Global Communication Challenges: Cross-Cultural Essay

The world is becoming one global unified village. Because of compelling necessities in line of employment and related matters, much and more companies are moving their operations offshore and expanding their footprint into wise and unfamiliar geographies. A big ch completelyenge in managing this change is how to deal with a diverse workforce. This has to be managed well for the familiarity to successfully achieve its business objectives. The company has to ensure that there is clear and transparent two way confabulation between the headquarters and the branches or subsidiaries, and also strong ties with the Leadership.(Lisbeth Clausen, Corporate parley Ch all(prenominal)enges A Negotiated Culture Perspective). To make this happen, all staffs require a certain mastery of interbreed cultural communication skills. They establish to be well trained to empathize with antithetic cultural makers so as to keep communication open and powerful without letting it affect business p erformance. Why are companies facing cross-cultural communication challenges? Companies become multi -national and go bad overseas for various reasons.With advancement in technology and a capricious business hold to stay competitive and ahead of competition, they set up operations and expand to newer geographies every day. It could be because they sell a production or service which they feel has potential to be marketed overseas. The company whitethorn perceive a big business opportunity in doing this and square off to set up a network on foreign shores. Or they may decide to off-shore their operations in order to leverage skills availableness or even for labor arbitrage.Whichever the reason, once an office is set up overseas, this typically means that management and staff from the head office or flagship cod to interact on a regular basis with topical anesthetic staff in the new countries. And if the business opens up in more than one country, it has to deal with multi cultu ral staff and or customers a power that calls for adroit handling of agriculture sensitive communications so that all business activities like decision-making and problem-solving take place without any gaps and in a way that is best suited to business needs.It is natural that people from different cultures to react differently to situations for example, when the SHOE Company from Denmark entered the Japanese market, it found that many a(prenominal) local business practices, like the hierarchical style of management, were creating barriers to quick sign penetration. The Japanese on the other hand mat up that the Danish were non open for negotiation that headquarters was sending mixed messages. (Lisbeth Clausen, Corporate discourse Challenges A Negotiated Culture Perspective).Leadership will have to patiently and successfully overcome the challenge of shiting the company culture amongst new staff in a foreign land. The new staff members have to embrace the companys values an d work style this is scathing for delivering good business results. Similarly, the Danish were impatient with Japans formal approach to business they just wanted to get the personal line of credit make as quickly and efficiently as possible without partaking in friendly obligations. . How do these challenges affect an individuals performance and effectiveness? profit and lucid communication of business goals and corporate expectations of how staff hatful friend achieve business goals is critical to the successful running of any business. inefficacious communication can lead to a lack of makeing of what is expect of a someone in the company and how he or she should institute towards achieving the business objectives. Many times a feeling of apathy sets in when staff feel left out and consequently their performance suffers, infliction the companys business performance as well.When Jesus Ricardo was send on a two year assignment from North the States to South East Asia, she was one unhappy expat. It started with the very basics her let out none of the people she worked with could say it right. It was simply a matter of her co-workers non being aware that in Spanish, the J is pronounced like an H. She ended up having to explain this repeatedly and correct every person she met. This annoyed her tremendously although the locals did not think much of it.They did not understand that where Jesus came from, it was important to pronounce ones name correctly. therefore in the office, Jesus found her colleagues (all local), always spoke in Chinese. She felt terribly left out and sometimes even ignored. Often she wondered if they were talking about her, especially when the conversation was peppered with giggles. She consequently made no trial to get to know her team mates and insulated herself in her own world. At the end of three such trying months, she decided to quit her job if her company did not move her back to N America.Could the company have avoided such a situation? Yes, if it had been better prepared to handle a diverse workforce. As part of the relocation exercise, the company should have tramp both Jesus and the team in Taiwan through with(predicate) cross cultural sensitization. The host team should have been given a little briefing about the new member from N America and a buddy could have been arranged to soft land Jesus into a completely new culture and living. How do these communication challenges affect the business objectives of the company?A persons behavior his attitudes, his beliefs, life style, his idea, and his reactivity are all influenced by his cultural background and markers. (Madelinde Daane-van der Houwen, Understanding of culture optimizes a global communications strategy). As companies start to do business with other countries, it becomes evident that there is a compelling need to understand local culture and habits. To persuade people to contribute profitably to business objectives, it is importa nt to establish credibility and trust. This is best done by exhibiting an understanding of local habits and ways of life.To be able to recruit and hold open the best employees and successfully achieve its business goals, an organization has to value the sort of its employees and customers and communicate effectively to them. It is true that a diverse workforce helps to build respect for the company brand both internally and externally through proper handling of cultural sensitivities, misunderstandings can be avoided and closer relationships can be cultivated between the company and customer. Such teams enhance productiveness and spur creativity and innovation.And because of a variety of thinking styles and opinions they lead to effective problem resolutions and better decision outcomes. Organizations that believe in espousing cultural miscellany and communicating effectively across differences of race, gender, religion, age, geographic background, education, economic and cultura l background, and thinking and communication styles. will be committed to creating an inclusive organization where the differences of all people will be respected, valued and utilized towards achieving a vulgar goal adding tremendous value to the way the company conducts its business.References 1. http//www. thelatimergroup. com/aboutus/newsversions/spotlight_v5issue5. html, 2007 2. http//www. immi. gov. au/media/publications/multicultural/confer/01/speech5a. htm, 1995 3. http//perspectives. larryhollon. com/? p=414, 2006 4. http//journals. cambridge. org/action/displayAbstract? aid=1740740, 2008 (COSTAS M. CONSTANTINOU, OLIVER P. RICHMOND and ALISON M. S. WATSON (2008). International dealing and the challenges of global communication. Review of International Studies, 34 , pp 5-19 doi10. 1017/S026021050800778X)