CHAPTER 6

Cross-Cultural Communication

Ming Li and Veronica Velo

Contextualizing Background Information

Communication is probably the main issue in cross-cultural matters. Conflict, loss of trust, bureaucracy, delays, good deals going wrong, and many other deceptive situations are the direct consequence of poor communication in international business.

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the communication process in detail, suggest ways in which it should be improved, and present examples of why and how bad communications practice could be as damaging as good communication could be rewarding.

Communication

Communication has been defined in numerous ways, including: “The process by which people share information, meanings and feelings through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages,”¹ or “The act of transmitting messages, including information about the nature of the relationship, to another person who interprets these messages, and gives them meaning.”²

We can present the communication process as shown in Figure 6.1. This model assumes the sender and the receiver have the same cultural background. The cultural field refers to those culturally based elements of a person’s background that influence communication, for example: education, values, attitudes, and so forth.

Figure 6.1 shows that every communication has a message sender and a message receiver. Both the sender and the receiver play an active role in the communication process. As ideas, feelings, or information cannot be communicated directly, people must symbolize them for expression. Therefore, encoding describes the production of a symbol message (words or behaviors) from the sender; this message is sent through some channel (letter, phone, face to face meeting, etc.), and decoding describes the process by which the receiver interprets a meaning from the symbol message.

Some key features of communication:

• Successful communication requires not only that the message is transmitted but also that it is understood.
• The message sent by the sender is never identical to the message received. Distortion can occur at all stages of the communication process.
• Communication occurs in a context; culture is often one important context. To achieve understanding between the sender and the receiver, a vast amount of common information needs to exist between the two.
• Communication is irreversible, once a message is sent, it cannot be taken back.
• Communication is a dynamic process between the sender and the receiver.

In intracultural communications, the context facilitates the interaction, as collective mental programming has set up the terms of the exchange even between individuals who had never met before. The shared ideas received during a similar socialization process on what is good/bad, desirable/undesirable, acceptable/nonacceptable are taken as a given and therefore there is a minor degree of effort to be made in order to understand the message. Even the system of coding and decoding is alike when dealing intraculturally. People use the same symbols (channels) to express the same emotions or messages; for example, what you would normally say via e-mail in one culture, you could prefer to express in person in another, whereas with people from similar backgrounds, this difference does not appear as such.

Monocultural communication is conducted through seeking similarity. Common language, behavioral patterns, and values from the same cultural background allow people to predict the response of others to certain kinds of messages, and react appropriately based upon this prediction. This almost tacit understanding is illustrated in the two conversations conducted between two Americans and two Chinese in Box 6.1.

Cross-cultural communication happens when a person from one culture sends a message to a person from another culture. In other words, the sender and the receiver have different cultural fields. Languages, behavior patterns, and values are different in each culture. The encoded message is determined by the communication skills, knowledge, and culture of the sender. The symbols that people use to express an idea are different. The preference and mode of using different communication channels vary in different cultures. Receivers from different cultures also interpret the same message differently. Thus, overall, culture influences each stage of cross-cultural communication. The fact that the sender and the receiver are from different cultures means that they have less common information to share, less tacit understanding, and so more distortion can be present during the communication process.

One of the “rules of the game” that appears as quite obvious from the messages above indicates what is expected as a reaction from a friend and also what is considered as “polite behavior” and what is not both in China and in the USA.

In China, it is polite to offer help to a friend, even if he or she has not asked for it directly. Actually, it would be impolite not to do so. Further, it would seem very impolite to ask for help directly. In the USA, it is expected that a friend would ask for help if needed, so the potential provider of this help does not think he or she needs to volunteer unless asked to do so.

The context in this case clearly indicates what is expected/not expected from someone else; it also indicates what is polite/not polite to do. When dealing intraculturally, the rules of communication are shared, which is not always the case when dealing interculturally.

If the American 1 in the example above was having a conversation with the Chinese 2 person, the latter might have felt a bit shocked to be asked for help so directly. He would have preferred having the American continue the conversation for a bit longer until he had been given time to volunteer to offer the support as a way to underline the importance of their friendship. By asking directly for help, the American seems impatient, intolerant, and even perhaps interested in using the Chinese to do something he could be doing himself.

If Chinese 1 in the example above was having this conversation with American 2, on the other hand, he would be extremely disappointed to see that the American character would not be volunteering to take him to the airport. He would come across as insensitive, not interested in pursuing the friendship, and very selfish (in particular if Chinese 1 has done favors for him in the past). This would in fact have been a big misunderstanding, as the American character would probably have been eager to give a hand to the Chinese, had he asked for help directly.

We can see through these examples how communicating can be easier monoculturally, as the cultural field acts a facilitator in the encoding, decoding, and the choice of the channel.

But things may get a bit more complicated when dealing cross-culturally, as shown in Figure 6.2.

Indeed, culture may affect communication at every level of the process.³

The Sender

The sender carries within his own background a set of norms about how to behave. In the previous case, it includes his or her own notion on what is agreeable to ask and what is not, what is desirable or not, what is offensive and what is not, what is appropriate and what is not, and so forth. Many factors influence these notions or perceptions, and not all of them are cultural. Some of them are just psychological. But what is undeniable is that whereas American 1 above would have considered it fine to demand a ride, Chinese 1 would have never thought so. The message being deployed by the two characters is therefore consistently different.

Encoding

The choice of words, gestures, attitudes, actions... to communicate is culturally sensitive. In the example above, Chinese 1 chose not to ask for help directly, but he did convey all the “hints” that were needed in order to have the message come across in his culture. The American encoding was much simpler and more direct: the person who needed a favor just asked for it straightforwardly.

Channel

We do not know very much about the channel used in the examples above to convey the message. The Americans were probably doing it anywhere: a bar, the office, in the parking lot, in the staff room next to the water bottle, on the bus... In contrast, in order to make sure that Chinese 2 would “get the message,” Chinese 1 has probably given much thought to how to make sure he could have Chinese 2 offer assistance without having to ask for it. They are probably at a restaurant and Chinese 2 will offer to pay for the meal; or perhaps the timing was right: Chinese 1 owed a favor to Chinese 2 and this was just the time to give a hint on how to pay back for it. In any case, the tools used to convey the message were very similar.

Decoding

Understanding meaning is also cultural, so what each of us understands from others is highly influenced by our backgrounds. In the case above, unless American 1 had explicitly asked for a favor, American 2 would have probably not offered it. In his cultural context, if someone needs a favor, he or she must ask for it. If there is no request, then there is no need. In China, on the other hand, there is a different tacit communication rule: it is rude and pushy to ask for a favor directly. Therefore, when a Chinese sees that a friend to whom he/she owes a favor suggests he/she may be in need of help, the natural reaction is to offer support.

The Receiver

The same way a sender is influenced by his own culture when developing and expressing a message, so is the receiver. The latter will subconsciously pick the portions of the original ideas that have not been lost in the previous phases of communication according to what was learnt during the socialization process.

Misunderstanding can also occur easily in cross-cultural communication due to many sources, including, but not limited to:

1. Misperception: cultures act as filters and lead us to distort, block, and even create what we choose to see and to hear.
2. Misinterpretation (or misattribution): occurs when individuals give wrong meaning to observations and their relationships. Based on our experience and culture, we make assumptions about what we perceive so we will not have to rediscover meanings each time we encounter similar situations. These assumptions may not be right, and assumptions held by individuals are different because their experience and cultures are different. One cause of misinterpretation is stereotyping. Stereotyping is a form of categorization that organizes our experience and conditions our behavior towards various groups within society.
3. Misevaluation: evaluation involves judging whether someone or something is good or bad. We use our own culture as a standard of measurement, reflexively judging that which is like our own culture as normal and good and that which is different as abnormal and bad.

Case study

Here in Box 6.2 is one case of a miscommunication between an American school director and a Greek lecturer around the delivery of the grades.

In the American manager’s mind, the employee was supposed to make an accurate estimation of how long the job would take, with perhaps a few days extra of precautionary cushion in order not to be put out of schedule by unexpected delays. Therefore, when the manager asked how much it would take and the employee responded 10 days, he assumed it would be very generous to give him an extra 50% time, and that because of that understanding offer, the report would have been ready when agreed.

In the Greek employee’s mind, things do not work that way. For him, the boss should have known that the actual time the job would require was about a month. Because of power distance, the superior is supposed to know more. He may have been shocked by the answer “I don’t know,” as that is something one would rarely hear from a highly positioned executive from a high power distance society. By saying he could have finished within 10 days, the employee was intending to show commitment and good intentions, but he never really thought he could make it. He was probably expecting the employer to appreciate his intentions, but to get back to him with a patronizing voice saying, “You are wrong, this will take you 40 days,” and then be surprised when the employee would have finalized by day 25.

In the current circumstances, both actors end up disappointed: the Greek character may think his boss is incompetent (he does not even know how much it takes to do the job), incapable of showing empathy (he did not appreciate the efforts made by the employee), and useless at managing the human factor at work. Therefore, he needs to resign in order to punish him and to embarrass him in front of his peers.

The American boss is frustrated because his employee did not meet the deadline. Being from an internal locus of control culture, very universalistic, and from low context, he thinks one has to comply with his promises regardless of the process and the circumstances. He did not consider the fact that most probably a Greek national would find it difficult to confront an authority or to have him lose face in public, therefore his only choice was to leave banging the door.

Communication is effective to the extent to which we can achieve mutual understanding and minimize misunderstanding. Our ability to avoid misunderstandings starts from understanding the challenges of cross-cultural communication. These challenges directly involve the use of verbal language, non-verbal behaviors, and different communication styles across cultures.

Nobody said that communicating cross-culturally would be a walk in the park and it is understandable that many may be frustrated by this and keep being annoyed by other people’s choices and decisions. Being a cross-cultural manager does not mean that one will never be disturbed by diversity. Even the most passionate diversity seeker who appreciates variety will at some point wish others would see life through his eyes. But the big difference between a good cross-cultural manager and a parochial one is that the former will be able to enhance his team’s creativity to the highest, and will embrace profit.

Linguistic Challenges of Cross-Cultural Communication

One important way of communication is through spoken language. It is estimated that there are more than 2,500 distinct languages currently spoken in the world. Among them, more than 100 are spoken by more than one million people each. The nine languages that have the largest number of native speakers are Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, and Japanese.⁴ To communicate with people from other cultures, there has to be a common language. However, even people who speak the same language but from different countries can be surprised when they hear ‘their’ language spoken to them in an unfamiliar fashion. For example, “candy” and “elevator” in America are “sweets” and “lift” in Britain respectively. In cross-cultural communication, often one or both (all) of the communicators must use a common second language that is very different from their own.

Use of a second language

Cross-cultural communication is difficult. Even when there is an appropriate medium such as a second language in common (e.g., English as “lingua franca”), understanding is still difficult to come by. The use of a second language presents a number of challenges:

1. Misunderstanding caused by low level of language fluency.
2. It is mentally straining for second-language user.
3. First-language speakers tend to modify their speech by reducing the speed, simplifying the sentence, or adopting “foreigner speak” as in the example shown in Box 6.3.⁵
4. Second-language speakers pretend to understand.
5. People who speak a fluent second language are also regarded as competent in other respects, which is not necessarily true.

In the case above, the miscommunication is clear. For the Chinese employee, there was a reason not to amend Mr. Wei’s speech (most probably Mr. Wei is a superior officer with great connections and correcting him would be an offence—in particular by a younger woman). Li’s intention was certainly good and she did understand that her manager wanted her to type the amendments and transport the material to Mr. Wei. But she could just not confront him directly and he felt he needed to avoid conflict. Li was hoping the manager would rethink his order by pretending not to understand it, but what Li did not understand was that no matter how many times her boss repeated the same sentence again and again, things would not move forward because he would just become irritated, and the amendments would in the end have to be made.

If there was a reason for the amendments not to be inserted, the manager would expect his employee to mention it directly instead of using artifacts to distort the meaning. To the American manager, it is paramount that all information that could challenge the good functioning of the company is pointed out in order to be avoided or to prevent further malfunctions. In the mind of the Chinese employee, saving the face of the superior is paramount, but to contradict him is an offence he will try to avoid by all means... so no matter how angry the manager can get by repeating the same sentence over and over again, things may not be any better.

Other Linguistic Considerations

When we speak other languages, it is also important to understand how language is used in different social situations. In most languages, there are nonstandard forms and usages of language that are difficult for second-language speakers to understand. These nonstandard forms of language include the following:

Differences in Nonverbal Communication Across Cultures

In cross-cultural communication, beyond what is being said, how it is being said is also important. According to Albert Mehrabian, three elements account for our feelings for the person who puts forward a message: words account for 7%, tone of voice accounts for 38%, and body language accounts for 55%. Nonverbal communication, according to Noller⁶ counts for 70% of communication between people in the same language group. Important nonverbal communication includes tone of voice, use of silence, eye contact, facial expression, gestures, conversational distance, and touching, among others.

Tone of Voice

Tone of voice includes pitch, volume, speed, tension, variation, and some other voice qualities such as breathiness or creakiness. Some cultures communicate in higher volume and higher speed than other cultures in normal circumstances. Different cultures ascribe different meanings to features and qualities of tone of voice. For example, in the United States, loud, low-pitched, fast speech indicates dominance; in Germany soft, low-pitched, breathy speech indicates dominance. In addition, these and other features of voice, such as accent, can indicate the cultural identity of the speaker. When communicating with different cultures, people tend to interpret tone of voice based on their own culture.

Silence⁷

Some cultures such as the United States see talk as a more important part of communication, people from these cultures have low tolerance for silence, seeing it as something to be filled with conversation. However, silence is viewed differently in collective cultures such as China and Japan. It is regarded as an important part of communication in these cultures. For example, in Japan, four meanings can be conveyed by silence: truthfulness, social discretion, embarrassment, and defiance. In China, some people treat silence as a virtue, “Silence is golden.” In business negotiation, some cultures tend to use talk as a control strategy, and other cultures tend to use silence as a control strategy.

In Latin cultures, silence can usually mean failure to communicate. When taking an elevator or sharing a meal, long silences can be interpreted as boredom or disinterest in others. Words, even meaningless words that fill the space are necessary to make people feel comfortable.

Eye Contact

Different cultures have different norms governing how long people should maintain eye contact during interactions. For example, in the United States, gazing is typically interpreted as a sign of friendliness; persistent gazing is perceived as hostile or aggressive; avoiding eye contact suggests shyness, unfriendliness, and insincerity. However in Africa and some countries in South East Asia, gazing conveys anger; and in Japan, people avoid eye contact, they look instead at people’s necks.

Facial Expression

Facial expression is an important way to convey information, especially emotions including anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, and surprise. However, different cultures attach different meanings to the same facial expression. For example, in the United States, smiling is associated with happiness; in Japan, smiling is a sign of hiding displeasure, sorrow, and anger; and in China, smiling sometimes is seen as a lack of self-control and calmness.

Gestures

Different cultures use gestures differently. For example, in most cultures people nod their heads up and down to say “yes,” and shake their heads from side to side to say “no”. However, in Bulgaria, people do the opposite; they nod their heads up and down to say “no” and shake their heads from side to side to say “yes”. Hence, the same gestures can mean very different things in different cultures. Here you can see some of the different meanings of a few gestures:

Conversation Distance

Each person has around her or him an invisible bubble of space, which is called personal space. It expands and contracts depending on factors such as the relationship to the people nearby, the person’s emotional state or cultural background, and the activity being performed. Few people are allowed to penetrate this personal space and then only for a short period of time. There are four types of conversation distance people keep from each other when they communicate as shown in Figure 8.3. Public distance is used for public speaking, social distance is for interactions among acquaintances, personal distance is for interaction among good friends or family members, and intimate distance is for embracing, touching, or whispering with intimate others. The personal distance standard for Northern Americans is shown in Figure 8.3. According to Hall, different cultures maintain different standards of personal space when talking to each other. Therefore, what is considered as appropriate conversation distance differs from one culture to another. In Latin cultures, the relative conversational distances are smaller, and people tend to be more comfortable standing close to each other; in Nordic cultures, the conversational distances are larger, people tend to keep distance from each other. For example, a Spanish businessman and a Danish businessman were talking in a meeting room. While the Spanish businessman kept moving closer to the Danish businessman during the conversation, the Danish man kept backing away from the Spanish man. When the Danish businessman hit the wall, the Spanish businessman realized he was invading the comfortable conversation space of the Danish businessman. Gauging the conversation distance appropriate to different cultures is important so that people don’t feel too distant or too close, and such awareness improves cross-cultural understanding.

Touching

People from different cultures use touching behavior differently, if at all, during conversations. In northern Europe one does not touch others. Even the brushing of overcoat sleeves can elicit an apology. Other low-touching cultures include English, Germanic, and Asian. In Mediterranean, Eastern European, and Arabian cultures, people touch each other frequently during conversation as a sign of closeness, mutual trust, and friendliness.

Communication Styles Across Cultures

Email Exercise

In this exercise you assume the role of the project leader of a team with members located in different countries. You have just learned that one team member, Keiko Suzuki from Japan, has failed to deliver an important due report to the project team as agreed. This is not the first time Keiko has disappointed and not just in her ability to meet deadlines but also the quality of her work. Previously, she provided inaccurate data to another team member who fortunately spotted it before it could become a serious problem. Her poor performance is drawing the attention of other team members and is a risk to keeping the project on track. You decide it is time to address the problem immediately and would prefer to do it over the phone but your previous conversations with Keiko have been strained and left you feeling unsure if she fully understood you. You put this down to the “language barrier” and feel an email would work best in this situation.

Write an email in English to initiate this feedback process in the box below.

Now exchange your written email with someone you know and you can both assume the role of Keiko as she reads and reacts to the email. Answer the following:

1. How do you feel after you read this email? Happy? Neutral? Upset? Any other feelings?

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2. Are you prompted to change your behavior in the future? Why?

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Using This Information

When you are communicating with people from different cultures:

1. Don’t assume that what we mean is what is understood.
2. Don’t assume that what you understood is what is meant.
3. Don’t assume similarity, even though there are some universal communication behaviors.
4. Use of a second language is challenging.
5. Familiar nonverbal behaviors may have different meanings.
6. Different cultures prefer different communication styles.

Here are some recommendations for effective cross-cultural communication based on William B. Gudykunst⁸ and Stella Ting-Toomy:

1. Be open—share part of yourself and be open to the differences of others.
2. Listen actively and proactively—actively noticing differences, contexts, and perspectives.
3. Show empathy—being sensitive to others’ needs and feelings, also communicate that you feel what the other person feels, both verbally and nonverbally. Build rapport.
4. Respectfulness—show respect and positive regard for another person.
5. Tolerate ambiguity—remain calm, do not become anxious when there is unknown or ambiguous information.
6. Flexibility—check and recheck assumptions, shift perspectives, and adapt verbal and nonverbal communications appropriately.jm