Transcript MNGT-583_week

WEEK 8-9
MANAGING INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION
MNGT 583 – Özge Can
Today’s Questions:
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What are the major communication challenges
facing international managers?
 What
are the various forms of verbal and nonverbal
communication?
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What cultural factors are relevant here?
How can managers overcome the barriers to
effective intercultural communication?
Communication
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Communication:
 Exchange
of information, be it words, ideas or
emotions.
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Communication is only possible between people
who to some extent share a system of meaning (hint
hint: culture)
Communicating Across Cultures
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Aside from perceptions and interpretations of behavior,
you need to communicate your feelings or reactions
Even when speaking the “same” language,
communication is not the same
 It is a function of culture, background and
experiences
Communication styles => The tendency for a culture
to adopt a common style of communicating that is tacit
and difficult for others to appreciate
Languages of the World:
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Thousands of distinct languages and even more
dialects
But, only about 100 languages have more than one
million speakers
About 10 languages account for most of the
communication on the planet
Most widely spoken native language: Chinese
(Mandarin)
Speaking Other Languages
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You need to communicate in the language of the
country in which you are doing business
 Being monolingual, bilingual, multilingual
On the other hand, English is becoming more pervasive
in international business circles as a common language
Many nations teach English as the second language
Also the most common language in the academic world
Communicating in Foreign Languages
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Even with great profiency in a certain language,
you may still face many problems in verbal
communication
 Dialects,
accent and other variations as well as many
subtle differences in use
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Even native speakers have same challenges
Communicating within natives as opposed to with
non-native speakers
 Example:
Americans and British
Communicating in Foreign Languages
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Despite accuracy in the literal translation of words,
the actual meaning of a word can vary
considerably.
 Ex:
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Japanese people’s indirect way of saying “no”
Language might be a good indicator of underlying
cultural values such as individualism and collectivism
 Ex:
dropping or requiring the pronoun (“I, you, he or
she”)
Beware Humor, Understatement
or Irony!
“Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chastesouled people when the privacy of their soul is
coarsely and intrusively invaded.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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Ricky Gervais, creator of the tv series, The Office:
The difference between American and British humour
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Office
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK-Cf9R4q-c
Affective vs. Neutral Cultures
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Members of cultures which are affectively neutral
do not show their emotions but keep them carefully
controlled and subdued.
In contrast, in cultures high on affectivity people
show their feelings plainly by laughing, smiling,
grimacing, scowling and gesturing; they attempt to
find immediate outlets for their feelings.
Affective vs. Neutral Cultures
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The amount of visible "emoting" (degree of affectivity)
is a major difference between cultures.
Examples:
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Americans tend to exhibit emotion, yet separate it from
"objective" and "rational" decisions.
Italians and south European nations in general tend to
exhibit and not separate.
Dutch and Swedes tend not to exhibit and to separate.
Test Yourself:
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In a meeting you feel very insulted because your
business counterpart tells you that your proposal is
insane. What is your response?
1) I will not show that they have hurt/insulted me, because that would
be seen as a sign of weakness and would make me more
vulnerable in the future.
2) I will not show that I am hurt because that would spoil our
relationship. This will allow me later to tell the counterpart how
much I was hurt by their comment so they might learn from it. I
rather show my emotions when they have more chance to improve
our business relationship.
Test Yourself:
3) I will show clearly that I am insulted so that my counterpart gets the
message. I believe the clarity of my message will allow me to be
able to control even greater emotional upset in the future.
4) I will show clearly I am insulted so that my counterpart gets the
message. If business partners cannot behave themselves properly
they have to bear the consequences.
Compliments, Criticism, Embarrassment
and Apology
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Wide differences across cultures in terms of how
often praise is given, what is praised and how
people respond
 Personal
traits and physical apearance or interpersonal
things - relations in a context?
 In-group vs. out-group relations
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Difficulty in expressing and accepting criticisms,
admitting mistakes
Concern about “face saving”; feeling of shame
Compliments, Criticism, Embarrassment
and Apology
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What is more important; physical or psychological
harm?
Types of apologies:
 Being
direct vs. indirect
 Being extensive and intense v.s. simple and quick
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The meaning of and approach to “forgiveness”
Written Communication
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Adoption of new communication methodstechnologies
Which communication types a culture prefer?
 e-mail
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vs. instant messaging and telephone
How people in different cultures write an e-mail?
 Short,
to-the-point or extented and flowery
 Use of personal (formal) tone vs. third-person (informal)
tone
Written Communication
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Bypassing: when different people use the same
words to mean different things and thus
communication errors occur
 Example:
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the meaning of the word “profit”
Use of idioms and analogies
Nonverbal Communication
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The subtle cues used to communicate within and across
cultures, including facial expressions, appearance , eye
contact and body movements
Above and beyond what is being said
How it is being said
 Interpersonal
space and gestures
 Emotions and touch
 Vocal qualities
A Research Example
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Riviello et al. (2012), Conference paper
A cross-cultural study on the perception of emotions:
How Hungarian subjects evaluate American and
Italian emotional expressions
A Research Example
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In the present work a cross-modal evaluation of the visual and auditory
channels in conveying emotional information is conducted through
perceptual experiments aimed at investigating whether some of the basic
emotions are perceptually privileged and whether the perceptual mode,
the cultural environment and the language play a role in this preference.
To this aim, Hungarian subjects were requested to assess emotional stimuli
extracted from Italian and American movies in the single (either mute
video or audio alone) and combined audio-video mode. Results showed
that among the proposed emotions, anger plays a special role and fear,
happiness and sadness are better perceived than surprise and irony in
both the cultural environments. The perception of emotions is affected by
the communication mode and the language influences the perceptual
assessment of emotional information.
Nonverbal Communication
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Interpersonal space: the distance we have between
ourselves and others when we talk and interact
Different spaces are preferred by different cultures
Gestures are usually more direct and deliberate and
designed to convey a message
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Example: a shoulder shrug, a thumps-up sign
Nonverbal Communication
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Haptics: the use or lack of touch as a communication
tool
Vocal qualities: characteristics such as speed and
loudness of one’s voice that project information in
communication
People from different cultures prefer different levels of
touch and speed of talking
Context, again...
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Something communicated often carries importance abov
and beyonf what is being said.
So, context itself might be the ultimate example of
nonverbal communication
Difference in communication between high-context and
low-context cultures:
 The former is more subtle and nuanced and prefers
face-to-face communication; the latter is more direct
and prefers written communication