UNIT 1: THE INTERCULTURAL CHALLENGE

Why is intercultural communication important?

It facilitates communication across linguistic and cultural boundaries, leading to more tolerance,
acceptance, and stronger relationships amongst people of diverse backgrounds.

Business organization and culture

 Technology makes it possible for people to travel further and faster than ever before.
 The internet links people across national boundaries.
 The international labour force is more mobile.
 More people are on the move than ever before: business people are active globally,
refugees (người tị nạn) are trying to escape from conflicts and natural disasters.
 In many places the workforce is becoming more diverse.
Cutural force fields
Level 1: Individuals (BD: workplace; CD: individual patterns)
Level 2: Project teams (project; team culture)
Level 3: Task forces (division, function; function culture)
Level 4: Joint ventures (enterprise; organization culture)
Level 5: Cooperation agreements (national and sector economies; national culture)
Level 6: Global alliances (world economy; universal patterns)

Synergy effect
 Synergy (Greek: working together) means that the combined effect is more than the effect
of the sum of the individual parts. (giá trị và hiệu suất của hai công ty khi được kết hợp
với nhau trong việc sáp nhập và mua lại sẽ lớn hơn so với tổng giá trị và hiệu suất của
từng công ty khi chúng hoạt động riêng biệt)

Why is diversity important?

 Our business opportunities are increasingly related to the entire world. And it is a diverse
world. We must have the ability to deal with diverse consumers and customers in order to
develop products and services of superior quality and value.
 Diversity provides for a broader, richer, more fertile (phì nhiêu) environment for creative
thinking and innovation.
 Because we see diversity is an asset, we will attract and develop talent from the full range
of the world’s rich culture base. It is from this increasingly diverse pool of talent that our
future leadership will come.

What is intercultural communication?

Culture
Culture is used in the sense of a shared system of attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviour.
Hofstede has called it “collective mental programming” or “software of mind”. It is simply “the
way we do things around here”.
Examples:
 The iceberg: with the tangible (hữu hình) expressions of culture and behaviour above the
surface of the water, and the underlying attitudes, beliefs, values and meanings below the
surface.
 The onion: layers of culture which can be peeled away to reveal underlying basic
assumptions.
 The tree: contrasts visible and hidden culture, with the root providing an image of the
historical origins of culture.

Types of culture
 Corporate culture (văn hoá doanh nghiệp)
 Professional culture
 Gender
 Age
 Religous culture
  Regional culture
 Class culture (văn hoá tầng lớp)

Intercultural communication

 Ideas or feelings come from SOURCE

 The channel is the medium used for communication.
Intercultural communication takes place when the sender and the receiver are from different
cultures.

Barriers to intercultural communication

Perception (nhận thức)

People perceive the same thing in different ways is important in intercultural communication.
The way we perceive is culturally determined, and the general lack of awareness of this is a
barrier to intercultural communication.

Stereotypes (khuôn mẫu, định kiến)

A stereotype is a fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or
thing, but which is not true in reality.
Hofstede’s pyramid to illustrate “three levels of uniqueness in human mental programming”
Human Nature > Culture > Personality

Interpretation (diễn giải, giải thích)

Three ways of checking our interpretation of other people’s behaviour
1. Perception checking: ensure that our interpretation of the other person’s behaviour is
what he/she meant it to be. (too direct)
 2. Listening effectively: involves much more attention, absorbing new information,
checking it with what you know, categorizing it, selecting ideas, predicting what is
coming next. Active listeners will involve in the conversation, trying to understand.
3. Giving feedback (verbal or non-verbal response)
 Be specific
 Seperate the feedback from the person
 Present the problem as a mutual one.
 Mix negative with positive feedback
 Provide fb at an appropriate time
 Use “I” statements wherever possible (personal opinion)

Culture shock
Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and
symbols of social intercourse.
Culture shock, “transition shock”, or “the experience of foreignness” are the reactions to living
in a new culture (the process can also be gradual). Culture shock symptoms:
 Strain (căng thẳng)
 Sense of loss
 Feeling rejected
 Confusion
 Anxiety
 Helplessness
 Obsession with hygiene (OCD)

Physical symptoms can

include
 Headaches
 Sleeplessness
 Overeating (ăn
quá mức)
 Desire for
comfort foods
(chocolate)
 Excessive
consumption of
alcohol
 Stomach pains
The honeymoon period: everything is new and exciting. After a period of negative feelings,
comes recovery (3-6 months or longer and repeated). Overcome => the “breaking through”
phase.

Dealing with difference

Successful international managers
German companies looked for in international managers (theo thứ tự):
 Social competence (năng lực xã hội)
 Openness to other ways of thinking
 Cultural adaptation
 Professional excellence
 Language skills
 Flexibility
 Ability to manage/work in a team
 Self-reliance/independence
 Mobility
 Ability to deal with stress
 Adaptability of the family
 Patience
 Sensitivity

Cultural learning

Ignorance (local expert)

Realization (tourist)
Understanding (curious
sojourner: người tạm trú)
Synthesis (bicultural expert)
Selection (integrator)
Deftness (leader)
Cutural learning can be helped by experience, reflection and training.

Managing diversity
 Career discussions, performance appraisals, assignment plans, transfer and promotion
plans
 Grass roots/informal network support groups which have existed at different sites for a
number of years.
 Mentoring to provide informal support and guidance, in addition to the coaching and
training provided by each employee’s direct manager.

UNIT 2: CULTURAL DIMENSIONS

Survey of research
Disciplines involved in intercultural communication:
 Anthropology (nhân loại học)
 History
 Psychology
 Geography
 Business studies
 Sociology
 Communication science
 Linguistics

Hall (Edward Hall)

Famous for his work on low- and high-context cultures, and on different concepts of time.

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck

Five key orientations (sự định hướng) of basic importance to human beings, withing each
orientation there is a range of beliefs and values.
1. Human nature: bad people, both good and bad people, good people
 2. Man-nature relationship
 Life is determined by external forces (thế lực bên ngoài) such as God, fate, or
nature
 Man should live in harmony with nature
 Man can control nature
3. Time sense: past-orientated (tradition-bound), to present orientation, to goal-orientated
(future orientation)
4. Activity: it is enough to just “be”, inner development, action orientation (working for
rewards)
5. Social relations: there are natural leaders and natural followers.

Hofstede
He indentified four dimensions:
1. Individualism/Collectivism
2. Uncertainty avoidance
3. Power distance
4. Masculinity/Femininity
He later extended his work to include a fifth dimension: long-term orientation.

Trompernaars
He describe 3 main cutural dimensions:
1. Relationship with people
2. Attitudes to time
3. Attitudes to the environment

Non-verbal communication
Body language
In some cultures travellers should be careful to avoid exposing certain parts of their body.

Eye contact (oculistics)

In some cultures, looking someone in the eye is taken as a sign of interest and honesty. In others,
this can be seen as a sign of disrespect. (learn not to look directly)

Touch (haptics)
In the USA, the action of some male employees touching female employees, has given rise to
law suits for sexual harassment.
In other cultures, hugging or kissing are more appropriate forms of greeting.

Body distance (proxemics)

In the USA the “comfort zone” is about an arm’s length.
In Latin America, the tendency (khuynh hướng) is for people to get closer to each other than
people. (how close you get to another person when talking to them differs)

Paralanguage (giao tiếp phi ngôn từ)

Range of factors such as tone of voice, and the speed or pitch of what we say.
Intonation patterns (ngữ điệu) and tone
of voice vary widely in different
cultures.
What in one culture sounds like a
hysterical (điên cuồng) argument, in
another would be considered to be the
norm for a reasonable discussion.

Turn-taking

Communication style
Context
1. Low-context culture
- The mass of information is vested in the explicit code (ngôn ngữ rõ ràng) and put into
words.
- Tend to be task-centred rather than relationship-centred.
- From specific to general

2. High-context culture
- Most of the information is either in
the physical context or internalized in
the person.
- Meaning does not always have to be
put into words, non-verbal cues are
important.
- Relationship building is important.
- From general to specific.
Directness
- Some cultures it is not acceptable to criticize people in front of others. This leads to
“loss of face”
- Unacceptable to show emotion and direct criticism at the workplace.

3 ways of INDIRECTNESS:
 Blur the sender: don’t criticize the person directly, but do so through a friend or a
colleague.
 Blur the receiver: mention the problem in front of the group rather than an individual.
 Blur the message: talk about a hypothetical (giả thiết) case, or ask indirect questions.

- The language used can be seen as too direct.

Person and task

- In many cultures, it is more important to presreve a relationship than to get the task
done.
- Jobs may be given to family and friends, rather than to the person with the best
qualifications.

Time (chronemics)
Polychronic and monochronic
- In polychronic culture (thời gian đa nhịp) it is acceptable to do several things at the
same time, and the approach to deadlines is flexible.
- In monochronic culture (văn hoá đơn nhịp), one thing is done at a time, with great
stress being laid on meeting deadlines and schedules.

Linear, cyclical, and event-related

1. Linear concept of time (thời gian tuyến tính)
- It passes from the past to the future and can be saved, spent, wasted or lost. (past 
present  future)
- Required the precise measurement of time, planning and discipline.
2. Cyclical concept of time
- The daily and yearly routines, time is not seen as a scarce resource, it keeps coming
all the time.
- It is taken for granted that people should adapt to natural cycles.
3. Event-related concept of time
- Time is when something happens.
- It is a result of a happening. Time can not be wasted or saved.

Past, present and future

Cultures with SHORT-TERM ORIENTATION have these features:
 Respect for traditions
 People prepared to overspend to keep up with the neighbours
 Small amount of savings
  People expect quick results.
Cultures with LONG-TERM ORIENTATION have these features:
 Traditions adapted for modern context
 People thrifty (tiết kiệm)
 Large amount of savings
 People persevere (kiên trì) for slow results.

Space
Office door is only closed when a private meetings is taking place. “closed door” 
unfriendliness)

Power
Power distance (Hofstede): the extent (mức độ) to which the less powerful members of
institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed
unequally.
 In large power distance cultures, subordinates expected to be told what to do, wide range
of salaries.
 In low power distane cultures, subordinates and superiors consider themselves as equals,
hierarchies are flat, salary ranges are relatively small.

Small power distance features:

 People want to minimize inequality
 Decentralization (phân quyền) is popular
 There is a narrow range of salaries
 Subordinates expect to be consulted (tư vấn, bàn bạc)
 The ideal boss is a democrat (dân chủ)
 People disapprove of status
Large power distance features:
 Inequalities are expected to and welcomed
 Centralization (tập trung hoá) is popular
 There is a wide range of salaries
 The ideal boss is an autocrat (chuyên quyền: quyền lực chỉ nằm trong tay 1 người)
 Privileges for managers are expected

Individual and group

Individualism
Individualist cultures: self-realization, people look after themselves and their immediate family.
Collectivist (chủ nghĩa tập thể) cultures: require that the individual fits into the group, people
look after a wider group, in exchange for loyalty.

Collectivist cultures features:

 Identity is based on the social network to which you belong
 Harmony should be maintained
  Communication is high context
 Employer-employee relationships are like a family link
 Decisions on employing people take the group into account
 Management is management of groups
 Relationship is more important than task.
Individualist cultures features
 Identity is based on the individual
 Honest people speak their mind
 Communication is low context
 Employer-employee relationships are based on a contract
 Decisions to employ people take skills into account
 Management is management of individuals
 Task is more important than relationship.

Universalism and particularism

A universalist (chủ nghĩa phổ quát): the religious beliefs in good and bad (laws)
A particularism (chủ nghĩa cá nhân): Particularism is based on logic of the heart and human
friendship.

Uncertainy
Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain
or unknown situations.
- Cultures with high uncertainty avoidance have: a lower tolerance (chịu đựng) for
ambiguity, higher levels of anxiety and energy release, greater need for formal rules
and absolute truth, less tolerance for people or groups with deviant (lệch lạc)
behaviour. “what is different is dangerous”
- Low uncertainty avoidance cultures: “what is different is curious”
Weak uncertainty avoidance features:
 Uncertainty is a normal feature of life
 People are comfortable in ambiguous situations
 There should not be more rules than necessary
 Tolerance of innovative ideas
 Motivation by achievement
Strong uncertainty avoidance features
 Uncertainty is a threat
 People fear ambiguous situations
 There is an emotional need for rules
 Resistance to innovation
 Motivation by security
Male and female
- In masculine cultures, men are suppossed to be tough, assertive (quả quyết), and focused
on material success, whereas women are supposed to be more modest (khiêm tốn), tender
(dịu dàng), and concerned with the quality of life.
- In feminine cultures, both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and
concerned with the quality of life.
Feminine cultures features:
 Caring for others is a dominant (chủ yếu) value
 Relationships are important
 People should be modest
 Both men and women deal with facts and feelings
 People work to live
 Managers aim for consensus (đồng ý)
 Equality, solidarity, and quality are important at work
 Conflicts are solved by compromise (thoả hiệp)
Masculine cultures features
 Material success is a dominant value
 Things are important
 Men are assertive
 Women deal with feelings
 People live to work
 Managers are expected to be decisive
 Competition and performance are important at work
 Conflicts are fought out.

Nature
3 attitudes to nature and the environment
 Control: people can dominate their environment; it can be changed to fit human needs.
 Harmony: people should live in harmony with the world around them
 Constraint (ràng buộc): people are constrained by the world around them. Fate, luck, abd
change all play a significant role.

UNIT 3: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Managing people
A good manager
In some cultures, people will value formal qualifications, others: interpersonal skills.
Some qualities of an effective manager:
 Ability to take decisions
 Clear tracking of projects and process
 Effective use of resource
 Good result/achieving goals
 Is respected and people want to work with him/her
  Creating a good working relationship

The role of the manager

Organizational structure
 Great Britain (small power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance): “village market” type
of structure; problems are solved by managers and staff working 2gether.
 Germany (small power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance): “well-oiled machine”,
with a bureaucratic structure (bộ máy quan liêu), professionally trained staff, highly
developed system of vocational training.
 France (large power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance), “pyramid of people”, with a
hierarchical bureaucracy and standardized work processes.
 China (large power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance), “family”, with direct
supervision by the owner of the company and relatives.
 The USA favours organization and divisions, with a standardization of output (chuẩn hoá
đầu ra)

Negotiating
A good negotiator
The ability to connect with others is essential to being a good negotiator. Knowing what others
are likely to want and how they will react to things means a good negotiator can easily manage
an interaction.
What is negotiation?
- Negotiation is the process of bargaining between 2 or more parties to reach a solution that
is acceptable to all parties.
- 3 types of negotiation:
 Negotiation based on compromise
 Negotiation based on synthesis (tổng hợp) (all ideas are taken into account)
 Negotiation based on synergy (the result is greater than the sum of the parts)
Culture and negotiation
Stages in a negotiation commonly identified include:
 Relationship building
 Agreeing procedure
 Exchanging information
 Questioning
 Options
 Bidding (đấu thầu)
 Bargaining
 Settling and concluding

Meetings
Contracts
In the USA, at the end of negotiations lay down the rights and duties of all the parties involved.
China, relationships are valued, it is seen as a general declaration of mutual trust
Negotiation and entertainment of the business partners is seen as a process of getting to know
each other. The business details are of secondary importance.

Socializing
The demand of socializing can put the business person under great pressure.

Giving presentation
A good presentation
Involving the audience
Making the structure very clear
Providing the audience with handouts
Summerizing what you have said at the end of the
presentation

Types of presentation
The type depends on a number of factors: national
culture of the speaker and the audience,
professional and corporate culture.
Some presentations focus on the content, while others focus on persuading the audience.

Culture and presentations

French-speaking Belgians tend to see presentation as in a polychronic and implicit (ẩn ý) way
Language fluency is important, the right word should be used.

Coping with an international audience

While you are aware of your own cultural background, you understand that they may have a
different personal style.
It is important to adapt your language to your audience. Here are some tips:
 Avoid idioms
 Speak more slowly and clearly than you might do with native speakers
 Stress important words
 Make your structure clear to the audience
 Check whether the audience is following your arguments
 Support your argument with visuals.

Cutural checklist: giving presentations

 Language: formal or informal. Level of audience.
 Structure: linear or digressive. Explicit or implicit.
 Content: detailed or general.
 Delivery: text read or improvised.
 Timing: fixed or flexible.
 Audience: oriented to audience or speaker.
 Dress: formal or informal.
 Behaviour: serious or relaxed.

Advertising
Content
Advertisers need to consider such cultural differences when planning their campaigns.

Austria, Germany, Switzeerland, Italy, the UK, and the Irish Republic
 Small power distance, medium uncertainty avoidance, medium-high individualism, high
masculinity.
 Advertising stress high performance and successful achiever themes.
Belgium, France, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Turkey
 Medium power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance, varied individualism, low-
medium masculinity.
 Advertisisng appeal to the consumer’s status, emphasize the functionality of the product,
stress risk-reduction features
Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Norway
  Small power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, high individualism, low-medium
masculinity
 Advertisers expect strong consumer enthusiasm for novelty (điều mới mẻ) and variety.

Language
“Nova” (spainish): it doesn’t go
“mist” (english)  “manure” (german): phân
Misubishi “Pajero”: rude word in Spainish
Lancia “Dedra” (Britain): death
Fiat “Uno” (finland): fool
“Kipferl”: French people couldn’t pronounce it
“Nike”: a swear word in Arabic
Number 4: death
Number 8: lucky
- When planning an advertisement to be used internationally, it is important to think about
the possible implications (ẩn ý, ngụ ý) right from the beginning.
- Translated version of an English-language text will be 20-25% longer in French and
Italian, and 25-30% longer in German.

Visuals
The way information is presented differs:
In the USA, more use was made of icons and graphics. In other cultures, use of text.
In China, companies include more people in their publicity material.

Colours
White (in the West): birth, happy events; (in China): death
Black (in the West): death
Red: the color of blood, also “life” or “death”; (in Vietnam or other Asian countries): luck
Green (the USA): freshness, health; (some cultures): dangerous jungles – even forbidden in some
parts of Indonesia.
Purple (the USA): inexpensive; (some Asia countries): luxury.

Cutural checklist: advertising

 Check that the brand or product name is acceptable in target market.
 Be careful with slogans that might not work in other languages, or in other areas of the
English-speaking world.
 Respect taboos (điều cấm kỵ) and customs.
 Avoid references which will not be understood by people from other cultures
 Check that symbols or icons are understood in the target markets in the way that you
intend them
 Consider the balance between text and visuals. This may need to change as you move
into other cultures.
 Allow for the fact that the length of text will vary from language to language.
Applying for a job
In the UK and the USA:
 not usual to send references and certificates. Employers prefer to have the name, address,
phone number of the previous employers.
 Not usual to sign or date your resume or CV
 Details of your family are not normally seen.
 Photograph should not be included unless specifically asked for.
In Britain and the USA, hobbies and leisure interests are seen as relevant.
UNIT 4: CULTURES

Your culture
Before looking at other cultures, it is important to reflect on your own culture.

The modern equivalent is the guide to local customs and good manners for business people
working abroad. These guides tend to be short and oversimplified lists of dos and don’ts, run the
risk of reinforcing (củng cố) stereotypes.

Before reading about cultures that are different to your own, think about what you would tell
people from other cultures about your own culture.

Many people find that living or working abroad helps them to understand their own cultural
background more clearly. At times we need to step back from our particular culture in order to
see it more impartially. (ko thiên vị)

Some people’s characteristics:

 Successful
 Ambitious
 Aggressive
 Clever
 Hard-working
 Modern
 Arrogant
 Boring
 Humorous
 Helpful
 Stylish
 Lazy
 Untrusworthy

Interfaces (thể diện)

When trying to understand intercultural encounters, it is
important to remember that national culture is just one of the
range of factors that influence what happens.
Some of the key factors are illustrated in the intercultural cocktail.
 Individual
 Situation
 Culture
 Context

For italians, buidling up and looking after relationships is important. As a high-context culture, in
Italy prefer oral communication.

There are important cultural differences in 4 areas:

 Understanding of what a team is
 Approaches taken in order to motivate people
 Communication styles
 Ways of solving problems

Team
The Germans see the team as:
 A group of individuals, each with special knowledge or skills
 Is built into the organizational structures of the co.
 Tasks are given to members to work on their own
The American see the team as:
 Frequent contact between the team members
 Short but frequent brainstorming sessions go generate ideas.
 Teams form and reform (cải cách) as the situation demands.

Motivation
US employees expect and get more praise than their German counterparts. (verbal, special prizes,
award, or pay increases)

Communication style
Germans:
 Communicate at work to demonstrate their knowledge and to gain respect.
 Go into as much analysis and detail as possible in presentations.
 Interpret the “sandwich technique” (negative part is sandwiched between 2 positive
statements) as either ambiguous or dishonest.
Americans:
 Communicate to be liked.
 Concentrate on the main points in presentations.
 Tend to use the “sandwich technique” to express criticism.

Problem solving
The German:
  Tend to analyze the situation in depth before taking any action
The American:
 Trying things out and seeing if they work (trial end error)
UNIT 5: GOING FURTHER
Intercultural training
Training methods
Briefings
Using culture models
Culture assimilator training
Interaction training
Designing training programmes