Intercultural Communication, Nonverbal Communication and Listening Skills

Welcome to Topic 11: Intercultural Communication, Nonverbal Communication and Listening Skills. Developing an understanding of culture and its importance in how we communicate is the core focus of this topic as well as learning how to use nonverbal communication techniques and good listening skills. In this topic, you will learn about:

• What is culture - The role of culture
• Intercultural communication
• Nonverbal communication and how to use it effectively
• Listening skills

These relate to the Subject Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss the written, verbal, listening and non-verbal communication skills in academic, professional and intercultural settings.

Welcome to your pre-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these prior to attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer.

Click on each of the following headings to read more about what is required for each of your pre-seminar learning tasks.

The role of culture - what is culture?

Every organisation has a culture. An organisation’s culture is often referred to as the glue that binds the system together to achieve the system’s common goals. Given the diverse nature of culture so too are its many differing definitions. A selection of definitions have been provided as a starting point for you below:

“Culture consists of the unwritten rules of the social game. It is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede & Minkov 2010, p. 6).

“Everything that people have, think, and do as members of their society” (Ferraro & Briody 2013, p. 19).

The understanding of culture and its surrounding theories enables us to have a greater understanding of how we can interact with and transcend cultural differences.

Schein (2010) a prominent cultural theorist has provided a definition of three organisational levels of culture outlined in the following figure:

^{Adapted from ‘Organizational culture and leadership,’ Schein, EH 2010, vol. 2, John Wiley & Sons.}

In essence, we are dividing the world into three parts; words, material things and behaviour (Hall & Hall 1990). Words are the human medium of business and where we will be concentrating our efforts during our time in this subject, the final two elements will be covered as you progress your way through future subjects.

Hall and Hall (1990, p. 103) provide a statement “Culture is communication and communication is culture”, they follow this on by saying:

Intercultural Communication

The term ‘Intercultural Communication’ was first used by Tragar and Hall in 1954 in their work “Culture and Communication. Model of Analysis”. The concept of culture has changed over time and is now seen as a critical factor in successful workplace communication. Shamsitdinova (2020, p.1024) provides the following explanation

Makhmudov (2020) inteprets this concept with a more simplistic approach but one that is just as relevant “The ideal goal that a person should pursue in the pursuit of his own desires, to better and more effectively adapt to the outside world around him”.

The complex and diverse social backgrounds of people from around the world requires an understanding of communication and how it might influence their perceptions of other cultures. It is also important to realise that these various cultures are made up of different religions, social structures, ethnicities and educations.

Barriers to intercultural communication

When we are faced with the need to work with others, we are confronted with a myriad of behaviours, which may not match our own personal behaviours or our expectations of behaviour within the workplace based on cultural differences. Failure to recognise and understand these fundamental differences can cause intercultural tension, misunderstanding and confusion. Dwyer (2016, p.137) provides an excellent diagram describing the barriers to effective intercultural communication:

^{Adapted from Communication for business and the professions: Strategies and skills, 6th edn., by J Dwyer 2016, Pearson Higher Education.}

Nonverbal Communication

Non-verbal communication is often utilised within the workplace organisation. The ability to interact positively with a peer through non-verbal cues is just as important as a verbal message. Some basic areas of non-verbal communication have been listed below.

Non-verbal communication, as defined by Newman and Ober (2012, p. 70) is "any message that is not written or spoken".

There are four types of non-verbal messages:

• Personal (to the individual) - Involves various kinds of non-verbal behaviour that are unique to one person. The meaning is unique to the person sending the message, e.g. studying alone or in silence.
• Common to a group of people or culture - Characteristics that are common to a group of people. They are learned unconsciously by observing others in the society.
• Universal (to mankind) - Behaviour that is common to humankind. Feelings of sadness or happiness.
• Unrelated to the message (random) - Such as a sneeze, which is unrelated to a message.

Different aspects of non-verbal communication

Non-verbal communication has been categorised into 7 different areas:

• Body movement – includes movements of the hands, head, feet, posture, eye and facial movements.
• Physical characteristics – such as body shape, general attractiveness, body and breath odours, hair and skin colour.
• Touching behaviour – stroking, hitting or guiding movements of other people.
• Vocal qualities – voice qualities such as pitch range, control, rhythm, tempo and articulation.
• Space/ proximity – personal space.
• Artefacts – objects that convey non-verbal messages about self-concept, image, moods or feelings.
• Environment – can influence the outcome of communication. Careful consideration is often given to office space, layout, sales and conference venues.

Listening skills

Active listening is an extension of empathetic listening. Active listening is the purposeful focus on the other person’s message and allows for the appropriate provision of feedback (Newman & Ober 2016). Newman and Ober (2016, p. 59) states that active listening:

• Helps the listener to bypass the personal filters, beliefs, assumptions and judgements that can distort the speaker’s message.
• Acknowledges and provides feedback to the speaker, as well as verifying what the listener has heard.
• Enables the person to reach their own decisions and form their own insights.
• Confirms communication and facilitates understanding between the speaker and the listener.

Bolton (2009, p. 58) developed the cluster of active listening skills triangle as follows:

Keys to better listening

• Give the speaker your undivided attention
• stay open-minded
• don't interrupt
• involve yourself

Listening with an open mind

One of the most difficult listening skills is to be able to listen with an open mind. Within the workplace, we are confronted with many different types of co-workers all with opinions, which may at some point differ from our own. Being able to put your opinions aside and listen with an open mind takes practice and experience. The ability to learn and improve on this skill is integral to being able to successfully communicate in the workplace. Concentrate on the content of the message rather than its source and attempt to avoid jumping in until the message has been delivered in a complete manner. Newman and Ober (2016, p. 75) provides excellent examples of how to listen with an open mind and utilise the keys to better listening in the following examples:

Conversation 1:

Not listening with an open mind.

Conversation 2:

Listening with an open mind.

Effective communication is arguably one of the most important skills you can develop as an employee. Building confidence in this skill early will be critical as you move through your academic studies and enter the workforce. Understanding how cultural differences might impact how you communicate will become an essential skill as you negotiate scenarios with peers, colleagues and managers. It will be important to reflect and refer back to the key skills discussed in this topic as you work out your own strengths and weaknesses in effective communication.

Welcome to your seminar for this topic. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time, you can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then click 'Join' to enter the class.

Click here to access your seminar.

The learning tasks are listed below, these will be completed during the seminar with your lecturer. Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.

Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)

In-Seminar learning tasks

The in-seminar learning tasks identified below will be completed during the scheduled seminar. Your lecturer will guide you through these tasks. Click on each of the following headings to read more about the requirements for each of your in-seminar learning tasks.

Welcome to your post-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these after attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer. Your lecturer will advise you if any of these are to be completed during your consultation session. Click on each of the following headings to read more about the requirements for each of your post-seminar learning tasks.

Each week you will have a consultation session which will be facilitated by your lecturer. You can join in and work with your peers on activities relating to this subject. These session times and activities will be communicated to you by your lecturer each week. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time, you can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then click 'Join' to enter the class.

Click here to access your seminar.

Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.

Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)

Click on the links below for the free online library which allows access via download and the web to access Higher Education Textbooks produced by various academics.

• Chapter 18: Minnesota Libraries 2010, Business Communication for Success, Minnesota Libraries Publishing.
• Chapter 8: Minnesota Libraries 2016, Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies, Minnesota Libraries Publishing.

References

• Bolton, R 2009, People skills, Simon and Schuster.
• Dwyer, J 2016, Communication for business and the professions: Strategies and skills, 6th edn., Pearson Higher Education.
• Ferraro, GP & Briody, EK 2013, The cultural dimension of global business, Pearson.
• Hall, ET & Hall, MR 1990, Understanding cultural differences:[Germans, French and Americans], 9th edn., Intercultural Press Yarmouth.
• Hofstede, G & Minkov, M 2010, Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind, 3rd edn., McGraw-Hill.
• Makhmudov, K 2020, Ways of Forming Intercultural Communication in Foreign Language Teaching. Science and Education, 1(4):84-88
• Newman, A & Ober, S 2012, Business communication: In person, in print, online, Cengage Learning.
• Newman, A & Ober, S 2016, Business communication: In person, in print, online, 10th edn., Cengage Learning.
• Samovar, LA, Porter, RE, McDaniel, ER & Roy, CS 2015, Communication between cultures, Nelson Education.
• Schein, EH 2010, Organizational culture and leadership, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons.
• Shamsitdinova, MG, 2020, ‘Intercultural communication and problems of teaching English to the students-nonlinguist’. Theoretical & Applied Science, 84(4):1024-1026.