Intercultural Business Communication

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Intercultural Business Communication
WANG Guanglin,2013-08-11 nathan_wang_at_126.com
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Course Overview

• Unit 1 The Intercultural Challenge in
  International Business
• Unit 2 Communication an Intercultural
  Perspective
• Unit 3 Culture, Language and Communication
• Unit 4 Dimensions of Culture in International
  Business
• Unit 5 Cultural Shock and Intercultural
  Adaptation
• Unit 6 Intercultural Communication Competence
• Unit 7 Verbal Communication in International
  Business
• Unit 8 Cultural Translation and International
  Business
• Unit 9 Non-verbal Communication in
  International Business
• Unit 10 Intercultural Business Etiquette and
  Protocol
• Unit 11 Intercultural Marketing Communication
• Unit 12 Intercultural Business Negotiation
• Unit 13 Intercultural Management Communication
• Unit 14 Team Work Leadership across Cultures
• Unit 15 Job Searching Skill in Global Workplace

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Unit Layout

• 1. Learning Objective
• 2. Case and case analysis (including video)
• 3. Intercultural Business Communication
• Theories
• 4. Summary
• 5. Communication workshop skills
• 6. Key terms
• 7. Chapter Review Quiz
• 8. Study questions

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Why Intercultural Business Communication

• ??????(Goldman Sachs Group)??,??????20?????5?,??80
  ?????
• ????????????(UK Trade and Investment office
  (UKTI))???,?2030?,93?????????????????????????????
  ?????
• ???????????,????,????1000?(Global
  1000)?,70??????????????

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Why Intercultural Business Communication

• ??(McKinsey Global Institute)?????,????????13???
  ??????????,?????????????????
• ????(Global English)2010??152???26000?????,92????
  ?????????????

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Why Intercultural Business Communication

• ??(The U.S. Department of Education)??,??21??,60?
  ?????????20????,????????,??????????,????????
• ---- 2007?,???????????????????????????????????
  ????,???????????????????

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Why You Need to Build Career Skills

• Strong communication skills are
• necessary for hiring.
• top skill set sought by employers.
• critical for promotion.
• essential for effective job performance.
• more important now as a result of technology.
• learned through instruction and practice.

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Ensure Your Success as a Knowledge Worker

• In todays Information Age, expect to
• work with words, figures, and data
• think critically
• make decisions
• take charge of your career
• continue learning all your life

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Factors that Affect You in the New Workplace

• Heightened global competition
• Interconnectedness of cultures
• Flattened management hierarchies
• Expanded team-based management
• Innovative communication technology
• New work environments
• Increasingly diverse workforce

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Aphorism

• We are what we think.
• All that we are arises with our thoughts.
• With our thoughts we make the world.
• ---- Gautama Buddha (c. 563 c. 483 BC)

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Unit 1 The Intercultural Challenge in
International Business

• Chapter objective
• By the end of this chapter, you should be
• able to
• understand the impact of globalization on
  intercultural communication
• understand to what extent your reactions,
  behaviors, and practices are culturally
  conditioned.
• identify, accept and adjust to cultural
  differences

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Unit 1 The Intercultural Challenge in
International Business

• identify and solve potential problems in
  intercultural communication
• apply communication ideas and concepts to
  effective practices in intercultural
  communication
• adjust to culturally based differences in
  communication style and differences in perception
  
• apply and analyze cases related to cultural
  practices in international business.

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Case 1

• Confucius Institute in Slovenia
• W and H Issue
• When and where did this story happen?
• Who was involved?
• What kind of communication or mis-communications
  occurred?
• How did you feel at the time?
• How far did you feel the incident was caused by
  cultural factors?
• How was the situation changed after
  communication?

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1. Globalization and International Business

• globalization functions as a set of texts,
  ideas, goals, values, narratives, dispositions
  and prohibitions, a veritable template for
  ordering and evaluating activities, which is
  filled in or inflected with the interests of
  whoever can access it (Tony Schirato, Jen Webb,
  Understanding Globalization, London Sage
  Publications, 2003 200)

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1. Globalization and International Business

• Theodore Levitts (1983) article Globalization
  of Markets.
• "We could be sitting here, somebody from New
  York, London, Boston, San Francisco, all live.
  And maybe the implementation is in Singapore, so
  the Singapore person could also be live here .. .
  That's globalization," Thomas L. Friedman. The
  World is Flat A Brief History of the
  Twenty-first Century. Picador I Farrar, Straus
  and Giroux New York, 2007. p. 6.
• Globophilia vs. Globophobia

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Globalization China

• Chinas accession to the World Trade
  Organization (WTO) in 2001
• Of top 10 companies in Fortune 500, 3 are Chinese
  companies, and 92 Chinese companies are listed in
  Global 500 companies.
• The Apple, Volkswagen, NIKE, Starbucks,
  Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Kentucky Fried Chicken
  are ubiquitous DuPont Alcatel
• At the same time, powerful Chinese domestic
  multinationals such as Huawei, Geely (Jili),
  Haier, Lenovo, PetroChina and SinoPec are shaking
  the world with their own economic power.

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Globalization of Markets

• McDonalds busiest location is not in US.
• KFC is available over 11,000 locations in over 80
  countries
• In 2010, Toyota employed 325,905 people in the
  world, and As of March 2013, Japan is Toyota's
  largest hybrid market, with 2.318 million Toyota
  and Lexus hybrids sold. As of the end of Dec.
  2012, Toyota conducts its business worldwide with
  52 overseas manufacturing companies in 27
  countries and regions. Toyota's vehicles are sold
  in more than 160 countries and regions.
• GM collected revenues of 152.2 billion,
  employed 212,000 people and operated in over 100
  countries in 2012.

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2. Technology and the Internet

• Facebook,
• MySpace,
• LinkedIn,
• Weixin, Weibo
• as of the end of June 2013, the number of Chinas
  netizens reached 591 million, an increase of
  26.56 million compared to the end of 2012.

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Internet Users in the World
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3. Demographic Changes
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American Demographics
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Demographic issues

• Population and energy population and consumption
• How can we communicate with members of a
  culturally diverse workforce in ways that respect
  difference and help achieve organizational and
  individual goals?
• How do members of the sandwich generation cope
  with the stresses of work and family concerns?

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Demographic issues

• What are the various communication patterns and
  needs of individuals from different age groups?
• How can we use communication technology to design
  virtual workplaces for employees in a variety of
  locations?

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4. Global diaspora and multiculturalism

• Diaspora and multiculturalism
• The salad bowl
• Melting pot
• Cultural mosaic
• Unity in diversity or diversity in unity

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5. Global Environmental Issues

• Al Gore (An Inconvenient Truth ,2006), humanitys
  role in climate change and the task governments,
  businesses, and individuals. (Show film)
• December 2005, an earthquake created a tsunami
  along the coastal areas of 11 Indian Ocean
  nations, killing an estimated 230,000 people32
  and leaving millions homeless.

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5. Global Environmental Issues

• October 2005, an earthquake in the Kashmir
  region, claimed as many as 79,000 lives and
  forced 3.5 million people into refugee camps.
• May 2008, an earthquake devastated Sichuan
  Province in central China.

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Eco Issues

• Economic vs. ecologic
• Sand storm
• Air-pollution (PM 2.5)
• Hot weather
• Oil leakage
• Dead pigs phenomenon
• Lung cancer (air), gastric cancer (food), liver
  cancer (water) Ma Yun

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Barriers to Intercultural Business Communication
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When Cultures Collide
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Definitions of culture

• Cultureis the collective programming of the
  mind that distinguishes the members of one group
  or category of people from others.
• (Geert Hofstede,Gert Jan Hofstede Michael
  Minkov. Cultures and Organizations Software of
  The Mind-Intercultural Cooperation and Its
  Importance for Survival. New York McGraw-Hill.
  2010. p. 6)

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Software of the mind
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Sources of Culture
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Barriers to Intercultural Communication

• Attitude
• Perceptions
• Stereotypes
• Interpretation
• Interdependence
• Cultural Shock
• Reverse cultural shock

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Perception

• Perception is a conscious sensory experience.
• Rubin's vase What can you get out of this
  picture?

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Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is learned
• learning culture through proverbs
• learning culture through folktales, legends and
  myths
• Learning culture through art
• Learning culture through mass media
• Culture is shared
• Culture is contextual
• Culture is transmitted from generation to
  generation
• Culture is dynamic
• Culture is an integrated system

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Dichotomies of culture

• Edward T. Hall. High Context vs. low context
• Edward T. Hall. Polychronic vs. mono-chronic
• Geert Hofstede. Five Dimensions
• Trompenaars Seven Dimensions

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Low Context vs. High Context
Adopted from Mary Ellen Guffey. Business
Communication, Process Product, 6th Edition,
Mason OH, South-Western Cengage. 2008, p. 75.
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(No Transcript)
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Polychronic vs. Monochronic
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Trompenaars Components of Culture
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Yin yang Model

• Paradox
• ??
• ??
• ??
• cross-cultural communication, intercultural
  communication, interdiscourse communication.

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Culture Shock
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Intecultural Business Communication (Linda Beamer)
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The Communication Process Basic Model
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The Communication Process Expanded Model
Sending Channel
Encoding
Decoding
Feedback Channel
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Barriers That Create Misunderstandings

• Bypassing
• Poor listening skills
• Differing frames of reference
• Lack of language skills
• Emotional interference
• Physical distractions

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Listening (case analysis)

• ?
• This Chinese word for listen (Ting), is composed
  of ???????????, which implies that in order to
  listen effectively, a person needs to
• 1. use ones ear to literally hear the words
• 2. use ones mouth to express properly
• 3. to use ones mind to understand the words

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Listening (case analysis)

• 4. to use ones eyes to observe the non-verbal
  messages
• 5. use ones heart to understand the feelings of
  the speaker
• 6. and it is regarded as an sublime behavior as
  those who listen carefully are endowed with
  imperial ears

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Overcoming Barriers That Cause Misunderstandings

• Realize that communication is imperfect.
• Adapt the message to the receiver.
• Improve your language and listening skills.
• Question your preconceptions.
• Encourage feedback.

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Key Concepts

• globalization
• Globophilia vs. globophobia
• outsourcing
• climate change
• demographics
• population shifts

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Key Concepts

• transmission model of communication
• Intercultural communication vs. cross-cultural
  communication
• High context vs. low context
• Stereotype
• Cultural shock

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Activities

• 1. Explain the following statement In studying
  other cultures, we do so very often from the
  perspective of our own culture.
• 2. Explain how changes in technology, the new
  global economy, and increases in the worlds
  population might affect you.
• 3. Explain how and why communication and culture
  are linked.

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Activities

• 4. Explain the following statement When
  studying intercultural communication, you should
  be aware of the problems associated with
  individual uniqueness, stereotyping, objectivity,
  and assuming communication is a cure-all.
• 5. Explain what is meant by the phrase
  Communication is contextual. Can you think of
  examples of how context has influenced your
  behavior?

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Discussion ideas

• 1. How have your country or work been affected by
  issues such as globalization, climate change, and
  changing demographics? How do these issues have
  different effects on different people and
  different kinds of working environment?
• 2. What kind of cultural and management changes
  have been brought about by globalization? To what
  extent these changes enhance or reduce the
  quality of life for individuals in different
  working environments?

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Discussion ideas

• 3. How would each of the communications discussed
  in this chapter help to deal with issues in
  national or international business? For instance,
  the BP oil spill in USA or food safety issues in
  China?
• 4. In small groups, discuss national or domestic
  news stories from the past week to determine
  under what circumstances cultures encountering
  one another display communication.

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Discussion ideas

• 5. In small groups, discuss your interpretation
  of the following quote Globalization is
  political, technological, and cultural, as well
  as economic.
• 6. In small groups, identify your culture or
  sub-culture.

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Discussion ideas

• 7. Discuss with other members of your class the
  types of communication problems that have
  occurred when you have interacted with people
  from cultures different from your own.
• 8. In small groups, discuss the various ways in
  which the dominant culture influences and
  controls the values, attitudes, and behavior of
  sub-cultures.

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Case studies Critical Thinking

• Walmart www.walmart.com (?????????)
• ????3???
• 1. In its international expansion policy,
  Wal-Mart followed the advice of Harvard professor
  Theodore Levitt, whose famous 1983 paper The
  Globalization of Markets advocated
  standardization, not localization Gone are
  accustomed differences in national or regional
  preference, and truly global firms sought to
  force suitably standardized products and
  practices on the entire globe. Should companies
  stick to a standardized approach or adapt to
  local markets?

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Case studies Critical Thinking

• 2. What domestic and global changes are taking
  place that encourage the international expansion
  of companies such as Wal-Mart?
• 3. What other U.S. businesses can you name that
  have merged with foreign companies or expanded to
  become multinational in scope? Have you heard of
  any notable successes or failures?
• Compare and contrast Walmart Carrefour.

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Thank you!