, I tend to have a synergy between other people who we are in different
fields and me. However, there are certain issues that are experienced in this partnership. One of
the greatest problems is the issue of social loafing. Sometimes I as a human being expect the
group to work more than I do and other group members also expect the same, therefore, we all
end up underperforming compared to when we work alone or individually. Social loafing can
also be caused by the dynamic used in giving roles in a group. In my group, I can be a chair;
there will be a secretary, accountant and other roles. As a chair, there can be very may
responsibilities that I can possess. All these responsibilities may be a lot and time-consuming. In
many cases, being a chair doesn’t mean being paid, its just a role that I have to play. It reaches a
point where I have so many roles to play and my time is really used up in the groups. Due to the
human nature, I find myself underperforming and assuming that the members will do what they

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think its best. The act destroys the group. When they gave me the role, they knew the abilities
that I have and therefore when I strike, the developments stopped because a branch will be cut
down and it will not be fruitful.
In a group, there are the stages that are followed and that are experienced when we are
developing a group (Valls, González‐Romá and Tomás, 2016, pp. 760). I used 5 stages that are
commonly used in the process of group development (Hänninen & Karjaluoto, 2017, pp. 460).
The first phase was the forming stage. It’s the first stage where people come to know of each
other, people in the group shared information about themselves and the interests that each person
had and every member of the group created the first impression. The second phase was the
storming. In this stage every member was present. I experienced issues here, people in the group
put their self-interest on top instead of putting group interests first (Tuleja, 2016, pp. 0)). The
members had arguments and long discussions with no conclusions. The third phase was the
norming stage. In this stage, the members were a bit relaxed. I managed to get a team advisor
who helped us put the group interests first in this phase instead of the people’s self-interests. The
other stage was the performing phase. In this phase, everything was all under control. People
were working very hard to make sure our goal had to be achieved. Coordination between the
group was very high. Respect between members was at its maximum. Everyone had the
motivation to work and achieve a common objective. Team communication was fully seen at this
level. The last phase was the adjourning level. It was the end. Some of the goals we intended
were met but there was a room for improvement.
Learnings and Opinions
There is a difference between a group and a team in real life (Quirke, 2017, pp. 0). That’s
was the major lesson that I learned in our team formation and discussion. At the early stages, we

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were a group, meaning that we combine our individual efforts to help the group. Later I noticed
that things changed and that’s when we were a team. Reason being, we all had one common goal
and objective, we all coordinated together and all our personal strengths and weaknesses were
kept aside and we all helped each other. That’s what made us a team. The scenario changed my
thinking. A team to me became more important compared to a group. Before the incidence and
when I had no team, I used to think that a team and a group is all the same thing which was very
wrong. Am very sure there are very many people out there who also have the same mindset. For
one to achieve great things in life, we all need a team. It’s very difficult for an individual to
succeed in business when alone. In business, an individual is good in one part while others are
specialized in other areas (Nilsson Griggs & Visbeck, 2016, pp. 320)). Therefore, these people
have to come together and share a common goal and from that, they can beat the market.
Intercultural communication is also very critical (Harris and Sherblom, 2018, pp. 0). In
my opinion, it is one of the greatest barriers in business. It has to be overcome if a business
owner wants to make his/her own business to rise to the international level.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the two topics which are intercultural communication and team
communication is crucial in a business environment. Intercultural communication is a common
barrier and having a second language is the best solution in my view. There is a big difference
between a group and a team. A team is more important since all members come together to work
towards one common objective. I would recommend people to work under teams that are well
coordinated with a team advisor if they want to go far.

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References
Allen, T.J., Gloor, P., Fronzetti Colladon, A., Woerner, S.L. and Raz, O., 2016. The power of
reciprocal knowledge sharing relationships for startup success. Journal of Small Business and
Enterprise Development, 23(3), pp.636-651.
Hänninen, N. and Karjaluoto, H., 2017. The effect of marketing communication on business
relationship loyalty. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 35(4), pp.458-472.
Harris, T.E. and Sherblom, J.C., 2018. Small group and team communication. Waveland Press.
Jandt, F.E., 2017. An introduction to intercultural communication: Identities in a global
community. Sage Publications.
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M.J. and Bresciani, S., 2015. The use of visualization in the
communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International Journal of
Business Communication, 52(2), pp.164-187.
Le Blanc, D., 2015. Towards integration at last? The sustainable development goals as a network
of targets. Sustainable Development, 23(3), pp.176-187.
Neuliep, J.W., 2017. Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Sage Publications.
Nilsson, M., Griggs, D. and Visbeck, M., 2016. Policy: map the interactions between Sustainable
Development Goals. Nature News, 534(7607), p.320.
Piller, I., 2017. Intercultural communication: A critical introduction. Edinburgh University
Press.
Quirke, B. 2017. Making the connections: using internal communication to turn strategy into
action. Routledge.
Tuleja, E. 2016. Intercultural Communication for Global Business: How leaders communicate
for success. Routledge.

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Valls, V., González‐Romá, V. and Tomás, I., 2016. Linking educational diversity and team
performance: Team communication quality and innovation team climate matter. Journal of
Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(4), pp.751-771.