Importance Of Intercultural Communication †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Importance Of Intercultural Communication. Answer: Introduction: In todays world of globalization, there is no way one can understate the significance or importance of intercultural communication. Intercultural communication is an important discipline that revolves around the study of communication amongst people belonging to various social groups, ethnicities and communities, across the globe. Often used synonymously with cross-cultural communication studies and concerns with the way people belonging to different cultural backgrounds communicate with each other. Intercultural communication is highly significant today, as in a globalized world, the employees or students or even the country representatives of different counties need to communicate, negotiate as well as effectively work with the members of other cultures that lead to national prosperity as well as communal harmony. However, despite the innumerable prospects of effective intercultural communication, the same is often impeded by cultural prejudices, linguistic differences or misinterp retation of message. Hence, the report intends to offer a critical analysis of the potentiality as well as limitations of intercultural communication. Discussion: First of all, one of the most important potentialities of intercultural communication is that it facilitates effective relationship amongst the companies of various companies as well as tradesmen, thereby boosting the economy of both the nations. In the globalized era, different countries choose other countries as their trade partners and trade destinations, and consequently a large number of expatriate employees belonging to one country are sent to the other. In such a situation, effective intercultural communication helps the employees from various ethnic backgrounds to communicate effectively with one another, and in absence of misunderstanding and discontent, employee productivity and efficiency rate also improves. Most importantly, there is no way denying the fact that a company by embracing diversity of workforce is able to enjoy a variety of competences, skills and expertise that offers it a unique competitive position in the market as well. In order to illustrate the potentia lity of intercultural communication in facilitating the creation of global wealth, one can easily refer to the situation of the United States and South Korea. Despite significant cultural differences existent between the East and the West, The US and South Korea have been able to develop effective relation amongst its members, in order to promote the advancement of trade and commerce between Korea and the US, and the American Chamber of Commerce bears testimony to the same (Myers, 1987). Thus, effective intercultural communication has been helping the two nations use their shared interests and values in order to transform each others growth. However, though multiculturalism in trade is expected to promote trade prospects, and contribute to global wealth, its major limitation is linguistic difference and cultural difference. Research has suggested that while linguistic difference does remain a major problem, impeding effective communication, cultural difference is a major problem. In order to facilitate effective communication, it is highly important for the message receiver to correctly interpret the message sent by the sender (Hollins, 2017). However, the difference in outlook of life, worldview as well as the ideals, beliefs and norms, can lead the members of two different cultural groups interprets the same message in two different ways. To substantiate the argument, one can refer to how the US President who being thrown a shoe laughed it off stating that his shoe size is 10, while similar incident in the Chinese Parliament led to the expulsion of the perpetrator. Same incident thus invoked two opposite responses- one humorous and the other serious (Carbaugh, 2013). Although the employees of different countries can work together in the most harmonious way, a chief limitation hindering the prospect is that not every culture is comfortable in displaying every type of emotion in the cultural setting. The difference in interpretation of an action, behaviour or gesture can easily lead to organizational conflict, or escalate existent conflict and tension within the organization. Another important potentiality of intercultural communication is that it helps in promoting communal harmony and brings in global peace and stability. There is no point stating the fact that our society is infested with negative stereotyped images of the people belonging to different cultural groups, and ethnocentric issues which encourage religious fanaticism, communal tension and terrorism. However, effective intercultural communication can encourage socialization, whereby the exchange of cultural elements amongst the members of different cultural origin, helps in the internalization of divers norms and social values. Even if one does not internalize the cultural values of another cultural group, he will at least learn to be tolerant towards his values, and appreciate the same (Bochner, 2013). This will help in addressing the problems of communal violence and racial tension so prevalent in the world. However, although this is an important potentiality of intercultural communication , one must remember that the media houses and different political parties often distort the image and stereotype the people belonging to different cultural groups. For example, one of the important examples of this limitation here is how the immigrants are often portrayed as the terrorists threatening the stability of the nation (Young Schartner, 2015). Often the media houses distort the image of the Arabian or Islamic people and associate them with various terrorist groups. Consequently, when they wish to interact with the people of a different country or culture, their motives are often questioned, and their gesture of friendliness also ends up intimidating the member of a different cultural group. The famous Anglo-Arab cultural conflict is an example of such intercultural hindrances. The next potentiality of intercultural communication is that it facilitates the geographical expansion of capitalism as well as democracy, by helping the members of different cultures, value as well as appreciate the ideological norms of other cultures. However, a major limitation of this social cohesion to be achieved through intercultural communication lies in the fact that many people suffer from Ethnocentrism (Chen, 2017). Ethnocentrism is a situation where the member of one culture believes in the superiority of his own culture over others, and this affects their perception of the members of other cultural group. In case of intercultural communication, it may happen that the member of one culture is disrespectful or is even unable to decode the non-verbal communication or behaviour of the member of another culture. For example, an Asian believing in collectivism will tend to share and express interest regarding the personal issues of his business partner (Shebzukhova et al., 201 4). However, in case the business partner is coming from a Western country like USA with a far more individualistic culture, he may interpret this informal behaviour as unprofessional. This can lead to misunderstanding or even conflict. Conclusion: To conclude, it should be remembered that the process of intercultural communication is likely to involve more than language. Even sufficient linguistic understanding also may not be sufficient to interpret the non-verbal language of the member belonging to another cultural group. Culture as well as cultural differences are central in the process, and hence must be taken into serious consideration. This is why it is important to incorporate cultural awareness and education in the academic curriculum of every student. Despite the prospects of financial growth as well as social peace and stability, the limitations of intercultural communication continue to impede the growth of communication across the globe. References: Bochner, S. (Ed.). (2013).Cultures in contact: Studies in cross-cultural interaction(Vol. 1). Elsevier. Carbaugh, D. (2013).Cultural communication and intercultural contact. Routledge. Chen, L. (Ed.). (2017).Intercultural communication(Vol. 9). Walter de Gruyter GmbH Co KG. Hollins, E. R. (2015).Culture in school learning: Revealing the deep meaning. Routledge. Myers, L. J. (1987). The deep structure of culture: Relevance of traditional African culture in contemporary life.Journal of Black Studies,18(1), 72-85. Shebzukhova, T. A., Bondarenko, N. G. (2014). Language and values as basic elements of cross-cultural communication in tourism. InHumanities and Social Sciences in Europe: Achievements and Perspectives, 3rd International symposium(pp. 310-314). Young, T. J., Schartner, A. (2014). The effects of cross-cultural communication education on international students' adjustment and adaptation.Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development,35(6), 547-562.