Culture impacts many things in business, including: 

1. Check where you are positioned on the «leading» scale: in which country are you now?

For planning your behaviour, please check where you are positioned on the «time» scale: in which country are you now?

Key objectives

• To enable you to reflect on some of the typical communication styles commonly encountered in your own and other cultures
• To explore some of the potential misunderstandings that may occur when individuals with different communication styles interact

Time

1 hour (activity + assessment)

Background rationale 

The way in which we communicate can differ considerably from culture to culture. This activity identifies some important areas in which paralinguistic (volume, speed of speech and so on), extra-linguistic (gestures, eye contact, touch, physical proximity and so on) and communication styles (direct versus indirect, and so on) differ across national boundaries. It asks you first to identify the particular approach to communication that predominates in your own and other cultures, and then asks to reflect on the possible consequences when individuals with different approaches in each area interact. 

1. Read each of the following pairs of descriptions

2. Decide which descriptions are more like your country of origin, A or B?

3. Think of the culture of your hosting country. Does it come closer to type A or type B?

Choose one or two statement pairs that interest you (where you have answered A for your origin country and B for your hosting country or vice-versa). 

Can you think of any misunderstandings that might arise when people from cultures more like A communicate with people from cultures more like B? 

Please think about what you have learned in this module and find a suitable solution for avoiding these misunderstandings.