Small Business Communication: Multicultural (Global) Conversations
Below is the third article of six in our $100 competition, submitted by Charmayn of www.psipsychologytutor.org Good luck to everyone who contributed an article!
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Communication is the interpersonal process that you and I do everyday to transmit and understand information. Symbols, signs, and conversational rules that we automatically see as “common” within our own culture can hamper or enhance the effectiveness of communication with people from another culture who are not familiar with Western styles of conversation, or us of theirs. The transference of intended meaning can even be difficult for different countries in the West, such as some of my North American clients who may find my Australian tendency for “light hearted sarcasm”, quite rude!
The psychological experience of connection with others through conversation motivates feelings of belongingness and identity. In turn the values, roles and norms of a small business can be communicated to clients, giving them access to the business’s mission, values and quality of productivity, services and customer focus. Throughout the communication process noise is inevitable; factors exist that can constrain and distort an intended business message, and subsequently cause the loss of a client, or potential customer.
A psychological barrier such as information overload is due to the processing capability of the human cognitive system. Advancing technologies, such as those of the Internet (blogs, websites, social networks, instant messaging etc), both assist and hinder human information management at the cognitive level. From a cross-cultural perspective prejudice and stereotyping are also examples of psychological barriers to communication. A social barrier is evident with online services that decrease inter-personal distance between people. Alternatively, environmental barriers to communication could be weather conditions that affect telecommunications.
These assorted barriers to communication (noise), are also determined by the cultural norms and values that the small business and clients are embedded in. Each person’s unique frames of reference are ultimately grounded in their culture. Hence the receiver may ignore or pay attention to different parts of the message than what the sender intended for the listener to pay attention to. Miscommunication occurs because the words chosen and the meanings associated with those words do not make sense to the receiver.
Cross-cultural communication is also a personal barrier in that each person differs in his or her ability to communicate, and this is based on our experiences of communicating. As such, mistakes may mean that a speaker has a low level of trust about being understood, and so does not communicate much. In turn this negates a person’s practice with a language, incurring future miscommunications.
Munter (1993) states that managers (this means You as a small business operator) must become proficient at cross-cultural communication for today’s global community. For example, cultures differ in the timeframes that they use to experience the world. In Australia and other Pacific Island nations, the Indigenous peoples may have the practice of “island time,” that aligns the people with their environment. As such, a deadline or time of appointment is not exact (according to Western concepts), and so people do not expect a meeting or submission to be required at a specifically designated time; whereas in Switzerland, promptness is highly valued.
Communication styles also differ between cultures, and some styles are more useful in one culture than another. For example, an autocratic culture is one in which power is unequal, and it is mainly centered on a distinct leader. The autocratic leader may rely on a “tell” style of communication to inform others. Whereas a more democratic society will likely employ a consultation style of communication, and so disperse power amongst the group with the democratic leader having to earn respect from other group members.
Cultural norms also determine gender roles of communication, and so set up receiver expectations when communicating with a male or female small business owner. For example I am a female Anglo-Australian tutor/academic mentor, and a growing segment of my clientele is Arabic. At times I am requested to converse only with the husband with regard to financial matters pertaining to his wife’s study support needs. I find at times the male clients quite abrupt in “ordering” me as to “what to do” as compared to Indian male clients, who are very formal in their politeness and requests for assignment help.
In conclusion, cross-cultural communication is essential in the 21st century global market place. Do your homework and as a small business manager you will find yourself with an abundance of grateful clients. Sometimes~ the little things, such as just being able to greet or say thank you to a client with a phrase from their culture puts a smile on their face, and will warm them to you. Everyone appreciates others who take the time to sincerely communicate with them.
Recommendations for Small Businesses in Cross-Cultural Communications:
- Be mindful of political correctness
- Be brief – convey the message concisely (less room for misinterpretation)
- Establish unique netiquette values and guidelines for different cultural groups
- Cultivate relationships with small businesses of cultures similar our clientele~ there is the potential to have translators at hand for more reasonable fees/exchange of services
- Be empathetic; have some knowledge as to how other cultures interpret verbal and nonverbal information.
- When your client does not understand what you are saying, repeat the message in different ways to assist understanding.
- Ask for feedback from the client so that you can be sure that they understand what you are requesting from them, or suggesting hat they do.
- Cultivate relationships with people on Twitter and other bloggers from cultural groups the same or similar to those of your clients
- Identify other cultural groups attitude to time
- Do not expect other cultural groups to take on your communication style.
What are some insights from your own cross-cultural business interactions?
References Munter, M (1993) Cross-cultural communication for managers. Business Horizons, 36 (3). Char (Charmayne) Paul is an online tutor/academic mentor with PSI Tutor (www.psipsychologytutor.org). She her days helping university students be better supported in their studies. Sometimes she creates income to buy that! canoe for adventures in her home of Tropical North Queensland, Australia. e: admin@psitutor.org Twitter: tutormentor
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweettradephotography/286423882/
