Chapter 18: Intercultural and International
Business Communication
We should never denigrate any other culture but rather help people to understand the relationship between their
own culture and the dominant culture. When you understand another culture or language, it does not mean that
you have to lose your own culture.
–Edward T. Hall
I’ve been traveling all over the world for 25 years, performing, talking to people, studying their cultures and
musical instruments, and I always come away with more questions in my head than can be answered.
–Yo-Yo Ma
Getting Started
Introductory Exercises
1. Find a film where one person overcomes all obstacles. Make notes of your observations on how
he or she approaches the world, solves problems, and rises triumphant
2. Find a film where a group of people overcomes obstacles through joint effort. Make notes of your
observations on how they approach the world, solve problems, and rise triumphant.
3. Consider a culture with which you have had little interaction. Write down at least five terms to
describe that culture.
As a professional in the modern business community, you need to be aware that the very concept of community
is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Throughout the world’s history—until recently—a community was
defined by its geographic boundaries. A merchant supplied salt and sugar, and people made what they needed.
The products the merchant sold were often produced locally because the cost of transportation was significant. A
transcontinental railroad brought telegraph lines, shipping routes, and brought ports together from coast to coast.
Shipping that once took months and years was now measured in days. A modern highway system and cheap
oil products allowed for that measurement unit to be reduced to days and minutes. Just in time product delivery
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reduced storage costs, from renting a warehouse at the port to spoilage in transit. As products sold, bar code and
RDIF (radio frequency identification) tagged items instantly updated inventories and initiated orders at factories
all over the world.
Communication, both oral and written, linked communities in ways that we failed to recognize until economic
turmoil in one place led to job loss, in a matter of days or minutes, thousands of miles away. A system of trade
and the circulation of capital and goods that once flowed relatively seamlessly have been challenged by change,
misunderstanding, and conflict. People learn of political, economic, and military turmoil that is instantly translated
into multiple market impacts. Integrated markets and global networks bind us together in ways we are just now
learning to appreciate, anticipate, and understand. Intercultural and international communication are critical areas
of study with readily apparent, real-world consequences.
Agrarian, industrial, and information ages gave way to global business and brought the importance of
communication across cultures to the forefront. The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Thomas Friedman calls
this new world “flat,” (Friedman, T., 2005) noting how the integration of markets and community had penetrated
the daily lives of nearly everyone on the planet, regardless of language or culture. While the increasing ease of
telecommunications and travel have transformed the nature of doing business, Friedman argues that “the dawning
‘flat world’ is a jungle pitting ‘lions’ and ‘gazelles,’ where ‘economic stability is not going to be a feature’ and
‘the weak will fall farther behind’” (Publishers Weekly, 2009). Half of the world’s population that earn less than
$2 (USD) a day felt the impact of a reduction in trade and fluctuations in commodity prices even though they may
not have known any of the details. Rice, for example, became an even more valuable commodity than ever; to
the individuals who could not find it, grow it, or earn enough to buy it, the hunger felt was personal and global.
International trade took on a new level of importance.
Intercultural and international business communication has taken on a new role for students as well as career
professionals. Knowing when the European and Asian markets open has become mandatory; so has awareness
of multiple time zones and their importance in relation to trade, shipping, and the production cycle. Managing
production in China from an office in Chicago has become common. Receiving technical assistance for your
computer often means connecting with a well-educated English speaker in New Delhi. We compete with each
other via Elance.com or oDesk.com for contracts and projects, selecting the currency of choice for each bid as we
can be located anywhere on the planet. Communities are no longer linked as simply “brother” and “sister” cities
in symbolic partnerships. They are linked in the daily trade of goods and services.
In this chapter, we explore this dynamic aspect of communication. If the foundation of communication is
important, its application in this context is critical. Just as Europe once formed intercontinental alliances for the
trade of metals—leading to the development of a common currency, trade zone, and new concept of nationstate—now North and South America are following with increased integration. Major corporations are no longer
affiliated with only one country or one country’s interests but instead perceive the integrated market as team
members across global trade. “Made in X” is more of a relative statement as products, from cars to appliances to
garments, now come with a list of where components were made and assembled and what percentage corresponds
to each nation.
CHAPTER 18: INTERCULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION • 575
Figure 18.1
With modern manufacturing, “Made in X” is more of a relative statement.
Pixabay – CC0 public domain.
Global business is more than trade between companies located in distinct countries; indeed, that concept is already
outdated. Intercultural and international business focuses less on the borders that separate people and more on the
communication that brings them together. Business communication values clear, concise interaction that promotes
efficiency and effectiveness. You may perceive your role as a business communicator within a specific city,
business, or organization, but you need to be aware that your role crosses cultures, languages, value and legal
systems, and borders.
References
Friedman, T. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus,
and Giroux.
Publishers Weekly. (2009). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century [Starred review]. Retrieved
from http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/the-world-is-flat.
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18.1 Intercultural Communication
Learning Objectives
1. Define and discuss how to facilitate intercultural communication.
2. Define and discuss the effects of ethnocentrism.
Communication is the sharing of understanding and meaning (Pearson, J. and Nelson, P., 2000), but what is
intercultural communication? If you answered, “The sharing of understanding and meaning across cultures,”
you’d be close, but the definition requires more attention. What is a culture? Where does one culture stop and
another start? How are cultures created, maintained, and dissolved? Donald Klopf described culture as “that part
of the environment made by humans” (Klopf, D., 1991). From the building we erect that represents design values
to the fences we install that delineate borders, our environment is a representation of culture, but it is not all that
is culture.
Culture involves beliefs, attitudes, values, and traditions that are shared by a group of people. Thus, we must
consider more than the clothes we wear, the movies we watch, or the video games we play, all representations of
environment, as culture. Culture also involves the psychological aspects of our expectations of the communication
context. For example, if we are raised in a culture where males speak while females are expected to remain silent,
the context of the communication interaction governs behavior, which in itself is a representation of culture.
From the choice of words (message), to how we communicate (in person, or by e-mail), to how we acknowledge
understanding with a nod or a glance (nonverbal feedback), to the internal and external interference, all aspects of
communication are influenced by culture.
In defining intercultural communication, we only have eight components of communication to work with and
yet we must bridge divergent cultures with distinct values across languages and time zones to exchange value, a
representation of meaning. It may be tempting to consider only the source and receiver within a transaction as a
representation of intercultural communication, but if we do that, we miss the other six components—the message,
channel, feedback, context, environment, and interference—in every communicative act. Each component
influences and is influenced by culture. Is culture context? Environment? Message? Culture is represented in all
eight components every time we communicate. All communication is intercultural.
We may be tempted to think of intercultural communication as interaction between two people from different
577
countries. While two distinct national passports may be artifacts, or nonverbal representations of communication,
what happens when two people from two different parts of the same country communicate? From high and
low Germanic dialects, to the perspective of a Southerner versus a Northerner in the United States, to the rural
versus urban dynamic, our geographic, linguistic, educational, sociological, and psychological traits influence our
communication.
It is not enough to say that someone from rural Southern Chile and the capital, Santiago, both speak Castellano
(the Chilean word for the Spanish language), so that communication between them must be intracultural
communication, or communication within the same culture. What is life like for the rural Southerner? For the city
dweller? Were their educational experiences the same? Do they share the same vocabulary? Do they value the
same things? To a city dweller, all the sheep look the same. To the rural Southerner, the sheep are distinct, with
unique markings; they have value as a food source, a source of wool with which to create sweaters and socks that
keep the cold winters at bay, and in their numbers they represent wealth. Even if both Chileans speak the same
language, their socialization will influence how they communicate and what they value, and their vocabulary will
reflect these differences.
Let’s take this intranational comparison a step further. Within the same family, can there be intercultural
communication? If all communication is intercultural, then the answer would be yes, but we still have to prove
our case. Imagine a three-generation family living in one house. The grandparents may represent another time and
different values from the grandchildren. The parents may have a different level of education and pursue different
careers from the grandparents; the schooling the children are receiving may prepare them for yet another career.
From music, to food preferences, to how work is done may vary across time; Elvis Presley may seem like ancient
history to the children. The communication across generations represents intercultural communication, even if
only to a limited degree.
But suppose we have a group of students who are all similar in age and educational level. Do gender and the
societal expectations of roles influence interaction? Of course. And so we see that among these students not only
do the boys and girls communicate in distinct ways but also not all boys and girls are the same. With a group of
sisters, there may be common characteristics, but they will still have differences, and these differences contribute
to intercultural communication. We are each shaped by our upbringing and it influences our worldview, what we
value, and how we interact with each other. We create culture, and it creates us.
Everett Rogers and Thomas Steinfatt define intercultural communication as the exchange of information between
individuals who are “unalike culturally” (Rogers, E. and Steinfatt, T., 1999). If you follow our discussion and its
implications, you may arrive at the idea that ultimately we are each a “culture of one”—we are simultaneously
a part of a community and its culture(s) and separate from it in the unique combination that represents us as an
individual. All of us are separated by a matter of degrees from each other even if we were raised on the same street
or by parents of similar educational background and profession, and yet, we have many other things in common.
Communication with yourself is called intrapersonal communication, which may also be intracultural, as you
may only represent one culture. But most people belong to many groups, each with their own culture. Within our
imaginary intergenerational home, how many cultures do you think we might find? If we only consider the parents
and consider work one culture, and family another, we now have two. If we were to examine the options more
closely, we would find many more groups, and the complexity would grow exponentially. Does a conversation
with yourself ever involve competing goals, objectives, needs, wants, or values? How did you learn of those
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goals, or values? Through communication within and between individuals, they themselves representatives of
many cultures. We struggle with the demands of each group and their expectations and could consider this internal
struggle intercultural conflict or simply intercultural communication.
Culture is part of the very fabric of our thought, and we cannot separate ourselves from it, even as we leave home,
defining ourselves anew in work and achievements. Every business or organization has a culture, and within
what may be considered a global culture, there are many subcultures or co-cultures. For example, consider the
difference between the sales and accounting departments in a corporation. We can quickly see two distinct groups
with their own symbols, vocabulary, and values. Within each group, there may also be smaller groups, and each
member of each department comes from a distinct background that in itself influences behavior and interaction.
Intercultural communication is a fascinating area of study within business communication, and it is essential to
your success. One idea to keep in mind as we examine this topic is the importance of considering multiple points
of view. If you tend to dismiss ideas or views that are “unalike culturally,” you will find it challenging to learn
about diverse cultures. If you cannot learn, how can you grow and be successful?
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view other cultures as inferior to one’s own. Having pride in your culture can be
healthy, but history has taught us that having a predisposition to discount other cultures simply because they are
different can be hurtful, damaging, and dangerous. Ethnocentrism makes us far less likely to be able to bridge the
gap with others and often increases intolerance of difference. Business and industry are no longer regional, and in
your career, you will necessarily cross borders, languages, and cultures. You will need tolerance, understanding,
patience, and openness to difference. A skilled business communicator knows that the process of learning is never
complete, and being open to new ideas is a key strategy for success.
Key Takeaway
Intercultural communication is an aspect of all communicative interactions, and attention to your
perspective is key to your effectiveness. Ethnocentrism is a major obstacle to intercultural communication.
Exercises
1. Please list five words to describe your dominant culture. Please list five words to describe a
culture with which you are not a member, have little or no contact, or have limited knowledge. Now,
compare and contrast the terms noting their inherent value statements.
2. Identify a country you would like to visit. Research the country and find one interesting business
fact and share it with the class.
3. Write a brief summary about a city, region, state, or country you have visited that is not like where
you live. Share and compare with classmates.
18.1 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION • 579
References
Klopf, D. (1991). Intercultural encounters: The fundamentals of intercultural communication (2nd ed.).
Inglewood, CA: Morton Publishing Company.
Pearson, J., & Nelson, P. (2000). An introduction to human communication: Understanding and sharing. Boston,
MA: McGraw-Hill.
Rogers, E., & Steinfatt, T. (1999). Intercultural communication. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
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18.2 How to Understand Intercultural Communication
Learning Objective
1. Describe strategies to understand intercultural communication, prejudice, and ethnocentrism.
The American anthropologist Edward T. Hall is often cited as a pioneer in the field of intercultural communication
(Chen, G. and Starosta, W., 2000). Born in 1914, Hall spent much of his early adulthood in the multicultural
setting of the American Southwest, where Native Americans, Spanish-speakers, and descendents of pioneers came
together from diverse cultural perspectives. He then traveled the globe during World War II and later served as
a U.S. State Department official. Where culture had once been viewed by anthropologists as a single, distinct
way of living, Hall saw how the perspective of the individual influences interaction. By focusing on interactions
rather than cultures as separate from individuals, he asked us to evaluate the many cultures we ourselves belong
to or are influenced by as well as those with whom we interact. While his view makes the study of intercultural
communication far more complex, it also brings a healthy dose of reality to the discussion. Hall is generally
credited with eight contributions to our study of intercultural communication (Chen, G. and Starosta, W., 2000;
Leeds-Hurwitz, W., 1990; McLean, S., 2005):
1. Compare cultures. Focus on the interactions versus general observations of culture.
2. Shift to local perspective. Local level versus global perspective.
3. You don’t have to know everything to know something. Time, space, gestures, and gender roles can be
studied, even if we lack a larger understanding of the entire culture.
4. There are rules we can learn. People create rules for themselves in each community that we can learn
from, compare, and contrast.
5. Experience counts. Personal experience has value in addition to more comprehensive studies of
interaction and culture.
6. Perspectives can differ. Descriptive linguistics serves as a model to understand cultures, and the U.S.
Foreign Service adopted it as a base for training.
7. Intercultural communication can be applied to international business. U.S. Foreign Service training
yielded applications for trade and commerce and became a point of study for business majors.
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8. It integrates the disciplines. Culture and communication are intertwined and bring together many
academic disciplines.
Hall shows us that emphasis on a culture as a whole, and how it operates, may lead us to neglect individual
differences. Individuals may hold beliefs or practice customs that do not follow their own cultural norm. When
we resort to the mental shortcut of a stereotype, we lose these unique differences. Stereotypes can be defined as a
generalization about a group of people that oversimplifies their culture (Rogers, E. and Steinfatt, T., 1999).
The American psychologist Gordon Allport explored how, when, and why we formulate or use stereotypes
to characterize distinct groups. His results may not surprise you. Look back at the third of the Note 18.1
“Introductory Exercises” for this chapter and examine the terms you used to describe a culture with which you
are unfamiliar. Were the terms flattering or pejorative? Did they reflect respect for the culture or did they make
unfavorable value judgments? Regardless of how you answered, you proved Allport’s main point. When we do
not have enough contact with people or their cultures to understand them well, we tend to resort to stereotypes
(Allport, G., 1958).
As Hall notes, experience has value. If you do not know a culture, you should consider learning more about it
firsthand if possible. The people you interact with may not be representative of the culture as a whole, but that is
not to say that what you learn lacks validity. Quite the contrary; Hall asserts that you can, in fact, learn something
without understanding everything, and given the dynamic nature of communication and culture, who is to say that
your lessons will not serve you well? Consider a study abroad experience if that is an option for you, or learn from
a classmate who comes from a foreign country or an unfamiliar culture. Be open to new ideas and experiences,
and start investigating. Many have gone before you, and today, unlike in generations past, much of the information
is accessible. Your experiences will allow you to learn about another culture and yourself, and help you to avoid
prejudice.
Prejudice involves a negative preconceived judgment or opinion that guides conduct or social behavior (McLean,
S., 2005). As an example, imagine two people walking into a room for a job interview. You are tasked to interview
both, and having read the previous section, you know that Allport rings true when he says we rely on stereotypes
when encountering people or cultures with which we have had little contact. Will the candidates’ dress, age,
or gender influence your opinion of them? Will their race or ethnicity be a conscious or subconscious factor in
your thinking process? Allport’s work would indicate that those factors and more will make you likely to use
stereotypes to guide your expectations of them and your subsequent interactions with them.
People who treat other with prejudice often make assumptions, or take preconceived ideas for granted without
question, about the group or communities. As Allport illustrated for us, we often assume characteristics about
groups with which we have little contact. Sometimes we also assume similarity, thinking that people are
all basically similar. This denies cultural, racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and many other valuable, insightful
differences.
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Key Takeaway
Ethnocentric tendencies, stereotyping, and assumptions of similarity can make it difficult to learn about
cultural differences.
Exercises
1.
People sometimes assume that learning about other cultures is unnecessary if we simply treat others
as we would like to be treated. To test this assumption, try answering the following questions.
a. When receiving a gift from a friend, should you open it immediately, or wait to open it in
private?
b. When grocery shopping, should you touch fruits and vegetables to evaluate their freshness?
c. In a conversation with your instructor or your supervisor at work, should you maintain direct
eye contact?
Write down your answers before reading further. Now let’s explore how these questions might be
answered in various cultures.
a. In Chile, it is good manners to open a gift immediately and express delight and thanks. But in
Japan it is a traditional custom to not open a gift in the giver’s presence.
b. In the United States, shoppers typically touch, hold, and even smell fruits and vegetables
before buying them. But in northern Europe this is strongly frowned upon.
c. In mainstream North American culture, people are expected to look directly at each other
when having a conversation. But a cultural norm for many Native Americans involves keeping
one’s eyes lowered as a sign of respect when speaking to an instructor or supervisor.
No one can be expected to learn all the “dos and don’ts” of the world’s myriad cultures; instead, the
key is to keep an open mind, be sensitive to other cultures, and remember that the way you’d like to
be treated is not necessarily the way others would appreciate.
2. Please write a short paragraph where your perception of someone was changed once you got to
know them. Share and compare with your classmates
References
Allport, G. (1958). The nature of prejudice. New York, NY: Doubleday.
Chen, G., & Starosta, W. (2000). Foundations of intercultural communication. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Hall, E. (1966). The hidden dimension. New York, NY: Doubleday.
18.2 HOW TO UNDERSTAND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION • 583
Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (1990). Notes in the history of intercultural communication: The foreign service institute and
the mandate for intercultral training. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 76, 268–281.
McLean, S. (2005). The basics of interpersonal communication. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Rogers, E., & Steinfatt, T. (1999). Intercultural communication. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
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