Question

Awareness of cultural diversity is crucial for effective cross-cultural communication. The key to effective cross-cultural communication is knowledge. When people understand the potential problems of cross-cultural communication, and make a conscious effort to overcome these problems, then communication is more effective and miscommunication can be averted.

Can you share an experience in life or at work where you encountered a problem with communication due to cultural differences? Did nonverbal cues play a role in the situation? Lastly, how can organizations focus on and improve cross-cultural communication?

Answer 1

As mentioned in the case, having a team that is a cross functional team and formed from across borders there will be many challenges within and learning experiences for the members. Such teams would have diverse backgrounds, rich differences in cultures and most importantly very different perspective to problem solving methods. One of the key aspects to ensure such teams work well is to effective communications between them. The manager of such a team should have a global perspective to things and resilience and patience to handle all the different issues that rise. Having a strong leader who can break down the barriers of communication can help in reducing the problems the face going forward. Another key aspect it to have awareness of cross cultural differences and diversities. The teams should be educated about these factors and should constantly be reinforced when dealing with people from different backgrounds.

Sharing an experience where cultural backgrounds created few issues. The way of working in US, Singapore and India are very different. I was working on a project where the experts were based out of US, the consultant and development teams were in Singapore and the solution had to be implemented in India. The teams in US and Singapore had worked together previously and was in sync with each other. The same could not be said about Indians and the foreign counterparts. The . meetings were called and few members of the Indian team were late to them meeting. This happened multiple times and the US team started felt insulted and one day decided to speak up on the issue. They raised the point that the team was slow to meeting and this meant disrespect to the entire work and project being undertaken. Initially there were a few negatives words spoken but after the team calmed down we explained of the difficulties in reaching the office in crowded trains. Once the foreign teams were made to understand the issues, the problem was rectified. In fact it gave more respect to the travelling team members who had to travel more than 1 hour to reach the office before working hours. The awareness and education of cultural issues and backgrounds definitely helped in resolving the issue.

To improve the cross cultural communication, Organizations can send few teams to work on small projects for a definite time in a different country. Having a team in a different market helps the team to understand the people, their trends, the habits and also difference in approach to problems. Another way could be to invite few delegates and understand the approach to different things.