Christopher Stackhouse
March 18, 2014
MGM316-1401B-03
International Business Communications Phase 4 Individual Project
Cultural phenomenon is normally used to conduct frequently observed situations in the fields of human behavior, microeconomics and political science. It basically describes the behavior where individuals are likely to believe and do things just because other individuals do as well.
By inviting these people from other countries to the meeting you can expect for them not to be open at first because this is all new to them. They might lack the knowledge of how to interact with other from different countries as we discussed throughout this course. In any case it can be hard for others to adapt to an environment that they are unfamiliar with at first. This might be their first time coming to the United States and they probably just don’t feel comfortable with their surroundings. For example, you can’t put to kids in the same room and expect them to play with one another immediately having not played with one another before. Something has to be done for something to spark a common interest for the two to interact. When you think about it they need something to as they would say “break the ice”. It would be hard for me as well to go to another country on a business meeting and to meet people from another country. I would not know how to approach them or even if they spoke English or not, I would just be standoffish just to be on the safe side.
I feel that the lack of intercultural communication comes from the different cultures not knowing. What I mean by not knowing, is not knowing the background of one another’s culture. It’s quite rare for a company to make their employees have training on the behavior of another culture. It takes a lot of man hours and in some cases the training that is being taught may never need to be used. In this particular situation you have people from four different countries, and they all have four totally different backgrounds that they come from. I would not expect to be able to talk to the person from Mexico the same as I would from China; they come from to different backgrounds and have different customs and views. This is why I feel that the people are not communicating with one another because they are unaware of what the other culture has to offer. When it comes to the United States I feel that we are the most diverse society out there when compared to others. For example, you couldn’t go to China and find a bunch of Mexican people living but if you look at the United States you can see that we are in fact a melting pot.
These countries have totally different customs and beliefs when it comes to how they carry on with business. Being that these people are from four very different countries it would be kind of difficult for them to have a common point where they all can relate. I would have to say that I would bring these people together by using the reason as of why they are there in the first place, which is the business itself. I know that each of these cultures could benefit from diversification and I would use that as a tool to bring them together. I would break down each part that each country would play in the business model and they explain to them how their role is important as the next person’s role. Showing them that they are a team will make them feel more comfortable with one another and will likely make them communicate more with each other.
One of the things that I find difficult for each of these countries to understand about the other is their customs and beliefs. For example, in the United Arab Emirates they have what you call is Ramadan, where the Muslims fast for an entire month. I would find this hard for a
