Contents
Intercultural Communication
Rationale
Intercultural Competence is the ability for successful communication with people of other cultures. This ability can be existing already at a young age, or be developed and improved thanks to willpower and competence. The bases for a successful intercultural communication are emotional competence, together with intercultural sensitivity.
Cultures can be different not only between continents or nations, but also within the same company or even family: every human being has his own history, his own life and therefore also (in a certain extent) his own culture (geographical, ethnical, moral, ethical, religious, political, historical) resp. cultural affiliation or cultural identity.
Basic needs are sensitivity and self-consciousness: the understanding of other behaviors and ways of thinking as well as the ability to express one’s own point of view in a transparent way with the aim to be understood and respected by staying flexible where this is possible, and being clear where this is necessary.
It is a balance, situatively adapted, between three parts:
- knowledge (about other cultures, people, nations, behaviors…),
- empathy (understanding feelings and needs of other people), and
- self-confidence (knowing what I want, my strengths and weaknesses, emotional stability).
For assessment of intercultural competence as an existing ability and / or the potential to develop it (with conditions and timeframe), the following characteristics are tested and observed: ambiguity tolerance, openness to contacts, flexibility in behavior, emotional stability, motivation to perform, empathy, metacommunicative competence, polycentrism.
Cultural characteristics can be differenciated between several dimensions and aspects (the ability to perceive them and to cope with them is one of the bases of intercultural competence), such as:
1. Collectivist and individualist cultures;
2. Masculine and feminine cultures;
4. Power distance;
5. Monochrone (time-fixed, "one after the other") and polychrone (many things at the same time, "multi-tasking") aspects;
6. Structural characteristics: e. g. basic personality, value orientation, experience of time and space, selective perception, nonverbal communication, patterns of behavior.
See also
- Conflict Style Inventory
- Cross-cultural communication
- Cultural competence
- Intercultural communication principles
- Intercultural relations
Organisations
- CICB Center of Intercultural Competence, http://www.cicb.net
- Intercultural Communication Institute, http://www.intercultural.org
- Centre for Intercultural Training and Research, http://www.intercultural.org.uk
- Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research, http://www.sietar.org
- Organization for Intercultural Training, http://www.tmcorp.com
Today's Videos
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Teaching and Learning Resources
Introduction
Tutorials
Readings
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Countries and Regions
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Definitions
Tutorials
Readings
Intercultural communication principles guide the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries, in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimises antagonism. For these purposes, culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms of behaviour. It refers to coherent groups of people whether resident wholly or partly within state territories, or existing without residence in any particular territory. Hence, these principles may have equal relevance when a tourist seeks help, where two well-established independent corporations attempt to merge their operations, and where politicians attempt to negotiate world peace. Two factors have raised the importance of this topic:
1. improvements in communication and transportation technology have made it possible for previously stable cultures to meet in unstructured situations, e.g. the internet opens lines of communication without mediation, while budget airlines transplant ordinary citizens into unfamiliar milieux. Experience proves that merely crossing cultural boundaries can be considered threatening, while positive attempts to interact may provoke defensive responses. Misunderstanding may be compounded by either an exaggerated sensitivity to possible slights, or an exaggerated and over-protective fear of giving offence;
2. some groups believe that the phenomenon of globalisation has reduced cultural diversity and so reduced the opportunity for misunderstandings, but characterising people as a homogeneous market is simplistic. One product or brand only appeals to the material aspirations of one self-selecting group of buyers, and its sales performance will not affect the vast multiplicity of factors that may separate the cultures.
- Cross-cultural communication
- Intercultural communication
- Intercultural competence
- Grounding in communication
- External
links
- A Dozen Rules of Thumb for Avoiding Intercultural Misunderstandings by Elmar Holenstein
- Intercultural Research: The Current State of Knowledge by Stephan Dahl
- Intercultural Communication an interactive tool based on Hofstede's principles
- Intercultural Communication as a Dominant Paradigm
- Intercultural Communication and Diplomacy
- Is There an Essential Difference between Intercultural and Intracultural Communication?
- The
Practice of Intercultural Communication
Barriers to Intercultural Communication
Tutorials
- Barriers to Intercultural Communication
- Stereotypes and Prejudice as Barriers
- Nonverbal Communication
- Language
- Language As A Barrier
Readings
Culture
Tutorials
- Culture’s Influence On Perception
- Dimensions of Culture
- Dominant US Cultural Patterns: Using Value Orientation Theory
- Comparative Cultural Patterns: Arabian Culture
- Women, Families, & Children
- Contact Between Cultures
- Immigration & Acculturation
- Forces Against Assimilation
- Forces to Conform to One Cultural Identity
- Reclaiming A Culture
- Identity and Subgroups
- Multiculturalism
- Challenges Facing Intercultural Communication
Readings
- The 'Masculine' and 'Feminine' Sides of Leadership and Culture: Perception vs. Reality
- Method and Theory in Cultural Anthropology
- Reflective encounters: illustrating comparative rhetoric
- Comparative Cultural Phylogenetics
- Contemporay Ethics: A Multicultural Approach
- Crosscultural and Intercultural Articles
- Intercultural Management
- Research on Academic Sojourners’ Communication Strategies: A Critical Review
Recommended Text
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Intercultural
Communication
Authored
by: Check
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Intercultural
Business Communication, 3/E Lillian H. Chaney, The University of Memphis Jeanette S. Martin, The University of Mississippi
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Foundations
of Intercultural Communication Check
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Understanding Intercultural Communication First
Edition
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Resources
Acknowledgements
PowerPoint
Presentations by
Rueyling
Chuang, Ph.D.
Ohio University
Associate Professor