1. Cross-Cultural Communications in Business*
Dr. Bennie Wilson
University of Texas at San Antonio
*Last four slides added by Karen Raliski
Mount Tabor High School

2. We’re Going To Talk About….
A Communications Model
What is “Culture”?
Good Cross-Cultural Communicators
High-Context Cultures
Low-Context Cultures

3. A Communications Model
Channel
Sender
Message
Audience
Feedback

4. A Better Communications Model
Context
Channel
Sender
Message
Audience
Feedback

5. What is Culture??? Provides patterns of acceptable behavior & beliefs.
May be based on….
Nationality
Race and Religion
Historical Roots
…All of the Above

6. Good Intercultural Communicators Are….
Aware values & behaviors not always “right.”
Flexible & open to change.

7. And….. Sensitive to verbal & nonverbal behavior.
Aware of values, beliefs, practices of other cultures.
Sensitive to differences within cultures.

8. High Context vs. Low Context Cultures

9. High-Context Cultures
Infer information from message context, rather than from content.
Prefer indirectness, politeness & ambiguity.
Convey little information explicitly.
Rely heavily on nonverbal signs.
Asian
Latin American
Middle Eastern

10. Low-Context Cultures Rely more on content rather than on context.
Explicitly spell out information.
Value directness.
See indirectness as manipulative.
Value written word more than oral statements.
European
Scandinavian
North American

11. Some Cultural Scenarios
Japan
China
India
Mexico

12. JAPAN
To help her American Company establish a presence in Japan, Mrs. Torres wants to hire a local interpreter who can advise her on business customs. Ms. Tomari has superb qualifications on paper, but when Mrs. Torres tries to probe about her experience, Ms. Tomari just says, “I will do my best. I will try very hard.” She never gives details about any of the previous positions she has held. Mrs. Torres begins to wonder if Ms. Tomari's résumé is inflated.

13. CHINA
Stan Williams wants to negotiate a joint venture between his American firm and a Beijing-based company. He asks Tung-Sen Lee if the Chinese people have enough discretionary income to afford his product. Mr. Lee is silent for a time, and then says, “Your product is good. People in the West must like it.” Stan smiles, pleased that Mr. Lee recognizes the quality of his product, and he leaves a contract for Mr. Lee to sign. Weeks later, Stan still hasn’t heard anything. If China is going to be so inefficient, he wonders if his company should try to do business there.

14. INDIA
Gloria Johnson is proud of her participatory management style. Assigned in Bombay on behalf of her U.S.-based company, she is careful not to give orders but to ask for suggestions. But the employees rarely suggest anything. Even a formal suggestion system she established does not work. Worse still, she doesn’t sense the respect and camaraderie that she felt at the plant she managed in Texas. Perhaps the people in India just are not ready for a woman boss.

15. MEXICO
Alan Caldwell is a U.S. sales representative in Mexico City. He makes appointments with Senõr Lopez and is careful to be on time, but his host is frequently late. To save time, Alan tries to get right to business, his host wants to talk about sightseeing and about Alan’s family. Even worse, the meetings are interrupted constantly with phone calls, long conversations with other people, and even customers’ children who come into the office. Alan’s first report to his home office is very negative. He hasn’t yet made a sale. Perhaps Mexico just isn’t the right place to do business.

16. Mindset In Cross-Cultural Communication
Some people seem to find it easy to adopt a mindset where it’s easy to cultivate good cross cultural practices and engage with other cultures.
A good cross-cultural mindset is also acquired through a mixture of experience and personal commitment to make the changes needed.

17. Trust In Cross-Cultural Communication
First by stopping to lose trust through unintentional cross-cultural misunderstandings; and
By becoming aware of the cultural differences in building trust and adapting communication as required.
This requires a degree of risk-taking.

18. Empathy In Cross-Cultural Communication
Mastering and improving your empathy skills plays a critical role in international business success.
Without a minimum level of understanding of another person’s point of view you cannot build trust and create relationships with your international clients. And these relationships are critical in international business.

19. Develop a skit to show how you would adapt your communication to the cultural/social differences among clients or customers.
Be prepared to explain your situation to the class.
The class will identify how you adapt your communication to the situation to improve communication.