Culture and Communication

The aspects of these notions

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According to Wederspahn (2000), culture is “the shared set of assumptions, values, and beliefs of a group of people by which they organize their common life” (as cited in Marie, 2010). It affects the way people live, organize their well-being, perceive the reality, communicate with each other, and work. The culture is observed in business relations best of all. It is revealed through communication between people. Business communication and culture are the main requirements in the business regulations.

Culture is a core notion in the company organization. The cultural awareness of management provides the well-being of a company and helps to work, meet, deal, entertain, negotiate, and communicate with colleagues or clients from different countries. The right understanding and appreciation of the intercultural differences provides the better cooperation, long-lasting business contacts, and success in business relationships. One of the main aspects of organizational culture is business communication. It helps in conducting effective meetings. In order to reach the best results, the management of each company should improve their communication skills. This could be achieved by organizing trainings for workers, where the managers could exchange their thoughts concerning business situation in company and give their solutions to the organizational problems. One more way to improve communication is to provide the open-door policy for employees – give the opportunity for the clients to discuss every question and situation they are interested in. Managers should understand that the quality of their communicational skills affect their career enhancement and job satisfaction.

Due to the development of business environment and globalization of business, there is a strong competition among the organizations. Companies with strong cultures develop and spread their horizons and “are capable of increasing revenue, profitability and shareholder value” (Cook, 2011); whereas companies with weak cultures have difficulties with adaptation to the market needs. “Having a strong culture which supports and underpins an organization’s brand proposition helps businesses create and maintain competitive advantage – witness organizations such as Sony, Disney and Orange” (Cook, 2011).
There are two closely connected and interrelated notions – organizational culture and organizational behavior. In many cases, the organizational culture regulates human behaviors in order to improve personal relations and reach the best results in the business sphere. Handy proposes four types of organizational culture: power culture, role culture, person culture, and task type culture (as cited in Cook, 2011). The essence of business communication differs in all four types. In power culture, communication model is descending – employees give instructions to the subordinates. In role culture, the responsibilities are divided between managers; everyone is equal and performs the type of communication, oral or written, they can do the best. Person type culture is characterized by self-oriented intentions where communication is provided only for money’s sake. In the task type culture, the communication is centered in a team with the same interests.
Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn (2003) have determined organizational behavior as “the study of individuals and groups in organizations”, “the system of shared actions, values, and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members” (as cited in “Organizational Behavior”, 2005). It explains how people should deal with each other, organize their work; moreover, it gives practical tips how to avoid conflicts, implement new ideas and reach the goals (as cited in “Organizational Behavior”, 2005). This notion explains the points of the corporate culture, the distinctive feature of every organization (as cited in “Organizational Behavior”, 2005). Organizational behavior has an impact on business communication. The last depends on what business strategy of the company provides, to what extent the managers are interested in interaction with their clients, and how they plan to retain the foreign partners. The key notion of organizational culture is the cultural intelligence. Every company has its own code, the preferable way of behavior for all the workers (Earley & Mosakowski, 2004, p. 139-140). Earley and Ang (2003) explained the cultural intelligence as “a person’s capability for successful adaptation to new cultural settings” (p. 9). According to these authors, cultural intelligence demands from a person the ability to switch from one pattern of culture to another in order to perform social interactions more effectively (p. 9). Peterson describes cultural intelligence as “the aptitude to use skills and abilities appropriately in a cross-cultural environment” (Peterson, 2004). Undoubtedly, cultural intelligence has a great impact on the organization of business and the process of making new contacts with foreign partners. With the development of technologies, partners may contact each other in a minute and negotiate via video conferences, cell phones, emails. Thus, it is important to consider religion, cultural, professional, and gender peculiarities to avoid communication barriers (“Cultural intelligence”, 2011).
In conclusion, organizational culture and communication are very important in the business regulation. Culture is observed through the level of communication between people, foreign partners or clients. It is realized in company through organizational behavior, the way “people, individuals, and groups act in organizations” (“Organizational Behavior”, 2005). Companies with strong cultures develop their businesses and flourish as “the strong culture has proven to underpin high performance” (Cook, 2011). The successful companies take care of effective business communication and support the cultural intelligence on the management level; such firms enjoy building “the better relationships by achieving individual, organizational, and social objectives” (“Organizational Behavior”, 2005). Thus, organizations should develop their own cultural strategy, provide effective management communication, regulate forms of organizational behavior, and promote cultural intelligence in their workers in order to bring their business to the new level.