In: Operations Management
There are six barriers of intercultural business communication.
They are;
a. Anxiety
b. Ethnocentrism.
c. Assumption of similarity.
d. Prejudice.
e. Language barrier
f. Cultural relativism.
a. Anxiety: It is the state of human condition where a person has a feeling of ease and nervousness. It is even sometimes associated with the feelings of an unrealistic fear. Anxiety usually occurs to a person when he/she usually come across his or her first cross cultural interaction. It happens when the person doesn't know what to expect from their counterparts and lack of knowledge about the ways to interact with them.
b. Ethnocentrism: It is an interpretation that an individual has for someone else's culture and heritage as being inferior to his or her own culture and heritage. Such person refuses to acknowledge the opinion of another person when they interact with a person of another culture. Sometimes ethnocentrism is related to racism.
c. Assumption of similarity: Sometimes people assume that cultures are not different, but are similar in their nature. For example, if an Indian drinks tea instead of coffee others assumes that tea is a popular drink in India. This is not always true as people from different cultures have different preferences. The preference of a person or a group of people does not reflect the entire culture.
d. Prejudice: Prejudice is another notable and important barrier to intercultural communication. Prejudice means irrational judgement passed on certain culture. It refers to a primary negative image created by individuals on the basis of ethnicity, religion, cast or language.
e. Language Barrier: Language act as a barrier in communication. People belonging to different languages tries to communicate their happen miscommunication. Communication gap will be their in between the people when they communicate each other.
f. Cultural Relativism: When a person denies other's values and cultures for the augmentation of self values and cultures, there happens cultural relativism. It is a major barrier in intercultural communication.
These are the main barriers in intercultural communication.