By Tessa Hayward
It is important that when working in team environments all participants understand how to have effective intercultural communication. Cross-cultural communication is the communication within “culturally and linguistically diverse contexts” (Lauring, 2011, p. 1). Effective intercultural communication will allow for quality communication in teams comprising of different “cultures, countries and beliefs” (Cenere, Gill, Lawson, & Lewis, 2015, p. 188).
Understanding differences in culture when in teams is an important teamwork skill and one of the key skills employers in today’s global world want in their employees (Cenere et al., 2015, p. 10). As the world becomes more globalised, more communication channels and technology are improved and invented, there are so many opportunities arising for organisations to engage with different cultures and “the possibility for successful, enriching communication that facilitates positive business outcomes are vast”, therefore, it is important to understand how to communicate effectively in intercultural teams to seize these opportunities (Cenere et al., 2015, p. 185).
Understanding intercultural communication is important in group settings because as many come to know the virtues of cultural diversity in teams, there will come more opportunities where one will have to work with people of different cultures. Workforce cultural diversity has the potential to give a team greater variety and synergy, but that potential is frequently negated because of the lack of understanding of how to effectively communicate in a cross-cultural context; showing the importance of being knowledgeable on intercultural communication (ESCP Europe, 2017; Hunley, Chakraborty, & Macdonald, 2018, p. 2).
So how do we ensure the communication in groups with a variety of different people from different backgrounds and cultures can communicate effectively?
To avoid losing the potential of a culturally diverse team and ensure there is effective intercultural communication, Cenere, Gill, Lawson, and Lewis (2015) recommend using “literal meaning and avoiding connotations”, being knowledgeable on non-verbal culture and our own non-verbal cues, avoiding stereotyping and thinking there is a more dominant culture, making ourselves familiar with high and low-context cultures and finally, reduce any culture shock by offering everyone in the group understanding and by encouraging relationship building (p. 188). Additionally, some organisations follow the Map-Bridge-Integrate (MBI) approach. The MBI approach is a guide to acknowledging and examining cultural differences in culturally diverse teams, instead of merely disregarding them, in order to leverage the differences (Distefano & Maznevski, 2000,).
Work cited
Cenere, P., Gill, R., Lawson, C., & Lewis, M. (2015). Communication Skills for Business Professionals. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Distefano, J. J., & Maznevski, M. L. (2000). Creating Value with Diverse Teams in Global Management. Organizational Dynamics, 29(1), 45–63.
ESCP Europe. (2018). Managing Intercultural Teams [Course video]. Retrieved from https://www.coursera.org/lecture/intercultural/managing-intercultural-teams-Ct2U5
ESCP Europe. (2018). The MBI approach summarised [Screenshot from video]. Retrieved from https://www.coursera.org/lecture/intercultural/managing-intercultural-teams-Ct2U5
Hunley, B., Chakraborty, S., & Macdonald, S. (2018). The impact of cultural communication on team performance (No. 1914). Retrieved from https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2913&context=etm_studentprojects
Lauring, J. (2011). Intercultural Organizational Communication: The Social Organizing of Interaction in International Encounters. Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 48, pp. 231–255. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943611406500
Thian, M. (2018). Four people working together [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/vdXMSiX-n6M
Communicate the Right Way 