BUSINESS

COMMUNICATION
CULTURAL BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION
CULTURE
• “Culture is the pattern of taken-for-granted assumptions about how a
given collection of people should think, act, and feel as they go about
their daily affairs”
• -Joynt & Warner, 1996
• 
• Culture is all socially transmitted behavior, arts, architectures,
languages, signs, symbols, ideas, beliefs, norms, traditions, rituals, etc.
Which is learnt and shared in a particular social group of the same
nationality, ethnicity, religion, etc.
CULTURE
• Culture is handed down from one generation to another. It gives
people their way of seeing the world and interpreting life. A single
culture has many sub-cultures.
• 
• Cultural diversity makes communication difficult as the mindset of
people of different cultures are different, the language, signs and
symbols are also different.
CULTURE
• Different cultures have different meaning of words, behaviors and
gestures. Culture also gives rise to prejudices, ethnocentrism,
manners and opinions. It forms the way people think and behave.
When people belonging to different cultures communicate, these
factors can become barriers.
• 
• The way you communicate is affected by the culture you were
brought up in. The opposite is also true. Culture is, to a large extent,
determined by the way we communicate.
WHAT IS OUR CULTURE?
• WHAT ARE OUR TRADITIONS?
• WHAT IS THE BEST ATTIRE TO BE WORN ?
• WHAT WILL MAKE YOUR REPRESENTATION OUTSTANDING ON
NATIONAL LEVEL AND ON INTERNATIONAL LEVELS?
DIFFERENT STYLES OF
COMMUNICATION BASED ON
CULTURAL DIFFERENCE
• In America, people communicate freely and that is a part of their culture. In
Germany, an Indian who is used to being very indirect with his
communication might find their direct way of speaking rude. Being direct is
part of the German culture and it is reflected in the way they communicate.
Communication shapes culture and culture shapes communication.
• Shaking hands with both genders is acceptable in the Western world,
certainly not in the East!
• While white flowers represent innocence and purity in the American
culture, they are the opposite in the Chinese culture. White represents
death and ghosts to the Chinese people and are often found at funerals.
Red and Pink: Red and pink represent life and celebration
LANGUAGE DIFFERENCE
• There are billions of people in the world who do not understand English or cannot communicate in
English properly. Not speaking properly can cause various misunderstandings and be a barrier to
communication.
• 
• Different cultures have developed their own language as a part of their heritage. People are
comfortable communicating in their own language whereas have to work hard to learn new
languages.
• For example, separation of East and West Germany for 40 years caused the language to differ a lot.
The dialect became very different as people of East Germany had an influence of Russian language
whereas West Germany had influence of English. They had a barrier in communicating with each
other for decades.
• 
• Even when people try to express in their own language, many misunderstandings arise. It becomes
more profound in people speaking different languages.
SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (SEMANTICS)
• The Semantic Barriers refers to the misunderstanding between the sender and receiver
arising due to the different meanings of words, and other symbols used in the
communication.
• The semantic barriers usually arise when the information is not in the simple language
and contains those words or symbols that have multiple meanings. Following are the
main language barriers:
• Bad Expression: The message is not formulated properly and the language used is so
difficult that it could be misinterpreted by the recipient. The message is said to be badly
expressed if the wrong words are chosen, the sentences are not sequenced properly,
and there is a frequent repetition of words or sentences. The badly expressed messages
consume a lot of time as it requires corrections and clarifications and also the impact of
the message gets reduced.
• Symbols, or Words with Different Meanings: There are several words that carry different meanings
and often, people get confused with these words and interpret these differently due to the
difference in their educational and social backgrounds. Such as, the word “Crane” has different
meaning as shown in the sentences below:The bird sanctuary is full of cranes.
• The builder used a crane to lift heavy steel rods.
• The girl has to crane her neck to watch the movie.
SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (SEMANTICS)
• Faulty Translation: Sometimes, the sender translates the message as per his level of understanding
irrespective of the recipient’s comprehension level. For example, a manager collected information
from his superiors and subordinates and translated the same information to all his employees,
according to the understanding level of the superiors, and this led to the misinterpretation of the
message. Thus, it is required to mold the message according to the understanding levels of the
employees to have an intended response.
• Unclarified Assumptions: Sometimes the sender creates assumptions about certain things which he
feels the receiver must be knowing about it and focus only on the subject matter. But in the case of a
special message, if the assumptions are vague and unknown to the receiver then the communication
might get adversely affected.
• Denotations and Connotations: The denotation means the literal meaning of the word, it just shows
the name of the object and does not imply any negative or positive qualities. The denotation barriers
arise due to the sender and receiver using a different definition and meaning of the word used in the
message. Such as word crane is used in the context of bird species but it is interpreted as a vehicle
that lifts the objects.
SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (SEMANTICS)
• Technical jargons: Often people working in the technical groups such
as engineers, production managers, IT managers, etc. use the
technical jargons in their communication which is quite difficult for
the layman to understand. Thus, the use of technical jargons in
communication can act as a barrier.
• Thus, semantic barriers lead to misunderstanding of the information
and the objective of communication, i.e. for which it was intended,
gets disrupted.
SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (SEMANTICS)
• Non-verbal communication cannot be relied upon in communication
between people from different cultures as that is also different like
language. Signs, symbols and gestures varies in different cultures.
• 
• For example, the sign “thumbs up” is taken as a sign of approval and
wishing luck in most of the cultures but is taken as an insult in
Bangladesh.
• The culture sets some meanings of signs like the ones mentioned
above, which might not be the same in other culture.
STEREOTYPES AND PREJUDICES

• Stereotyping is the process of creating a picture of a whole culture, overgeneralizing all people
belonging to the same culture as having similar characteristics and categorizing people accordingly. It
is a belief about a certain group and is mostly negative.
•  Stereotyping can be done on the basis of many things like nationality, gender, race, religion,
ethnicity, age, etc.
• For example, Asian students are stereotyped to be good at Math which is a positive stereotype. But,
there is also cultural stereotype of all people following a particular religion as being violent like Islam
and is negative stereotyping.
• 
• Negative stereotyping creates prejudices as it provokes judgmental attitudes. People look at those
cultures as evil and treat the people following the religion wickedly. Media is a tool of mass
communication which promotes stereotypes and prejudices and creates more communication
barriers.
BEHAVIOUR AND BELIEFS:

• Cultural differences causes behavior and personality differences like body language, thinking,
communication, manners, norms, etc. which leads to miscommunication.
• For example, in some cultures eye contact is important whereas in some it is rude and
disrespectful.
• Culture also sets a specific norms which dictates behavior as they have guidelines for
accepted behavior. It explains what is right and wrong. Every action is influenced by culture
like ambitions, careers, interests, values, etc. Beliefs are also another cause for cultural
barrier.
• 
• For instance, mostly, people who believe in god can cope with their lows of life easily than
atheists but atheists are more hardworking at all times which relates to their behavior and
communication.
ETHNOCENTRISM
• Appropriate amount of emotion that must be displayed is also different
in different cultures. Roles are defined by culture. Good communication
only occurs between people with different cultures if both accept their
differences with open mind. 
• Ethnocentrism causes barriers in communication. Ethnocentrism is the
process of dividing cultures as “us” and “them". The people of someone’s
own culture are categorized as in-group and the other culture is out-
group. There is always greater preference to in-group. There is an illusion
of out-group as evil and inferior. This evaluation is mostly negative.
• If the culture is similar to us, then it is good and if is dissimilar, it is bad.
Other’s culture is evaluated and assessed with the standard being their
own culture. Ethnocentrism affects the understanding of message, and
encourages hostility.
• For example, the books in schools use reference of their own culture to
RELIGION:
• Similar to ethnocentrism and stereotyping, religion also disrupts
communication as it creates a specific image of people who follow
other religions. People find it difficult to talk to people who follow
different religions. Religious views influence how people think about
others. It creates differences in opinions.
• 
OVERCOMING CULTURAL BARRIERS
• There are other cultural barriers like frames of reference, political
opinions, priorities of life, age, etc. Cross cultural communication is
not only a barrier but also an opportunity for creativity, new
perspectives, and openness to new ideas and unity in the world.
• 
• To make communication effective, the causes of cultural
communication barriers must be eliminated as much as possible.
Cross cultural understanding must be increased as it decreases
communication barrier caused by culture difference.
CASE STUDY
• In January I attended a course on racism that bore the title "Fighting against racism in Switzerland" supported
by the Swiss Government. The class presented a quite heterogeneous crowd, both ethnically and
professionally. During the lunch break, which we spent in a nearby restaurant, I was sitting near a young man
from Chad who had been living in Switzerland for several years already. When it was time to pay for our
meals, this person paid for my beverage. Quite spontaneously, I reached for my wallet with the intention to
pay him back but he declined to dismiss me with a brisk gesture that betrayed some kind of indignation from
his part. Even if it was just a bottle of mineral water, it didn't feel right to let him pay for me.
• This state of affairs made me feel awkward and strengthened my determination to pay  him back; so during
the coffee break  I offered him a cappuccino but it was obvious by then that he was a little bit upset if not
offended: I started to talk about this misunderstanding openly, in a very care-free manner, in order to shed
some light on this communication problem. He told me that Europeans are a bit too cold and detached and
shouldn't be so formal. I explained to him that I couldn't avoid feeling bad and the desire to pay him back
stemmed from a natural social reflex, that translates into an exigency to be polite.
• The fact that he was an immigrant certainly didn't help; this led me to question his financial situation: him
paying for me had produced some kind of guilt in me at the time. Also my social background, or better my
personal approach to situations in general, had produced a sense of awkwardness in me because we hadn't
spoken that much prior to the incident and whereas I would normally accept this gesture from a friend or
from a close acquaintance, I couldn't do the same with a perfect stranger. In describing this situation I am
possibly understanding it better: the young man just wanted to show his sympathy and his gesture was just
part of his desire to start a new friendship. I reacted following my social code and ended up
misunderstanding the young man's intention