Communication, which is culturally learned (Connerley and Pedersen 2005) and begins the moment you make contact with another, always occurs across differences. Sometimes the difference is based on interpersonal style. Sometimes it is based on professional expertise (lawyer, programmer, CEO, nurse, plumber, homemaker) or industry (financial, consumer, telecommunication, education, social services, pharmaceutical). At other times, the differences come from cultural background as described in Chapter 2, or dimensions of social identity (gender, religion, race/ ethnicity, and so forth) as described in Chapter 3. Each dimension of diversity—individual, functional or cultural—can serve as a bridge to mutual understanding or as a barrier, increasing the potential for miscommunication.
The discussion in this chapter is intended to enhance your awareness of the competencies required for effective intercultural communication, on multicultural teams. With enhanced knowledge of intercultural communication, you can become a more effective listener, speaker, team member, and leader.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Adler, Nancy, J. (2001). International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior (4th ed.). Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing.
Best Books and Articles on Organizational Communication: http://www.questia.com/Index
Clark Wilson. Provides organizational core competency assessments and surveys. http://www.cwginc.com
Connerley, M. and Pedersen, P. (2005). Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Earley, P.C. and Mosakowski, E.M. (2000). Creating Hybrid Team Cultures: An Empirical Test of Transnational Team Functioning. Academy of Management Journal, 43(1), 26–49.
Enayati, J. (2001). The Research: Effective Communication and Decision-making in Diverse Groups. In M. Hemmati (Ed.), Multi-Stakeholder Processes for Governance and Sustainability— Beyond Deadlock and Conflict. London, England: Earthscan.
Fisher, B.A. (1980). Small Group Decision-Making (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hall, E.T. (1977). Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday.
Halverson, D., Claire B. (1993). Cultural Context Inventory: The Effects of Culture on Behavior and Work Style. In W. Pfeiffer (Ed.), The Annual (1993) Developing Human Resources. San Diego, CA: Pfeiffer.
Hampden-Turner, C.M. and Trompenaars, F. (2000). Building Cross-Cultural Competence: How to Create Wealth from Conflicting Value. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Luft, J. and Ingham, H. (1955). The Johari Window, A Graphic Model of Interpersonal Awareness. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA.
Matveev, A. and Nelson, P. (2004). Cross Cultural Communication Competence and Multicultural team Performance. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 4(2), 253–270.
Mehrabian, A. (1971). Silent Messages. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Porter, L. (1982). Giving and Receiving Feedback: It Will Never be Easy, But it can be Better. In L. Porter and B. Mohr (Eds.), Reading Book for Human Relations Training. Alexandria, VA: National Training Laboratories Institute.
Rogers, C. and Farson, R. (1979). Active Listening. In D. Kolb, I. Rubin and J. MacIntyre (Eds.), Organizational Psychology (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Ross, R. (1994). Ladder of Inference. In P. Senge (Ed.), The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (pp. 242–252). New York: Doubleday.
Ross, R. and Roberts, C. (1994). Balance Inquiry and Advocacy. In P. Senge (Ed.), The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (pp. 253–259). New York: Doubleday.
Tannen, D. (1990). You Just Don’t Understand. New York: Ballantine Books.
Tingley, J. (1994). Gender Flex, Men and Women Speaking Each Other’s Language at Work. New York: AMACOM Books.
Varner, I.I. (2006). The theoretical foundation for intercultural business communication: A conceptual model. Journal of Business Communication, 37(1), 39–58.
Von Oech, R. (1998). A Whack on the Side of the Head (Revised ed.). New York: Warner Business Books.
Walker, D., Walker, T. and Schmnitz, J. (2003). Doing Business Internationally. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Resources
Communicating Across Cultures by Elaine Winters. Elaine Winters is a Cross-cultural educator and Instructional Designer. She is the co-author (with Rob Sellin) of: Cultural Issues in Business Communication. http://www.bena.com/ewinters/xculture.html
Diversity Inc. An on-line magazine that provides news, resources, and commentary on the role of diversity in strengthening the corporate bottom line. http://www.diversityinc.com
Denison Consulting. Bringing organizational culture and leadership to the bottom line is the focus of this global leader’s research-based model. Denison will also support you in custom designing assessment and feedback tools. http://www.denisonculture.com Emergence of Communication Networks— www.tec.spcomm.uiuc.ed
Tom Finn, Consultant, Coach and Author of Are You Clueless? Crack the Cultural Code…and Profit. Tom Finn coaches leaders on cultural competency and handling business pressures. (703) 709-7947. tfinnman@aol.com
MeridianEaton Global. GlobeSmart, Meridian’s leading edge, web-based tool provides detailed knowledge on how to conduct business with people from around the world. http://www.meridi-aneaton.com
Pachter and Associates Barbara Pachter, President. Pachter and Associates, a worldwide business communications training company, teaches global communications for effectiveness in a global context. Contact: Joyce Hoff, Office Manager, PO Box 3680, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 (856) 751-6141. Pachter@ix.netcom.com http://www.pachter.com
Sietar Europe. SIETAR offers an array of cross-cultural assessment instruments. http://www.sietar-europa.org
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Griffin, T.M. (2008). Effective Intercultural Communication. In: Halverson, C.B., Tirmizi, S.A. (eds) Effective Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice. Advances in Group Decision and Negotiation, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6957-4_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6957-4_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6956-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6957-4
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)