Cultural barriers to Communication – In international environment cultural differences often cause communication problems. The same category of words, phrases, symbols, actions, colours mean different things to people of different countries/cultural backgrounds.
The greater the differences between the sender’s and receiver’s cultures, the greater the chance for miscommunication. Communication in the international environment becomes even more difficult because of different cultures. With globalization, the understanding of communication across cultures becomes critical. As Adler notes, “Communicating effectively challenges managers worldwide even when the work force is culturally homogeneous, but when employees speak a variety of languages and come from an array of cultural backgrounds, effective communication becomes considerably more difficult.” Non-verbal communication varies across cultures.
Write a note on non-verbal communication.
In Western countries black colour is associated with death and mourning while in the Far East white is the colour of mourning. In the United States people love to be called by their first name whilein Britain people are more formal and like to be addressed by their title or their last name. In the hierarchical of Indian society and business environment also the last name is significant.
Thus, managers should be forewarned that they cannot take anything for granted while dealing with people from another culture. They must acquire familiarity with verbal and non-verbal languages of that culture.
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