Download Intercultural Communication in The Global Workplace Fifth Edition

PANHA CHIET UNIVERSITY
Bachelor Programs – Year 4
Intercultural Communication in The Global Workplace
Fifth Edition
Iris Varner & Linda Beamer
It differs along the continuum between
and
.
– High-context Cultures value relationships, teamwork,
and long-term group membership for making business
decisions. They rely on subjective information that is
internalized.
– Low-context cultures value independent decisions,
activities that achieves goals, and individual
accountability. They rely on objective information that
is externalized.
Information used for specific communication
objectives is usually assessed as to its reliability and
validity both in high-context and low-context.
– Reliable generally means that the information
is consistent, timely, and stable.
– Valid means that information is about what it
purports to be about.
• People who make decision value information.
• Managers want lots of useful information for
decision-making process.
• Managers often ask subordinates for
information to make good decisions.
– Information is useful resource in competitive
situation. A person or group that knows what
another does not know has an advantage.
– Information is a link that joint people in collective
or group. Shared information creates an in-group,
not individual in both high- or low- cultures.
– All cultures, possession of information means
power. It depends on who has it, how it is used
and to whom it is transmitted or not transmitted.
• Formal Information
Formal information comes from four sources:
– Publications and public information from radio, TV
and Internet.
– Observation
– Interviews and survey
– Experimentation
• Informal Information
Informal information is subjective and a personal
bias often comes through:
– A grapevine or another informal network inside or
outside of organization.
– The Internet such as online chat, social network
sites like Facebook and blogs.
– Bulletin board and chat rooms
Individualist low-context cultures value “hard” information.
Information is not always available in collectivist highcontext cultures.
Business information is assessed on the basic of
– Verifiability: Information/data can be verified/proved.
– Trustworthiness: Related to the source of information. If
the source has proven correct in the past, it is probably
trustworthy now.
– Accuracy: Is the information accurate/ exact?
– Credibility: Can information be believed or trusted.
Business information sources are
.
and
Information is gathered in libraries, newspapers and
other publication, nonprint media like radio and TV,
and online sources. But some cultures also keep in
secret of some information. For example, the United
State keeps cancer statistic, and in Germany,
hospitals are not allowed to collect that information
– Grapevine – the informal information network
– Internet sources – online chat, social network sites like
Facebook , You Tube, and blogs
– Informal personal contact
– In some culture environments
– Unofficial spokespersons
– Unsigned newspaper and references
– Myriad ongoing conversations, and etc.
Sometime, informal information may be much more
better and more accurate than the official version.
Technology is spreading fast and openly.
In 2000, on a visit to India, former President Clinton
was amazed to see in a small poor village a
computer, operating in both Hindi and English.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
of the UN published a report in 2009 that stated six
in ten people in the world pay for mobile phones,
and two-third of the payers come from developing
countries.
– the capture
and storage of employees' knowledge for
future access – is practiced by more ad more
companies.
• Most businesspeople use information based on
hard data for making decisions.
• Conflicts are perceived differently, problems are
defined differently, and solutions are arrived at
differently in different cultures.
• Businesspeople in individualist cultures
generally make decision based on ends.
• Businesspeople in collectivist cultures generally
make decisions based on means.
• Making Decision Based on Ends
– In low-context cultures, the making decisions focus
on results value achieving goals. For examples,
The Ford Motor company decided to lay off thousands
of workers because that will enable the end-of-year
profits to be higher.
Philip Morris, an international tobacco company,
decided to lower the price of its’ cigarettes in order to
increase the volume of sale.
Mövenpick, a Swiss-based company, decided to open a
new café in Montréal because the shift in the economic
levels of those populations means the market has
changed.
• Making Decision Based on Means
– In high-context cultures, the making decisions
focus on people, processes and organizations.
– Means cultures are people culture which
relationships matter more than results.
• Culture define
differently.
• Conflict usually occurs in one or more of five
areas: tasks, processes, allocation of resources,
goals, and power.
• Five Ways to Manage conflicts
– Competing : Challenging to outdo each other
– Collaborating : Being able to work with others
– Compromising: involves giving up sth. voluntarily
– Avoiding: Parties simply agree to stop disagreeing
openly. Perhaps they get tired of conflict.
– Accommodating: Give what is needed to some one.
Eight styles of conflict communication
• Obliging conflict communication style – is called
accommodating.
• Integrating conflict communication style – one’s
own goal and one’s interest in winning the
dispute, and the other goals and the other interest
in winning.
• Bargaining conflict communication style – is that
happens in a compromising mode for managing
conflict.
• Avoiding conflict communication style – not
communicating about the conflict.
Eight styles of conflict communication
• Dominating conflict communication style –
corresponds to a competing mode of conflict
management.
• Emotion-expressing conflict communication style
– is often related to another style to resolve
conflict.
• Third-party intervention conflict communication
style – is to turn to third party who has power.
• Neglecting conflict communication style –
communication for managing conflict is neglect.
• To communicate about conflicts, whether with
high-context or low-context cultures, the
following guideline may help: listen sincerely,
express agreement where you can, identify
comment goal, explain your position, and
identify resolutions that accommodate cultural
positions.
• For some high-context cultures, resolutions may
mean simply diffusing the conflict through nonconflicts-oriented communication and absorbing
the conflict into the ongoing relationship.
:
Fifth Edition
Iris Varner & Linda Beamer