1. Multicultural Communication
In a Global Business Community

2. The need for
multicultural competency
•The rise of globalization and fast technological advances.
•Business professionals must be prepared to communicate quickly and
successfully with companies and organizations around the world.
•Competitive
business market is pushing us to be prepared to deal with the
communication barriers that cultural diversity brings.
•Language, culture, religion, ethics, customs, and business etiquette are
among the factors we must consider to have good business relationships
with companies in other countries.
•Tobecome culturally competent we have to welcome diversity into our
workplaces.
•Trainand long-lasting organizational cultural changes must follow to get us
ready to enter the global business community.

3. The Basics of
Communication
Communication:
"the act of transmitting. A giving or exchanging of
information, signals, or messages by talk, gestures, writing,
etc. to make known. To give information, messages. To
have a systematic and meaningful relationship. A system
for sending and receiving messages as by telephone,
telegraph, radio, etc. A system of routes for moving one
place to another. The art of expressing ideas, esp. in
speech and writing"

4. Communication Process:
Feedback
Encoding Sending Channel
Receiving Decoding
Message Message Message Message
Verbal/
No Verbal

5. Communication Barriers
Encoding and decoding interruptions:
Feedback
Encoding Sending Channel
Receiving Decoding
Message Message Message Message
Verbal/
No Verbal

6. Barriers
Communication barriers:
•Culture
•Language
•Physical (Distance)
•Gender
•Emotional

7. Culture
“culture refers to the cumulative deposit
of knowledge, experience, beliefs,
values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies,
religion, notions of time, roles, spatial
relations, concepts of the universe, and
material objects and possessions
acquired by a group of people in the
course of generations through individual
and group striving” (Samovar and Porter, p. 15).

8. Type of communications
Verbal:
Language, Words, Written.
No Verbal:
Any type of communication that does not include verbal
communication.

9. Globalization & culture
Understanding the world

10. North America
Greetings Time Relationships Others
•Shake hands •Value time •Work •In general
relationships they expect
•Address by
•Are not late are distant others to
last name
speak English
•Equal •Want to talk
treatment to only about •
women business
•Straight
forward

11. Europe
Greetings Time Relationships Others
•Shake hands •Value time •Work •During
relationships business
•Address by
•They are not are distant meal,
last name
late personal talks
•Equal •Want to talk are
treatment to •High value of only about acceptable
women time off business
•In general
•Straight they know
forward several
languages

12. Latin America
Greetings Time Relationships Others
•Shake hands •South •All
relationships •They value
and America value
time are close social status,
sometimes age and
kiss •Central •Want to ask traditions
America is personal
•Address by more flexible question
before they do •They want to
last name and they can
be late business get to know a
•They are person before
specially •They highly •Not straight doing
value time off forward business
considered to
women

13. Asia
Greetings Time Relationships Others
•Shake hands •All
•They value relationships •They value
time and they are close social
•Address by
are not late status, age
last name or •Want to ask and traditions
title personal
•They highly
question
•Avoideye value time off before they do •They want to
contact business get to know a
person before
•Not straight doing
forward business

14. Africa
Greetings Time Relationships Others
•Shake hands •All •They want to
•Everything relationships increase
takes time in are close foreign
•Address by
Africa business and
last name •Want to ask are happy to
•They are late personal people coming
•Not equal question
sometimes to them
treatment to before they do
women in business •During meals
some •They value they don’t talk
countries time off •Not straight about
forward bussiness

15. Ethics
Ethics are a problem in some countries. But it is important to
study each situation and not generalized.
The BBC summaries corruption as
“In sub-Saharan Africa, 67% of bribes were to avoid trouble with
the authorities. In the Arab world and Latin America most bribes
were paid to speed things up. In Asia-Pacific 35% of people were
bribed to get a service they were entitle to. In North America and
the European Union, most bribe payers say they could not
remember why they had paid” (www.bbc.co.uk).

16. General practices
•Avoid ethnocentrism.
•Avoid stereotyping.
•Learn by listening and observing the possible business partner.
•Avoid talking about politics and religion.
•When speaking a second language speak in simple words

17. Improving Multicultural
Communication
To improve an organization multicultural communication we must
change the organizational culture:
“Organizational Culture is the sum total of an
organizations’ past and current assumptions,
experiences, philosophy, and values that hold it
together, and is expressed in its self-image, inner
workings, interactions with the outside world, and
future expectations”
(www.businessdictionary.com)

18. Changing….
•Add diversity to the organization.
•Add contact with people of diverse background.
•Diversity Competency training.
•Understand the benefits of diversity:
Problem solving
Flexibility
Unique insight to the world market

19. Training
Any organization that is serious about diversity and must offer
their employees and managers’ diversity training.
Customize diversity training that includes:
•Meaning and importance of diversity
•Organizational culture
•Cultural differences
•Acculturation; Affirmative action
•Prejudice
•Stereotyping
•Group identity in hiring, promotions, and performance appraisal
•Institutionalizing diversity competency
(O’Neil, p. 80)

20. Conclusion
• Globalization has brought us closer together.
• Business knowledge is only the beginning.
• We must understand the barriers that multicultural
communication brings.
• Learn how to deal with them.
• We must be intentional in our training and in the implementation
of the changes we have to make to our organizational culture in
order to achieve long lasting cultural competency.

21. Reference
• Communication. Retrieved July 31, 2012, from www.merriam-webster.com
• Samovar L. and Porter R., (1994). Communication Between Cultures. Boston: Wadsworth,
• Wood, Julia (2007). Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters. Boston: Wadsworth
• Tymkiw, C. (2012). Wal-Mart Ensnared in Mexican Bribery Probe. Retrieved July 20, 2012,
from http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/22/news/companies/walmart-mexico-bribery/index.htm
• Melik, J. (2010). The dilemma of bribes: to pay or not to pay. Retrieved July 20, 2012 from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11957514
• Organizational Culture. Retrieved August 1, 2012, from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organizational-culture.html#ixzz22VTOk4rf
• Harris P. & Moran R. (2000). Managing Cultural Differences. Houston: Butterworth
Heinemann