1. Cross Cultural Business
Communication

2. Cross cultural/Intercultural Communication
 is a field of study that looks at how people
from differing cultural backgrounds
communicate, in similar and different ways
among themselves, and how they endeavor
to communicate across cultures.

3. Culture
 Cultures provide people with ways of thinking
—ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting
the world. Thus the same words can mean
different things to people from different
cultures, even when they talk the "same"
language. When the languages are different,
and translation has to be used to
communicate, the potential for
misunderstandings increases

4. Culture-
 by Gert Jan Hofstede: Culture is the
unwritten book with rules of the social game
that is passed on to newcomers by its
members, nesting itself in their minds. In
other words, it is the sum of all the rules you
have learned when you were a kid without
necessary knowing you were learning them.
They were just “the way to do things”.

5. Human Nature
Culture
Personality
 Levels of human mental programming
Cross cultural/Intercultural Communication
Universal
Specific to
individuals
Specific to
groups
Inherited and
learned
Learned
Biological

6. Constituents of culture

7. Constituents of Culture
 Value system: Shared assumptions of a group regarding what
is good bad, right or wrong, and important or unimportant.
 Norms: are guidelines or social rules that prescribe appropriate
behavior in a given situation.
 Cultural imperatives: norms to be followed or to be avoided
 Cultural exclusives: behavior patterns or social customs
appropriate for locals and in which foreigners are expected not to
participate.
 Cultural adiaphora : refers to social customs or behavior in which
a foreigner may conform to or participate but it is not imperative
to do so.
 Aesthetics: Ideas and perception that a cultural group upholds
in terms of beauty and good taste is referred to as aesthetics. It
includes areas related to music, dance, painting, drama,
architecture, etc.

8.  Traditions and Customs: Tradition passed from one
generation to another. An established pattern of behavior that is
regulated informally by as a custom.
 Language: can be described as a ‘systematic means of
communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventional
signs, gestures, marks, or especially articulate vocal sounds’.
Coping with translation problems
 Back translation:
 Parallel translation:
 Decentring:
 Religion:

9. World Religion Population
Four major religion Adherents Percentage of world
population
Christianity 1.9 billion - 2.1 billion 29% - 32%
Islam 1.3 billion - 1.6 billion 19% - 23%
Hindu 900 million - 1 billion 14%
Buddhism 500 million - 1.5 billion
7% - 23%
World population
6.8 billion

10. Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture
Power Distance (Large or Small)
– The extent to which less powerful members of
institutions accept that power is distributed unequally
 Large (Mexico, South Korea, India)
– blindly obey order of superiors
– hierarchical organizational structure
 Small (U.S., Denmark, Canada)
– decentralized decision making
– flat organizational structures

11. Power Distance Index
0
20
40
60
80
100
Malaysia Arab
Nations
France USA G.
Britain

12. Uncertainty Avoidance (High or Low)
– The extent to which people feel threatened by
ambiguous situations
 High( Germany, Japan, Spain)
– high need for security
– strong beliefs in experts
 Low (Denmark, UK)
– willing to accept risks
– less structuring of activities

13. Uncertainty Avoidance Index
0
20
40
60
80
100
Japan Mexico Germany India Sweden
Table 3.1 in text

14.  Individualism (vs. Collectivism)
– The tendency of people to look after
themselves and their immediate family only
 strong work ethic
 promotions based on merit
• U.S., Canada, Australia
 Collectivism
– The tendency of people to belong to groups
and to look after each other in exchange for
loyalty
 weaker work ethic
 promotions based on seniority
• China, South American cultures

15. Individualism Index
0
20
40
60
80
100
USA France India Arab
Nations

16. Masculinity (Vs. Femininity)
– the dominant values in society are success,
money and things
 emphasis on earning and recognition
 high stress workplace
• Japan
Femininity
– the dominant values in society are caring for
others and the quality of life
 employment security
 employee freedom
• Scandinavian cultures

17. Masculinity Index
0
20
40
60
80
100
Japan G.Britain USA Arab
Nations
Sweden
Table 3.1 in text

18. COUNTRY EXAMPLES
 NEW ZEALAND - INDIVIDUALISTIC, LOW UNCERTAINTY,
EQUALITY & MALE VALUES
 ITALY - INDIVIDUALISTIC, LOW UNCERTAINTY, & EQUALITY
(QUALIFIED) AND MALE VALUES
 SINGAPORE - COLLECTIVIST, HIGH UNCERTAINTY, LOW
MASCULINITY, RELATIVELY HIGH POWER DISTANCE
 JAPAN - COLLECTIVIST, HIGH UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE &
MASCULINITY, RELATIVELY HIGH POWER DISTANCE

19. Hofstede - Caution!
 Assumes one-to-one relationship between culture
and the nation-state
– Note that many nation-states contain various
cultures (often extremely different from each
other).
 The research may have been culturally bound.
 Survey respondents were from a single industry
(computer) and a single company (IBM).

20. APPLYING TO MANAGEMENT
PROCESSES
 PLANNING & DECISION-MAKING - individualism &
collectivism?
 STRUCTURING & ORGANIZING - high or low
uncertainty avoidance?
 STAFFING & DIRECTING - masculinity & femininity?
 COMMUNICATING & CONTROLLING - power
distance?

21. Cultural Dimensions by Trompenaars
Universalism vs. Particularism
Universalism: the belief that ideas and
practices can be applied everywhere without
modification
– U. S., Germany, and Sweden
Particularism: the belief that
circumstances dictate how ideas and
practices should be applied.
– Spain and Japan

22. Neutral Vs. Affective
Neutral: emotions are held in check
– Japan and the U.S.
Affective: emotions are openly and naturally expressed
– Mexico, Netherlands, and Switzerland
Specific Vs. Diffuse
Specific: individuals have a large public space and a
small private space
– UK, U. S., and Switzerland
Diffuse: both public and private space are similar in size

23. Achievement Vs. Ascription
Achievement: people are
accorded status based on how
well they perform their functions
– U.S., Switzerland, and UK
Ascription: status is attributed
based on who or what a person is
– Venezuela and China

24. Time
Past or Present-Oriented Vs. Future-Oriented
– Past or present-oriented : emphasize the history and
tradition of the culture
 Venezuela, Indonesia, and Spain
– Future-oriented: emphasize the opportunities and limitless
scope
that any agreement can have
 U. S., Italy, and Germany

25. Sequential Vs. Synchronous Time
 Sequential: time is prevalent, people
tend to do only one activity at a time, keep
appointments strictly, and prefer to follow
plans
–U.S.
 Synchronous: time is prevalent, people
tend to do more than one activity at a time,
appointments are approximate, and
schedules are not important
– Mexico and France

26. Environment
Inner Directed
Believe in controlling outcomes
– U.S.
Outer Directed
Believe in letting things take their own course
– Asian Cultures

27. Individualism Vs. Collectivism
Individualism: refers to people regarding
themselves as individuals
–U.S., UK, and Sweden
Collectivism: refers to people regarding
themselves as part of a group
– Japan and France

28. Other cross-culture classifications
 High-context vs low-context cultures
 Homophilous vs heterophilous cultures
 Relationship-focussed vs deal-focussed cultures
 Formal vs informal cultures
 Polychronic (fluid time) vs Monochronic (rigid
time) cultures
 Expressive vs reserved culture

29. Verbal Communication Styles
 Context is information that surrounds a
communication and helps convey the message
 Context plays a key role in explaining many
communication differences
 Messages often highly coded and implicit in high-
context society (e.g., Japan, many Arab countries)
 Messages often explicit and speaker says precisely
what s/he means in low context society (e.g., U.S.
and Canada)

30. Major Characteristics of
Verbal Styles

31. Verbal Communication Styles
 Indirect and Direct Styles
– High-context cultures: messages implicit and
indirect; voice intonation, timing, facial
expressions play important roles in conveying
information
– Low-context cultures: people often meet only to
accomplish objectives; tend to be direct and
focused in communications

32. Verbal Communication Styles
 Elaborate and Succinct Styles
– Three degrees of communication quantity—elaborating,
exacting, succinct
– Elaborating style most popular in high- context cultures with
moderate degree of uncertainty avoidance
– Exacting style focuses on precision and use of right amount of
words to convey message; more common in low-context, low-
uncertainty-avoidance cultures
– Succinct style more common in high-context cultures with
considerable uncertainty avoidance where people say few words
and allow understatements, pauses, and silence to convey
meaning.

33. Explicit and Implicit
Communication

35. Nonverbal Communication
 Nonverbal communication
– Transfer of meaning through means such as body language
and use of physical space
– Chromatics
 Use of color to communicate messages
– Kinesics
 Study of communication through body movement and facial
expression
– Eye contact
– Posture
– Gestures

36. Nonverbal Communication
 Proxemics
– Study of way people use physical space to convey
messages
 Intimate distance used for very confidential communications
 Personal distance used for talking with family/close friends
 Social distance used to handle most business transactions
 Public distance used when calling across room or giving talk to
group

37. Nonverbal Communication
 Chronemics: the way time is used in a
culture.
 two types:
– Monochronic time schedule: things done in linear
fashion
– Polychronic time schedule: people do several
things at same time and place higher value on
personal involvement than on getting things done
on time

38. Personal Space in U.S.

39. Cultural Orientation In International Business
 Parochialism vs Simplification
 EPRG Approach
 Ethnocentric
 Polycentric
 Regiocentric
 Geocentric
 Emic and Etic Dilemma