Cross-Cultural Barriers to Communication in Multinational Corporations

Abstract

Culture can be defined as the inherited values, concepts, and ways of living which are shared by people of the same social group. As it is well known, nowadays the world is becoming a global village, in the sense that the technological achievements of this modern time have brought people closer together. This also means that people from different parts of the world, with different cultural backgrounds, are working and communicating together. This fact is in a way interesting, but dealing with people from different cultures requires knowing the cultural varieties. Working with people in any organization requires dealing with issues such as motivating employees, structuring policies and developing strategies. In this case, there has to be a kind of understanding of the cultural diversities in order to apply the afore-mentioned issues in the workplace. The aim of this paper is to analyze the problems of cross-cultural communication in overseas enterprises, and to propose some management strategies to overcome the cultural barriers and reduce differences. The communication process is becoming difficult due to language and culture differences. As international companies are expanding their business all over the world, they need skilled workers, who are able to communicate effectively and transmit ideas and information throughout their companies. This research paper is divided into two chapters; the first one deals with a literature review about communication as a process that involves a sender, a receiver and the communication medium used. Communication problems may sometimes arise between the sender and receiver. One cannot deny that culture has a significant impact on the behaviour of individuals. It is well established that people with different cultures may face some barriers when trying to communicate. Culture has proven to play a major role in changing the way of thinking of people. In fact, culture influences not only the individual’s manner of perceiving the world around him, but also his way of behaving and interpreting messages. However, it is not just a matter of culture; many other issues may impede communication between people. Indeed, cultural differences among people certainly lead to barriers to effective communication.