3: Communication Challenges in a Diverse, Global Marketplace 3-1
Chapter 3: Communication Challenges in a Diverse, Global Marketplace
Chapter 3 explores the opportunities and challenges that a diverse business environment presents to
today’s professional communicators, including the importance of developing cultural competency and
recognizing all the dimensions of diversity. The chapter closes with advice for adapting to other business
cultures and improving intercultural communication skills.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges of Communication in a Diverse World
The Opportunities in a Global Marketplace
The Advantages of a Diverse Workforce
The Challenges of Intercultural Communication
Developing Cultural Competency
Understanding the Concept of Culture
Overcoming Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping
Recognizing Variations in a Diverse World
Contextual Differences
Legal and Ethical Differences
Social Differences
Nonverbal Differences
Age Differences
Gender Differences
Religious Differences
Ability Differences
Adapting to Other Business Cultures
Guidelines for Adapting to Any Business Culture
Guidelines for Adapting to U.S. Business Culture
Improving Intercultural Communication Skills
Studying Other Cultures
Studying Other Languages
Respecting Preferences for Communication Style
Writing Clearly
Speaking and Listening Carefully
Using Interpreters, Translators, and Translation Software
Helping Others Adapt to Your Culture
Learning Catalytics is a “bring your own device” student engagement, assessment, and classroom
intelligence system. It allows instructors to engage students in class with real-time diagnostics. Students
can use any modern, web-enabled device (smartphone, tablet, or laptop) to access it. For more
information on using Learning Catalytics in your course, contact your Pearson Representative.
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LECTURE NOTES
Section 1: Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges of Communication in a Diverse World
Learning Objective 1: Discuss the opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication.
Diversity includes all the characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals.
The Opportunities in a Global Marketplace
Two trends contribute to the importance of intercultural communication: advances in economic
globalization and the increasing diversity of the workforce.
Chances are you’ll be communicating across international borders sometime in your career:
The Advantages of a Diverse Workforce
Many innovative companies have changed the way they approach diversity, from being a legal
requirement to provide equal opportunities, to being a strategic opportunity:
Diversity:
• Brings a broader range of viewpoints and ideas
• Helps companies understand and identify with diverse markets
• Enables companies to tap into a wider range of employee talents
The Challenges of Intercultural Communication
Diversity can affect employee behavior on the job, which presents challenges to:
• Supervisors (communicating with diverse employees, motivating them, and fostering
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Cultural diversity affects how business messages are conceived, planned, sent, received, and
interpreted in the workplace.
The interaction of culture and communication is so pervasive that separating the two is virtually
impossible.
Culture defines many aspects of communication, including the:
• Meaning of words
• Significance of gestures
Culture influences the ways in which one encodes and decodes messages. The greater the difference
between cultures, the greater the chance for misunderstanding.
Misunderstandings arise when:
Class discussion question: Have you ever felt frustration during a cross-cultural communication
exchange, such as when you couldn’t understand what someone else was saying or when your values or
interests clashed with someone else’s? How did you respond? Would you respond differently now? What
did this episode teach you about the challenges of intercultural communication?
Section 2: Developing Cultural Competency
Learning Objective 2: Define culture, explain how culture is learned, and define ethnocentrism and
stereotyping.
Cultural competency includes:
• An appreciation for cultural differences that affect communication
You are already an expert in your own native culture, which:
• Is positive, because you understand how your culture works and how people are expected to
communicate within this culture
An important step toward successful intercultural communication is becoming more aware of the rules
imposed by your own culture and of how those roles influence your communication.
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Understanding the Concept of Culture
Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior.
Your cultural background:
• Influences the way you prioritize what is important in life
You belong to multiple cultures (e.g., country, ethnic, religious, professional).
Understand three characteristics of culture:
• Cultures are automatic; that is, people learn culture directly or indirectly from other members
of a group—whether they are explicitly told which behaviors are acceptable, or they learn by
observing which values work best in a particular group.
Class discussion question: Do you consider yourself in the same culture or cultures as your parents or
other close family members? If not, what differences do you perceive?
Overcoming Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge all other groups according to your own group’s standards,
behaviors, and customs.
Xenophobia is a more extreme reaction—actually fearing strangers and foreigners.
Try to overcome ethnocentrism and stereotyping by cultivating a few simple habits:
• Avoid assumptions.
Be aware that overcoming ethnocentrism and stereotyping is not a simple task, even for people who
are highly motivated to do so.
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Section 3: Recognizing Variations in a Diverse World
Learning Objective 3: Explain the importance of recognizing cultural variations and list eight categories
of cultural differences.
Cultural variations include differences in perceptions of:
• Context
• Legal and ethical matters
• Social matters
Contextual Differences
Cultural context is the pattern of physical cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that
conveys meaning between two members of the same culture.
To convey meaning in high-context cultures (such as Japan, China, Arab countries, Greece, Mexico,
Spain), people tend to rely less on verbal communication and more on the context of nonverbal
actions and environmental settings to convey meaning.
In high-context cultures:
• The rules of everyday life are rarely explicit, so individuals learn how to recognize situational
To convey meaning in low-context cultures (such as Germany, Scandinavia, U.S., Canada, England,
France), people tend to rely more on verbal communication and less on circumstances and cues.
In low-context cultures:
Contextual differences affect:
Communication tactics that work well in a high-context culture may backfire in a low-context culture
and vice versa.
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Legal and Ethical Differences
Contextual differences also affect legal and ethical behavior.
Low-context cultures tend to:
• Value the written word
High-context cultures tend to:
• Put less emphasis on the written word
Keep intercultural messages as ethical as possible by applying four basic principles:
• Actively seek mutual ground.
• Send and receive messages without judgment.
Social Differences
Rules of social etiquette may be formal or informal:
• Formal rules are specifically articulated.
• Informal rules are usually learned over time as people watch and imitate how others are
behaving.
Social norms vary and affect the following areas:
• Attitudes toward work and success
• Roles and status
• Use of manners
Nonverbal Differences
Nonverbal communication can be considered reliable only when the sender and receiver assign the
same meaning to nonverbal signals.
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Enhance your nonverbal communication across cultures by observing the ways people behave in
these areas:
• Greetings
• Personal space
• Touching
Age Differences
Communicating between a youth-oriented culture and a seniority-oriented culture can require
flexibility on both sides.
Today’s workplace can have as many as three or even four distinct generations working side by side:
• The Radio Generation (born 1925 to 1945)
• Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964)
Gender Differences
The perception of men and women in business varies from culture to culture.
Gender bias can range from overt discrimination to subtle and even unconscious beliefs.
The percentage of management roles held by men increases steadily the further one looks up the
corporate ladder.
Whatever the culture, evidence suggests that men and women tend to have slightly different
communication styles. Speaking in very broad terms:
Outdated concepts of gender and sexual orientation continue to be a source of confusion, controversy,
and discrimination:
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• Many companies have taken steps to ensure equal opportunities and fair treatment for lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) job applicants and employees.
Religious Differences
Religion in the workplace is a complex and contentious issue, and it’s getting more so every year—at
least as measured by a significant rise in the number of religious discrimination lawsuits.
Companies vary widely in how they approach the subject and their policies for allowing religious
activities and expressions at work.
Ability Differences
Colleagues and customers with physical or cognitive disabilities that affect communication represent
another important aspect of the diversity picture.
Companies can use assistive technologies to help people with disabilities interact with computers and
colleagues.
Designers can also emphasize web accessibility, taking steps to make websites more accessible to
people with limited vision.
Class discussion question: Culture is an extremely complex topic, and a single chapter or lecture can
only scratch the surface of the many factors that make individuals and groups unique. Did any of the
descriptions of cultural differences in this chapter clash with your own experiences and perceptions? If so,
how did they differ?
Section 4: Adapting to Other Business Cultures
Adapting your approach is essential to successful intercultural communication.
Guidelines for Adapting to Any Business Culture
There are four general guidelines that can help all business communicators improve their cultural
competency:
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Guidelines for Adapting to U.S. Business Culture
Businesspeople adapting to U.S. business culture should keep several points in mind:
• Individualism. U.S. culture expects individuals to succeed by their own efforts, and it rewards
individual success.
Section 5: Improving Intercultural Communication Skills
Learning Objective 5: Identify seven steps you can take to improve your intercultural communication
skills.
Improve your intercultural communication by:
• Studying other cultures and languages
• Respecting preferences for communication styles
Studying Other Cultures
Effectively adapting your communication efforts to another culture requires not only knowledge
about the culture but also both the ability and the motivation to change your personal habits as
needed.
When learning about another culture, you don’t need to:
Try to approach situations with:
• An honest effort
• Good intentions
• An interest in learning more about other cultures
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To learn as much as you can about traveling and working in specific cultures, check out
• Websites
Studying Other Languages
Successful businesspeople commonly have multilingual skills, but different countries emphasize the
need for language diversity to different degrees.
Many companies are teaching their English-speaking employees a second language to facilitate
communication with co-workers.
Learning the basics of the language spoken by your colleagues or customers:
A wide variety of apps and websites are available that help with essential words and phrases,
grammar, pronunciation, text translation, and even real-time audio translation.
Don’t assume that two countries speaking the same language speak it the same way.
Respecting Preferences for Communication Style
Communication style varies widely from culture to culture and, among other factors, includes the:
In international correspondence, U.S. businesspeople should probably be more formal than they
would be when writing to people in the United States.
Writing Clearly
To write more clearly when communicating across cultures:
• Choose words carefully.
• Be brief.
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Speaking and Listening Carefully
When communicating with people whose native language is different from yours, get insight into
speaking more effectively by remembering what it’s like trying to listen in these situations.
In addition to the guidelines for writing more clearly, use the following guidelines to help your
intercultural conversations be more effective:
• Speak slowly and clearly.
• Don’t rephrase until it’s necessary.
To listen more effectively to speakers who may have accents different from yours:
• Pay attention to vocal patterns.
• Accept what you hear first, without jumping to conclusions about meaning or motivation.
Using Interpreters, Translators, and Translation Software
On occasion, you may need to use interpreters (for spoken communication) or translators (for written
communication).
Helping Others Adapt to Your Culture
Do whatever you can to help colleagues with different native languages adapt to your communication
and culture.
Simplify the communication process if language is a barrier (e.g., writing instead of speaking).
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HIGHLIGHT BOX: COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES
Us Versus Them: Generational Conflict in the Workplace
1. As with all conflicts involving culture, the first step is for each side to understand the other’s point of
view. A more experienced manager might have perspectives on data security, confidentiality, and
2. The informal names given to the various generations are a good clue to the influence of technology on
communication, from the radio being the major communication innovation in the early lives of the
very oldest workers, to the Internet for the first generation born after the invention of the World Wide
Web (Generation I or the Net Generation).
HIGHLIGHT BOX: THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION
Real-Time Translation
Students should be sure to check out the latest advances in real-time translation, such as the Pilot from
Waverly Labs, which is introducing a wireless in-ear device for real-time translation. In addition to
COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT KAISER PERMANENTE
Individual Challenge
Here are four possible responses for addressing the situation involving Mihai Ciceu (a Romanian
immigrant who is a brilliant pricing and underwriting analyst but resists working with other employees),
along with the likely outcome of each response.
a. Stay out of the way and let the situation resolve itself; Ciceu has to learn how to get along
with the other team members. This is not a helpful response. Ciceu obviously lacks the
motivation or the skills needed to work well with other team members, and doing nothing won’t
change anything.
b. Tell the rest of the team to work harder at getting along with Ciceu. Not only is this not
fair—team communication is everyone’s responsibility—but it might cause you to overlook an
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c. Tell Ciceu he must work with others or he will not progress in the company. Without an
d. Talk privately with Ciceu and help him understand the importance of working together as a
team; during the conversation, try to uncover why he doesn’t participate more in team
efforts. As is always the case in intercultural communication, understanding what’s really going
Team Challenge
Here are four possible responses to the situation in which employees are breaking into ethnically based
cliques, along with the likely outcome of each response.
a. Ban the use of languages other than English at work. This will have limited success; if people
b. Do nothing; these cliques are normal behavior, and any attempt to disrupt them will only
generate resentment. This is not a helpful response because ignoring the problem will only
c. Send all of the employees to diversity training classes. This could help, but not as much as (d).
Training will help employees understand the importance of working together, but creating
d. Structure work assignments and other activities (such as volunteer projects) in ways that
bring people from various cultural groups into regular contact with one another and make
them more dependent on one another as well. This is the best response out of these four
options. However, this approach has an important caveat: you’ll need to support these team-based
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TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
3.1. The potential advantages of a diverse workforce include a broader range of viewpoints and ideas,
3.2. Cultural competency is the combination of knowledge and skills necessary to appreciate
3.3. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one person’s cultural background is superior to other cultural
backgrounds. To overcome ethnocentrism, communicators should avoid stereotyping,
3.4. In high-context cultures, people convey meaning by relying more heavily on nonverbal signals
and the environment rather than on words. In such cultures, the communicator expects the
3.5. Contextual differences make up only one of the categories of cultural differences; other
3.6. Even well-intentioned attempts at reaching across cultural boundaries can lead to blunders and
3.7. The Golden Rule is a great example of how the unconscious influence of culture can lead to
incorrect assumptions about dealing with people from other cultures because it assumes that other
3.8. First, students should recognize that challenges of cultural adaptation aren’t restricted to race or
language. Differences in age, gender, educational background, work experience, and other life
variables can present the need to adapt. Second, they should remember that speaking and listening
in a second language are much harder than writing or reading in a second language, particularly
3: Communication Challenges in a Diverse, Global Marketplace 3-15
among most English speakers in the United States, who use prodigious amounts of slang and
often aren’t obsessive about good grammar or careful pronunciation. Professionals can help
colleagues in this respect by creating intranets or other venues that allow written communication,
rather than relying solely on oral exchanges. Third, the checklist “Improving Intercultural
APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE
3.9. This question will help students consider potential similarities and differences between
3.10. The automatic or unconscious influences of culture are at the root of many intercultural
3.12. Answers will vary, but one of the key questions students should focus on is whether movies and
television shows accurately portray U.S. culture or at least any particular segment of U.S. culture.
Do silly teen comedies really reflect the lives of U.S. teenagers? Is life in the U.S. as violent as
some movies would suggest? Do young professionals just starting their careers (with entry-level
3.13. Helping someone adapt to your culture can help you gain a better understand of it yourself
because the experience can force you to question assumptions and implicitly held beliefs.
Someone from another culture may ask questions about your culture that you never considered, or
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PRACTICE YOUR SKILLS
3.14. Message for Analysis
The slang and acronyms contained in the message are too informal for members of the audience and will
probably confuse them. Words and phrases such as ASAP, our little family, high time, shaking hands
across the sea, pleased as punch, my level best, and sell you on America will seriously impair their ability
Exercises
3.15. This exercise should encourage students to think carefully about their place as individuals within
a demographic group defined by fairly arbitrary boundaries. Although people of similar ages
experienced public events and trends at the same age, they didn’t necessarily experience them
3.16. Although a change in company tradition such as this is entirely reasonable (and, in ideal
circumstances, would be suggested by someone not personally affected), it still needs to be
handled with some finesse to avoid creating an issue where one doesn’t exist. Keeping business
3.17. Students might uncover a range of writing styles and issues, from something that has been
translated quite unsuccessfully, with glaring grammar or usage problems, to something that is
3.18. Analyzing headlines and marketing slogans can be particularly helpful in this exercise because
they often rely on wordplay, idiomatic usage, or contemporary cultural references—three aspects
Copyright © 2018 Bovée and Thill LLC
3.19. Students may find that it’s difficult, even with their own understanding of the expressions, to
translate the entire context of these phrases. For instance, “He couldn’t hang on” loses a little
3.20. Students may find that the back-translation reveals inaccuracies in the intended meaning of the
original sentence they translated. This experience suggests that whenever they use any automated
3.21. Students should recognize that the initial draft of this podcast script suffers from two major
problems. First, it is full of slang and informal phrases that are bound to cause problems for non-
native English listeners. Second, the structure of the message is too convoluted for a “linear”
medium such as podcasting. Because listeners don’t have the ability to scan back and forth nearly
ASSISTED GRADING QUESTIONS (accessed on MyBCommLab)
3.22. To develop a sense of cultural pluralism, avoid assumptions about the way other people act, feel,
3.23. Ethical intercultural communication depends on four basic principles: (1) actively seeking