Cross-Cultural Interaction

• The world Stage: Global Interdependence

• Communication and Culture Defined
• Venturing into a new culture
• Ethical Issues
• Intercultural Communication Challenges

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The Interconnected Global Community

Six areas impacting your life

 International conflict, security
 Competition for natural resources
 Competition for jobs
 Environmental challenges
 Health care issues
 Population shifts

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The Interconnected Global Community
• Product of:
– growth in world trade
– improvements in telecommunications
– ease of data storage and transfer
– increased business, leisure travel
• Global mega-corporations continue to expand,
increasing intercultural interaction
• Actions, processes involve entire world;
results worldwide in scope

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 Influence of Technology
• Technology has enabled ordinary individuals to
cheaply and quickly organize themselves around a
common interest, ideology, or social cause
• Internet and cell phones allow people to exchange
ideas everywhere
• Technology is providing a means to reaffirm and
extend cultural awareness, identity, and practices
• Technology is bringing about more polarized
society
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 Definitions
• Intercultural communication involves
interaction between people whose cultural
perceptions and symbol systems differ
enough to alter the communication event
• Dominant culture . A dominant group is
characteristic of all cultures, and this
collective of people possesses those
instruments of power that allow it to set the
broad societal agenda the majority of others
will commonly follow
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 Definitions
• Co-culture groups or social communities
exhibiting perceptions, values, beliefs,
communicative behaviors, and social
practices that are sufficiently different from
other groups and communities and from the
dominant culture
• Society comprehensively to organized human
interactions, such as social structure,
organizations, and institutions
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 Venturing into a new culture
• Culture contributes to feeling of familiarity
– Common language
– Collective values
– Common bonds
• Culture shock is part of process of adapting to
new culture

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 Phases of culture shock
• Exhilaration Stage, filled with excitement,
hopefulness, and even a feeling of euphoria as
the individual anticipates being exposed to a
different culture
• Disenchantment Stage recognizing the reality
of the new setting, began to encounter some
difficulties, and adaptation and communication
problems begin to emerge

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 Phases of culture shock
• Adjustment Stage, the sojourner gains some
cultural insight and gradually begins to make
some adjustments and modifications in coping
with the new surroundings
• Effective Functioning Stage people
understand the key elements of the new culture
(customs, behaviors, communication patterns),
and feel comfortable in the surroundings

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 Functioning in a new culture
• Learn about language of host culture
• Guard against ethnocentrism
• Learn about the host culture
• Work to maintain your own culture

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 Ethical considerations
• Ethics can be seen as a reflection of your
convictions, which are rooted in your culture
• Ethics provide guidelines that influence the
manner in which you communicate with other
people
• Ethics helps you determine what you ought to
do, how you ought to act, and how you should
interact with people

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 Common ethical perspectives
• Fundamentalism
– Timeless moral truths are rooted in human nature and
independent of the conventions of particular societies
– Definitive moral rules and codes that apply to all people
at all times
• Relativism
– Deciding what is right or wrong and good and bad
behavior is not absolute, but is changeable and relative
– Ethical principles are culturally bound, context
dependent, and only applicable to their respective
cultures

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 Being Mindful in Communication
• Show respect for others
• Search for commonalities
• Be respectful of cultural differences
• Accept responsibility for your behavior

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Intercultural communication challenges

• Individual uniqueness
– No two people are exactly alike
– Behaviors are shaped by multiple sources
– We are more than our culture

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Intercultural communication challenges

• Generalizations
– View cultural generalizations as approximations not
absolute representations
– Generalizations should deal with primary values and
behaviors of a particular culture
– Use those that can be supported by a variety of
sources
– conclusions and statements about cultures should be
qualified so that they do not appear to be absolutes,
but only cautious generalizations
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Intercultural communication challenges

• Objectivity
– The state of being objective, just, unbiased and not
influenced by emotions or personal prejudices
– Objectivity means you approach each new
situation with an open mind and avoid being too
judgmental

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 Communication
between 8TH EDITION

cultures
Chapter 1
Intercultural Communication
Interaction in a
Multicultutral World

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