Reflective Journal
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Reflective Journal
Communication is the very foundation of business; however, the concept of communication must be looked at through a new lens. The leaders must communicate well to the staff in order to meet the goals and purpose of the business effectively. Marketing strategy is all about communicating well with potential customers to inform them of the benefits of their products or services. They must listen to the customer feedback to improve their products and services and inform management about changes in the services or products that comply with the customers’ requirements. Everyone in the communication chain must express their concern and appreciation for each other to be engaged, productive and beneficial. This particular essay will reflect upon implications of social media and intercultural communication for business. coupled with the influence of social media and intercultural communication have on business communication.
Implications of Social Media and Intercultural Communication in Business Communication
Social Media and its Implications
Social media is all about communication and relationship. Thus, it can influence the relationship between company and customers (marketing), between employees, or between customers. First, business social networks like Yammer have enforced internal collaboration within companies and has a big impact on operations and performance. It also helps company to share its values and goals to all employees faster and easier. Second, social media helps make business management and operation become much more transparent, with the ease of sharing and 2-way communication. Third, social media helps gather customers around a higher cause and create a community that is much more meaningful than just business ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"nJjVFHfZ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Jussila, K\\uc0\\u228{}rkk\\uc0\\u228{}inen, & Aramo-Immonen, 2014)","plainCitation":"(Jussila, Kärkkäinen, & Aramo-Immonen, 2014)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1270,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/MMS4LSXL"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/MMS4LSXL"],"itemData":{"id":1270,"type":"article-journal","title":"Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms","container-title":"Computers in Human Behavior","page":"606–613","volume":"30","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Jussila","given":"Jari J."},{"family":"Kärkkäinen","given":"Hannu"},{"family":"Aramo-Immonen","given":"Heli"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Jussila, Kärkkäinen, & Aramo-Immonen, 2014). While it has indirect boost to marketing and branding, it also has positive influence on society.
Social Media has now become an integral part of a business’ marketing strategy. Albeit social media can be pivotal for boosting the sales, however, it must be handled in the right manner. It is very unfortunate that a lot of businesses these days are doing social media marketing the wrong way. Using social media as a marketing strategy is not a one-way street where advertisers can just convey what they want and expect their audience consumers to listen to them. Social media is always and will be a social platform in which people use to connect with things they value and want to start a conversation with ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"zTzPtlxT","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, Watson, & Seymour, 2011)","plainCitation":"(Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, Watson, & Seymour, 2011)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1271,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/4TDAWPAS"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/4TDAWPAS"],"itemData":{"id":1271,"type":"article-journal","title":"The history of social media and its impact on business","container-title":"Journal of Applied Management and entrepreneurship","page":"79–91","volume":"16","issue":"3","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Edosomwan","given":"Simeon"},{"family":"Prakasan","given":"Sitalaskshmi Kalangot"},{"family":"Kouame","given":"Doriane"},{"family":"Watson","given":"Jonelle"},{"family":"Seymour","given":"Tom"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, Watson, & Seymour, 2011). Following are just a handful of reasons why social media plays an important role in business communication today:
One of the most powerful ways - social media can be of a benefit to the business – is; using social media as a brand-building tool. In social media, businessmen get to decide how they want to position their company and what they want people to know about what they do. People are already talking about their business on social media, and with consistent effort and great content they can build a reputation for their brand around their company’s values.
The most imperative advantage of having a social media presence is the ability to build a community of people that believe in the brand. When their followers become part of their community, they gain instant access to them. They can engage with them in a conversation and this can be more valuable than any kind of research.
Social media marketing can be very powerful in helping business personnel establish authority in their field and making them the persons that people will go to when they have any questions. This can be a huge plus side for their personal brand as well, and people can reach them right on their social media profile. It is imperative to share great content, answer questions, and serve their audience in order to build a community of people that believe in them and the brand they represent.
Intercultural Communication and its Implications
Communities and cultures have not only languages but nuances within those languages. Business, as a subset of culture, has particulars of language and usage that are also unique. Complicating the matter further is that business cultures subdivide at an exponential rate. As an example, a French firm familiar with doing business in the chemical industry in Mexico may do fine after refinement of language usage in Spain. However, taking the communication skills – necessary for cross-cultural business environment – and applying them to the polymer fibre market (a subset of the chemical industry) will necessitate additional understanding ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ByySkjxh","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Beamer & Varner, 2001)","plainCitation":"(Beamer & Varner, 2001)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1275,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/R6IB6UIF"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/R6IB6UIF"],"itemData":{"id":1275,"type":"book","title":"Intercultural communication in the global workplace","publisher":"McGraw-Hill/Irwin New York, NY","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Beamer","given":"Linda"},{"family":"Varner","given":"Iris I."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2001"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Beamer & Varner, 2001). Adding to the complexity of the situation is the type of need businessmen address through communication. Management, sales, negotiation, human resources, customer service all have vocabulary specific to their specialization as well as the culture in which they performed.
In the 21st century, it is very rare that one will deal with solely their local community or state’s culture. Considering that Facebook, YouTube, and the like are a multicultural social hub, just one gaffe could destroy a person’s reputation if they happen to personally anger a large segment of the world’s population. One example in this regard is Bill Maher, and though the man is intelligent, socially perceptive, and articulate, he has absolutely no concept of other ways of life and this is the reason for his relatively small audience size ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"WhBpd276","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Jameson, 2007)","plainCitation":"(Jameson, 2007)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1281,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/K6AHI5UY"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/K6AHI5UY"],"itemData":{"id":1281,"type":"article-journal","title":"Reconceptualizing cultural identity and its role in intercultural business communication","container-title":"The Journal of Business Communication (1973)","page":"199–235","volume":"44","issue":"3","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Jameson","given":"Daphne A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Jameson, 2007). In contrast, some of the most popular personalities and commentators are those who know how to be just edgy enough for the majority of cultures to accept them and do not cross many lines. NPR’s All Things Considered is an excellent example of intercultural communication (though politically and religiously there is definitely a heavy confirmation bias toward liberal secularism). The show hosts will often find sophisticated ways of putting guests and dissenters down, but this is normally coupled with a strong air of genuine pretentiousness.
People, more often than not, mix inter-cultural competence with intercultural knowledge, however, there is a difference between intercultural competence and intercultural knowledge. Today people can study a bulk of books and different sources on intercultural communication and often free of charge. So, there is no difficulty to acquire the knowledge of all issues relevant to the theme of intercultural communication. One can even write a book, teach at university or whatever on the intercultural communication. Anyhow, intercultural competence does not mean the knowledge but self-reflection (in professional or non-professional, business or cultural setting), and the ability to act properly in interactions with people from different cultural traditions ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"hekL2sPQ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Grosse, 2002)","plainCitation":"(Grosse, 2002)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1278,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/XQH4D4KY"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/jsvqEXt1/items/XQH4D4KY"],"itemData":{"id":1278,"type":"article-journal","title":"Managing communication within virtual intercultural teams","container-title":"Business Communication Quarterly","page":"22–38","volume":"65","issue":"4","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Grosse","given":"Christine Uber"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2002"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Grosse, 2002). Intercultural competence is not only about reflecting the other culture with its traditions and values. Intercultural competence means firstly self-reflection. To acquire intercultural competence is not so easy as to acquire the knowledge.
Intercultural communication competence is a fascinating and relevant topic for global organisations – the definition of intercultural competence reflects the form of business communication that takes place between groups or individuals of distinct cultures. Moreover, business personnel come across the challenges concerning inter-cultural communication when they work across organizations. Hinderance in dialogue and disturbance in cohesion may occur while working across the organization in a cross-cultural setting owing to the different communication style. Self-awareness and accepting the hidden dimensions of different cultures in cross-cultural business setting give rise to inter-cultural competence. It is imperative to accept differences, withhold judgements, and listen to others in order to enhance intercultural competence.
The utility of Inter-Cultural Communication and Social Media in Business Communication
Social Media
A few years back people would argue about the disadvantages and advantages of social media in business communication. However, in contemporary times it is not the question of disadvantages any more as social media usage has become a must for any business. In fact, the question that people now argue over is; how to use social media efficiently for businesses or within business settings. As far as the advantages are concerned; social media now has myriad of advantages that render the growth of the business. In contemporary time the usage of social media has now become necessity and has become inevitable to be incorporated in business setting. The very first thing which every businessman wants to render the business growth is; low investment. Social media is a platform that does not require huge investment for getting great results. Besides, social media can target customers based on multiple factors that include geo-targeting, demographics, etc. Social media provides customers with an open market place and would provide businessmen with tons of opportunities online. Businessmen can either engage with contemporary audience or can launch a campaign to outgrow its audience and customer base. It has been mentioned above that social media does not require huge investment. Using social media effectively business can outgrow its financial benefits as social media costs less but produces more. Every business strives for building repute with its customers, and social media provides business with user-generated strategy. User-generated strategy not only builds a strong relationship with the customer base or audience but also provides customers with an opportunity to get involved with business or brand.
Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication is a science of communicating and getting business done well, across culture. It is imperative for businessmen to be aware of the various cultural values which affect a person's attitude at work and business interactions. For example, Indian employees come from a high-power distance culture, so they prefer that their managers communicate instructions or express assent in most of their action at work. Contrarily, German employees come from a low power distance culture, thus they expect their managers to ask for their opinion from time to time and tasks to be delegated to them in certain situations. When you are a manager in a multinational company, you have to learn this to keep teams of Brazilians, Swiss, Canadians, Koreans, and Qatari in spite of their clashing values.
Another example is the negotiation of a business deal. So many different factors come in such as body language, intonation, choice of words, etc. The western approach holds formality and law to be of utmost importance while Eastern business negotiators tend to dislike this as they see this as a message of distrust. Diversity in intercultural communication is its strength rather than a weakness, and it is imperative for businessmen to keep an open mind, understand, and apply what they learn from these different cultures – Cultural factors might just come into play when business operate in other countries. For instance, a Chinese employee emails his boss at Sweden looking for an obvious answer such as "I found an error and I just made the necessary calculations though, should I fix this?" – So. Being a boss, there is no need to get angry because the Chinese employee gives respect by asking for prior approval.
One example in this regard is when Australian companies work with Indians. Indian’s generally don’t say no, it’s considered offensive. So, when they are asked to do a higher volume of work than they can accommodate, they may say that they can do it because they don’t want to offend their boss by saying no. Then, the work does not get completed as promised, the business relationship suffers. Having the communication upfront, they would know that it is okay to say that they cannot accommodate the volume, or they could alert their boss that they would need to hire more workers before they can do that volume of work full time. When dealing from one company to another company, intercultural differences would have been discussed upfront, however, working with Indians who did not understand the Australian business culture, it could easily be missed.
Conclusion
Language barrier hinders the communication process. A great of the message may be lost in translation. And, if both people do not know the language of their interlocutors no communication is possible. Misunderstandings between cultures regarding the norms that are accepted in culture but rejected in the other become the root cause of problems attached to intercultural communication. As far as social media is concerned; not only it has evolved business communication but also it has enhanced organic visibility. It has provided better visualization to customers, and customers now, with social media, can make decision regarding the product and services they require.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Beamer, L., & Varner, I. I. (2001). Intercultural communication in the global workplace. McGraw-Hill/Irwin New York, NY.
Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S. K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., & Seymour, T. (2011). The history of social media and its impact on business. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 16(3), 79–91.
Grosse, C. U. (2002). Managing communication within virtual intercultural teams. Business Communication Quarterly, 65(4), 22–38.
Jameson, D. A. (2007). Reconceptualizing cultural identity and its role in intercultural business communication. The Journal of Business Communication (1973), 44(3), 199–235.
Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H., & Aramo-Immonen, H. (2014). Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 606–613.
