Cross-Cultural Communication

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Actually, cultural difference is a double-edged sword. It can either create a synergy that increase team performance or produce many conflicts and misunderstandings that decrease team performance. According to Thomas D. C. and Inkson. K.(2009), cultural gaps are far more than language barriers, they encourage people to learn the codes and conventions of people from different cultures. Besides, people are also encouraged to develop cross-cultural skills which help them to adapt different communication styles and conventions better. As for Chalon, he should negotiate more with his colleagues about his goal and provide more information rather than insisting his personal style and being blunt.

In summary, in my opinion, Chalon can take places the following practices to eliminate the cultural gaps. First of all, Chalon should adjust his ways to communicate with colleagues. To be precise, he should be humble and convey his ideas gentler.

Second, he should think about the positive side of US communication style and try to adapt to it, which refers to care more about colleagues’ personal life and talk with them more to shorten the distance. Third, Chalon should keep his valuable quality while adapting to his colleagues.

Reference:

Meyer, E. 2014. “Navigating the cultural minefield.” Harvard Business Review 92(5): 119-123.

Matveev, A. V.and Nelson, P. E. 2004. “Cross cultural communication competence and multicultural team performance.” International journal of Cross Cultural Management 4(2): 253-270.

Earley, P. C. and Mosakowski, E. 2000. “Creating hybrid team culture: An empirical test of transnational team functioning.” Academy of Management Journal 43(1): 26-49

Thomas, D.C. and Inkson, K. 2009. “Communicating, negotiating and resolving conflicts across cultures.” Cultural Intelligence: Living and Working Globally, Second Edition, Chapter 5. Harvard Business Publishing.