Abstract
Communication is a process by which two or more people
exchange ideas, facts, or feelings in ways that each gains a
common understanding of the message. We live in a
culturally diverse world. With team work becoming an
integral part of today’s corporate world, successful
communication among the diverse members of a team has
become a necessity. But very often communication
breakdown occurs due to cultural differences which may
lead to misunderstanding, suspicion, and even animosity.
Culture refers to the beliefs, traditions, habits, and values
controlling the behavior of majority of the people in a
social-ethnic group. Effective communication with people
of different cultures is a challenging task. People from
different backgrounds may have varied approaches to
learning styles, family structure, language, religion, and
most other aspects of life. Very often, professionals become
victims of misunderstanding when they encounter
individuals from different cultures, races, religions, and
nationalities in their intercultural communication
behaviors. To understand properly the causes of
miscommunication, it becomes necessary to understand
cultural differences. Consequently, the present paper is an
attempt to highlight cultural differences and how they
affect communication process. This paper also suggests
some measures to overcome culture differences that may
create hazards in communication process.
Keywords: Intercultural, Ethnic, Philosophy, Animosity
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