Cross Cultural Communication Interpretation Across

Cross Cultural Communication

Interpretation across Culture in online communication

Effective communication goes beyond the words that are used and encompasses a broader range of communicative skills, such as body language and gestures. Like, words, these gestures can have a different connotative meaning depending on cultural and contextual clues that surround them. These cultural and contextual clues are the basis for misunderstandings, particularly when two people from different cultures attempt to communicate. When two persons from the same culture communicate, contextual and body language can help to enhance the meaning of the message. They can provide a greater depth of understanding among the two parties. The following will explore current literature on cross-cultural communication in regards to the importance of culturally significant contextual clues.

Electronic Communication and Context

"The inability of firms and their managers to adjust to the demands of the international business environment has been advanced as a primary cause of international business failures" (Johnson, Lenartowicz, & Apud, 2006, p. 525).

The importance of cross cultural communication and its effect on organizational learning in the business environment cannot be emphasized enough.

Organizational learning can be divided into two types of knowledge: declarative (know-what) and procedural (know0-how) (Borgatti & Cross, 2003). A formal model of information seeking was developed that suggested that the probability of information seeking depended on four conditions: knowing what the person knows, placing value on what the person knows, being able to gain timely access to the person's thoughts, and perceiving that thinking seeking information would not be a costly endeavor (Borgatti & Cross, 2003).

Shaw, B., Scheufele, D. And Catalano found that the ability to instant message colleagues improved productivity and decreased the use of email and phone tag. Using IM, workers were able to see of other employees were online, reducing the need for repetitive attempts to reach them. This study did not address the human aspects of this communication.

Creativity is a key to deriving meaning in an online world. Students in an online environment were asked to engage in a project. Creativity was a key component in the ability to create new knowledge and to avoid misunderstandings (Patakarin & Visser, 2003). Innovation is increased with the volume of different perspectives and domains to which one is exposed (Ixchel, Faniel, & Majchrzak, 2007).

Means of comfort differ between Westerners and Asians. In a western society that stresses independence,

"the individual is the sole agent in the coping process. In contrast, there is increasing evidence that individuals from collectivistic societies, such as Asians, engage in coping

that reflects their interdependent tendencies," (Kuo, Roysircar, & Newby-Clark, 2006

These cultural differences are supported by the educational systems within these countries. In American, creativity and different intelligences are supported. However, in China creativity is squelched. "conformity is emphasized significantly more in Asian schools than in America. Inflexible rules, standard routines and an emphasis on conformity are just the right tools to squelch creativity" (Zhao, 2008, p. 20).

The ability to acquire speech and language are universal. However, although the process is the same for everyone, the meaning and content that are derived from the messages are almost entirely environmental. We learn how to interpret words and phrases from those around us (Hwa-Froelich, 2004). When asked how we are, we do not always tell the entire truth, but will respond in a manner that is consistent with our teaching to that point. We will not always provide detailed information.

The response that we give when we are asked how we are depends on many factors. For example, it depends on closeness and familiarity of the persons that are speaking, It depends on the formal relationship that exists. For instance, if a boss and an employee are the two communicators, then the response may be more vague than if the question is between two friends. In some cultures, it may be inappropriate for a manager to ask an underling how they are. In Middle Eastern countries, it is traditional to respond with information about one's family rather than oneself. This answer may appear to be strange to a westernized communicator. It could even appear to be an evasive or an unresponsive insult. These types of misunderstandings plague electronic communication on a daily basis. The westerner's response to "How are you?" may seem to be short and terse to someone from a different culture.

Electronic communication offers new pathways for the exchange of information. Communicators in the online world depends on the individual's tendency to seek knowledge and the willingness to share information (Mergel, Lazer & Binz-Schart, 2005; Woudstra & Van Der Hooff, 2008;Boh, 2007). Employees used a variety of tools in their quest for knowledge. Among them directories and personal networks were the most widely used (Ehrlich & Shami, 2008).

One example of this is software known as SmallBlue. This software is a social context-aware expertise search system that uses privacy to infer content and socially dynamic network from email and chat log information (Ehrlich, Lin, & Griffith-Fisher, 2007). Searching has social implications. The mechanisms that lead to seeking social help are not fully understood at this time (Evans, Kairam, & Priolli, 2009). Technology based information seeking and seeking information from a social group are not psychologically interchangeable actions (Gray & Meister, 2006).

In an experiment that involved communication between American and Russian students, differences in communication were found. For instance, Russian students were much more likely to address their professor as "their dear teacher" or to sign their letter with "love" (Stevens, 2001. p. 59). These same forms of emotional expression were not found among American students (Stevens, 2001). Cultural differences such as these set he stage for cultural misunderstandings and miscommunication.

Trust Building in an Online World

Trust is an essential part of the online world. Coppola et al., 2004 found that virtual teams functional similarly to temporary teams in the traditional work environment. Virtual team members must be self-driven and must have a significant amount of trust between them (Suchan & Hayzak, 2001). Gross (2002) found that humans need the interaction with other humans in order to form strong bonds. This same study also found that is it necessary to be aware of cultural differences in order to avoid misunderstandings.

Subgroups emerge in global virtual teams as a result of misunderstanding that caused the teams members to create boundaries (Panteli & Davison, 2005). Team members must be willing to take ownership of their faults in an electronic group in order to maintain team cohesiveness (Panteli & Davison, 2005). Virtual organizations are dynamic and continually going through changes (Burn & Barnett, 1999). Those that experience the greatest success are those that treat communication as an integral part of their infrastructure (Burn & Barnett, 1999). Trust is essential in a virtual world. The virtual organization depends on trust more than an organization that engages in face-to-face contact (Judith, 2005).

A new agenda is needed to further research into trust in the online environment. For components will make up this new agenda including the nature and role of trust, antecedents of trust, moderators of trust, and empirical methods for the examination of trust (Gefen, Benbasat, & Oavlou, 2008).

Social factors are more important for women in the ability to build trust than for men (Awad & Ragowsky, 2008). Men depend more on the information and women tend to seek the opinions of others more as an antecedent to trust (Awad & Ragowsky, 2008). This makes women much more likely to depend on a rating system than men in their online decisions. Developing techniques that help to diffuse intentional bad ratings will help to diffuse their effects in a trust-based system.

Cultural diversity within an organization that relies on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) had a positive impact on decision making and a negative impact on communication (Shachaf, 2008). This study also found that culture had an impact on the selection media used for the communication. For instance, some cultures tended to use email more than teleconferencing to other forms of media (Shachaf, 2008).

Zhou and Zhang (2005) explored speech patterns among deceivers, as opposed to truth tellers using IM. Distinct differences could be found when the person was engaging in deception. This is similar to clues that occur in face-to-face communication. Deception was easily distinguished in a study that involved the linguistic behavior of deceivers in an online scenario (Zhou, 2005). This indicates that linguistic clues may replace contextual and social clues in some cases. Technology such as PRIDE uses a self-certification process to help identify peers in a P2p network to establish trust (Dewan & Dasgupta, 2004). This is similar to SDSI certificates, only for private users.

Arriving at a Global Consensus of Word Meaning

Instant messages can be divided into four different categories according to meaning and intent. The most common is the assertive, followed by the expressive and commissive. The rarest form of message was the directive (Nastri, et al. 2006). - There is a need to understand how the meaning of word may vary between cultures in order to eliminate any potential misunderstanding and distrust between individuals.

Email was found to be a key culprit in the development of cultural misunderstandings among a diverse group of online users (Rainey, 2000). Stereotypes were found to interfere with online communication, and enhance the potential for cultural misunderstandings (Leidner, 1999). Navigation design, visual design, and information design had an effect on trust that varied among different cultures viewing a website (Cyr, 2008). This research suggests a need for culturally relevant web design, particularly in the area of retail sales. The buyer-seller network contains critical information that will help the consumer to establish trust with the retailer.

Hwa-Froelich & Vigil (2004) divide communication relationships into three basic types. Responsibility relationships are among those who are responsible for family members. This can be seen as a spectrum. On one end in the individual perspective and the other is the collective approach. In collective societies, directives are usually phrased as suggestions, rather than direct orders (Hwa-Froelich & Vigil, 2004).

Interpersonal Relationships involve a perceived expectation of the role of the each participant. This continuum involves social distance/power. One is expected to be less formal with those closer to us. We use different interactions and phrases than we would if we were speaking to an employer or other authority figure (Hwa-Froelich & Vigil, 2004). Professional interpersonal interactions are the third type of relationships addressed by the authors. Professionals must continually analyze the style and type of communication that must take place.

Lien Shen (2007) advanced the idea that technology is more than a tool or a means to deliver one's ideas, but that they are themselves constructed to obtain cultural meaning through differences in understanding of visual material. A study of Japanese animation in the United States provides a means to examine this effect. It was found that the aesthetics in Japanese animation continued to develop new meaning through culture.

The United States could be considered to be arguably the center of the cyber culture (Kanter, 2001). It has been observed that American culture is the only culture in the world where the young teach the old (Kanter, 2001). The young adopt the new technology and then often find themselves teaching the older generation how to use it. Kanter made the observation about e-culture that it is made up as one goes along. It is continually evolving into something different.

In a cross-cultural online community, certain cultural expectations exist that are that are the basis of disconnects in communication (Rogers, Tinney, & Gibbons, 2008). Certain types of platform functionality are being developed that help to facilitate the communication of knowledge in an online cross-cultural community. This approach facilitates the transformation and development of intercultural competence, which improves the quality of communication in cross-cultural groups.

Goal setting an important factor in the ability to succeed in cross-cultural communication. Students must actively strive to achieve a better understanding of cross cultural communication will help to prepare them for the business world.

"As businesses globalize and the demand for employees prepared for international assignments steadily increases, training programs designed to enhance and support students' goals to develop their cross cultural skills may be useful in maximizing these skills" (Kitsantas, 20004, p. 441).

One of the most profound differences in communication styles and a key source of misunderstandings occurs with communication between westerners and Asians. Westerners tend to post more messages on discussion boards than Asian students (Warden, Chens & Caskey, 2005). Asian students, "have been trained to minimize self-expression while avoiding actions that could lead to criticism or embarrassment" (Warden, Chens & Caskey, 2005p. 222).

Effective cross cultural communication means a process.

"There is a simple truth to cross cultural dialogue. It is that all who start on an imaginative journey towards another culture must first leave home. They must be prepared to loosen their sense of belonging" (Hassam, 2007, p. 72).

These are only a few of the many examples that exist of cultural combinations that can result in misunderstandings. Clashes between western, cultures, with the high values that they place on independence, and Asian cultures that place value on collectivism have the greatest potential for the development of misunderstandings.

Intercultural communication is a learning process for both the host and guest countries (Zhu, 2002). Many texts only focus on the guest country and the difficulties in adjusting to a new environment. However, even those in the host country must make an extra effort to achieve effective communication. Cross cultural communication is a balancing act of compromise. In countries where a strong sense of nationalism exists, it can be difficult to loosen some of the strict ideas that are a part of that culture's national identity. However, this is necessary if these two cultures are to achieve a level of understanding that will eventually lead to acceptance of the differences between them.

It can certainly be said from the research that certain cultural pairs are more compatible than others. Cultural pairs from the same region have the greatest chance for conflict free communication, as they have at least a basic understanding of the contextual clues of the other, The more geographically separated the cultures are, the greater the chance for misunderstandings due to misinterpretation of cultural clues.

Conclusion

One of the most difficult tasks that is presented by cultural differences in online communication is the ability to derive a common meaning. Our exploration of the difficulties associated with this goal revealed that several elements may help communicators of any culture arrive at a common ground, The studies revealed that the groups must have a concrete goal that includes the desire to communicate successfully with those of a different culture.

Education was found to be an important factor in the ability to accept and understand the perspectives of other culture. Until both cultures understand the historical context and ideology of the culture, they cannot begin to arrive at a consensus of meaning. Education can be achieved in the workforce through diversity training that focuses on accepting the differences among the various groups in the workplace.

Cultural misunderstandings undermine the ability of teams to build trust, which we discovered was an essential element in the success of the business. Teams that trust each other are more effective than those where cultural misunderstandings have undermined the ability to build team cohesiveness. The literature highlighted the importance of team building to the success of the company and its ability to compete in the global marketplace.

Diversity has the potential to increase innovation within the organization. It has the ability to provide a competitive edge through enhanced creativity and the sharing of different viewpoints. However, it also has the potential to create conflict and to destroy the ability of the company to compete on an international level.

Gender, social context, and cultural differences can effect nonverbal communication. For instance, in Western culture it is considered polite to look someone in the eye. However, in Chinese cultures, such a gaze would be considered a challenge and would be considered rude. The Chinese use an indirect gaze that avoids direct contact in the Western sense (Hwa-Froelich & Vigil, 2004). This is one example where electronic communication may help to avoid misunderstandings. If the communicators cannot see the other's gaze, they will not be able to see if the other is making a direct challenge or not. They will have to rely on the syntax of the words to derive meaning. If the message is well thought out, it will be difficult to discern if these elements are present or absent.