Globalization and Intercultural Business Dynamics: Exploring Cultural Values

Introduction

The act of globalization has changed the way of thinking and execution of business strategies. The business sectors all round the world have been working with innovative technologies and techniques (Gault.2018). The study would revolve around the multicultural abilities of business globally. It would focus on the facts and the facets that the cultural values play in the business sectors (Elkington.2016). It would focus on the theories that would be practiced in the variety of intercultural business interactions. It would also give a detailed study of the Bennett scale. The methodologies of an individual would adapt to the awareness of self constructions. The study further deals with the differentiation of the cultures among two persons on the perspective of beliefs, values, norms, high and low context and confusion theory. It is a true fact that there would be differentiation in the thinking process of two different persons. The description of the cultural questionnaire to identify the major influences in an individual’s life has got importance in the study. A cultural autobiography questionnaire is presented in the study that would bring forth the cultural difference between individuals between two different backgrounds as a whole is discussed in the analysis.

Theory of Intercultural Framework:

The study deals with the multicultural proficiencies which could be further dealt with and comprehended with the help of the Bennett scale. According to Hair et al.(2019), globalization has made the business international and hence the cross-cultural business aspects brings forth many new ideas and methods which puts impact and influence in the personal life as well as in the business.

Talking of the theory, one gets a clear idea by which the intercultural competencies of the business targets to intensify the comprehending power of the other cultures and respect them accordingly. It helps an individual to learn more about the culture of their own country and at the same time value the culture of the other countries. This in turn results in the strengthening of oneself and the business as well. The theory further increases the self awareness of the requirements for international cooperation in the business to gear up the global issues that arise in the present days. The point of differentiation of cultures between two persons on the few perspectives:

Beliefs: Two persons from different cultures belief their cultures to be unique and respects the others culture at the same time to get back the respect in return. Every persons culture play equally important role in their lives.

Values: Each person values their culture as they get to learn different positive ways by which they can develop and improve their ways of living. Thus it can be said that the values of different culture improvises the people’s way of living.

Norms: The norms of the people or the standard of behavior values the culture. The person from different cultures values their behavior through the adoption of their cultural beliefs.

High and low context: The high context cultures rely on the ways by which that value relationship and a stable communication level. On the other hand the low context in the cultural behavior deals with the body languages and it is a true matter of fact that the cultural beliefs of both the person from different cultures contain high and low contexts to some level or the other.

Confucian theory: It has been noted that the Confucian culture based on the social culture helps in the upliftment of the behavior of two persons as a whole and in turn results in the comprehending of individual’s relationship, moral belief, social structure and at the same time the political growth that improves the way of thinking in an individual.

The following aspects of the intercultural business could be accessed through the following model theories likewise the constituent elements of the intercultural competencies, the Bennett scale (Andersson et al.2016).

Figure 1: The elements of the intercultural competencies. (Source: Deardorff.2020)

According to Deardorff.(2020), the constituent elements of the intercultural proficiencies have become important and necessary as the communities are getting interconnected and at the same time interrelated. It increases the capability of an individual to understand and respect the culture of another country and learn more to grow the business prospect.

Accomplishment to evolve the understanding of the different culture group one has to go through few understandings:

• Cultural self awareness: To improve the cultural competencies one has to be self aware of the culture that he or she belongs to and doing so would help the person to be aware of the other countries culture too (Schnyder et al.2016).
• Cultural specific knowledge: To be aware of one's own cultural behavior makes the individual be cautious about the cultural specification of the other countries. As it can be summoned that the cultural specific knowledge aids to comprehend the ideas, custom and social conduct of the cultural groups (Fearn.2017).
• Socio-linguistic awareness: To be aware of the culture of the other countries one has to be acquainted with the language of the country for the smooth running of the business and furthermore helps to understand the culture more prominently. It also helps in the eradication of the communication gap.
• Grasp of global issues and trends: The holding of the global issues helps in to develop the learning outcome of the world as a whole (Kolk.2016). It also helps in to develop the present trend and hence could be effective in the business growth.

As seen the positive attributes of the intercultural competencies there has been few negative aspects:

• Lack of common language creates an issue that hinders in the smooth flow of business (Bagheri et al.2016).
• Difference in etiquette and manners sometimes makes a good business a failure. Though globalization has improved the business environment of all the countries, this difference in the culture sometimes creates a gap in the individual business hampering its growth.
• Influence of the majority and minority in the business culture inequality causes colonialism.
• To understand the language requires time and at the same time it creates an issue of communication gap.

Cultural autobiography questionnaire to comprehend the influence in an individual’s life:

The questionnaire would help one to understand the influence of the culture in one’s life.

The questionnaire of the cultural competencies aid in the improvement of the individual's character as they get to know the cultures of the different countries in a different outlook so that the business perspective becomes easily accessible (Sánchez et al.2018).

The questionnaire set clears the issues that the people of different countries may face while getting into a business with other countries. However at the same time it may also improve the thinking perspectives.

The Bennett scale

The developmental model of the intercultural sensitivity (DMIS) also called the Bennett scale is a helpful tool in measuring intercultural competencies. This process is done over a six stage transformation. The first 3 stages include the ethnocentric perspective which gives the details about the others cultures according to the presumptions that derive to the traditions, practice, predictability and faith in one’s own culture. On the other hand the last three stages revolve around the ethno relative perspective where the people are comfortable with many different traditions and practices. This in turn helps in the development of the intercultural competencies.

According to Dillard.(2019),the Bennett scale gives the clear view of the acceptance and denial of the intercultural competencies and uplifts the business and thus it can be stated that globalization has improved the business and enhanced the cultural upliftment and socialization too has created a vast improvement in the individual and the group of people all over the world as a whole.

Conclusion

The analysis revolved around the fact and the facets of the multicultural abilities of business globally. The study gave the cultural values play in the business sectors. It focused on the theories that are practiced in the variety of intercultural business interactions. It also gave a detailed study of the Bennett scale. The methodologies that an individual had adapted to the awareness of self constructions. The questionnaires that helped in to understand the individuals perspectives and perspectives of people of the different countries that makes the difference in the viewpoint of the trading. The ways to overcome the pitfalls in the business in accordance to the intercultural competencies. It also focused light on the comparisons of the cultural difference that the people of different countries go through. The study further gives a vivid study about the ethnocentric perspectives and ethno relative perspectives. Hence it could be concluded that the study gives the reader vivid details about the cultural autobiography and the intercultural competence in business.

Take a deeper dive into Global Cultural Values and Practices in Cross-Cultural Leadership with our additional resources.

References

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