Spoken or written language, of course, is a frequent cause of miscommunication, stemming from a person's inability to speak the local language, a poor or too-literal translation, a speaker's failure to explain idioms, or a person missing the meaning conveyed through body language or certain symbols. Even among countries that share the same language, there can be problems in the subtleties and nuances inherent in the use of the language, as noted by George Bernard Shaw: Britain and America are two nations separated by a common language. This problem can exist even within the same country among subcultures or subgroups.
Many international executives tell stories about lost business deals or lost sales because of communication blunders: When Pepsi Cola's slogan Come Alive with Pepsi was introduced in
Germany, the company learned that the literal German translation of come alive is come out of the grave. A U.S. airline found a lack of demand for its rendezvous lounges on its Boeing 747s. They later learned that rendezvous in Portuguese refers to a room that is rented for prostitution.
More than just conveying objective information, language also conveys cultural and social understandings from one generation to the next.18 Examples of how language reflects what is important in a society include the 6000 different Arabic words used to describe camels and their parts and the 50 or more classifications of snow used by the Inuit Eskimos.
Inasmuch as language conveys culture, technology, and priorities, it also serves to separate and perpetuate subcultures. In India, 14 official and many unofficial languages are used, and over 800 languages are spoken on the African continent.
Because of increasing workforce diversity around the world, the international business manager will have to deal with a medley of languages. For example, assembly-line workers at the Ford plant in Cologne speak Turkish and Spanish as well as German. In Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, many of the buyers and traders are Chinese. Not all Arabs speak Arabic; in Tunisia and Lebanon, for example, French is the commercial language.
International managers need either a good command of the local language or competent interpreters. The task of accurate translation to bridge cultural gaps is fraught with difficulties, as Schermerhorn discovered in his study of 153 Hong Kong Chinese bilinguals; he found a considerable difference in interpretation and response according to whether the medium used was Chinese or English, even after many experts were involved in the translation process.
Even the direct translatioi of specific words does not guarantee the congruence of their meaning, as with the word yes used by Asians, which usually means only that they have heard you, and, often, that they are too polite to disagree. The Chinese, for example, through years of political control, have built into their communication culture a cautionary stance to avoid persecution by professing agreement with whatever opinion was held by the person questioning them.21
Politeness and a desire to say only what the listener wants to hear creates noise in the communication process in much of the world. Often, even a clear translation does not help a person to understand what is meant because the encoding process has obscured the true message. With the poetic Arab language- replete with exaggeration, elaboration, and repetition-meaning is attributed more to how something is said rather than what is said.
In our situation with the American supervisor and Greek employee, it is highly likely that the American could have picked up some cues from the employee's body language, which probably implied problems with the interpretation of meaning. Let's now look at how body language may have created noise in this case.
Language : Communication article from Comparative Management Catagory Language
Language Communication article from Communication Comparative Management.Free learning from data about Language Communication Comparative Management Business Management,online business management,business management classes,online business management degrees