Intercultural Communication And Team Communication In Business: An Essay.

Write a reflection report discussing and analysing any two topics explored in this course. Students are required to discuss not only their understanding of the topics, but also the implications for their current/future role in business or work. Not only should critical thinking be demonstrated in the  reflection, students should also provide their opinions, ideas, thoughts and feelings on the topics explored.

Consider the following when writing a reflective journal:

1. Describe the events and your experience – What did Ido/hear/see?

2. Interpret and evaluate the events from your perspective – What do I think about it now? How does it relate to other things that I know? Explain your experience; reveal your new insights,connections with other learning, your hypotheses, and your conclusions.

3. Reflect on how this information will be useful to you – What questions do I have? HaveI changed how I think about the situation? Where do I go from here?

The Importance of Intercultural Communication in Business

There are some basic things in business that people may take on a light note but they are very crucial. Business communication is very crucial because people can’t transact when people don’t literally understand each other (Kernbach, Eppler & Bresciani, 2015, pp. 170)). In business, people come from different cultures and as its well known, different cultures talk and communicate using different languages. There must be a solution to make sure that business still goes on as planned. Intercultural communication comes in hand in this part. Intercultural communication is the ability of different people from different cultural backgrounds to communicate with each other smoothly (Neuliep,  2017, pp. 0). Teamwork is an important part of a business. It said if one wants to go far, one needs a team. In a team, people have different specialization skills hence they end up helping each other while solving different problems. In this context, I will be reflecting on the issues of intercultural communication and team communication to make a business successful.

Starting with intercultural communication, As indicated earlier, it is simply the act of people from different communities to communicate smoothly in a business (Jandt, 2017, pp. 0). In business, there are employees who come from different backgrounds. Most of the large firms have a different kind of employees, for work to be done, I as an employee need coordination with other employees or instructions from the employer. Therefore, there is the need for a common language between the two parties. On the other hand, there are customers; there is no way one can restrict the customers that come to a business to get the services he/she needs. The business should have a common language with the customer to ensure there is a connection otherwise the business will lose. That shows how this intercultural communication is crucial to a business.

As a business analyst, I can use different models to make sure that intercultural communication is enhanced. One of the models that I can put into use is the model of acculturation (Allen et al. 2016, pp. 650). In this model, it suggests there can be a second language which both parties clearly understand. It is the most common methodology or model used and is still the best so far. A second language is a language that is not associated with a certain culture. It’s a language that takes the concepts of other minor languages and becomes one common language. If I use this language, people can communicate confidently without one knowing a person’s origin or culture hence people will be safe. Through the 6 dimensions of the Hofstede’s model of culture, he clearly states that peoples mind tells a person that he/she is unique because of the difference in culture (Piller, 2017, pp. 0). However, from the theory mostly the first dimension, there can be an issue in a business environment where a certain culture is under looked while another is given a better privilege. There can be a sort of inequality in business which can hinder the development process of a firm. To solve this, the second language comes into use because one will hardly know the culture of an individual hence people will live in peace in the firm.

Solution: Second Language in Business Communication

The team communication as stated earlier is a very important necessity in a business environment (Le Blanc, 2015, pp. 180)). A team is a group of people working together to achieve a certain objective. That’s definition is what that makes the team unique. I would prefer working with a team compared to working alone. There is a fact that working alone makes one move faster but to be able to thrive in the world of business, one needs partners who will be a team who can help me in case there is a problem or whom I can help when their issues. A team brings up the concept of brainstorming. While we are in a team, I come up with an issue and that issue is solved at ease because we bring great minds together and work towards a common goal. People join groups mostly under a scenario when things are not flowing in the correct direction. It is a similar case to me, if things are not going well when am alone, I try and find a group of people who can help me solve my issue. Its human nature that we need people when we are in need. It is also human nature that when we are natured and satisfied, we also think that we can make it without groups again. That’s why people leave the group, because a problem has been solved and because I want to move faster, I will be forced to quit the group until the time that I will have an issue again.

When issues arise, I tend to have a synergy between other people who we are in different fields and me. However, there are certain issues that are experienced in this partnership. One of the greatest problems is the issue of social loafing. Sometimes I as a human being expect the group to work more than I do and other group members also expect the same, therefore, we all end up underperforming compared to when we work alone or individually. Social loafing can also be caused by the dynamic used in giving roles in a group. In my group, I can be a chair; there will be a secretary, accountant and other roles. As a chair, there can be very may responsibilities that I can possess. All these responsibilities may be a lot and time-consuming. In many cases, being a chair doesn’t mean being paid, its just a role that I have to play. It reaches a point where I have so many roles to play and my time is really used up in the groups. Due to the human nature, I find myself underperforming and assuming that the members will do what they think its best. The act destroys the group. When they gave me the role, they knew the abilities that I have and therefore when I strike, the developments stopped because a branch will be cut down and it will not be fruitful.

Hofstede's Model of Culture: A Tool for Intercultural Communication

In a group, there are the stages that are followed and that are experienced when we are developing a group (Valls, González?Romá and Tomás, 2016, pp. 760). I used 5 stages that are commonly used in the process of group development (Hänninen & Karjaluoto, 2017, pp. 460).  The first phase was the forming stage. It’s the first stage where people come to know of each other, people in the group shared information about themselves and the interests that each person had and every member of the group created the first impression. The second phase was the storming. In this stage every member was present. I experienced issues here, people in the group put their self-interest on top instead of putting group interests first (Tuleja, 2016, pp. 0)). The members had arguments and long discussions with no conclusions. The third phase was the norming stage. In this stage, the members were a bit relaxed. I managed to get a team advisor who helped us put the group interests first in this phase instead of the people’s self-interests. The other stage was the performing phase. In this phase, everything was all under control. People were working very hard to make sure our goal had to be achieved. Coordination between the group was very high. Respect between members was at its maximum. Everyone had the motivation to work and achieve a common objective. Team communication was fully seen at this level. The last phase was the adjourning level. It was the end. Some of the goals we intended were met but there was a room for improvement.

There is a difference between a group and a team in real life (Quirke, 2017, pp. 0). That’s was the major lesson that I learned in our team formation and discussion. At the early stages, we were a group, meaning that we combine our individual efforts to help the group. Later I noticed that things changed and that’s when we were a team. Reason being, we all had one common goal and objective, we all coordinated together and all our personal strengths and weaknesses were kept aside and we all helped each other. That’s what made us a team. The scenario changed my thinking. A team to me became more important compared to a group. Before the incidence and when I had no team, I used to think that a team and a group is all the same thing which was very wrong. Am very sure there are very many people out there who also have the same mindset. For one to achieve great things in life, we all need a team. It’s very difficult for an individual to succeed in business when alone. In business, an individual is good in one part while others are specialized in other areas (Nilsson Griggs & Visbeck, 2016, pp. 320)). Therefore, these people have to come together and share a common goal and from that, they can beat the market.

Intercultural communication is also very critical (Harris and Sherblom, 2018, pp. 0). In my opinion, it is one of the greatest barriers in business. It has to be overcome if a business owner wants to make his/her own business to rise to the international level.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two topics which are intercultural communication and team communication is crucial in a business environment. Intercultural communication is a common barrier and having a second language is the best solution in my view. There is a big difference between a group and a team. A team is more important since all members come together to work towards one common objective. I would recommend people to work under teams that are well coordinated with a team advisor if they want to go far.

References

Allen, T.J., Gloor, P., Fronzetti Colladon, A., Woerner, S.L. and Raz, O., 2016. The power of reciprocal knowledge sharing relationships for startup success. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 23(3), pp.636-651.

Hänninen, N. and Karjaluoto, H., 2017. The effect of marketing communication on business relationship loyalty. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 35(4), pp.458-472.

Harris, T.E. and Sherblom, J.C., 2018. Small group and team communication. Waveland Press.

Jandt, F.E., 2017. An introduction to intercultural communication: Identities in a global community. Sage Publications.

Kernbach, S., Eppler, M.J. and Bresciani, S., 2015. The use of visualization in the communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(2), pp.164-187.

Le Blanc, D., 2015. Towards integration at last? The sustainable development goals as a network of targets. Sustainable Development, 23(3), pp.176-187.

Neuliep, J.W., 2017. Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Sage Publications.

Nilsson, M., Griggs, D. and Visbeck, M., 2016. Policy: map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals. Nature News, 534(7607), p.320.

Piller, I., 2017. Intercultural communication: A critical introduction. Edinburgh University Press.

Quirke, B. 2017. Making the connections: using internal communication to turn strategy into action. Routledge.

Tuleja, E. 2016. Intercultural Communication for Global Business: How leaders communicate for success. Routledge.

Valls, V., González?Romá, V. and Tomás, I., 2016. Linking educational diversity and team performance: Team communication quality and innovation team climate matter. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(4), pp.751-