Intercultural Communication In The Sphere Of Business

Abstract

Every day the problems of communication not only attract more and more attention from people of different ages but first of all it’s an important part of professional competencies in all areas of specialists' activity. The authors consider intercultural communication as a complex and interdisciplinary phenomenon. The main content of the study is the analysis of the key components that define the communication space in organizational management. It is specially noted the main tasks of communication and shows the ways of people interaction from different cultures. This study provides some methods to solve the presented problem. It is of interest to do business efficiency at international level because of impact of communication. Much attention is paid to the analysis of international communication. The issue of interethnic interaction is also raised. When these conditions are met, interpersonal contact is created. They help participants to be ready and open to cooperation, which is important in the economy and business. It is stressed the necessity of the proposed method which can help in expanding and deepening the knowledge and cultural outlook of specialists. The text gives valuable information on the success of intercultural communication in the case when the communication lacks the element of superiority of one culture over another. Conclusions are drawn that it’s communicative practices which are considered as ranked sets of rational models of activity for the transmission/reception of socially significant information in the field of economic management.

Keywords: Intercultural communication, international business, language education, management

Introduction

The modern world is a very complex and diverse one with diverse cultures that are either in contact with each other or that do not intersect with each other at all. People’s interrelationship is as boundless and diverse as human society itself. This abundance is reflected in the different forms, types, and kinds of communication.

Communication in society is of great importance for the functioning of its social structure, ensuring the functioning of all social institutions, power, economic relations, education, etc. There is no sphere of human activity can be possible without communicative interaction.

Problem Statement

Today within the framework of management and business the task of teaching a foreign language has undergone some important changes. People who do not only speak a foreign language but also are ready for intercultural communication have become very much in demand nowadays.

And of course, for more productive intercultural interaction in the basis of business it is necessary to take into account the features of the culture of a particular country. It is the features that are basis for business relationships: concluding contracts, conducting negotiations, etc.

Latypova and Rizvanova (2017) consider the term communication is understood as a socially conditioned process of transmission and perception of information in terms of interpersonal and mass communication. Professional communication is a specific form of interaction between people, involving their communication, exchange of thoughts, ideas in the process of carrying out work activities in a particular subject area.

If there is a need to develop a business abroad or to attract foreigners to work in a business then there is a need to communicate with representatives of other cultures and nationalities. In this regard the issues of intercultural communication will be very relevant.

Research Questions

In course of the studying the following questions were raised:

  • How important is national culture for business success?
  • What is intercultural communication and what is its role in the system of economic relations between the parties of variousnations’ representatives?
  • How big is the influence of national business cultures to international business?
  • Why is it so important to study the culture and traditions of other countries in the business sector?

Purpose of the Study

Presumably the answers to the questions above will help to realise how important understanding and knowledge another culture is, which can help ensure the conclusion of successful and mutually beneficial relations between countries, representatives of different cultures.

The answers to the questions can also show how important intercultural communication is for business in building economic relations with foreigners. You can start working with foreign specialists because they can help you to look at the problems of achieving common goals in trade and economic relations from a different perspective.

Research Methods

Management in a company is implemented through their employees. The main tool of control in the manager’s hands is the data. Using and communicating this data he manages and motivates employees. It’s important to present information in a comprehensible way.

As communication is a social process which reflects the social structure and performs a connecting function in it. "This mastering the art of business communication is necessary for anyone no matter what kind of activity he do or will be interested in" (Igebaeva, 2013, p. 122). It is especially important for businessmen: clerks, people involved in management

First of all, intercultural communication is the identification of a dialogue with representatives of an ethno-cultural community different from their own. And in the course of this communication people should adequately perceive the national-cultural content of speech. At the same time intercultural communication can be recognized as successful only if there is no element of superiority of one culture over another in communication.

Intercultural interaction does not always lead to an understanding of communication partners, often various misunderstandings and problems arise. The reason according to Herbrand (2002) is that intercultural contacts are much more complex than intercultural ones.

Intercultural communication is characterized by Broszinsky-Schwabe (2011) as an exchange of messages between people from different cultures. Models of behaviourare acquired in early childhood from which it follows that in interaction with representatives of other cultures. Communication is formed not only at the expense of another languagebut mainly by cultural characteristics.

The main purposes of communication are:

  • sharing and providing data;
  • development of abilities for good sociocultural activity;
  • the formation of attitudes to themselves, to other personalities to society;
  • mutual exchange of activities, innovative ways, mechanisms and technologies;
  • change of behavioural orientation;
  • emotional exchange.

In order to know the peculiarities of the structure of management you need to have a high level of intercultural communication.

Bolten (2007) defines intercultural communication as a set of several abilities (competencies), which participate in the formation of intercultural competence. This level is achieved during studying in higher education institution. In order to achieve this task education should be structured in the way as to form intercultural students’ competence. These can include:

  • a modern person must develop the ability to resolve conflicts related to representatives of foreign cultures;
  • there is a necessity for contacts with representatives of other cultures in the professional community;
  • aperson of the XXI century, calling himself a specialist, should be tolerant to other ways of life and cultures (Maletzke, 1996).

Learning foreign languages allow a person to develop his thinking, memory, speaking, he can change his perception of the world, making brand new acquaintances from other countries. So this learning leads not only to communicative activity, this process is much more serious effect on the person. A foreign language allows to train analytical thinking, grammar, as a foreign and their own language. If a person learns any second foreign language it is easier for him to master it because he already understands the structure of sentence construction. He can draw analogies between languages, develop his erudition and memory.

Nowadays most intercultural communication takes place in the native language of one of the communicants. If both languages are foreign to one another they communicate in an intermediary language. International languages such as French, English, Russian, Spanish, German, etc. belong to this kind of language but they are very few compared to the variety of languages of different cultures in our world.

In the structure of management communication is the formally controlled by legislation the purposeful movement of individuals management to society while maintaining sustained independence and individuality.

The communication system is an interconnection of the objective and subjective sides. The objective side does not depend on individual personalities, the subjective side, on the contrary, is aimed at the conscious attitude of people to each other and is based on individuality.

Interaction is supported and expressed through:

  • the structure of the service relationship controlled by legal requirements;
  • regulation of responsibilities;
  • hierarchies of positions;
  • thesystem of interrelationships - means and channels of communication which is promoted from top to bottom, from bottom to top.

The organizational process contains a communicative interpersonal nature. Communicative interaction is realized through the structural relationships of management partners. In communication processes, performance, and expediency are significant at every stage of the integration process. These are receiving, transmitting, and processing data in every aspect of its structure.

The manager is the basis of communicative interaction and information flows who implements meaningful information roles:

  • a user of data - external and internal, coming into the organization;
  • adisseminator of information - not only through document flow but also through communication (reviews, conversations, etc.)
  • adata representative to external agencies, stakeholders (about the company's plans and strategies, actions and results).

Management and coordination of personal efforts with the further formation of a common process using communicative interaction are considered as the main function of the manager.

The main reasons for unsuccessful communication are:

  • managers' lack of understanding of the significance of communication;
  • lack of communication;
  • negative psychological atmosphere in the team, to the erroneous perception of data as well as its intentional distortion leads to hostile relationships among employees;
  • individual factors such as bias of individual employees towards their environment, different stereotypes in their minds, disinterest in the data, etc;
  • alack of common understanding of the definitions, terms, signs used, i.e. the presence of semantic barriers of communicative understanding.

Such important areas of economics as marketing, manufacturing, business suggest that a high level of internationalization of business relations can be achieved by teaching foreign languages to future economists for subsequent intercultural contact and cooperation with two or more partner countries. That is why intercultural communication together with knowledge of foreign languages is an obligatory element of professional communication in the field of economics and constitutes a concept as "international qualification".

In addition, one of the main problems of ineffective communication is the current practice of teaching foreign languages in universities. At this age students strive to fully develop their personality and improve their knowledge. Ifwe develop the right methodology for teaching intercultural communication in the university, the students' horizons will broaden and social activity will increase. First of all, the teacher should be able to interest students. When these conditions are met interpersonal contact is created. It helps to be ready and opens to cooperation of the participants’ communication. Thanks to these techniques form the ideal beginning for the restructuring in the cognitive, psychological, behavioural areas of each side of communication. Thus, subsequently the communication in the management structure between the manager and the subordinate will be more fully developed.

Latypova and Rizvanova (2017) consider for the purpose of effective and also profitable interaction with other states, besides it is necessary to accept other culture thus not to lose own cultural identity in any way and to continue to improve the intercultural competence.

Guzikova and Fofanova (2015) believes that intercultural communication is the exchange of information between representatives of different cultures. And this fact significantly affects their communication in the present and interaction in the future.

Gudykunst and Kim (1984) convinced the structural features of cultures and labels them as categories by which cultures differ and constitute their own specific profile. These features include perception, nonverbal communication, time and space management, language and behaviour». The procedure of intercultural communication is a peculiar type of work which is not limited only to knowledge of foreign languages. It requires in turn the luggage of the material and internal culture of the other people, belief, values, moral priorities, worldview concepts, which characterize the behaviour pattern of partners according to communication. Analysis of foreign languages, as well as their use as a resource for international communication to date is unrealistic in the absence of a complete and comprehensive knowledge of the culture of speakers of these languages, their mentality, state morality, way of life, vision of society, traditions, customs, etc. Only the totality of these two varieties of cognition - language and culture - guarantees effective and productive interaction. Сulture specificity focuses on defining the communicative behaviour of a particular culture. General culture on the other hand seeks to identify commonalities or universals across the cultural world. The combination of both specific and general culture brings together the various interactions of cultures.

Intercultural communication presupposes the presence of two sides of communication which together form a communicative environment. If the two people in contact belong to two different cultures then in the course of communication, they seem to form a third culture where the relationship takes place. In order to realize communication, it is necessary that the participants trust each other.

In his article Le Roux (2002) argued that successful educators are effective communicators who are competent in intercultural contacts. Communication can be a useful source of intercultural knowledge and intercultural enrichment for students if they are actively supervised by the teacher. Otherwise, incorrect information can be the cause of misunderstanding.

Researchers Targowski and Metwalli see the up-to-date millennium as an era when the most attention of world organizations will be paid to the most important values of cross-cultural communication: efficiency and competence.

Effective cross-cultural communication in the global economy is a pragmatic tool for identifying communication strategies for teaching successful business negotiations (Targowski & Metvalli, 2013).

Many authors have studied intercultural communication but their research has different perspectives. Scientist Gudykunst and Kim (1984) argues that effective intercultural communication is partly based on the ability to manage anxiety and uncertainty. Anxiety relates to feelings of discomfort and uncertainty refers to the inability to predict other people's behaviour.

Nonverbal communication is a part of communication. However cultural misunderstandings and confusions can be greatly reduced by increasing awareness of cultural differences in nonverbal communication patterns. He defined nonverbal communication as behaviour that goes beyond verbal and written words. He also noted that many ethnic groups use nonverbal communication more widely than verbal, especially in the expression of feelings (Herring, 1990).

In his study Dop (2001) took as his main aim to find out the influence of intercultural relations on communication through the Internet. He noted that nowadays, when most offices are connected to the Internet and extranet, e-mail takes over most other forms of communication.

"When people from two different cultures interact, cultural fluency is the appropriate application of respect, empathy, flexibility, patience, interest, curiosity, openness, willingness to decline judgment, tolerance for ambiguity and a sense of humor" (Inoue, 2007, p. 169)

Findings

In order to maintain various and multi-level contacts forms of communication it is necessary: first, to understand the language; second, to know the norms; third, to know the laws of the foreign language culture.

Any partner in international contacts instantly understands that only knowledge of a foreign language is not enough for full intercultural understanding. It is necessary to understand the very course of communication, in order to predict the probability of misunderstanding by partners and avoid it.

The problems of communication and intercultural interaction in the concept of international business are not simple. Communication has a great impact on the effectiveness of data exchange in the multinational team of an international firm. Any firm like any professional society is characterized by appropriate communicative characteristics. In this regard all without exception in the face of international companies and large international firms in their individual daily work face to a number of issues in the field of intercultural business communication.

International business can be defined as the business interaction of companies of different forms of property or their subdivisions residing in different states, the main purpose of which is to gain profit from the benefits and advantages of business international transactions.

Today the Russian language has lost its position in Eastern Europe, as well as in many parts of the world as a language of international and inter-ethnic communication. Previously studied as a foreign language in schools and institutions in these countries, it has ceded its own position to English. Nowadays university students need to develop intercultural pedagogical communication in order to become a real specialist in the economic sphere

It is concluded that the personality of the teacher also has a great influence. First of all the teacher should be able to interest students. He should have good diction, excellent pronunciation.

Conclusion

To summarize we would like to note the words of "Being a mirror and an instrument of culture at the same time, the common language sets absolutely all contacting people into a common framework, into the framework of their own culture" (Aniol, 2014, p. 56). Effective international business is impossible without essential knowledge and foreign language, and culture of the state in which the business is conducted.

It is very important for a manager to try to monitor the communication process, detect problems at any stage of it, and strive to eliminate them in order to increase the efficiency of information transfer and perception because communication is considered as one of the important components of management.

The study of a foreign language at the present stage involves a number of scientific problems. The main of which is intercultural communication. That is why the role of a foreign language teacher in this process is great, because in forming a new way of thinking in students and solving the named task, he/she should have a deep and systematic knowledge of the subject, know the culture of the country of the language being studied. His effectiveness largely depends on the extent to which he can introduce students to everything advanced, manages to find points of contact, develop a new vision of culture and the native speaker himself, i.e. transfer the principles of new thinking in the educational process.

Effective intercultural communication is both a condition and a product of a person's intercultural competence. And in order to achieve mutual understanding with the representatives of other communicative communities and cultures as well as to achieve the goals of communication, we use in practice the knowledge of cultural rules and categories determining the success of intercultural interaction. In the process of intercultural communication intercultural competence allows a person to choose the necessary language and speech means in accordance with the socio-cultural context, create discourses, use sociolinguistic means, choose communication strategies and tactics acceptable to achieve the goals which increases the effectiveness of intercultural interaction.

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29 August 2022

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Latypova, E. R., Kviring, M. D., & Danilenko, S. A. (2022). Intercultural Communication In The Sphere Of Business. In I. Kovalev, & A. Voroshilova (Eds.), Economic and Social Trends for Sustainability of Modern Society (ICEST-III 2022), vol 127. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 382-390). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2022.08.43