Challenges In Cross-cultural Communication And How To Overcome Them.
Introduction
Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations and norms for behavior. Simply, culture is the integration of what a man does, what he wears, what he eats, what he believes and so on. Cultural background influences the way a man prioritizes what is important in life, helps define his attitude toward what is appropriate in any situation and establishes the rules of behavior.
In the age of globalization cross-cultural communication is inevitable. Most of the international organizations have a multicultural workforce whose diversity has been proved beneficiary for both parties. Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. That sounds simple, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, educational background and more. Cultural diversity is an increasingly prominent subject in professional, corporate and academic environments. Not only are many organizations are putting a lot of time and effort into increasing the diversity of their work force, they are also educating them about the importance, benefits and inevitability of cultural diversity in the contemporary global environment. In this assignment I will try to focus on the challenges of cross-cultural communication and how to overcome these challenges.
Challenges In Cross-cultural Communication
The most commonly found differences among cultures which might affect effective communication include: 1. Language differences 2. High context vs. low context 3. Social differences 4. Religious beliefs 5. Monochromic vs. Polychromic 6. Future vs. Present vs. Past Orientation 7. Individualism vs. Collectivism 8. Power Distance 9. Quantity of Time 10. Nonverbal differences
Now I will try to elaborate these issues with