Barriers cross cultural communication Research Paper

Barriers cross cultural communication - Research Paper Example In the business world, increasing globalisation has been resulting in the formation of many multinational companies (MNCs). Initially, these were mostly dominated by the West, whereas Asian Multinational Companies (AMCs) have mostly been of Japanese or Korean origin. Lately, a new breed of AMCs are emerging that are mostly of Chinese and Indian origin. Their expansion however, as with the earlier MNCs before them, is posing challenges related to cross-cultural communication. This paper seeks to identify the typical barriers to effective cross-cultural communication in this new context and how they can be overcome. The greater focus is on examining Chinese culture and the experience of Chinese managers of AMCs working within the American socio-cultural environment. Such Chinese high-profile AMCs include Haier, Lenovo and Huawei, and Indian AMCs include Tata and Bharti Airtel. Both countries have some domestic economies. Apart from issues such as the need to improve governance, have greater transparency, and so on (Moller, 2008), they also recognise the need to adapt to different cultures. This entails stressing responsibility and accountability, and to be more responsive to local needs (Rajan et al., 2009). The Chinese realise that it is knowledge and skills for operating internationally that are needed more than owning shares due to the previously limited exposure and general seclusion. The Indians on the other hand have had a longer exposure to the market economy. Both acknowledge that knowledge acquisition is paramount for innovation (Teagarden et al., 2008), but new knowledge has to be communicated using language in order to be acquired (Welch & Welch, 2008). Tata’s acquisition of South Korea’s Daewoo vehicle company in 2004 was seen as a success but that is because their cultures shared many similarities to begin with (Rodrigues, 2006). The language barriers were overcome easily, which speeded the integration, and confidence developed