Gender identity as an intercultural issue in international cooperation

Intercultural Communication

Gender identity can be referred to as the inner sense that one has of being a male or female and is usually a feeling that is shaped during early childhood by the parenting system and the societal manipulation. Technically gender identity is distinguished from the biological sex. However for most of the cases, these two are the same. Both the physiological and the social factors contribute to the establishment of identity in the early stages of life, and this is magnified by social factors as the person grows (Dictionary.com, LLC. 2011).

The challenge of gender identity is a common phenomenon in many international corporations due to the diverse ways that the various cultures treat the people from the two genders and the significance that is attributed to the genders in the various communities. Various societies will come up with a way of allocating gender roles which again will differ from one community or society to another. It becomes even trickier for the multinationals to try to embrace the gender roles as dictated by the various and diverse communities that they encounter across different countries.

There are three major factors that pose a challenge to the various multinationals when it comes to handling of intercultural issues and communication especially those involving the male and the female genders. These are diversity in world view, use of language and the non-verbal communication. The no verbal communication involves the use of space and time as well (Becky Mulvaney, 1994). Other areas where there emerges differences in cultural views is the assumed similarity between two culture views, preconceptions and stereotypes, tendency to evaluate, and high anxiety (Laray M. Barna, 1985).

The most significant factor to be considered is the use of language since it is through language that we express our desires and views of the entire world around us. Multinationals find it tricky to adapt to the use of language in various parts of the world. For instance in Britain they may use the word boot to refer to trunk. In the same way, there are countries where the female gender has been attributed the soft spoken and kind in the use of language. If a multinational has to operate in countries like Japan, then the females involved may have to follow the soft spoken and polite language use that is the gender assigned trend by the society. This can go as far as restricting the use of some words to only a given gender and not being allowed among another gender. This is one issue that international corporations have to take into very serious consideration before they send, especially staff from another country.

The issue of the world view is also significant in the daily running of the international corporations. The term world view points to the orientation that cultures expose people to in viewing things like humanity, God, nature, the world and other beliefs that are connected with being. This is a very important aspect that cannot be underestimated since it is the single thing that controls the entire direction of the life of a people in a community. It is therefore upon the international corporations to strive to understand the way the two genders in a given community are oriented to relate to God, nature and humanity. For instance in some culture and religious, women are not allowed to appear before the prayer sanctuaries, there are areas women are not allowed to venture into, there are people to whom women cannot be sent to or appear before without prior spiritual consent. Once an international organization has delved into such details about a society, then they would be in a better position to know which areas to assign women and which ones not to and instead assign men and the reverse is applicable too.

Yet another significant aspect to look into is the non-verbal communication among the various cultures and the applicability of such between the two genders. It is worth noting that the nonverbal signs are not universal in anyway, even simple things like nodding to indicate agreement may mean directly the opposite in other cultures. It is therefore important to know the various different interpretations of the nonverbal signs that exist in a community that a give multinational has chosen to engage in. this understanding must go further to understand the various nonverbal signs that cannot be used with women or in the presence of women since there are some signs that may be extremely offensive to women, yet not really an issue with the males, like forming a circle with the thumb and forefinger to mean OK may be very offensive for women in some cultures (Molly Edmonds, 2011). The other issue that is important to take care of under this section is the use of space and time in communication, there are cultures that would recommend a given distance between males and females and not necessarily observed between males or between females themselves. It is therefore incumbent on the staff of a given international corporation to analyze and understand the gender sensitive nonverbal cues and learn how to deal with them.