Question

Imagine that you have been asked to collaborate on a project with a colleague whose cultural background is different from your own. What principles of cross-cultural communication would you need to consider? What are some challenges of communicating across cultures? What might be the benefits of collaborating with this colleague? Explain your answers.

Answer 1

Answer:

A) Some of the principles of cross-cultural communication which can aid effective collaboration between two individuals with different cultural backgrounds are:

• Sharpening one's communication skills. This may be achieved by:

1. showing empathy
2. being careful with humour.  
3. being open and approachable

• Ensuring that communication (verbal and non-verbal) is void of any bias or judgement.

• Both parties must practice active listening. This means that both parties must ensure that concentrate on what the other person is saying and if in doubt, paraphrase or repeat conversations back to one another to confirm the idea being pass across.    

B) The biggest challenge with cross-cultural communication stems from variances in paradigm. So, there may also be a delay in communication cohesion across cultures because:

• communication methods are different
• attitudes towards conflict vary
• norms and values differ
• approach to problems may also differ.

C) Possible benefits of collaborating with a colleague from another cultural background are:

1. heightened cultural awareness. The world is culturally diverse. One might as well learn more about how to live in it. All things being equal, the probability that the world will become culturally homogenous is zero. Rather, as space and time continually shrink with the invention and use of technology, it will become even more heterogeneous.

     2. increased learning about the heterogeneity of solutions for a common problem;  

The number of new challenges that are basic to life is very few if not zero. However, across various cultures, there is more than one way to solve them. The more we look at various ways of solving problems, the chances get higher that we will find a more efficient way of doing things as a species.

Cheers!