Question

Briefly describe an example of an cross-cultural miscommunication that you have either participated in or observed in the workplace, at college, or in a public place. How did the communicators exhibit some of the dimensions described in this article? In retrospect, what could have been done differently to improve the communication in terms of the sender, choice of medium and the receiver?

Answer 1

One of the cross-cultural miscommunications that I have observed was an interaction with my friend from Uganda and an Indian friend. They were having a conversation about investing money in a household entertainment system. As the conversation went further, the Indian was very excited about the entertainment system but Ugandan kept asking more questions before making a decision and was very ambiguous in giving a direct response. They didn't actually convey directly if they wanted to make that investment or not during the entire conversation and it ended with postponing the discussion for later.

Some of the cultural dimensions I observed here was the high context cultural dimension where they were very ambiguous in implying if they wanted to make that decision to invest in the entertainment system or not. Two, the uncertainty avoidance was obvious in my friend from Uganda as he didn't want to take a risk of investing in something that he did not feel was necessary at the moment. The high context could be observed in both the Indian and the Ugandan culture.

The two individuals could have done things differently if they were not ambiguous in their conversation. The straightforward message was missing that only postponed the conversation. Uncertainty avoidance is something that an individual does not exhibit most of the time and it is understandable. However, with the knowledge of these dimensional factors, the conversation could have gone differently.