Cross-Cultural Communication in Business

1. Introduction

Cross cultural communication is one of the effective strategic planning in the recent era of globalisation where all the companies try to manage international business (Mead and Jones, 2017). The aim of the study is to acknowledge the practice of cross cultural communication in conducting international business and part from that the study also provides a scope to analyse Hofstede cultural model to identify the perspectives of Mexico and the UK. It is necessary to evaluate the cross-cultural communication so that the international businesses can manage their operations and expand the firm across the globe by managing different cultures, diversified perspectives and values of the people internationally. In order to present the organisations in the international markets, it is necessary to strengthen the cross-cultural communication so that the organisational representatives can manage the people who are engaged with the business.

2. Importance of cross cultural communication

Cross cultural communication is effective in the recent era of globalisation where all the multinational corporate firms can build string relationship with the business partners and conduct the operational activities in new international markets. It is necessary for the managers of the businesses to acknowledge the local language of the international country and understand their culture so that it is possible to build strong relationship with the local people (Kinloch and Metge, 2014). Communication plays a crucial role for the corporate firms to develop business deals and interact with the people engaged with the firm so that the operational activities can be managed efficiently. In addition to these, cross cultural communication is necessary to interact with the local people and understand their actual needs and preferences so that it is possible to expand the business by satisfying the local people of the international country. cross cultural communication is also important in the organisations to manage the employees where the staff members can interact with each other in the workplace (Purnell, 2018). Through cross cultural communication it is possible to manage diverse workforce by acknowledging the cultural preferences, values and beliefs of the individuals. Sharing views and ideas with each other is also possible through cross cultural communication where talent improvising and performance enhancement can be easier in the organisations through which the companies can expand their businesses in the i9nternational markets, it is important for the business representatives to manage the cultural diversity in the workplace so that it is easy to improve cooperation and enhance communication and in this regard cultural training is helpful where people can interact with each other’s irrespective of diversified cultural and demographic background. It is hereby helpful to manage cross cultural communication as it provides a scope to increase business opportunities in the recent years and understand the diverse market across the globe (Arvizu and Saravia-Shore, 2017).

3. Defining culture and communication

Culture is the factor through which it is possible to understand the values, perspectives and demographic background as well as the behaviour of an individual. In order to conduct international businesses, it is necessary for the multinational corporate firms to understand different cultural perspectives to acknowledge different people across the globe and their preferences in the context of business. On the other hand, the cross-cultural communication is the process of sending and receiving messages between the people from different cultural background, through verbal or nonverbal communication (Teunissen et al., 2017). For the international business, the multinational corporate firms try to improve cross cultural communication in order to understand the perspectives of the people in the foreign markets so that it is easy to expand the business across the globe successfully by more collaboration and communication. Hereby, the cross-cultural communication is necessary to resolve the problems of language gap, different attitude of the people, internal conflicts, different communication style and diversified decision-making style. Poor inter cultural communication may raise the issues like internal conflict where people cannot understand each other’s perceptions, and this further leads to internal conflicts. On the other hand, another issue of lack of collaboration in the companies where poor cross-cultural communication increases misunderstanding, and people do not want to cooperate with each other and interact with others for working together. This may hamper the performance of the team members and it also deteriorate the efficiency of the organisations to meet the customer’s satisfaction (Adler and Graham, 2017).

4. Relationship between culture and communication

The relationship between culture and communication is complex where culture is created through communication and communication is the way of interactions among the human through cultural characteristics such as roles, rules, customs, behaviour, laws, pattern and behaviour of the individuals. Without communication, it is not possible to build social interaction and through communication, the individuals can understand the other’s culture, their behaviour, values, beliefs and understanding, hereby, there is interlinkage between culture and communication where communication depends on the cultural perspectives, it is necessary to communicate with others for understanding the cultural relationship and the behaviour for the person (Shebzukhova and Bondarenko, 2014). Cross cultural communication is hereby beneficial to develop strong relationship with the people with diversified cultures and it is necessary to build strong relationship among the employees in the workplace irrespective of their cultures, values and beliefs. Culture and communication both are therefore inter linked where through interaction, people try to gather knowledge and hare ideas so that it is possible to conduct the organisational responsibilities efficiently. Personal behaviour and attitude of the individuals in the workplace can also be understood through positive communication and it is necessary for the employees to acknowledge each other’s values to develop an effective team for working together. Hereby, cultural perspectives and communication both are necessary to be considered in the business where the management team can understand different cultural across the globe and build strong corporate relationship with the local people in different international markets.

5. Comparing and contrasting the cultural dimensions of Mexico and the UK

International business is a complex practice where the management team of the corporate firms try to develop strong relationship with the local business representatives in order to understand the international markets so that it is easy to expand the company across the globe. In this regard, the Hofstede model of culture is effective to evaluate the cultural perspectives of different international countries which further provides a scope to acknowledge the local culture of the country. in this context, through Hofstede model, it is possible to understand the cultures of Mexico and the K which in turn helps to understand the business practice of these international markets.

As per the cultural model of Hofstede, there are different dimensions through which it is possible to understand the cultural practice of the international markets. The dimensions are such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, feminist or masculinity, time perspective and restraints or indulgence.

The first dimension is power distance which helps to understand whether there is equality in distributing power among the business representatives or not. Mexico is a hierarchical society where it scores 81 and people prefer hierarchical prefers on the organisations. There is proper organisational structure including CEO of the companies, managers and subordinates who are maintain the hierarchical orders in the workplace and respect the senior managerial person. On the other hand, the UK scores 92 which indicates that there is high power distance and more powerful person in the organisations get great importance and facilities as compared to the less powerful persons in the companies. The business interactions and negotiations are done by maintaining the power of the person in the companies and there is unequal power distribution in the organisations (Hofstede Insight, 2018). As per the dimension of individualism, both the country’s score is less, and it defines that there is collectivist society where people try to collaborate and work together in the companies. In Mexico, managing loyalty and building strong relationship among the colleagues are present which further helps to develop an effective team through which it is possible to work efficiently. The people in the UK prefer trustful, authentic and internal relationship with all the employees in the business. Mexico scores 69 on the dimension of masculinity which indicates that the male members are preferred in Mexico to get higher job position or any advanced opportunities. On the other hand, in the UK, score is relatively less than the Mexico and it defines that there is less power of the male members and both female and male members are treated equally in different field of business (Hofstede Insight, 2018). Under uncertainty avoidance, UK score is 95 which indicates that the people feel threatened due to ambiguous situations, the people in the UK prefer to negotiate and build strong relationship and they maintain formal and distant behaviour with the strangers. On the other hand, Mexico core is less than that of the UK, but Mexican people also have high preference for avoiding uncertainty. In long term orientations, Mexico score is 25 which implies that Mexican culture is normative, and people have strong concern in establishing the absolute truth. UK also score average and it means that people prefer short term and traditional approach to conduct the work efficiently (Hofstede Insight, 2018). Under the dimension of indulgence, the UK score is only 18 where people have the orientation and perception that their actions are restrained by social norms. On the other hand, the score of Mexico is 97 where people have the tendency towards indulgence. This indicates that the people in Mexico have the willingness to realise their impulse and desire and they have the tendency of optimism and positive attitude (De Mooij, 2015).

6. Understanding of the importance of communications in cross-cultural business relationship development

Understanding the cultural values, beliefs and perceptions of the individuals is necessary in the international business and in order to identify the cultural perspectives of the individuals, it is necessary to communicate with the person. It is also helpful to build strong relationship with the person from diversified culture. Through Hofstede model, it is possible to understand that the people in the UK prefer equality and collectivist society where the people try to collaborate with each bother for performing better. On the other hand, Mexican people are also preferring collectivism where they try to build strong relationship with the business representatives for successful achievements of the pre-specified goals and objective of the organisations (Merkin, Taras and Steel, 2014). For the multinational corporate firms, it is essential to build strong relationship with the local people of the UK and Mexico if the business try to expand their branches to the UK and Mexico and it is necessary for the company to understand their culture ad communication style for improving trust and loyalty. The people in both Mexico and the UK prefer cooperative working practice and, in this regard, cross cultural communication is effective to develop a strong team in the workplace, work collaboratively and enhance performance as well as share individual ideas and knowledge so that the organisational aims and objectives can be achieved successfully. Additionally, the cross-cultural communication among the people further provides a scope to manage the diverse workforce in the workplace as well as manage internal conflicts and resistance to change so that the employees can build trust and loyalty and they cans share the knowledge and responsibility in the workplace to meet the common team objective (Goman, 2011).

7. Conclusion

It can be concluded that, cross cultural communication provides a scope to the people to mange the cultural diversity in the workplace and it further helps to expand the business across the international markets by improving understanding about diversified cultures of different global markets like the UK and Mexico. Hofstede Model is helpful in this context to understand the cultural perception of both the countries, Mexico and the UK. It can be stated that, people in both the countries try to cooperate with each other and prefer collectivism for improving performance and in this regard cross cultural communication is beneficial to interact with other and share ideas and knowledge to meet the business aim.

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