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3 Communication Challenges in a Diverse, Global Marketplace LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#P7001012451000000000000000001B75) Discuss the opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BBA) Define culture, explain how culture is learned, and define ethnocentrism and stereotyping.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#P7001012451000000000000000001BFF) Explain the importance of recognizing cultural variations, and list eight categories of cultural differences.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#P7001012451000000000000000001CA0) List four general guidelines for adapting to any business culture.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CCA) Identify seven steps you can take to improve your intercultural communication skills.

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COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Kaiser Permanente

kp.org (http://kp.org)

Delivering quality health care is difficult enough, given the complexities of technology, government regulations, evolving scientific and medical understanding, and the variability of human performance. It gets even more daunting when you add the challenges of communication among medical staff and between patients and their caregivers, which often takes place under stressful circumstances. Those communication efforts are challenging enough in an environment where everyone speaks the same language and feels at home in a single cultural context—but they’re infinitely more complex in the United States, whose residents identify with dozens of different cultures and speak several hundred languages.

The Oakland-based health-care system Kaiser Permanente has been embracing the challenges and opportunities of diversity since its founding in 1945. It made a strong statement with its very first hospital when it refused to follow the then-common practice of segregating patients by race. Now, as the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States, Kaiser’s client base includes more than 10 million members from over 100 distinct cultures.

At the core of Kaiser’s approach is culturally competent care, which it defines as “health care that acknowledges cultural diversity in the clinical setting, respects members’ beliefs and practices, and ensures that cultural needs are considered and respected at every point of contact.” These priorities are woven into Kaiser’s organizational culture, structure, and business practices.

Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard J. Tyson believes a culturally competent workforce is essential to the health provider’s aim of serving the diverse U.S. population.

REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Delivering this standard of care requires a mix of skills and knowledge that range from an awareness of medical issues of concern to specific cultures to language fluency (and translation skills in more than 100 languages) to the awareness needed to handle cultural traditions and values in a sensitive manner. Kaiser’s Centers of Excellence in Culturally Competent Care at facilities around the country are a good example of the extent the company takes to serve its diverse clientele. Each center focuses on one or more cultures prominent in a given locale, with a particular emphasis on improving care outcomes for population segments that have historically been underserved.

Kaiser believes that effectively serving a diverse client base requires an equally diverse staff. As the chairman and CEO Bernard J. Tyson explains, “The rich diversity of our organization reflects the diversity of the people we serve each and every day.” Nearly half the executive team are women, for example, and people of color make up nearly 60 percent of the company’s workforce.

In addition to helping Kaiser communicate more effectively with its customers, the strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion is good for businesses. Its target market segments also happen to be among the country’s fastest-growing demographic groups, and Kaiser’s ability to connect with these audiences gives it an

important competitive advantage.1

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3.1 Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges of Communication in a Diverse World

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Discuss the opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication.

Diversity includes all the characteristics that define people as individuals.

Kaiser Permanente (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) illustrates the opportunities and the challenges for business professionals who know how to communicate with diverse audiences. Although the concept is often framed in terms of ethnic background, a broader and more useful definition of diversity (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E25) includes

“all the characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals.”2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001ED4) As one example, the pharmaceutical company Merck identifies 19 separate dimensions of diversity, including race, age, military experience, parenting status, marital status, and

thinking style.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001ED6) As you’ll learn in this chapter, these characteristics and experiences can have a profound effect on the way businesspeople communicate.

MOBILE APP

Culture Compass offers insights into more than 100 countries around the world.

Intercultural communication (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E35) is the process of sending and receiving messages between people whose cultural backgrounds could lead them to interpret verbal and nonverbal signs differently. Every attempt to send and receive messages is influenced by culture, so to communicate successfully, you need a basic understanding of the cultural differences you may encounter and how you should handle them. Your efforts to recognize and bridge cultural differences will open up business opportunities throughout the world and maximize the contributions of all the employees in a diverse workforce.

OPPORTUNITIES IN A GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

You will communicate with people from many other cultures throughout your career.

Chances are good that you’ll be working across international borders sometime in your career. Thanks to communication and transportation technologies, natural boundaries and national borders are no longer the impassable barriers they once were. Local markets are opening to worldwide competition as businesses of all sizes look for new growth opportunities outside their own countries. Thousands of U.S. businesses depend on exports for significant portions of their revenues. Every year, these companies export hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of materials and merchandise, along with billions more in personal and professional services. If you work in one of these companies, you may well be called on to visit or at least communicate with a wide variety of people who speak languages other than English and who live in cultures quite different from what you’re used to. Among the United States’s top 10 global trading partners, only

Canada and Great Britain have English as an official language; Canada also has French as an official language.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001ED8)

Not surprisingly, effective communication is important to cross-cultural and global business. In a recent survey, nearly 90 percent of executives said their companies’ profits, revenue, and market share would all improve with better international communication skills. In addition, half of these executives said

communication or collaboration breakdowns had affected major international business efforts in their companies.5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EDA) The good news here is that improving your cultural communication skills could make you a more valuable job candidate at every stage of your career.

ADVANTAGES OF A DIVERSE WORKFORCE

The diversity of today’s workforce brings distinct advantages to businesses:

• A broader range of views and ideas • A better understanding of diverse, fragmented markets • A broader pool of talent from which to recruit

Even if you never visit another country or transact business on a global scale, you will interact with colleagues from a variety of cultures and with a wide range of characteristics and life experiences. Many innovative companies are changing the way they approach diversity, from seeing it as a legal requirement (providing

equal opportunities for all) to seeing it as a strategic opportunity to connect with customers and take advantage of the broadest possible pool of talent.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EDC) Smart business leaders recognize the competitive advantages of a diverse workforce that offers a broader spectrum of viewpoints and ideas, helps businesses understand and identify with diverse markets, and enables companies to benefit from a wider range of employee talents. “It just makes good business sense,” says Gord Nixon, the

CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada.7

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REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Looking for jobs at diversity-minded companies?

DiversityWorking.com (http://DiversityWorking.com) connects job searchers with companies that recognize the value of diverse workforces. Go to www.real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://www.real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Diversity is simply a fact of life for all companies. The United States has been a nation of immigrants from the beginning, and that trend continues today. The western and northern Europeans who made up the bulk of immigrants during the nation’s early years now share space with people from across Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and other parts of the world. Across the United States, the term minority as it is traditionally applied to nonwhite residents makes less and less sense every year. Non-Hispanic white Americans now account for about 60 percent of the overall U.S. population, but that figure will drop below 50 percent in

two or three decades. Caucasian Americans already make up less than half the population in hundreds of cities and counties.8

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However, you and your colleagues don’t need to be recent immigrants to constitute a diverse workforce. Differences in everything from age and gender identification to religion and ethnic heritage to geography and military experience enrich the workplace. Immigration and workforce diversity create advantages—and challenges—for business communicators throughout the world.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY EXPLORING THIS INTERACTIVE WEBSITE

Take a closer look at how the United States is changing

The U.S. population is aging and becoming more diverse; dive into the details with this interactive presentation. Go to www.real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://www.real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

THE CHALLENGES OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Today’s increasingly diverse workforce encompasses a wide range of skills, traditions, backgrounds, experiences, outlooks, and attitudes toward work—all of which can affect communication in the workplace. Supervisors face the challenge of connecting with these diverse employees, motivating them, and fostering cooperation and harmony among them. Teams face the challenge of working together closely, and companies are challenged to coexist peacefully with business partners and with the community as a whole.

A company’s cultural diversity affects how its business messages are conceived, composed, delivered, received, and interpreted.

The interaction of culture and communication is so pervasive that separating the two is virtually impossible. The way you communicate is deeply influenced by the culture in which you were raised. The meaning of words, the significance of gestures, the importance of time and space, the rules of human relationships—these and many other aspects of communication are defined by culture. To a large degree, your culture influences the way you think, which

naturally affects the way you communicate as both a sender and a receiver.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EE2) Intercultural communication is much more complicated than simply matching language between sender and receiver; it goes beyond mere words to beliefs, values, and emotions.

Culture influences everything about communication, including

• Language • Nonverbal signals • Word meaning • Time and space issues • Rules of human relationships

Elements of human diversity can affect every stage of the communication process, from the ideas a person deems important enough to share to the habits and expectations of giving feedback. In particular, your instinct is to encode your message using the assumptions of your culture. Members of your audience, however,

decode your message according to the assumptions of their culture. The greater the difference between cultures, the greater the chance for misunderstanding.10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EE4)

Throughout this chapter, you’ll see examples of how communication styles and habits vary from one culture to another. These examples are intended to illustrate the major themes of intercultural communication, not to give an exhaustive list of the styles and habits of any particular culture. With an understanding of these major themes, you’ll be prepared to explore the specifics of any culture.

3.2 Developing Cultural Competency

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Define culture, explain how culture is learned, and define ethnocentrism and stereotyping.

Cultural competency requires a combination of attitude, knowledge, and skills.

Cultural competency (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E15) includes an appreciation for cultural differences that affect communication and the ability to adjust one’s communication style to ensure that efforts to send and receive

messages across cultural boundaries are successful. In other words, it requires a combination of attitude, knowledge, and skills.11

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EE6) Kaiser Permanente, profiled at the beginning of the chapter, is a good example of a contemporary organization that values cultural competency so highly that it makes it a high-level strategic imperative.

Achieving cultural competency can take time and effort, but the good news is you’re already an expert in culture—at least the culture in which you grew up. You understand how your society works, how people are expected to communicate, what common gestures and facial expressions mean, and so on. The bad news is that because you’re such an expert in your own culture, your communication is largely automatic; that is, you rarely stop to think about the communication rules you’re following. An important step toward successful intercultural communication is becoming more aware of these rules and the way they influence your communication.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS INFOGRAPHIC

How not to behave in 15 countries

These brief and occasionally humorous pointers will help keep you out of trouble. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and behavioral norms.

Culture (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E21) is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior. Your cultural background influences the way you prioritize what is important

in life, helps define your attitude toward what is appropriate in a given situation, and establishes rules of behavior.12

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EE8)

You belong to several cultures, each of which affects the way you communicate.

Actually, you belong to several cultures. In addition to the culture you share with all the people who live in your own country, you belong to other cultural groups, including an ethnic group, possibly a religious group, and perhaps a profession that has its own special language and customs. With its large population and long history of immigration, the United States is home to a vast array of cultures (see Figure 3.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BCE) ).13

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EEA) In contrast, Japan is

much more homogeneous, having only a few distinct cultural groups.14

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Members of a given culture tend to have similar assumptions about how people should think, behave, and communicate, and they all tend to act on those assumptions in much the same way. Cultures can vary in their rate of change, degree of complexity, and tolerance toward outsiders. These differences affect the level of trust and openness you can achieve when communicating with people of other cultures.

You learn culture both directly (by being instructed) and indirectly (by observing others).

People learn culture directly and indirectly from other members of their group. As you grow up in a culture, you are taught by the group’s members who you are and how best to function in that culture. Sometimes you are explicitly told which behaviors are acceptable. At other times you learn by observing which values

work best in a particular group. In these ways, culture is passed on from person to person and from generation to generation.15

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EEE)

Cultures tend to offer views of life that are both coherent (internally logical) and complete (able to answer all of life’s big questions).

In addition to being automatic, culture tends to be coherent; that is, a culture seems to be fairly logical and consistent when viewed from the inside. Certain norms within a culture may not make sense to someone outside the culture, but they probably make sense to those inside. Such coherence generally helps a culture function more smoothly internally, but it can create disharmony between cultures that don’t view the world in the same way.

Finally, cultures tend to be complete; that is, they provide their members with most of the answers to life’s big questions. This idea of completeness dulls or even

suppresses curiosity about life in other cultures. Not surprisingly, such completeness can complicate communication with other cultures.16

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Figure 3.1 Language Diversity in the United States

Language is one of the distinguishing factors of population diversity. This chart shows the trend in the relative ranking of a number of languages other than English spoken in the United States since 1980.

Source: “Top Languages Other than English Spoken in 1980 and Changes in Relative Rank, 1990-2010,” U.S. Census Bureau, 14 February 2013, www.census.gov (http://www.census.gov) .

OVERCOMING ETHNOCENTRISM AND STEREOTYPING

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge all other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group.

Ethnocentrism (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E29) is the tendency to judge other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group. Given the automatic influence of one’s own culture,

when people compare their culture with others, they often conclude that their own is superior.17

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EF2) An even more extreme reaction is xenophobia (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E41) , a fear of strangers and foreigners. Clearly, businesspeople who take these views are not likely to communicate successfully across cultures.

Stereotyping is assigning generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular group.

Distorted views of other cultures or groups also result from stereotyping (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E3D) , assigning a wide

range of generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular culture or social group. For instance, assuming that an older colleague will be out of touch with the youth market or that a younger colleague can’t be an inspiring leader would be stereotyping age groups.

Cultural pluralism is the acceptance of multiple cultures on their own terms.

Those who want to show respect for others and to communicate effectively in business need to adopt a more positive viewpoint in the form of cultural pluralism (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E1D) —the practice of accepting multiple cultures on their own terms. When crossing cultural boundaries, you’ll be more effective if you move beyond simple acceptance and adapt

your communication style to that of the new cultures you encounter—even integrating aspects of those cultures into your own.18

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EF4) A few simple habits can help:

You can avoid ethnocentrism and stereotyping by avoiding assumptions, withholding judgment, and accepting differences.

• Avoid assumptions. Don’t assume that others will act the same way you do, use language and symbols the same way you do, or even operate from the same values and beliefs. For instance, in a comparison of the 10 most important values in three cultures, people from the United States had no values in

common with people from Japanese or Arab cultures.19

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• Withhold judgment. When people act differently, don’t conclude that they are in error or that their way is invalid or inferior. • Acknowledge distinctions. Don’t ignore the differences between another person’s culture and your own.

Unfortunately, overcoming ethnocentrism and stereotyping is not a simple task, even for people who are highly motivated to do so. Moreover, research suggests