Transcript Why study intercultural communication?

Why study intercultural
communication?
Chapter 1
Study of Intercultural Communication
• The study of intercultural communication is
about the study of communication that
involves, at least in part, cultural group
membership differences.
Eight reasons for studying intercultural
communication
• Global Workforce
heterogeneity
• Domestic workforce
diversity
• Multicultural health
care
• Creative multicultural
problem solving
• Intercultural
relationship
satisfaction
• Deepening selfawareness
• Global and
interpersonal peace
• Role of Technology
Adapting to Workforce Heterogeneity
• All of us most likely will work with employees
and customers from dissimilar cultures (faceto-face or CMC).
Adapting to domestic workforce diversity
– Intercultural communication skills are needed to
solve problems, manage conflicts, and forge new
visions.
– Demographic change in the United States impacts
the domestic workforce diversity.
Improving multicultural health care
communication
– Many immigrants and multicultural citizens have high
expectations that health care workers will respect their
personal beliefs and health care practices.
– Learning basic intercultural communication concepts and
skills can help professionals and service providers practice
respectful intercultural attitudes and adaptive
communication styles.
Engaging in creative problem solving
– A synergistic perspective means combining the best of all
cultural approaches in solving a workplace problem.
– According to creativity research, we learn more from
people who are different from us than from those who are
similar to us.
– Mindful listening and careful perception checking.
Enhancing intercultural relationship
satisfaction
– With the dramatic rise of intercultural marriages and
dating relationships in the U.S, intimate relationships are a
fertile ground for culture shock and clashes.
– Culture-sensitive intercultural communication can increase
relational and family closeness and deepen cultural selfawareness.
Role of Technology
• Technology impact what we listen to, what we
download, what we want to look like.
• Technology creates sense of global community
and a co-culture itself.
Deepening self-awareness and otherawareness
– Ethnocentrism vs Intercultural knowledge
– Ethnocentrism means seeing our own culture as
the center of the universe and seeing other
cultures as insignificant or even inferior; cultural
socialization occurs on a very unconscious level
and encourages the development of
ethnocentrism.
– Intercultural knowledge can deepen our
awareness of who we are, where we acquired our
values in the first place, and how we make sense
of the world around us.
Fostering global and intrapersonal
peace
• Many organizations have been dedicated to
promoting peace, cultural, and spiritual
development, and betterment of human kind.
• You can get a degree in Peace and Justice at
various educational institutions.
• We need to display mindful listening attitude
even if we do not like the individuals or their
viewpoints.