Cross-cultural communication is a field of study investigating how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to communicate across cultures. Intercultural communication is a related field of study.
Cross-cultural communication can be understood as the interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds who have different values, languages, beliefs, and communication styles. These differences can affect how messages are sent, understood, and interpreted in social or professional situations. Since technology and globalization continue to connect people from different countries, communication between cultures has become more common, but also more complex. Researchers and scholars in the field have discovered that differences in cultural norms and communication styles can lead to misunderstandings when individuals are not aware of those differences. Researchers and scholars like Geert Hofstede and Edward T. Hall have studied these cultural differences and explained how communication is different among cultures. Because of this, cross-cultural communication has become an important area of study to help understand how people can communicate better across other cultures.
Cross-cultural communication deals with the comparison of different cultures. In cross-cultural communication, differences are understood and acknowledged, and can bring about individual change, but not collective transformations. In cross-cultural societies, one culture is often considered "the norm" and all other cultures are compared or contrasted to the dominant culture.
Origins and culture During the Cold War, the economy of the United States was largely self-contained because the world was polarized into two separate and competing powers: the East and the West. However, changes and advancements in economic relationships, political systems, and technological options began to break down old cultural barriers. Business transformed from individual-country capitalism to global capitalism. Thus, the study of cross-cultural communication was originally found within businesses and government, both seeking to expand globally. Businesses began to offer language training to their employees and programs were developed to train employees to understand how to act when abroad. With this also came the development of the Foreign Service Institute, or FSI, through the Foreign Service Act of 1946, where government employees received training and prepared for overseas posts.Everett M. Rogers, William B. Hart, & Yoshitaka Miike (2002). Edward T. Hall and The History of Intercultural Communication: The United States and Japan. Keio Communication Review No. 24, 1–5. Accessible at http://www.mediacom.keio.ac.jp/publication/pdf2002/review24/2.pdf . There began also implementation of a "world view" perspective in the curriculum of higher education.Bartell, M. (2003). Internationalization of universities: A university culture-based framework. Higher Education, 45(1), 44, 48, 49. In 1974, the International Progress Organization, with the support of UNESCO and under the auspices of Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, held an international conference on "The Cultural Self-comprehension of Nations" (Innsbruck, Austria, 27–29 July 1974) which called upon United Nations member states "to organize systematic and global comparative research on the different cultures of the world" and "to make all possible efforts for a more intensive training of diplomats in the field of international cultural co-operation ... and to develop the cultural aspects of their foreign policy."Hans Köchler (ed.), Cultural Self-comprehension of Nations. Tübingen: Erdmann, 1978, , Final Resolution, p. 142.
There has been increasing pressure for universities across the world to incorporate intercultural and international understanding and knowledge into the education of their students. International literacy and cross-cultural understanding have become critical to a country's cultural, technological, economic, and political health. It has become essential for universities to educate, or more importantly, "transform", to function effectively and comfortably in a world characterized by close, multi-faceted relationships and permeable borders. Students must possess a certain level of global competence to understand the world they live in and how they fit into this world. This level of global competence starts at ground level- the university and its faculty- with how they generate and transmit cross-cultural knowledge and information to students.Bartell, M. (2003). Internationalization of universities: A university culture-based framework. Higher Education, 45(1), 46.
Interdisciplinary orientation Cross-cultural communication endeavors to bring together the relatively unrelated fields of cultural anthropology with established areas of communication. At its core, cross-cultural communication involves understanding the ways in which culturally distinct individuals communicate with each other. Its charge is to also produce some guidelines with which people from different cultures can better communicate with each other.
Cross-cultural communication requires an interdisciplinary approach. It involves literacy in fields such as anthropology, cultural studies, psychology and communication. The field has also moved both toward the treatment of interethnic relations, and toward the study of communication strategies used by co-cultural populations, i.e., communication strategies used to deal with majority or mainstream populations.
The study of languages other than one's own can serve not only to help one understand what we as humans have in common, but also to assist in the understanding of the diversity which underlies our languages' methods of constructing and organizing knowledge. Such understanding has profound implications with respect to developing a critical awareness of social relationships. Understanding social relationships and the way other cultures work is the groundwork of successful globalization business affairs.
Language socialization can be broadly defined as "an investigation of how language both presupposes and creates anew, social relations in cultural context".Rymes, (2008). Language Socialization and the Linguistic Anthropology of Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2(8, Springer) It is imperative that the speaker understands the grammar and prosody of a language, as well as how elements of language are socially situated in order to reach communicative competence. Human experience is culturally relevant, so elements of language are also culturally relevant. One must carefully consider semiotics and the evaluation of sign systems to compare cross-cultural norms of communication. There are several potential problems that come with language socialization, however. Sometimes people can overgeneralize or label cultures with stereotypical and subjective characterizations. Another primary concern with documenting alternative cultural norms revolves around the fact that no social actor uses language in ways that perfectly match normative characterizations. A methodology for investigating how an individual uses language and other semiotic activity to create and use new models of conduct and how this varies from the cultural norm should be incorporated into the study of language socialization.
Global rise With increasing globalization and international trade, it is unavoidable that different cultures will meet, conflict, and blend together. People from different cultures find it difficult to communicate not only due to language barriers, but also are affected by cultural styles. For instance, in individualistic cultures, such as in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, an independent figure or self is dominant. This independent figure is characterized by a sense of self relatively distinct from others and the environment. In interdependent cultures, usually identified as Asian, Latin American, African, and Southern European cultures, an interdependent figure of self is dominant. There is a much greater emphasis on the interrelatedness of the individual to others and the environment; the self is meaningful only (or primarily) in the context of social relationships, duties, and roles. To some degree, the effect brought by cultural differences overrides the language gap. This cultural style difference contributes to one of the biggest challenges for cross-cultural communication. Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Cultures provide people with ways of thinking—ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. Thus the same words can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they speak the "same" language. When the languages are different, and translation has to be used to communicate, the potential for misunderstandings increases. The study of cross-cultural communication is a global research area. As a result, cultural differences in the study of cross-cultural communication can already be found. For example, cross-cultural communication is generally considered part of communication studies in the US, but is emerging as a sub-field of applied linguistics in the UK.
Cross-cultural communication in the workplace Corporations have grown into new countries, regions, and continents around the world, which has caused people of various cultures to move and learn to adapt to their environment. This has led to cross-cultural communication becoming more important in the work environment. From nonverbal to spoken communication, it is critical for a company or organization's performance. The entire company or organization will face drastic hardships when their communication is restricted. Over the past few decades, many Western corporations have expanded into Sub-Saharan Africa. James Baba Abugre conducted a study on Western expatriates who have moved to work in Ghana. Abugre interviewed both the expatriates and Ghanaians, and found that cultural competence is essential to working with others of different cultures in order to avoid conflict between Western and Eastern cultural norms. It is important that workers understand both verbal and non-verbal communication styles. Expatriates who move to work in a culture that is not their own should be prepared, be properly trained, and have access to educational resources to help them succeed and to appreciate the culture they have moved into, in order to navigate it effectively. Abugre's main finding is that cultural competency is important to cross-cultural communication. Paula Caligiuri has proposed training of international workers in cultural agility techniques as a way to improve such communication.