Cultural Differences in International Business Communication

Introduction: Communication in a Globalizing World

As the world continues to globalize, the art of communication on an international level is becoming an increasingly important skill to attain. Communication in any type of venture — whether it is a business deal, a non-profit situation, or personal use — is the key to success or failure. The ability to communicate well holds the key to providing participants with satisfactory solutions or leaving them with confusion and frustration.

International management duties include the developed ability to handle and oversee communication across borders. This means much more than the use of bilingual staff or the understanding of foreign correspondence. It includes the understanding that international cultures may differ, and that those differences can interfere with the ability to communicate effectively. Effective international communication can ease the path of business and allow for much smoother operations. The international management of that communication provides the confidence to expand business horizons and offers a strong foundation for the success of those ventures.

During 1996, the international communication needs of some 1,500 companies across four European countries were studied as part of the Elucidate project, supported by the EU's Leonardo da Vinci programme. The study focused on companies with fewer than 500 employees in particular regions of France, Germany, Spain, and the UK. It measured the extent to which companies had experienced language and cultural barriers in their international trade and analyzed the successful strategies they had pursued to overcome them (Communication, 1997).

Language Barriers in International Business

The most intrusive barrier to the attempt to manage communications internationally is the language barrier. Any time a company is working with an international base of any kind, there is going to be a question of communication involving different languages. Languages are used to communicate various needs and desires, and the inability to communicate across language lines will halt the process of conducting business at the international level.

Communicating across different languages means more than simply being able to speak and understand a foreign tongue. There are cultural aspects to every language that are important to understand in the international management of communication. Some cultures believe that it is a sign of respect to get very close physically when speaking to another party — these cultures will stand right in front of someone and practically shout the words out. This is an accepted and preferred way of communicating within those cultures. Other cultures, however, consider this to be a rude and confrontational practice. Because of the different understandings of even this one aspect of verbal communication, it is important that all parties involved in international management understand the various cultural differences and work to convey this awareness to the people involved in day-to-day business communications (Communication, 1997).

A high proportion of companies stated they experienced language barriers in their business dealings: 53 per cent of the UK sample and 50 per cent of the German sample — indicating the scale of the problem posed by languages in export trade (Communication, 1997).

Cultural aspects of communication are often embedded within, and inseparable from, the linguistic, involving misunderstandings over behaviour as well as simple communication breakdowns (Communication, 1997). Poor understanding of cultural and language differences can lead to the following problems:

• Lost business to local suppliers who speak the language.
• Switchboard problems.
• Misunderstandings that lead to wrong actions, poor reputation, and ultimately lost business.
• Inability to follow up mailshots by telephone.
• Inability to follow the other side's confidential talk, resulting in incorrect assumptions (Communication, 1997).

Within this context, further research on international management and communications has revealed several interesting findings. Samples with the highest percentage of companies having experienced language barriers also indicate the lowest percentage of companies employing language strategies (Communication, 1997). Additionally, the majority of companies indicate that they have a high proportion of employees with language skills — with the exception of the English sample, which is 12 percentage points lower than the other Euro-regions (Communication, 1997).

Cultural Dimensions of Communication

Cultural aspects of communication extend well beyond vocabulary and grammar. The way people interact, how closely they stand, how directly they speak, and even how they signal agreement or disagreement are all shaped by deeply held cultural norms. Because these norms are so deeply embedded in daily life, they are often invisible to those who hold them — making cross-cultural misunderstandings especially easy to trigger and especially difficult to resolve.

Communication internationally is not just about speaking. Many companies have internal magazines that they publish and distribute to all plants and affiliates. If the culture of one plant is predominantly Muslim, the use of pictures of scantily clad women in the magazine would be found highly offensive — even if the rest of the company, located in non-Muslim areas of the world, would not find it offensive at all (Leaper, 1996). This illustrates how a single communication product can carry vastly different meanings for different cultural audiences.

The use of communication on an international level can wreak havoc on business operations. Several factors can contribute to the problems that are often found in international communication attempts, including: failing to confirm the message, fearing to disagree, and choosing the wrong medium (Spencer, 1996).

Conclusion

The need to communicate internationally is becoming a top priority as the world continues to globalize. There are current movements to adopt a universal language in the future to ease the difficulties that international communication is currently struggling with. Even if an international language is adopted and widely promoted, there will still be cultural differences in the way communication takes place. It is important to the field of international management that cultural differences as well as language barriers be taken into account when it comes to communicating effectively at the international level.

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