Skip to main content

Obstacles in achieving efficient cross cultural communication


Effective cross cultural communication is increasingly becoming more important in a business. Employees usually consist of diverse cultures with different backgrounds.  Although all employees need to adhere to the corporate culture in a business (the way things are usually done), a manager needs to have good cross cultural communication skills when it comes to dealing with employees with different cultural backgrounds.  Many managers want to achieve better cultural communication, but still face many barriers.  The following are the most common cross cultural communication barriers many managers still have to overcome in their attempt to communicate better with diverse employees:

Values and attitudes: The manager may have different values than his or her employees or the employees may even have different values and attitudes. At the end of the day it is the task that has to be completed and having different values and attitudes can be overcome if all employees all share a common vision and goals. Employees need to know their own roles in the success of the business and also why the mission and vision of the business are important.

Apprehension: The manager may not have enough knowledge about how to deal with diverse employees in a specific situation.  This may result in misunderstandings and even conflict in the business.  The manager needs to acquire “cultural skills”.

Ignorance:  Managers should never assume that all employees are similar.  Communication should never be offensive to employees of a different cultures because of ignorance.  That is why it is so important that managers should know how employees differ in terms of their own cultures.

Ethnocentrism: This is one of the most important obstacles that hinders effective cultural communication which refers to not appreciating another culture for what it is.  The manager needs to appreciate the different cultures of his or her employees and never judge other cultures because of differences to his or her own culture.  One culture is not superior to another culture and all cultures should be treated equally important.

Stereotyping: Stereotyping can harm cultural communication immensely because of  negative or positive judgments made about employees based on any visible different cultural characteristics.  Even the most harmless events could become a negative experience to employees because of widely held beliefs.

Racism:  The danger of racism or prejudice towards employees because of their race is that it can be conscious or unconscious, intentional or even unintentional.  It is important that a manager who fulfills a leadership position in a business, should never show any intolerance against employees with different cultural backgrounds.

 The most important is that a manager should manage cultural diversity in  a business. Also read my post on managing cultural diversity in a business.

Related Post:

How cultural intelligence could benefit diversity

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The role of the manager in effective business communication

Happy employees are more productive. Business communication is no longer about how to write a letter, email or use effective writing skills.  It has also extended to other areas in the business, for example, excellent relationships within the business. A manager should not only concentrate on successful communication with its external clients, customers and stakeholders.  The employees of the business actually are   internal clients   and should also be treated with care.  Many scholars refer to this as   internal marketing , a very important feature of good business communication.  Employees’ well-being and work satisfaction play a large role in their productivity and how loyal they will be towards the business.  The role of the manager is to ensure good relationships with and among employees.   A healthy working environment is equally important.  Previous research has indicated that employees also have other career as...
Read more

Time for a communication audit?

When is the right time to do a communication audit in a business?  Why is it important to know whether communication in a business is effective or not? During a communication audit the strength and weaknesses of all communication in the business is analyzed, namely its communication policies, strategies, practices, messages, capabilities and even the media that are used, including social and other online media. If you have read some of my other postings in this blog, you will know how important communication in a business is.  Lack of effective communication can even cause the business to eventually fail. When is the right time to do a communication audit?  You could consider a communication audit in your business when: a major restructuring of the business is taking place   the business seems to be failing and not reaching its objectives. union negotiations are upcoming a merger or acquisition of another business might be happening a new management ...
Read more

How Storytelling can liven up Business Communication

Storytelling is referred to by some experts as the future of internal communication.  Telling stories is not new and has been around for thousands of years. Many psychologists can tell you that something is better remembered if it is linked to a compelling story.  This is just how our brains work. This is why storytelling can be a powerful internal communication tool to engage and inspire employees. Using stories for internal communication messages could evoke a shared sense of identity due to an emotional connection with the stories. Language The Coca-Cola Brand is renowned for its stories. can be used to the business' advantage as it can evoke such emotional connection with other employees and what the business stands for. Businesses therefore now also use stories to share or explain their business culture or goals. The business can, for example, use stories to explain difficult data, facts, and figures.  Stories can also pro...
Read more