Communicating Across Cultures

Importance of Cross Cultural Communication

• Businesses are becoming increasingly global in

their operations.
• Being able to communicate across cultures is
necessary in these operations.
• Specifically, it helps in gaining additional business,
in hiring good people,
and generally in understanding
and satisfying the needs of
customers.
 What is Culture defined as?
• Culture is the shared ways that groups of
people view the world.
• Dutch sociologist Geert Hofstede, probably the
most respected expert on cross-cultural
differences, defines culture as "the collective
programming of the mind which distinguishes
the members of one category of people from
another.“
• Culture may have subcultures
 Factors affecting Cultures
• Topography
• History
• Religion
 Body Positions and Movements:
• Style of walking, bowing, standing
• Movement of head
• Hand gestures (different handshakes)
• Eye contact
 Impact of culture on views and practices

• Time:
– MONOCHRONIC – well planned,
– POLYCHRONIC- views time more relaxedly
• Space
• Odors
• Frankness
– Low context , high context
• Social heirarchy- gender, power distance
• Workplace values
• Expression of emotions
Effects on business communication
• Any communication technique may not be
universally accepted
• Must modify our communication to fit the
culture of your recipient
• Online communication is also affected by
culture
 Lack of Language Equivalency
• One word with many or different meanings
• Words with no equivalent translation
• Grammatical and syntactic differences
• Backtranslating
 Difficulties with English
• Two word verbs
• Slang (couch potato, nerd, dude) and
colloquialisms
Advice for Communicating Across Cultures

• Do your research
• Know yourself and your company
• Be aware of stereotyping
• Dress sense, time zones
• Adapting your language
• Be open to change