What is Cultural Context in Group Communication
"Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures."
In this segment, you will learn how to communicate in a cross-cultural context.
So, how important do you think it is to know your client's culture to work with them? In the next video, you will see an HSBC advertisement that shows a British national meeting a Chinese team for a meal.
As hilarious as the video is, it subtly enunciates the immense effort that is required to communicate effectively with stakeholders from a different culture. In the next video, you will listen to David as he shares his thoughts on the topic of cross-cultural communication.
As you learnt from David, learning about the cross-cultural context is important in today's interconnected world, where individuals need to frequently interact with colleagues from across the globe. It is also important for external communication, such as the communication between an organisation and its foreign/regional market. For any individual, the cultural context has a huge role to play in building professional relationships and interacting with potential clients.
Given the importance of the cultural context in communication, we have to ensure that our messages are delivered in the right way to our colleagues from a different culture. But what factors can act as roadblocks or barriers to doing so?
In the next video, David explains some typical factors that can act as barriers to cross-cultural communication.
As you learnt, it is imperative to be empathetic of your recipient's culture. To do so, the most essential first step is to acknowledge, be aware and embrace the fact that there is a cultural difference in communication. These differences could be in any of the following forms:
Respect for age
Respect for hierarchy
Importance of the business card
Business formalities
Business dinner or lunch etiquette
Accepting the existence of a gap enables you to respect such differences. You can then work on reconciling the identified differences by being empathetic and compassionate.
Some examples of how you can put in efforts to bridge cultural gaps in communication could be to learn some basic phrases in multiple languages and paying attention to the cultural nuances of your recipients. It would be great if you could also show empathy to a person from a different culture by trying to speak in their language.
Additional Learning
High-Context vs Low Context Societies