Importance and Scope of Interpersonal Communication

The term intercultural communication refers to the exchange of information that takes between two or more different cultures. The word ‘inter’ means between and cultural pertains to the set of beliefs and customs practices in a region. Communication implies exchange and sharing of information between people. Therefore, in broad terms, intercultural communication is the communication that takes place between two or more cultures through people as a medium of exchange of ideas and thoughts. 

Culture in a broad sense refers to the values, ethics, customs and beliefs that are practiced in a region by the native people or inhabitants of that land. Culture takes time to evolve going through several generations and after becoming a part of tradition and part of people’s life, it becomes an integral component of their everyday life. A region is known by the set of these beliefs and customs that are derived from culture.

Communication being an effective tool of exchange and sharing of thoughts and information is a primary medium to convey messages. Intercultural communication facilitates in bridging the gap between cultures and allowing a better channel of understanding the differences that exist between two or more cultures. Thus, communication plays a crucial role in mitigating the barriers due to cultural differences and allows building a better understanding.

The concept of intercultural communication holds good importance not only in life in general but in conducting international business in particular. This is because in international business community, it investigates how people belonging to varied cultural and ethnic backgrounds come closer to work and communicate with each other despite of difference in their beliefs, customs, color, race and culture.

Because of the concept of globalization and internationalization of businesses, the idea of intercultural communication is gaining more and more significance. The demand is ever increasing as these businesses well understand that there are many barriers and limitations when performing business in a foreign land. If intercultural communication is not given adequate importance and attention, there are high chances of misunderstandings and confusions. In order to mitigate the barriers and minimize the limitations, it is very important for the companies to completely understand the cultural differences and save themselves from spoiling their business relationships in the foreign lands.

Various theories have been presented from time to time on the issue of intercultural communication and to help interpret the basis of intercultural communication. With the help of these ideas and theories, it is possible to eliminate the possible misunderstandings by providing basic guidelines on how to address the situations.

The issue of intercultural communication affects from person to person depending on the status they hold in a foreign land. For example, the issues faced by businessmen in a foreign land may be very different from the problems faced by a university student within the campus of his university. The situations tend to bring new scenarios and challenges that they need to face according to the circumstance. Students who study in foreign lands often face such tricky situations that arise due to the difference between cultures and beliefs. One commonly faced barrier is ethnocentrism that is present in many individuals which implies that one’s culture is superior to another person’s culture. The levels of ethnocentrism (low or high) determine how easy going and comfortable an individual is in getting along with people around him and exchanging cultural information among the group members.

Those individuals whose ethnocentricity is very high will face the maximum barriers as compared to those people with low levels of ethnocentricity. These people feel suspicious and hostile towards other fellow mates and tend to oppose and criticize other international pupils coming from different cultural and ethnic background. On the reverse side, people with lower levels of ethnocentricity are more curious, inspired and interested by the intercultural interactions and consequently experience the advantages of increased intercultural competence.

The concept of intercultural communication has far reaching consequences due to the fact that important decisions relating to business, economics, politics, health, education and culture affect the nationals of more than one country and therefore the question of whether communications between different cultures and nations and between the involved parties and people possess the same understanding is extremely important. Individuals, who are very much interested and keen to know, understand and learn about things and culture from other nations show improvement in their behavioral and communication patterns as compared to people who are less interested in intercultural process.

The process of globalization and international business implies that we cannot perform business being in isolation on the contrary we need to establish contacts with the rest of the world in order to perform better and remain in the competition. Numerous literatures on the impacts of intercultural communication on business, academic field and politics is provided by various authors and scholars revealing the significance of communication in improving the relationships and bonds.

In today’s world that is increasingly connected, organizational success to a great extent depends on how effectively the organizations are engaged in intercultural communication. The boundaries of intercultural communication is so broad and wide that it encompasses various disciplines such as politics, military, education, science, tourism, entertainment etc.