Academic Essay Intercultural barriers PDF

Preview

Summary

The academic essay deals with barriers to intercultural communications. It also provides solutions on how to deal with the mentioned barriers....

Description

Student name: Tamryn Leigh George Student number: 219231575 Course: Diploma in Marketing Communication 1 Assignment: Academic Essay

Plagiarism Declaration:

Declaration I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it is one’s own. I have used the Harvard convention for citation and referencing. Each contribution to, and quotation in, this essay/report/project/ from the work(s) of other people has been attributed and has been cited and referenced. This essay/report/project/ is my own work. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work. Signature ______________________________ Date __________________________________

Essay topic: In today’s competitive global economy, regular cross-border movements of employees occur, resulting in a growing diversity in the working environment. As this trend continues between cultures, breakdown in communication is unavoidable. This is known as the barriers to intercultural communication. These barriers hinder effective communication. Identify four intercultural barriers in the workplace and provide solutions to overcome these barriers.

Tamryn Leigh George

219231575

Academic Essay

Charlton (2018) states: “There is an increasing focus in modern business on being global, diverse, and cosmopolitan.” Intercultural conflict occurs when a business fails to achieve this due to employees - coming from different religions and backgrounds, having contrasting beliefs, values and customs – being at odds with one another. This paper will discuss the topic of intercultural barriers within the context of the workplace, namely: anxiety, misinterpretation of non-verbal codes, language barriers and ethnocentrism. It will also provide solutions to the above-mentioned barriers. Firstly, Anxiety as a barrier to intercultural communication will be discussed. Anxiety is the condition of feeling uneasy and causes misconduct in a given situation. For example: A hard-working, highly qualified, junior employee – Chanté - approaches her manager to ask for a promotion. However, she is so anxious that she lacks the confidence to win her manager over. The sender should reflect on what the purpose of the message is, and practice conciseness. Daniels, et al. (2014:59), wrote: “Concise messages get to the point immediately, without wasting time (or words).” The second barrier is the misinterpretation of non-verbal codes. Non-verbal codes are used to convey messages without them being written or spoken. Different cultures have different non-verbal codes. For instance, “In the USA, people maintain a good eye contact while communicating with someone, but in Asian countries, eye contact is a sign of disrespect.” (Tünde, 2016:4) People need to become “aware that all nonverbal communication conveys information that must be evaluated or interpreted within the context in which it occurs.” (Steinberg, 2006:93) Subsequently, the language barrier is will be discussed. Different cultures have different levels of languages. As an example, Bennet (2015:250) wrote: “High-context languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, leave a great deal unsaid and use silences and nonverbal communication to indicate much meaning.” Therefore, communication in the workplace should be “… explicit and give listeners everything they need to know in order to understand what is said.” (Bennet, 2015: 250). That is, all communication should be free from all cultural-related speech styles and jargon. Finally, Ethnocentrism as a barrier to intercultural will be discussed. Ethnocentric people believe that their culture is superior to others and belittles other cultures in various ways. For Tamryn Leigh George

219231575

Academic Essay

example, one person implies that another person is uneducated or has poor literacy by speaking slowly and loudly. Ethnocentric people need to develop emotional and intellectual maturity. This will evoke the “desire and ability to socialise and work well with people of different nationalities (cultural empathy).” (Elze & Podlesny, 2014:39)

Conclusively, this essay discussed the topic of intercultural barriers within the context of the workplace. It also provided solutions to these barriers. I believe that the solution to all barrier to intercultural communication is that people should become more culturally aware. Living in a world where globalization is highly progressive, the economy relies highly on interculturalism. This awakens a great need for all people in the workplace to become interculturally competent.

Tamryn Leigh George

219231575

Academic Essay

References Bennet, J.M. 2015. The SAGE Encyclopaedia of Intercultural competence. Cape Town: SAGE Publications, Inc. Charlton, M. 2018. 5 Secrets to Meaningful Intercultural Communication. [Online]. Polyglot Group. Available from: https:// www.the polyglotgroup.com.au/blog/5-secrets-to-meaningfulintercultural-communication/.[Accessed: 18 April 2019]. Daniels, D., Hunter, A., McGhie, V., Middleton Horn, J., van Jaarsveldt, M. & van Vuuren, T. 2014. Business Communication. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Elze, J. & Podlesny, P.A. (2014) Overcoming intercultural communication barriers: Organisational Culture and Organisational Learning within a Swedish Textile Company. Unpublished MSc thesis, University of Boras, Sweden. Nguyen, T. 2013. Conflicts and multicultural teams. Developing competencies for managers. Unpublished Bachelor’s thesis, Lathi University of Applied Science, Korea. Steinberg, S. 2006. An introduction to communication studies. Cape Town: Juta & Co, Ltd. Tünde, B. 2016. The most common barriers of successful intercultural communication. Paper presented at the International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference, University of Miskolc, Hungary, 21-22 April 2016. Wankah, F.J. 2009. An ethnographic study of the barriers to intercultural communication in greenmarket square, cape town. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Western Cape, Cape Town.

Tamryn Leigh George

219231575

Academic Essay...