MODULE 1

TOPIC 2: Communication and Globalization

Course Learning Outcomes:

1. determine the link between globalization and communication
2. note down the role of culture in communication
3. identify the barriers in effective communication

Time Frame:

Learning Experiences:

Engage
Do you think of globalization as
Kofi Annan does?

Explore
Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and
integration
companies,
people,
governments
nations,
trade
international
aided
technology.
effects
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on
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governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and
aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on
political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being
in societies around the world.

Technology has been the other principal driver of globalization. Advances in information
technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life. Information
technologies have given all sorts of individual economic actors—consumers, investors,
businesses—valuable new tools for identifying and pursuing economic opportunities,
including faster and more informed analyses of economic trends around the world, easy
transfers of assets, and collaboration with far-flung partners. Globalization is deeply
controversial, however.

Proponents of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop
economically and raise their standards of living, while opponents of globalization claim that the
creation of an unfettered international free market has benefited multinational corporations
in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people.
Resistance to globalization has therefore taken shape both at a popular and at a

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governmental level as people and governments try to manage the flow of capital, labor, goods,
and ideas that constitute the current wave of globalization. To find the right balance between
benefits and costs associated with globalization, citizens of all nations need to understand how
globalization works and the policy choices facing them and their societies.---Polytechnic
University of the Philippines

Explain
Globalization is the word used to describe the growing interdependence of the world’s
economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services,
technology, and flows of investment, people, and information. Countries have built economic
partnerships to facilitate these movements over many centuries. But the term gained popularity
after the Cold War in the early 1990s, as these cooperative arrangements shaped modern
everyday life.

The Effects of Globalization on Global Communication

By: Anam Ahmed
Reviewed by: Elisa Shoenberger, M.B.A.
Updated November 21, 2018

Connecting with people on the other side of the world is now much easier than it was a few years
ago. Satellites, fiber-optic cables and the internet make it effortless to share information with
those in different time zones and locations. Global communication is directly affected by the
process of globalization, and helps to increase business opportunities, remove cultural barriers
and develop a global village. Both globalization and global communication have changed the
environmental, cultural, political and economic elements of the world.

1. Increased Business Opportunities

Many companies today hire employees that are located in other countries. Using communication
vehicles such as video calling make it simple to converse with colleagues across the globe,
almost making it feel as if they are in the same room. Technology also makes it easier to connect
with suppliers and customers all over the world, and to streamline those relationship through
improves ordering, shipment tracking and so on. With this kind of communication technology,
many businesses are able to take advantage of opportunities in different countries or cities,
improving the economic outlook on a global level.

Thanks to global communications, information itself can be transferred as a valuable business

asset from one country to another. This has the effect of making everyone's operations more
modern and efficient, regardless where they are located.

2. Fewer Cultural Barriers

Many people perceive culture to be the root of communication challenges. When people from
two different cultures try to exchange information, the way they speak, their body language or
their mannerisms can be interpreted differently by the other person. The way people approach
problems and how they participate in communities is all influenced by culture.

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Globalization has made it possible, for example, for someone in Japan to understand how
someone in the U.S. goes about their day. With television and movies, cultural barriers are
becoming less prevalent. Being able to communicate effectively and frequently with colleagues
or friends across the planet helps people understand each other’s cultures a little better.

3. Creation of a Global Village

You’ve likely heard of the phrase "global village," coined by theorist Marshall McLuhan.
Affected both by globalization and global communication, the global village is created when
distance and isolation no longer matter because people are connected by technology. Wide-
spread telephone and internet access have been life-changing for many people across the world,
especially those in developing countries. Many are now enrolling in universities across the world
without having to leave their desk chair. Virtual assistant jobs are becoming commonplace,
where employees from developing countries work with companies in North America or Europe,
providing administrative support and other business services that can easily be conducted over
the phone or via the internet.

Globalization and global communication have made it easier to see people on the other side of
the world as a neighbor, instead of a stranger from a faraway land. There is so much knowledge
about other countries and cultures available online, that it’s no longer a complete mystery.

Elaborate
Global Communication
At its root, global communication can be defined just as any communication can: a message is
sent from one person or group to another anywhere in the world., which can be described as a
five-step process:

1. A person or an organization in one country sends a message.

2. The message is encoded.
3. The message travels through a channel or medium.
4. The receiver in another country decodes the message.
5. The recipient receives the message.
When it comes to communicating globally, it is usually in the encoding and decoding that
problems occur. As with any communication, ensuring that the message is received as it was
intended is the responsibility of the sender.

Examples of Global Communication

One of the most common forms of global communication is an email. A person in one country
types a message and clicks the send button. The message is then encoded into packets which are
sent across the internet to the recipient. In another country, the receiver logs in and decodes the
message by opening the email, and retrieves the message.

When someone from another country reads your company's web page, this too is an example of
global communication. The message is written and encoded in HTML, uploaded to a server,
which is then accessed across the internet and decoded by a web browser – and perhaps a
translation plugin – before the recipient reads it.

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In both of these examples, noise can distort the message or make it undecipherable. In electronic
communication, noise can include anything from typos that change the context of a sentence to a
failed internet connection, which could make it appear that you are not communicating anything
at all.

With global communication, encoding and decoding the message can be more complicated than
when you are communicating with someone in your own country due to differences in language
and culture. If either the sender or receiver isn't proficient in the language being used to send the
message, translation issues can add noise, distorting the message. Even small cultural differences
can add noise. While most Americans, for example, associate the word "cheers" with drinking,
someone from the UK may informally use the word as a way of saying thank you, or goodbye. In
Quebec, Canada, a car is often called "un char," which most translation services decode as a
"chariot" or a "tank."

Global communication becomes more complicated when there are multiple recipients from
different cultures with different languages all receiving the same message, as well as when there
are more layers added to the channel. For example, if a world leader makes a speech broadcast
across the globe, people from one region may rejoice at the news, while others may find it
offensive. In this case, the channel itself can involve many different layers, as translators, news,
editors and commentators each interpret the message differently before passing it on to the
intended audiences.

Global Communication in Business

Because there are so many different ways communication can fail in a global context, businesses
must be diligent in reducing as many potential errors as possible, especially those related to
differences in language and culture.

Before attempting to do business with people in another country, organizations should become
familiar with cultural differences that can arise in different contexts. It may be necessary to hire
consultants who are experienced with that country.

For large ventures, like a major product launch in a different country, Debra Davenport of
Purdue University recommends hiring a team of local specialists from that country, including:

1. a corporate law firm

2. a protocol and etiquette specialist
3. a media consultant
4. a human resources and labor law expert
5. a management consulting firm
6. a corporate anthropologist
7. a market research firm

Each of these specialists is able to give insights into local laws and customs to help ensure the
new venture doesn't result in unnecessary complications or liabilities that could destroy a
company's reputation before they even get started. Small businesses may not have the budget to

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bring on a team of specialists. However, they still need to be familiar with local laws, culture and
language.

Language Barriers in Global Business Communication

Whenever you are communicating with someone in their language, it is your responsibility to
ensure that the words you use are correct. This includes advertising and marketing. Over the past
several decades there have been many large and successful companies that have made mistakes
when translating what they wanted to say to a different language, often with offensive, or even
hilarious, results. Here are a few examples of some translation misfires:

1. Germany: Clairol marketed a new curling iron named "Mist Stick." In German, mist
means manure.
2. China: Coca-Cola's name was mistranslated when it began selling its product to the
Chinese, who were told to "bite the wax tadpole."
3. Ethiopia: When Gerber began selling its baby food here, they used the same label design
as in other countries, featuring a cute infant. In Ethiopia, however, where not everyone
was literate, the custom was that images on a label only depicted the jar's contents.
4. Mexico: When Parker Pen began marketing its pens to this Spanish country, its motto, "It
won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you" was translated to, "It won't leak in your
pocket and make you pregnant."
5. Thailand: Ikea entered this market using the same Swedish names for its products that it
used all over the world. However, many of these names in Thai have sexual implications,
like"getting to third base."

Cultural Barriers in Global Business Communication

A common way small businesses first become involved in global operations is by hiring a firm or
consultant from another country, like a company in the United States hiring a software
development team in India with more affordable rates than those who are available locally.

Throughout their initial conversations, the American manager may be focused on the project
requirements, timelines and deliverables. The Indian manager, on the other hand, may be more
focused on building a solid relationship with a new client. After the American manager carefully
explains the project requirements and deliverable in terms she believes are easy to understand,
the Indian manager has many questions but does not ask them. Instead, he says, "Yes," and
agrees to take on the project. Weeks later, when the Indian team completes the first phase of the
project, it does not meet the Americans' expectations and the relationship falls apart.

This was caused by a cultural nuance, in which the word "Yes" did not necessarily mean that the
Indian manager understood everything and was in agreement. It was simply a word that he used
to move the relationship forward. Had the American manager understood this, she could have
invested more time in fostering their new relationship before assuming that they were in
agreement, thus avoiding the problem.

Complications Inherent With Global Communication

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Increasing communication from a local to a global scale has many ramifications beyond cultural
pitfalls and language barriers. One example is the increase in emails and other messages people
receive every day, many of which are sent from different time zones, often when the recipient is
not even awake to read them in a timely manner. Many business people now receive up to 200
emails each day, which is too many to read carefully and respond to in a thoughtful manner. The
result is that many emails are merely scanned before being deleted, or filtered away by software,
never to be even read.

Business people must be diligent in trying to ensure that the most important emails don't get lost
in the volume. A legitimate query from a potential new client could get mistaken for spam. An
important question from a business partner could get lost in a series of replies in an unrelated
thread of messages. Additionally, when sending an email, business people have no assurances
that the message will be received and read by the recipient.

Another complication in global communication for businesses is overcoming the disadvantage

you have when competing with local companies. While face-to-face meetings can be replaced
with video conference calls, subtleties of body language can't always be captured on video. A
frown from an executive during a presentation, for example, is a crucial piece of visual
information that you could easily miss on video, particularly when that executive may be off-
camera at that moment.

There are many other pieces of important information that get lost when you are interacting with
someone across the globe. When doing business locally, it's usually quite easy to discern
between a company located in the business district, whose ads you have noticed on billboards
and local radio for a number of years, compared to a business located in an apartment building
on the outskirts of town. On the other hand, when you are approached by a company located in a
different country, you may not have much to go with beyond what they state on their website.
Finding out more about a foreign firm usually requires much more time and research.

On top of that, you may also need to spend more time researching the region where a foreign
company is based. You should know, for example:

How strong is their currency?

Is the local economy stable?
Are there trade agreements or tariffs that would affect your business?
What recourse will you have if they don't pay their bills?
How will you find out if there are changes in any of these answers?

Benefits of Global Communication

Despite the risks, operating a business on a global level has many benefits that far outweigh
those risks. Not only does doing business on a global level open up new markets for selling
products and services, it can give you access to resources and talent that may not be available
locally. While every business is different, it's worthwhile to note that Coca-Cola didn't stop
selling their products worldwide because of a few translation problems.

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As the world has continued to become more tightly connected and communication technologies
have continued to evolve, the benefits as a whole can be illustrated by the market penetration of
these new technologies themselves. The more globally connected the world has become, the
faster people have adopted new global communication technologies.

The telephone, which was the greatest global communication technology of its time, replacing
the telegraph, took 71 years to reach a market penetration of 50 percent of homes. Electricity
took 52 years to reach the same penetration. Radios followed, taking 28 years. Color televisions
took 18 years. Personal computers took only 19 years. Cellphones took 14 years, while internet
access took only 10 years to reach 50 percent of all homes in the U.S.

Because a growing number of companies are already competing on a global level, any business
that wants to compete with them must also open its channels to communicate effectively with the
entire world.

Evaluate
In your personal experience, have you ever had miscommunication issues simply because of
cultural differences?

Assessment
Essay:
1. Explain the connection between globalization and communication. (5)
2. Explain the role of culture in global communication. (5)
3. Think of a local practice, culture or tradition that you think people of other culture would
find different or weird (?). Describe the said practice and explain what it is all about, why is
it done and what it means to you as a local. (10 pts.)

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