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Origins and culture

During the Cold War, the economy of the United States was largely self-contained because the world was polarized into two separate and competing powers: the East and the West. However, changes and advancements in economic relationships, political systems, and technological options began to break down old cultural barriers. Business transformed from individual-country capitalism to global capitalism. Thus, the study of cross-cultural communication was originally found within businesses and government, both seeking to expand globally. Businesses began to offer language training to their employees and programs were developed to train employees to understand how to act when abroad. With this also came the development of the Foreign Service Institute, or FSI, through the Foreign Service Act of 1946, where government employees received training and prepared for overseas posts. There began also implementation of a "world view" perspective in the curriculum of higher education. In 1974, the International Progress Organization, with the support of UNESCO and under the auspices of Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, held an international conference on "The Cultural Self-comprehension of Nations" (Innsbruck, Austria, 27–29 July 1974) which called upon United Nations member states "to organize systematic and global comparative research on the different cultures of the world" and "to make all possible efforts for a more intensive training of diplomats in the field of international cultural co-operation ... and to develop the cultural aspects of their foreign policy."

There has become an increasing pressure for universities across the world to incorporate intercultural and international understanding and knowledge into the education of their students. International literacy and cross-cultural understanding have become critical to a country's cultural, technological, economic, and political health. It has become essential for universities to educate, or more importantly, "transform", to function effectively and comfortably in a world characterized by close, multi-faceted relationships and permeable borders. Students must possess a certain level of global competence to understand the world they live in and how they fit into this world. This level of global competence starts at ground level- the university and its faculty- with how they generate and transmit cross-cultural knowledge and information to students.

Cross-cultural Communication in the Workplace

Corporations have grown into new countries, regions, and continents around the world, which has caused people of various cultures to move and learn to adapt to their environment. This has led to cross-cultural communication becoming more important in the work environment. From nonverbal to spoken communication, it is critical for a company or organizations performance. The entire company or organization will face drastic hardships when their communication is restricted. Over the past few decades, many Western corporations have expanded into Sub-Saharan Africa. James Baba Abugre conducted a study on western expatriates who have moved to work in Ghana. Abugre interviewed both the expatriates and Ghanaians, and found that cultural competence is essential to working with others of different cultures in order to avoid conflict between the Western and Eastern cultural norms. It is important that workers understand both verbal and non-verbal communication styles. Expatriates who move to work in a culture that is not their own should be prepared, be properly trained, and have access to educational resources to help them succeed and to appreciate the culture they have moved into, in order to navigate it effectively. Abugre's main finding is that cultural competency is important to cross-cultural communication. Paula Caligiuri has proposed training of international workers in cultural agility techniques as a way to improve such communication.

Yaila Zotzmann, Dimitri van der Linden, and Knut Wyra looked at Asia, Europe, and North America. Together they had a focus on employees in each continent with a focus on error orientation. The authors define this as "one's attitude toward dealing with, communicating about, and learning from errors". They studied employees from China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the United States of America, and Vietnam. Country differences, cultural values, and personality factors were also accounted for. The study was quantitave and looked at a single organization that had offices in eight countries. Results showed error orientation varied based on the culture they were in. Americans tend to be more open to errors and learn from them as well as speaking about their mistakes, whereas Japanese subjects had the lowest tolerance for errors. The Japanese showed concern about how it may impact those around them and the organization. The study also referred to Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory. The findings show a potential relationship between error orientation and an employee's culture. Other important factors are the country they live in or personality dimensions.

Cross-cultural communications and boundaries are present in all sectors. In Europe, cross-cultural communication in primary care is important, for example in dealing with migrants in the present European migrant crisis. Maria van den Muijsenbergh conducted a study on primary care in Europe as well as a new program, RESTORE. The program stands for: "REsearch into implementation STrategies to support patients of different ORigins and language background in a variety of European primary care settings". The countries participating are Ireland, England, Scotland, Austria, the Netherlands, and Greece. Muijsenbergh found in her study that there was a range of issues in primary care for migrants in Europe. There are both language and culture barriers between medical professionals and patients, which has an impact on their communication. Even with the translation methods that technology provides, language barriers remain to fall fast. The study also found that migrants were more likely to use emergency services, which was consistent in countries with a steady influx of migrants or few migrants, and during times of economic prosperity or recession. Muijsenbergh found that migrants have worse health than native Europeans, with her findings suggesting that this is a result of the language and cultural barriers. She recommends medical professionals use different training and educational resources in order to become cross-cultural communicators.

Incorporation into college programs

The application of cross-cultural communication theory to foreign language education is increasingly appreciated around the world. Cross-cultural communication classes can now be found within foreign language departments of some universities, while other schools are placing cross-cultural communication programs in their departments of education.

With the increasing pressures and opportunities of globalization, the incorporation of international networking alliances has become an "essential mechanism for the internationalization of higher education". Many universities from around the world have taken great strides to increase intercultural understanding through processes of organizational change and innovations. In general, university processes revolve around four major dimensions which include: organizational change, curriculum innovation, staff development, and student mobility. Ellingboe emphasizes these four major dimensions with his own specifications for the internationalization process. His specifications include: (1) college leadership; (2) faculty members' international involvement in activities with colleagues, research sites, and institutions worldwide; (3) the availability, affordability, accessibility, and transferability of study abroad programs for students; (4) the presence and integration of international students, scholars, and visiting faculty into campus life; and (5) international co-curricular units (residence halls, conference planning centers, student unions, career centers, cultural immersion and language houses, student activities, and student organizations).

Cross-cultural communication gives opportunities to share ideas, experiences, and different perspectives and perception by interacting with local people.

International educational organizations

The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research

SIETAR is an educational membership organization for those professionals who are concerned with the challenges and rewards of intercultural relations. SIETAR was founded in the United States in 1974 by a few dedicated individuals to draw together professionals engaged in various forms of intercultural learning and engagement research and training. SIETAR now has loosely connected chapters in numerous countries and a large international membership.

WYSE International

WYSE International is a worldwide educational charity specializing in education and development for emerging leaders established in 1989. It is a non-governmental organization associated with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations.

Over 3000 participants from 110 countries have attended their courses, they have run in 5 continents. Its flagship International Leadership Programme is a 12-day residential course for 30 people from on average 20 countries (aged 18 – 35).

WYSE International's website states its aims are to:

"provide education independently of political, religious or social backgrounds and promote visionary leadership capable of responding to evolving world needs."

Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow

Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow is an innovative educational initiative aimed at creating a common professional language between Israeli and Palestinian young leaders. Israeli and Palestinian students are selected through an application process and work in small bi-national teams to develop technology and business projects for local impact. Through this process of cross-cultural communication, students build mutual respect, cultural competence and understanding of each others. I need to be more open to people and limit my mind in order to get clues about stereotypes, race, religion, and media. I should give people enough time to speak so I can figure out what my mind is missing about a particular group of people. By being open, I mean having healthy conversations with people, which should begin gradually depending on the situation and people involved. Allowing myself some time to reflect on these elements, where I am going wrong, and where I need to improve. Meanwhile, I'm updating my mental knowledge based on the authentic information I'm gaining through experiential learning.

Theories

The main theories for cross-cultural communication are based on the work done looking at value differences between different cultures, especially the works of Edward T. Hall, Richard D. Lewis, Geert Hofstede, and Fons Trompenaars. Clifford Geertz was also a contributor to this field. Also Jussi V. Koivisto's model on cultural crossing in internationally operating organizations elaborates from this base of research.

These theories have been applied to a variety of different communication theories and settings, including general business and management (Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner) and marketing (Marieke de Mooij, Stephan Dahl). There have also been several successful educational projects which concentrate on the practical applications of these theories in cross-cultural situations.

These theories have been criticized mainly by management scholars (e.g. Nigel Holden) for being based on the culture concept derived from 19th century cultural anthropology and emphasizing on culture-as-difference and culture-as-essence. Another criticism has been the uncritical way Hofstede's dimensions are served up in textbooks as facts (Peter W. Cardon). There is a move to focus on 'cross-cultural interdependence' instead of the traditional views of comparative differences and similarities between cultures. Cross-cultural management is increasingly seen as a form of knowledge management. While there is debate in academia, over what cross-cultural teams can do in practice, a meta-analysis by Günter Stahl, Martha Maznevski, Andreas Voigt and Karsten Jonsen on research done on multicultural groups, concluded "Research suggests that cultural diversity leads to process losses through task conflict and decreased social integration, but to process gains through increased creativity and satisfaction."

More recent studies in the last decade have also taken a deeper look into Cultural Bump Theory. Cultural Bump Theory explains how people feel disconnected from others when they run into cultural "bumps", and how they create coping mechanisms to help this discomfort. The most common way found to relive this discomfort is to learn and understand why the other culture behaves and acts the way they do When one approaches cultural differences from the cultural bump, it allows for them to see these differences as a way to learn more instead of seeing it as a problem that needs to be solved .

Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Theory explains the framework for cross-cultural communications, showing how the values are affected by its society.

Challenges

Nonverbal Communications

Both nonverbal and verbal communications define interactions and communications between human beings. Some nonverbal communications consist of personal space, eye contact, facial expressions, and various types of gestures . Every culture determines and further influences the nonverbal communications that are considered appropriate and inappropriate between its members. A commonly misinterpreted nonverbal communication is the space and distance between two individuals. While everyone has an interpersonal distance that are comfortable and uncomfortable with, these feelings can often go back to cultural upbringings. For Spanish and Arabs, the enjoy being in close proximity when speaking to others. This differs from Americans who prioritize personal space. Additionally, eye contact is a nonverbal communication that has varied meanings through different cultures. In American and other Western cultures, it is seen as being respectful and honest when making direct eye contact. On the contrary, in Asian countries like China and Japan, people try to avoid any eye contact for an extended period of time because straight eye contact can be seen as rude or impolite. When it comes to facial expressions, many cultures are familiar with the fact that a smile oftentimes means someone is happy while a frown means someone is upset, but the context for those facial expressions can vary for various cultures. In China, a person may laugh when someone makes a mistake or feels embarrassed, which may lead to the other culture feeling humiliated. This laughter means that the mistake did not matter though, and everything is fine in all actuality .

Different Spoken Languages

Spoken language can oftentimes be seen as people's natural production tool, more common and normal, while written language is seen as intricate because of its broad rules, the same language has different meanings in different contexts. When two countries that use the same language communicate, there may also be some misunderstandings due to some dialects.

Stereotypes

A significant barrier when it comes to cross-cultural communications can oftentimes be the problem of stereotyping that comes from preconceived notions about a specific culture. When one makes an assumption about a group of people who may or major share the same beliefs, this can lead to major conflicts. A common stereotype of Americans is that they are loud and obnoxious. If a French person was told this before studying abroad in the U.S., they may be pleasantly surprised be the fact that their roommate is quiet and charming.