Intercultural communication typically refers to challenges and
corresponding opportunities in communication that occur when people from
different cultures meet. In many people’s minds, a static notion of culture
prevails based on approaches that explain challenges in intercultural
communication through cultural differences linked to national norms described
by scholars of comparative intercultural studies (like Hall, Hofstede, Lewis,
and Trompenaars).
The identification of cultural
differences with norms and values that are supposedly characteristic of the
corresponding nationalities from which the leading management of a given
multinational company stems generates conclusions whose simplicity is worrying.
The resulting classification of cultures according to their degree of
individualism versus collectivism or of masculinity versus femininity is so
stereotyped and ethnocentric that it can hardly contribute to the study of
intracultural and intercultural dynamics. (Dietz, 2018, p. 12)
We no longer live in a world in which every person has only one language
and belongs to one culture. In fact, we never did (Blommaert, 1998, p. 9).
Culture does not need to “be seen as something which is deposited in every
member of a particular society” (Blommaert, 1998, p. 13). Culture has many
different meanings and members belong to several different cultures linked to
age, gender, religion, socio-economic status, political affiliation, ethnicity,
and so on (Deardorff, 2020, p. 5). “Culture is not something we have — a trait
— but something we do — a performance“ (Piller, 2017, p. 10). Indeed, it can be
made, changed, manipulated, and dropped on the spot (Blommaert, 1998, p. 13).
“It is also something that is done to us when others perceive us and treat us
as representatives of a particular culture” (Piller, 2017, p. 10). As people
are inherently part of multiple cultures associated with various factors such
as age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, organisational function, and business field, their cultures are
dynamic performances which they experience, shape, alter, and discard at will,
while also being influenced by external perceptions and treatment. These
dynamic performances, which are manifestations of cultures, are examples of
intercultural communication.
| Slightly adapted excerpt from the author’s doctoral dissertation: pp. 4-5. |
Cultures are not nationalities; they are fluid identities that emerge in interaction.
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| https://aiartshop.com/ |
Blommaert,
J. (1998, February 27). Approaches to intercultural communication: A
critical survey. Expertentagung über Lernen und Arbeiten in einer
international vernetzten und multikulturellen Gesellschaft, Universität Bremen,
Germany, 27-28 February 1998. Unpublished.
http://rgdoi.net/10.13140/2.1.1052.0324
Deardorff, D. K. (2020). Manual for developing intercultural competencies: Story circles. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Dietz, G. (2018). Interculturality. In H. Callan (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology (pp. 1–19). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1629
Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond Culture. Anchor Books.
Hampden-Turner, C., & Trompenaars, F. (2000). Building cross-cultural competence: How to create wealth from conflicting values. Yale University Press.
Hofstede, G. H., & Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (Rev. and expanded 2nd ed). McGraw-Hill.
Lewis, R. D. (2018). When cultures collide: Leading across cultures (4th ed.). Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Piller, I. (2017). Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press.
Trompenaars, F., & Hampden-Turner, C. (2012). Riding the waves of culture: Understanding diversity in global business (Rev. and updated 3. ed). Brealey.
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