Dwitya Aribawa / 61 Int / 343554 Executive Summary CROSS-CULTURAL/INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION David A.

Victor Business in general is enhanced when people from different cultures and background find new approaches to solve problems in order to creating solutions for business (company) by combining cultural perspectives and examining the problem at hand from each other's differing cultural perspectives. Problems in business communication conducted across cultures often arise when participants from one culture are unable to understand culturally determined differences in communication practices, traditions, and thought processing. At the most fundamental level, problems may occur when one or more of the people involved cling to an ethnocentric view of how to conduct business. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own cultural group is somehow innately superior to others. Since no one individual is likely to recognize the subtle forms of ethnocentrism that shape who he or she is, international business practitioners must be especially careful in conducting business communication across cultures. It is necessary to try to rise above culturally imbued ways of viewing the world. To do this, one needs to understand how the perception of a given message changes depending on the culturally determined viewpoint of those communicating. Culture directly affects the communication process in an international business setting through seven variables that acronym by LESCANT (Language, Environmental and technological considerations, Social organization, Contexting and Face-saving, Authority conception , Nonverbal communication behavior, Time conception). Most barriers when communicating across cultures derive from the communicator's misunderstanding or misinterpreting of the LESCANT factors. By assessing in advance the roles these variables play in business communication, one person can improve the others ability to convey those messages effectively to an audience from a different culture. The seven LESCANT factors alone do not provide a thorough knowledge of another culture. Moreover, these seven dimensions of culture are not intended to represent the only cause of intercultural communication difficulties. Being aware of these factors does, however, provide an underlying foundation on which one can construct a framework for understanding the businesspeople from other cultures. In short, these seven factors represent an approach for asking the right questions needed to see the most significant cultural differences and similarities. The answers to those questions vary according to the individual experiences of those involved. Difficulties with LANGUAGE fall basically into three categories: gross translation problems, the problems in conveying subtle distinctions from language to language, and culturally-based variations among speakers of the same language, some terminology such as misunderstanding, mistranslating and misinterpreting are common to faces in language diversity in international business environment. In ENVIRONMENTAL and technology trade-off consideration, most common issue arise is the ways of looking at the environment sustainability and the use of technology to create competitive advantage for company particular to their own culture. Issues that reflecting the culture's SOCIAL organization such as nepotism and kinship ties, educational values, class structure and social mobility, job status and economic stratification, religious ties, political affiliation, gender differences, racism and other prejudices, attitudes toward work, and recreational or work institutions. Based on Edward T. Hall,

Business Communication MM UGM: Executive Summary Assignment

Dwitya Aribawa / 61 Int / 343554 CONTEXTING and face-saving issues in business environment are related to the two of contexting characterize, that are high contexting with more concerned with face, that is, preserving prestige or outward dignity and otherwise Low context cultures are less concerned with face since words are more likely to be taken without underlying implied meaning. As a result, high context cultures tend to favor a business communication approach based on indirection and politeness; low context cultures follow more of a confrontation strategy and use a direct plan approach to business communication. High context cultures tend to interpret directness in communication as uncivil and rude; low context cultures tend to view directness as honest and inoffensive. Different cultures often view the distribution of AUTHORITY in their society differently. Geert Hofstede, found about dimension of cultural variation called "power distance" defining this as the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. These issues related to hierarchy of company (centralize or decentralize) and how management create participative environment in work place. Much of NONVERBAL communication may be broken down into six areas: dress; kinesics, or body language; oculesics, or eye contact; haptics, or touching behavior; proxemics, or the use of body space; and paralanguage. Any one of these areas communicates significant information nonverbally in any given culture and try to respect each other and push down prominent of non verbal habit are the way to minimize this issue. International business communication is also affected by cross-cultural differences in temporal conception or the understanding of TIME. How one uses time, consequently, may profoundly affect the way in which business is conducted in various parts of the world. This is further complicated by the fact that no culture is exclusively polychromic (Open personal involvement) or monochromic (Only Job Involvement). Members of any culture lean to one direction or the other, although the cultures as a whole may organize their thoughts and conceive of time more one way or the other. The central issue here is to keep alert to communication differences that would indicate that one culture was more monochronic or polychronic in orientation, and to adapt one's communication strategies accordingly. As business has turned more and more to an integrated world market to meet its needs, the difficulties of communicating at a global level have become increasingly widespread. Lack of understanding deriving from ethnocentrism or ignorance of culturally based assumptions erroneously believed to be universal can readily escalate to unproductive conflict among people of differing cultural orientation. Still, in an increasingly competitive world economy, it is harder for the successful business venture (than it may have been in the past) to conduct business exclusively within the safe confines of a single domestic business environment. Consequently, the need for dealing with intercultural differences and cross-cultural communication barriers has grown as well. The cross-cultural issues suggested in this brief summary provide a framework for asking the right questions when preparing for business communication with those from other cultures. By asking the way in which each of these factors is likely to affect communication with people from that specific culture, many of the communication barriers between people of different cultures can be anticipated.

Business Communication MM UGM: Executive Summary Assignment