CHAPTER 3

COMMUNICATING IN A WORLD OF DIVERSITY

 – Communicating at IBM
– Building Competitive Advantage by Embracing
Diversity
– The I in IBM stands for International, but it could just as
easily stand for Intercultural
ON THE JOB: – Ron Glover, IBM’s vice president of global workforce
diversity, knows from years of experience that
communicating successfully across cultures is no
simple task, however—particularly in a company that
employs more than 350,000 people and sells to
customers in roughly 175 countries around the world
Understanding the
Opportunities and
Challenges
of Communication in a
Diverse World
–Diversity includes all the characteristics that define people as
individuals.
–Intercultural communication is the process of sending and
receiving messages between people whose cultural
backgrounds could lead them to interpret verbal and non-
verbal signs differently.
–Every attempt to send and receive messages is in influenced by
culture, so to communicate successfully, you need a basic grasp
of the cultural differences you may encounter and how you
should handle them
 – Chances are good that you’ll be working across
international borders sometime in your career.
thanks to communication and transportation
THE technologies, natural boundaries and national
OPPORTUNITIES borders are no longer the impassable barriers
IN A GLOBAL they once were.
MARKETPLACE – Local markets are opening to worldwide
competition as businesses of all sizes look for
new growth opportunities outside their own
countries
 The diversity of today’s workforce brings distinct
THE advantages to businesses:
ADVANTAGES – A broader range of views and ideas
OF A DIVERSE – A better understanding of diverse, fragmented
WORKFORCE markets
– A broader pool of talent from which to recruit
 –A company’s cultural diversity affects
how its business messages are conceived,
composed, delivered, received, and
THE CHALLENGES interpreted.
OF –Culture influences everything about
INTERCULTURAL communication, including
COMMUNICATION –Language
–Nonverbal signals
–Word meaning
–Time and space issue
– Rules of human relationships
Developing Cultural
Competency
• Cultural competency requires a combination of attitude, knowledge, and
skills.
• Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values,
expectations, and behavior norms.
• You belong to several cultures, each of which affects the way you
communicate.
• You learn culture both directly (by being instructed) and indirectly (by
observing others).
• Cultures tend to offer both views of life that are both coherent (internally
logical) and complete (able to answer all of life’s big questions).
 – Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge all other
groups according to the standards, behaviors,
and customs of one’s own group.
– Xenophobia, a fear of strangers and foreigners.
OVERCOMING Clearly, businesspeople who take these views are
ETHNOCENTRISM not likely to communicate successfully across
AND cultures.
STEREOTYPING – Stereotyping is assigning generalized attributes
to an individual on the basis of membership in a
particular group.
– Cultural pluralism is the acceptance of multiple
cultures on their own terms.
When crossing cultural boundaries, you’ll be even more effective if you move beyond
simple acceptance and adapt your communication style to that of the new cultures you
encounter—even integrating aspects of those cultures into your own. A few simple habits
can help:
• Avoid assumptions. Don’t assume that others will act the same way you do, use
language and symbols the same way you do, or even operate from the same values
and beliefs. For instance, in a comparison of the 10 most important values in three
cultures, people from the United States had no values in common with people from
Japanese or Arab cultures.20
• Avoid judgments. When people act differently, don’t conclude that they are in error
or that their way is invalid or inferior.
• Acknowledge distinctions. Don’t ignore the differences between another person’s
culture and your own.
Recognizing Variations in a Diverse World

Eight main types of cultural differences:

Contextual
Legal and ethical
Social
Nonverbal
Age
Gender
Religious
Ability
 – Cultural context is the pattern of physical cues,
environmental stimuli, and implicit
understanding that conveys meaning between
members of the same culture.
CONTEXTUAL – High-context cultures rely heavily on nonverbal
actions and environmental setting to convey
meaning
– Low-context cultures rely more on explicit
verbal communication.
 4 basic priciples:
– Actively seek mutual ground. To allow the clearest possible
exchange of information, both parties must be flexible and avoid
insisting that an interaction take place strictly in terms of one
culture or another.
– Send and receive messages without judgment. To allow
information to flow freely, both parties must recognize that values
vary from culture to culture, and they must trust each other.
LEGAL AND
– Send messages that are honest. To ensure that information is
ETHICAL true, both parties must see things as they are—not as they would
like them to be. Both parties must be fully aware of their personal
and cultural biases.
– Show respect for cultural differences. To protect the basic
human rights of both parties, each must understand and
acknowledge the other’s needs and preserve each other’s dignity
by communicating without deception.
 SOCIAL DIFFERENCES
– Attitudes toward work and success. In the United States, for instance, a widespread view is that material comfort earned by
individual effort is a sign of superiority and that people who work hard are better than those who don’t.
– Roles and status. Culture influences the roles that people play, including who communicates with whom, what they
communicate, and in what way. For example, people in the United States show respect by addressing top managers as “Mr.
Roberts” or “Ms. Gutierrez.” However, people in China are addressed according to their official titles, such as “President” or
“Manager.”
– Use of manners. What is polite in one culture may be considered rude in another. For instance, asking a colleague “How was
your weekend?” is a common way of making small talk in the United States, but the question sounds intrusive to people in
cultures in which business and private lives are seen as separate spheres.
– Concepts of time. People in low-context cultures see time as a way to plan the business day efficiently, o en focusing on only
one task during each scheduled period and viewing time as a limited resource. However, executives from high-context cultures
often see time as more flexible. Meeting a deadline is less important than building a business relationship.
– Future orientation. Successful companies tend to have a strong future orientation, planning for and investing in the future, but
national cultures around the world vary widely in this viewpoint. Some societies encourage a long-term outlook that
emphasizes planning and investing—making sacrifices in the short term for the promise of better outcomes in the future.
Others are oriented more toward the present, even to the point of viewing the future as hopelessly remote and not worth
planning for.33
– Openness and inclusiveness. At both the national level and within smaller groups, cultures vary on how open they are to
accepting people from other cultures and people who don’t necessarily t the prevailing norms within the culture. An
unwillingness to accommodate others can range from outright exclusion to subtle pressures to conform to majority
expectations.
NONVERBAL DIFFERENCES
– The meaning of nonverbal signals can vary widely from culture to culture, so you can’t rely on assumptions.
– Greetings. Do people shake hands, bow, or kiss lightly (on one side of the face or both)? Do people shake
hands only when first introduced or every time they say hello or good-bye?
– Personal space. When people are conversing, do they stand closer together or farther away than you are
accustomed to?
– Touching. Do people touch each other on the arm to emphasize a point or slap each other on the back to
show congratulations? Or do they refrain from touching altogether?
– Facial expressions. Do people shake their heads to indicate “no” and nod them to indicate “yes”? is is what
people are accustomed to in the United States, but it is not universal
– Eye contact. Do people make frequent eye contact or avoid it? Frequent eye contact is o en taken as a sign
of honesty and openness in the United States, but in other cultures it can be a sign of aggressiveness or
disrespect.
– Posture. Do people slouch and relax in the office and in public, or do they sit up and stand up straight?
– Formality. In general, does the culture seem more or less formal than yours?