Analyzing the Intercultural Communication Essay

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Intercultural Communication

A) Explain the difference between Norms and Values as they pertain to society.

Values and norms are essential components of all societies. Values denote ideas that aid individuals and groups in differentiating good from bad, and ascertaining what is proper or desirable. Each society has its own different set of values. And the values of an individual stem from the particular culture he/she belongs to. Meanwhile, norms are typically proper or correct forms of conduct. They refer to specific prescriptions regarding how one should conduct oneself for being consistent with modern societal values. Therefore, societal norms may be perceived as a reflection of societal values (Module 1: Sociology-Basic Concepts 84-5).

B) Clarify how Values might have an impact upon social Norms.

Values represent broad notions concerning what is good, desirable, and correct, shared by a majority of members of any given society. They stabilize group interactions by holding the society in question together, owing to the fact that all individuals accept them. Further, they legitimize rules governing certain activities. People accept and follow rules, as they embody values. Lastly, values aid in creating a sort of adjustment among different collections of rules (Module 1: Sociology-Basic Concepts 92).

C) Can the concept of Social Constructs be applied to an individual business department?

Yes, it can. There are two main concepts underlying the social scientific approach of social construction, namely: (1) An individual's mental construal of context and (2) Social interaction among actors by way of communication (i.e. language) and manifest actions. Individual context and event interpretation generally produces uniqueness, whereas social interaction gives rise to understanding and commonness of worldviews. This implies that reality's social construction occurs in the performance of everyday activities by individuals. If the social construction approach is adopted explicitly by the current business systems structure, it can free private and public actors from structured deterministic webs, emphasizing inter-subjective views constructed via routine interactions (Jakobsen and Jens 196).

2. The term "Cultural Iceberg" comes into play when discussing the complexity and interpretation of human behavior. What does this term mean?

Culture is frequently likened to icebergs, which mostly lie below the surface, and outside of one's immediate awareness. Mankind typically reacts to easily-perceivable surface values. But for truly understanding any given culture, one needs to explore behaviors occurring below the surface. The useful metaphor of an iceberg can help when examining culture's formal, informal, and technical levels. The latter level represents the plainly visible and clear part of the cultural iceberg; it incorporates a culture's artistic, materialistic, and technological elements, in addition to its institutional structures. One generally encounters minimum intercultural challenges or misunderstandings at the technical level. Nevertheless, technical level changes can drastically change the balance of factors responsible for culture maintenance (Schmidt et al. 22).

The formal cultural-iceberg level is: sea level, partly above and a little underneath the surface. This level incorporates group rules, norms, traditions, roles, customs, communication patterns, and rituals. Norms offer guidance with regard to how members of a group ought to conduct themselves, while rules confirm what is commonly accepted as "wrong" or "right" by a given group. Roles state and explain actual or expected performance in social situations or relationships, while traditions, customs, and rituals describe regular cultural practices. Group communication patterns refer to how group members interact with people, together with their associations (i.e., who communicates about what to whom) (Schmidt et al. 23).

Lastly, the informal cultural-iceberg level extends much below the level of the sea (i.e. surface). It comprises of core beliefs, values and cultural history responsible for shaping the worldview of a particular culture, and influencing cultural identity, defined as one's perception of who he/she is. As an individual belongs to different groups and gets to take part in a number of cultural systems, multiple identities are developed, which surface at different occasions based on context and circumstances. Cultural identities generally emerge via everyday social routines (Schmidt et al. 23).

3. Many international business ventures experience culture-related barriers to success.

1. What is it about the Tata acquisition of Daewoo from a culture viewpoint that made the outcome successful?

Automotive manufacturer, Tata Motors, has adopted the following simple strategy in Korea: it operates its acquired Daewoo motors in the nation as a native company managed by Korean nationals (Kale, Harbir and Anand 110). The company's reconfiguration has occurred in a way that creates novel corporate cultures governed by markets and technologies, as well as by leadership's cultural preferences, and interaction of employees when responding to change (Schmidt et al. 45).

B) What did management consider beforehand and implement along the way that paved the road to success?

The organization must take into consideration key cultural factors useful in acquiring an international perspective and formulating specific strategic goals.

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As a powerful multinational company, Tata Motors leverages and respects other cultures, values, and customs, for better understanding and advancing its business. Global resource optimization and integration was extremely important for the company. The multinational firm considered financial success and exponential growth, if cultural integration employed and aligned itself with strategic corporate goals (Schmidt et al. 48).

C) Briefly describe strategy employed by Samsung to prevent its leaders for Expat Assignments.

One of the core strategies and critical components of Samsung is talent development. The attempts at opening up corporate culture and pursuing global growth strategies have been carried out within as well as outside the corporation. Samsung allocates considerable funds towards employees' talent development, by sending its "high potential" employees to Japan to receive advanced engineering degrees; to the U.S. for management and marketing degrees; and to New York, Singapore, and Hong Kong, for high finance training. At present, the company is regarded as having the greatest and most efficient globalization program -- the Regional Specialist Program. By way of its programs and trainings, the organization has made its employees major internal change agents, whilst acquiring expertise and powerful regional connections. Over time, Samsung has had an increasing number of native regional leaders launching its offerings in the most competitive and toughest markets first, rather than expatriate leaders. The company's aggressive growth in emerging marketplaces like China, India, Africa, Middle East, and Brazil, is proof of the success of these implemented programs. In a bid to bring in outsiders into its homogenous workforce, Samsung's Chairman Lee radically altered the compensation package of senior managers based on the hiring and retention of senior-level talent. These efforts, in the year 1997, were integrated for setting up GSG (Global Strategy Group) - a unique consultancy unit in internal management. GSG recruits top-grade, non-native graduates from top Western economics and business programs for 2 years, and endeavors to make them full-time employees. Also, the company deploys more than 3000 employees globally on both long- and short- term expat assignments (Breceda et al. para 7&8).

4. You are planning a business trip to Japan. The CEO of the subsidiary company has invited you to his home for dinner. What are some of the things that you might want to understand as you prepare for a career-enhancing successful evening, as opposed to a career-limiting disaster?

1) Approaches to culture

I would wish for reference frames that enable me to apply culture-specific information to improving intercultural competence and awareness. Japan has a collectivistic culture, which necessitates utter loyalty to one's groups, as groups are considered to be the most critical societal units. Decisions juxtaposing benefits to individuals and the group will always be based on whatever works best for the latter. Therefore, for the Japanese, their company typically constitutes one of their primary groups (Schmidt et al. 25).

2) Relational dialectic and cultural contact

The dialectical approach will offer me a basic framework for considering the dynamics of interacting with the subsidiary company's chief executive, and will assist me in better understanding the perplexing issues arising from making contact/interfacing (Schmidt et al. 63). Via the dialectical tactic, I can emphasize the relational, contradictory, and "processual" characteristics of intercultural contact, as seen in the international business sphere. The dialectical approach stresses the significance of relationships between different intercultural communication aspects and the significance of viewing them holistically, instead of separately (Schmidt et al. 64-5).

5. Identify three hand gestures commonly used in the United States that might cause problems elsewhere.

1. The chin flick. To brush or flick the back of one's hand underneath one's chin implies "get lost" for Tunisians, Belgians, and northern Italians (Forbes para7).

1. The moutza. Raising one's open hand with palm out and fingers spread before an individual denotes a serious indication of displeasure in Mexico, Greece, Africa, and Middle Eastern nations (Forbes para10).

1. Thumbs up. For Australians, rather than denoting "that's great," the very common thumbs-up gesture implies "sit on it" or "up yours." Basically, it is an unpleasant expression that communicates to an individual that he ought to "get something inserted up his bottom" (Forbes para17).

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