The Impact of Culture on Communication

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The Impact of Culture on Communication

Communication styles can mean different things to different people, in particular when the cultural impact comes into play.
This is important for expatriate roles where some period of adjustment is necessary to assimilate/learn the norms in the new setting. I experienced a case where the hat was passed around to collect some funds for a staff member whose family experienced a bereavement.
With all good intensions he put up a notice thanking everyone who contributed towards the death of his father.
Reading the notice, it meant quite something else.

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		2 Anna Maria van den Bossche Production Engineer System Planning, Netherlands
	Cultural Differences When Communicating Surely there are major cultural differences in communication. Each culture has its own customs and if you want to communicate with them you need to know what are the values of the culture you are communicating with. This is very difficult to know as you are an outsider and you will probably never be an insider. Actually living in the country helps. You might also try to get an advisor about the values of the country. There is still a big whole in the market about intercultural communication and even there are companies that try to give advise, that usually does not have anything to do with the actual situation in which the communication has to take place.

		5 Martine Bonny Dikongue Manager, Cameroon
	Cultural Differences in Communication Yes, each culture has its own customs, and it is important to know the values, to be able to communicate, but this is not enough, one must also understand and accept these values.

		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Communication Differences Between Cultures No doubt cultures have a major impact on preferred communication styles, presentation, persuasion, negotiating, etc. Not only you need to KNOW the values and customs. @Martine is right to point out you also need to UNDERSTAND and RESPECT and ACCEPT the values and customs. Even stronger, I think normally, out of respect, you also need to actually ACT according to the residing values and customs. See our Cultural Intelligence knowledge center for a lot more about this. After all, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". To be complete: Latin: "Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi." "If you find yourself in Rome, live according to the Roman custom; if you find yourself elsewhere, live as they do there.".

		1 Megumi Takahashi Student (MBA), Japan
	Navigating the Cultural Differences in Communication @Jaap de Jonge: I totally agree with you. Here are a few examples of communication styles that are interpreted differently based on the culture in which they are used: A "thumbs-up"-sign is often associated with a positive meaning and demonstrates agreement in several Western nations. However, in some parts of the Middle East and Africa, it is considered rude and offensive. In some cultures, addressing people directly using their first names is quite common, whereas in others, it is important to address people in an appropriate manner, heavily influenced by factors such as their age, status and position. In some cultures, it is quite common to leave some portion of food on the plates to show respect and gratitude towards the person hosting an individual for lunch or dinner. In contrast, in others it indicates that the person did not find the food appealing. These are just a few examples, but instances like this often result in hinderance in transparent communication between people. To some extent cultural barriers to communication can be avoided by being open minded regarding one’s attitudes towards the values and customs of different cultures and embracing various measures to raise awareness about cultural differences among each other including trainings, team building activities, and fostering open communications.

		1 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	The Impact of Language and Culture on Communication Yes, thanks for sharing these good examples. Furthermore language can also be considered to be a major part of culture. See Problems with Communication in Other Language for examples and more info on that.