Communicating Across Cultures

2. To learn how to Continue to analyze your audiences. Begin to adapt your message to your audiences. Begin to understand what your organization wants. Communicating Across Cultures

3. Start by answering these questions: Who is my audience? Why is audience so important? What do I need to know about my audience(s)? Communicating Across Cultures

4. Start by answering these questions: Now that I have my analysis, what do I do with it? What if my audiences have different needs? How do I reach my audience(s)? Communicating Across Cultures

5. Introduction • In any organization, you'll work with people whose backgrounds differ from yours. • People often want easy answers about diversity and culture when only guidelines are possible. • Many companies depend on vendors or operations in different countries

6. Diversity and Culture Basics • Diversity has always been with us—even if people didn’t recognize it or its value. • There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to working with cultural differences. • Use the information in this module as guidelines, not rules set in stone. • Remember that people are individuals as well as members of groups. • Be open to change and difference.

7. Diversity in the Workplace • Gender • Race and ethnicity • Regional and national origin • Social class • Religion • Age • Physical ability

8. What is "culture"? • Culture is patterns of acceptable behavior and belief. • We may not be aware of the most basic features of our own culture until we come into contact with people who do things differently.

9. We can categorize cultures as • high-context • low-context.

10. Diversity in the Workplace • High-Context Cultures • Most information is inferred from the context of a message. • Little is “spelled out.” • Examples: Japanese, Arabic, and Latin American cultures.

11. Diversity in the Workplace continued • Low-Context Cultures • Context is less important than words. • Most information is spelled out; words are privileged • Examples: German, Scandinavian, and dominant U.S. cultures.

13. How does culture affectbusiness communication? • Culture influences every single aspect of business communication: • how to show politeness and respect, • how much information to give, • how to motivate people, • how loud to talk, • even what size paper to use.

14. How does culture affectbusiness communication? • Business communication is influenced by • national culture, • the organizational culture (system, rules, how to behave, dress act and perform job) and by • personal culture (gender, race and ethnicity, social class)

15. There are so many different cultures!How can I know enough to communicate? Focus on being sensitive and flexible. • The first step in understanding another culture is to realize that it may do things very differently, and that the difference is not bad or inferior دوني. • people within a single culture differ.

16. Communicating with Different Cultures • Brenda Arbaleez suggests being • Aware that values and behaviors are influenced by culture. • Flexible. • Sensitive. • Aware of the others’ values, beliefs, and practices. • Sensitive to differences among individuals.

17. How can I make my documentsbias-free? Start by using non-sexist, non-racist, and non-agist language. • Bias-free language is language that does not discriminate against people on the basis of sex, physical condition, race, age, or any other category. • Avoid terms that assume that everyone is married or is heterosexual. • Biased: You and your husband or wife are cordially invited to the dinner. • Better: You and your guest are cordially invited to the dinner.

18. Ways to Make Language Nonsexist • Use • Words that treat both sexes respectfully. • Titles that do not imply one sex “ought” to do a certain job. • The appropriate gender pronoun when referring to a specific person.

20. Ways to Make Language Nonracist • Eliminate adjectives that reinforce negative stereotypes. • Biased: The motivated black students were assigned to internship positions throughout the company. • Bias-free: The students were assigned to internship positions throughout the company.

21. Ways to Make Language Nonagist • Refer to age only if it’s truly relevant. • Biased: Tomoko Watanabe, 67, is president of Competitive Data Management. • Bias-free: Tomoko Watanabe is president of Competitive Data Management.

22. Unit One End of Module 3