Question

Read the article "Understanding inter-cultural communication in today's global environment" in Harvey & Allard's textbook (p.210-216) and answer the following questions.

Briefly describe an example of a cross-cultural miscommunication that you have either participated in or observed in the workplace, at college, or in a public place.

1. How did the communicators exhibit some of the dimensions described in this article?
2. 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

When I was in the Air Force, I had a colleague who joined from Laos. He was slightly awkward and many of us could tell he was uncomfortable speaking to leadership. He would make rude comments because he did not understand how to communicate with colleagues within his rank. He was also very uncomfortable with inappropriate hand gestures or provocative clothing. Many of the people in the shop avoided speaking to or hanging out with him outside of the workplace because of his awkwardness. He was really great at doing simple tasks, such as counting tools or checking off tasks on a checklist, but he was extremely afraid to make large decisions regarding multi-million-dollar aircrafts. Our job required us to make educated decisions regarding fuel leaks after being on the job for over a year, however, this person was unable to make these choices. He was too scared to make a wrong decision which could potentially cause major damage to an aircraft or the death of a colleague. His first duty station was aware that he was uncomfortable with these decisions so they simply allowed him to do the simple tasks. When he moved to a new duty station he was fully qualified to make those decisions. The new shop sent him to an aircraft on the flight line to measure a fuel leak. Instead of making a decision based on his in-depth training, he made up a story about how he was hearing voices in his head. They ended up sending him to mental health where he was quickly kicked out of the Air Force.

        Asian people have a more indirect way of communicating with people. They also prefer to establish a relationship with people before they make business decisions. Asians tend to conform to the group so they do not disrupt the cohesiveness of the group. This Airman should have reached out to his boss and let him know how he felt about diagnosing aircraft problems; but he was too worried about getting in trouble.When you begin your training, as you show proficiency on certain tasks, your supervisor signs you off, stating that you are competent in doing those tasks. Often times, airmen go to the supervisor that is the nicest or most willing to sign off tasks. If this airman was signed off on this task but unable to perform it, the supervisor that signed him off would have gotten in major trouble. As an Asian, he was most likely afraid to admit his incompetency for fear that he would get his supervisory in trouble.

        There are a few things that could have been done differently. First, I think a supervisor should have reached out to him and explained to him how things really work. Rather than punish him for his indirect communication style, they should have taken him under their wing and showed him the correct way to make those decisions. Another way he could have improved his communication is by reaching out to a supervisor. By explaining to them that he was uncomfortable with making decisions,he could have gotten the correct training he needed. Furthermore, he could have joined a different career field, like finance or personnel, where major decisions would not affect life or death or millions of dollars in damage. The Air Force has a program where you can cross train into a different career field after so many years of being in the one you originally trained for. He could have cross trained after 5 years. Finally, this Airman was very timid and shy. Knowing that, his leadership should have done more to help him become successful. Being unable to make necessary decisions or speak to leadership are two issues that could have easily been fixed. There are plenty of training programs out there that could have helped this airman. Unfortunately, his shop was uncomfortable with his personality and his leadership saw an individual who would never be able to change so they booted him out. As a future HR manager, I hope to put policies in place to help people like him and training in place to teach his leadership how to deal with an individual like him.