Share|
May 26

Seeing Eye-to-eye across Cultures

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector 1 Comment »

 

Face-to-face meetings have a tremendous importance in the global business world. It is during these occasions that important matters are discussed and contracts are signed. Face-to-face encounters can sometimes be difficult to handle, however, especially when meeting people from different cultures where the risks of intercultural misunderstanding can jeopardise business opportunities.

One benefit of meeting international counterparts face-to-face is the ability to communicate directly without relying on virtual communication that can result in misunderstandings and confusion. While direct communication is channelled mainly by words and sentences, the major part of our message is delivered through our body language.

 

Business Woman shaking hands i Seeing Eye to eye across Cultures

© istockphoto.com/ Neustockimages

Let’s take the example of how we look at people during a conversation. In most western cultures, looking at someone in the eyes when talking is regarded as a sign of respect and truthfulness while the lack or absence of eye contact is perceived negatively as shyness or lack of attention. This perception is not shared by everyone however.

In many Arabic and Asian cultures, for instance, looking directly into someone’s eyes can be seen as disrespectful or challenging and should therefore be avoided, especially during important meetings. A French team leader and Chinese executive may experience difficulties when communicating face-to-face because of their different expectations and interpretations of eye contact. The French team leader will likely make efforts to look at the Chinese executive to build trust and establish credibility. Meanwhile, the Chinese executive may expect more indirect eye contact as this shows respect to more senior individuals. The different interpretations of eye contact can end up damaging the relationship and create misunderstanding.

This kind of cultural misunderstanding can be common without intercultural training. By participating in one of Communicaid’s Intercultural Training courses, you can increase your understanding of when and how eye contact is appropriate or not, reducing the potential for miscommunication and negative perceptions. Communicaid’s Living and Working in France or Doing Business in China cross cultural awareness training courses can help you and your organisation to gain a better understanding of your international counterparts and help you to face the challenges rising from cross cultural situations.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • •
Share|
Apr 28

Intercultural Business Etiquette: Knowing When to Socialise and When to Get Down to Business

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector 1 Comment »

As more and more people work in the global marketplace, the challenges of working across cultures are being increasingly recognised. How to lead successful global negotiations, how to communicate effectively with international counterparts and how to lead across cultures have become key concerns for international businesses.

While it is extremely important to understand the above business elements of working effectively across cultures, we cannot forget about the social aspect of international business. The ability to socialise in an intercultural environment is crucial to the success of many international business endeavours, particularly in cultures where relationships are essential.

Businessdinner2 i Intercultural Business Etiquette: Knowing When to Socialise and When to Get Down to Business

© istockphoto.com/webphotographeer

 

Socialising as a professional activity might sound pretty simple to anyone with experience of doing business. However in many cultures, the first step of finding the right time or place to socialise can already be an issue if you are not familiar with the culture. In some cultures, for example, you might be expected to build relationships with your counterparts in the professional environment while in other cultures you might be expected to spend some time outside of work socialising in order to build trust.

For instance, when doing business in Panama or living and working in Saudi Arabia, you will often find that your counterparts do not make a clear distinction between their professional and personal relationships. You may hear conversations vary from business to personal or you might receive an invitation from a colleague to attend a family event, which you should kindly accept. On the contrary, when doing business in Germany or Belgium you might find that your counterparts prefer to keep their private sphere separate from their professional environment. Conversation rarely touches on any personal issues and most people will go their separate ways at the end of the day.

The impact of socialising on business negotiations can be quite significant in some cultures. Even though your Belgian counterparts might restrict your relations to the professional sphere, they will still appreciate getting to know you before discussing any business negotiation. When doing business in China, you will often be expected to spend time outside of work socialising with your Chinese counterparts to build trust and a relationship before discussing business. This is particularly true if you are doing business in China as they will want to show you an immense amount of hospitality as their guest.

No matter where you are doing business, it’s important to understand when, where and how to socialise with your international counterparts. Cross cultural awareness training can help give you an understanding of what topics are appropriate, how to greet people or when to socialise with your international counterparts. Programmes such as Intercultural Training Japan or Cross Cultural Training India will give you the knowledge and skills you need to make the right impression, avoid embarrassing faux-pas and take advantage of valuable opportunities to build trust with your international counterparts.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • •
Share|
Apr 26

Cross Cultural Theory: Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector 1 Comment »

A number of scholars and experts have tried to explain the impact of cross cultural differences on people’s behaviour to help reduce the intercultural risks of international business. Dr. Milton Bennett, co-founder of the Intercultural Development Research Institute, believes that the more experience a person has with cultural differences the more that person will develop intercultural competence, becoming more effective when working across cultures.

According to Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), there are six stages on this path to developing intercultural competence, each characterised by certain perceptions and behaviour towards the “own” and the “other” culture.

As the graphic below illustrates the main change along the line of intercultural competence occurs from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism. In other words, from an understanding of your own culture as being superior to an understanding of your own culture as equal in value and complexity to any other culture.

DMIS 425x167 Cross Cultural Theory: Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

Cross Cultural Theory: Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

Each of the six phases of Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity are described in more detail below:

Denial: When in this first stage, individuals refuse all interaction with other cultures and show no interest in discovering cultural differences. They may also act agressively during cross cultural situations.

Defense: In this stage, individuals consider all other cultures to be inferior to their own culture and will constantly criticise behaviour or thoughts by someone from another culture.

Minimisation: When this stage is reached, individuals will start believing that all cultures share commom values. They will also minise any cultural dfferences by correcting people to match their expectations.

Acceptance: At this stage, individuals may still judge other cultures negatively but they will tend to recognise that cultures are different and they may become curious about cultural differences

Adaptation: During this stage individuals gain the ability to adapt their behaviour more easily and effectively by intentionally changing their own behaviour or communication style.

Integration: This stage tends to only be achieved by long term expatriates living and working abroad or Global Nomads. In this stage, individuals instinctively change their behaviour and communication style when interacting with other cultures.

Progressing from ‘Ethnocentrism’ to ‘Ethnorelativism’ on the scale takes time, yet it is vital for the success of any business person working in what is an increasingly global economy. Becoming more interculturally sensitive can be achieved through a combination of first hand experience with other cultures and participation on intercultural training courses like Effective Global Leadership or Doing Business in India.

While the final stage ’integration’ is seldom reached, a combination of experience living and working in other countries and taking part in tailored intercultural training courses allows global business people to reach the ‘adaptation’ stage, acquiring a high level of intercultural competence that will ensure they are successful working internationally.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Share|
Apr 10

Multilingualism: Advantages of Seeing the World from Different Cross Cultural and Linguistic Angles

Communication Skills Training, Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Language Training No Comments »

The Italian film director Federico Fellini once said “a different language is a different vision of life”. A person’s world can stretch out in front of them for miles and miles or it can be a box around them depending on who they can communicate with.

Learning another language can open up new worlds, broaden your horizons and bring you into contact with many new cultures. The language you speak can mould your world view and by association your experience of life. Opening up to new cultures can enrich your life and give you new opportunities. Taking part in a cross cultural training program or in a language training course can help you broaden both your mind and your world view, increasing your cross cultural competence and your ability to communicate across cultures.

Scripts catscandotcom i Multilingualism: Advantages of Seeing the World from Different Cross Cultural and Linguistic Angles

© istockphoto.com/catscandotcom

 

Many people think that learning a new language will be boring or too time consuming, but they are often surprised by the progress made even after the first few language training courses. Even a basic knowledge of a language allows you to communicate and interact with someone from another country. Being able to say something as simple as ‘¡Hola, buenos días!’ (Hello, good morning! in Spanish language) will improve the positive impression you make on your Spanish speaking counterparts while it will also help you to build the trust that is so vital when building international business relationships. Seeing that this secret code registers and gets a response from the native speaker can be very satisfying indeed. After a few more language training sessions this could follow onto a conversation – and from there who knows?

Businesses can greatly benefit from building the cultural and linguistic skills of their employees. Speaking another language can open new markets up to you that were previously closed. Because English predominates as the ‘global language’ of trade and commerce, people often forget that the ability to conduct business with a non-English speaker in their own language, and with knowledge of their cultural values and norms, can build lasting bridges and forge links with that individual or company for many years to come. By taking part in Communicaid’s cross cultural training programs or in our language training courses, you or your staff can learn the language and culture skills needed to truly break any communication barriers and achieve global success.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

Tagged with: • • • • • • • •
Share|
Apr 06

Becoming a Cultural Chameleon: Adaptability Skills Essential for Cross Cultural Success

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources No Comments »

Have you ever noticed how, in the many conversations you have with different people throughout a typical day, the topics of your conversations and your style of conversation change depending on who you’re speaking to?

If you were to pick a random topic, such as the weather or a recent film you have seen, and you discussed it casually with a few different people, you will most likely notice that even if your conversation covers the same topic, your style will vary depending on the other person’s position (your boss or work colleague), profession (lawyer, shopkeeper), relationship to you (relative, friend, someone you have just met on a street), age (a child, an older person) or culture (national, religious etc).

We tend to speak in different ways to different people, our work colleagues, family, friends or just strangers we meet on a street or in a supermarket. Our speech adapts and changes depending on our interlocutors. We may adapt our choice of language like the vocabulary or jargon we use, or our accent, dialect or intonation. At times you may find yourself imitating someone else’s accent or use of vocabulary to get closer to them and gain sympathy, especially when working across cultures. This is the central tenet of Communication Accommodation Theory, which was developed by professor of communication Howard Giles of the University of California Santa Barbara.

Definition Language kdow i1 Becoming a Cultural Chameleon: Adaptability Skills Essential for Cross Cultural Success

© istockphoto.com/kdow

 

Practical examples of this are when, for instance, we speak slowly when communicating across cultures so that our international counterparts can understand us, or how we use grammatically simple language with children (baby talk). In the same way, you can strategically choose to speak with a certain accent or use certain expressions in order to emphasise your membership of a group, or conversely, distance yourself from another.

The principle also covers non-verbal aspects of communication, such as posture and eye contact, which are especially important aspects of cultural awareness. For example, when two people speak one may seek eye contact while the other may wish to avoid it. In that instant, almost unconscious negotiation takes place as one has to adapt to the style of the other.

Most of these verbal and non-verbal adjustments are psychologically motivated and common among all people around the world. What differs is how we accommodate our language and behaviour to communicate with others across cultures more effectively and gain their appreciation, trust or acceptance.

Adapting to another person can come naturally and often imperceptibly in a mono-cultural environment, but if the interaction spans different cultures a certain degree of uncertainty comes into play, as the parties involved will very likely have different expectations of how communication should unfold. Cultural awareness training can help reduce this element of uncertainty and ensure you have the right level of cross cultural skills to communicate effectively across cultures.

Understanding varying levels of eye contact is just one example of this theory in action. Broadly speaking, western individuals associate a lack of eye contact with insecurity and even untrustworthiness at times. When a German manager meets a new member of his team, he will look him straight in the eye, accommodation assures his gaze in turn will be met. All of his German counterparts know this shows both mutual respect and that the new team member is confident and ready to meet the challenges of the new assignment.

Things are different when doing business in Japan, where respect for your superiors should be shown by not meeting their gaze. Accommodation means that a Japanese junior member of staff will not look his boss in the eye when he or she talks to him, and know that by doing this all expectations are met.

What happens when business relations bring the German junior team member into contact with the Japanese manager? Who, if at all, will accommodate their communication style when doing business with the other? What are the consequences of this not happening?

One way to eliminate any uncertainty that arises from this scenario is through cultural awareness training. By providing insight into your own culture and communication style, as well as those of the host country you are doing business in, it is possible to develop a level of cross cultural awareness that will help you to make the necessary cultural adjustments that come so naturally when communicating with someone from your own culture.

Confidence, awareness of what to expect and skills to react appropriately, all developed through cultural awareness training, can eliminate at least part of the uncertainty inherent in international business relations and lead to more economic success.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

pixel Becoming a Cultural Chameleon: Adaptability Skills Essential for Cross Cultural Success
Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • •
Next Entries
preload preload preload
Allow Cookies?
Powered by Strategic Internet Consulting