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Intercultural Communication Why study intercultural communication? Some Practical Reasons:
- Adapt to Domestic and Global Workforce Diversity ● Coexistence of people: ● born in different countries ● speaking a different language at home ● Workforce is made up of immigrants and minorities
- Improve Better Workplace Communication ● Customers, clients, coworkers, supervisors are likely to come from diverse backgrounds ● Companies are going globalàneed to understand how to make communication successful ● Some fields/situations are more affected than others Ex.: healthcare -- child birth /use of drugs / vaccinations
- Engage in Creative Multicultural Problem Solving ● Different ethnic groups bring different viewpoints and ideas to the table ● Lower probability of groupthink ● Higher chances of identifying risks
- Enhance Intercultural Relationship Satisfaction
- Communication builds relationshipsàneeds to be based on mutual understanding
- Deepen Cultural Self-Awareness and Other- Awareness ● beliefs, values, attitudes, behavior are acquired unconsciously ● interculturality makes us question them / helps us overcome ethnocentricity, stereotypes, close mindedness
- Comprehend the Role of Technology in Global Communication
This course approach ● Interculturality and the workplace → • Leadership ● Food for thought—> • No definite answers ● Stimulus from students’ experiences You and intercultural encounters
- Tell the class of a recent experience which, according to your cultural values, was ‘different’ About cultural differences Occur even between cultures that look ‘similar’
- US and UK Not just face to face
- Email, telephone, socials How people reacted...
- Obama’s gesture was defined by the Times of India as “an ungainly sight” •
- Many users on Twitter commented on the news: some just reported it, maybe with a hint of sarcasm, while others criticized him for being disrespectful. When a habit turns into a cultural faux pas... According to several sources, President Barack Obama has been struggling with nicotine addiction, that is why he is often caught chewing gum to fight cigarette cravings. Indeed, this is not the first time that President Obama was seen chewing gum during important events.
● Cultural practices carry important meaning to the people with whom you interact. ● In a globalized world cultural differences cannot be ignored Why is culture important in business? ● Globalization and business ● Globalization and society ● Globalization and language Globalization by Business definition: technology, communications, trade, tariffs, migration, and labor markets are open across borders à free trade and capital flow unhindered by national boundaries Technical definition :increasing interdependence among national governments, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individual citizens Drivers facilitating globalization ● free movement of goods, services, knowledge, and communication across national boundaries ● development of new technologies (high-speed internet, air travel) ● lowering of tariffs for travel and other obstacles to such movement ● human migration, especially from undeveloped to developed countries Outcomes of globalization—> technology and 24/7 communication
Globalization
Impact of Globalization on Society ● Multiculturalism ● coexistence of people of different nationalities, languages, ethnicities, and faiths ● Governments need to find solutions ● Interdependence of global trade and commerce ● Multiple languages spoken ● Multiple cuisines introduced Globalization—> The global village is more than the superficial interaction of a tourist on vacation: Entering Global Village—-> current-day reality of savvy business professionals, community leaders, and people next door who interact each day with people from all over the world and from a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds. Impact of Globalization on people ● Disparities regarding language, religion, employment, housing, education, and socialization ● Perception of migrants by majority groups ● positive vs negative
● Norms = accepted and expected ways of behaving and interacting with other people. ● something that we learn, from infancy ● Conditions our actions, reactions Definitions: Culture ● consists of a group’s communication patterns ● how to solve problems ● shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are perceived and transmitted ● perception of self, group, environment, authority, and power “Cultura” The word culture comes from the Latin cultura , which means to grow or to cultivate. Connected with the idea of ‘Humanitas’ = engagement of one human being with another. Food for thought At the end of chapter 1, read
- Project Management in Germany and the Netherlands: Machine vs. Network Cultures Have you ever experienced situations in which you were impacted by the differences between your culture and that of another country? Culture in Business Contexts The building blocks of culture and the Cultural Metaphors The theatrical metaphor: “Front-stage/Backstage” ● Front view: passive spectators observing the illusion of real events
● behaviors and practices: customs, food, dress, holidays, religious practices, symbols, greetings, ecc. ● Backstage view: learn all the inner workings of how the production is fabricated ● understand why ● become participants The Iceberg metaphor Differences between: ● “Intercultural” ● “Cross-cultural” ● “International” communication Intercultural Communication ● the ability to monitor emotions and behaviors in self and in others ● examines how the specific cultural differences affect the interactions of the people engaged ● The focus is the individual Cross-Cultural Communication ● about the comparison of peoples’ differences across culture
Self-regulation The ability to: ● control one your emotions and actions under pressure and think before acting
- To be able to gauge how to act and react ● Suspend judgment ● Predict how someone might react and therefore manage what to say/do Relationship management The ability to: ● Get along well with others ● Handle conflict efficiently ● Express ideas and information clearly ● Using sensitivity to another person’s feelings (empathy) to manage interactions successfully Cultural Intelligence a person’s ability to function skillfully in a cultural context different than one’s own
- emphatic
- work well with others
- acknowledge differing values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors Cultural Intelligence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMi7yhHjASQ Four strategies:
- CQ Drive/ Motivation • CQ Knowledge
- CQ Strategy
- CQ Behavior
Ethnocentrism Ethno + centrism Ethnocentric thinking and behavior ● is human ● often involves judging “their” “different minds” as inferior
- We =superior ● blocks the process of understanding intercultural differences. I, We, They Countries and ethnic identities Cultures centered around a single ethnic identity: ● Japan = country of Japanese ● Thailand= country of Thais ● Italy = country of Italians Cultures developed in different ways and made up of different ethnicities: ● Brazil ● India
- understand our hidden bias and deal with the human tendency towards ethnocentrism
- develop Cultural Intelligence(CQ) to breakaway from such bias
- knowledge,mindfulness,and competence Unconscious Bias
- Connected with the idea that people tend to overestimate their abilities and think of themselves as much more competent than others 4 stages
- unconscious incompetence • conscious incompetence
- unconscious competence
- conscious competence
Case study
- Walmart business failure in Germany Walmart: A Superpower in the US ● The largest private employer in the world ● In 1988 the most profitable retailer in the US ● A 'one-stop' shop: you can buy anything from food to electronics, toys, houseware, clothes... ● Takes over small towns ● Causes the failure of small businesses Walmart: one of the biggest retailers in the US. But abroad?
- Today it has 12000 stores internationally ● remains predominantly US-based
Cultural clashes
- Wal-Mart underestimated the importance of location since Germans tend to make more frequent and smaller shopping trips Food for thought At the end of chapter 1, read
- Project Management in Germany and the Netherlands: Machine vs. Network Cultures Have you ever experienced situations in which you were impacted by the differences between your culture and that of another country? Culture and Identity To introduce the topic... Watch this commercial. Why do you think this offended some people? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgEGXicDg Ag Our own identity→ identities our own unique identity makes us who we are
- Personal
- Social/ Cultural Identities
Personal – unique traits and attributes Social ● Cultural or Ethnic ● Linguistic ● Gender ● Disability
● Age
● Social Class ● Role Enculturation (Socialization) life-long process within our culture /country of origin ● shapes who we are ● especially strong during our formative years ● determines our values, beliefs and attitudes ● affected by: our families/who ever raises • our experiences Acculturation→ the process of learning to adapt to a new environment and set of normative standards when exposed (sojourn) to another culture how do we identify our group membership in terms of ethnicity, race and nationality? Ethnicity: definition
- An ethnicity or ethnic group is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Ethnicity (1) Describes the ethnic group that people belong to ● Heritage ● Ancestry ● CulturReligion ● Food ● Clothes ● Language ● Beliefs ● Attitudes
● Religion ● Food ● Clothes ● Language ● Traditions Race (original definition) ● Distinction based on physical characteristics, e.g., bone structure, eye color, skin color, and hair ● Socially constructed category Rationale for race categorization in the US (created in the 1970s) ● “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race” Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun
- help against inequality
- differences in education
- wealth gaps(job opportunities) • health
- crime
- poverty National Differences in Identity In the US classification is based on ancestry. Example ● African American ● Native American ● Italian American Other countries may use different criteria
- E.g., Brazil’s classification based on how people look like (race and ethnicities may overlap)
What's heritage Describes the ethnic group that people belong to Heritage—> ancestry—-> Culture—>
Brazilian race/ethnicity categorization
Language colors for race in the US
