Communicating Across Cultures in a Meeting

Knight, R., 2015. How to Run a Meeting of People from Different Cultures. [Online]
Available at: https://graduateresearchers.com/how-to-choose-the-best-cheap-essay-writing-service/

The corporate world has evolved over the years and has reached out to people of different cultures and religions to work for them. International organizations like NIKE are good at searching for qualified employees across the globe from different culture. According to Knight (2015), having workers from different cultures will improve the image of the company as well as the productivity of the workers. At NIKE, Cultures are diverse and how they communicate and understand a concept could vary. Cultural communication differences cannot be a hindrance in running high profile meetings or bringing people together. In fact, leaders at NIKE company only need to have the right techniques to handle a cross-cultural delegation. Understanding how they conceptualize ideas, and how they understand them is essential (Tjosvold, 2003). In as much as different cultures and religions are found in an organization like NIKE, it is critical to know the boundaries that the cultures have concerning a certain topic of discussion in a meeting. This is because cultures communicate differently and each communication has a different meaning in their cultures.

At NIKE, cultural diversity is more profound in meeting rooms where power meetings are held. Differences such as cultural values, interpretations, etiquette and professionalism cause a challenge that affects many chairpersons in such meetings. Misunderstandings are deemed to occur and have to be handled professionally. Such negative outcomes in a meeting cannot be avoided but can be carefully planned by the management before the meeting (Chevrier, 2003). It will help the involved parties at NIKE to internalize the meeting agendas and as a result, understand the concepts in discussion and know their place in the meeting. The following principles have been suggested in the article to handle a culturally diverse meeting at NIKE company.

Time Approach

According to NIKEs management, time is very important, especially for high-powered meetings. However, the different cultures at NIKE have different approaches to time management. Not all cultures are time conscious and as a result, some may come late for the meetings while others will be on time. Cultures such as the Germans and British, who also work at NIKE, are very strict with time, may find it uncomfortable when other players arrive late. For instance, they will have a settled start time and a specific end time for their meetings. Other cultures are not strict with time and can start a session at any given time and the end time is not fixed (Brannen & Thomas, 2010).

Attribution

These are the different traits and mode of behavior of the participants in the meeting. For instance, in the meetings held at NIKEs conference rooms, the chair or manager of the meeting,  must understand their different attributions which will assist in managing the meeting successfully (Søderberg, 2002). People tend to look for explanations in other people’s behavior. In such scenarios, due to misunderstanding, some cultures will take the actions of others as stupidity or deceit. The participant’s also have different focus of control. Those who are self-controlled and those controlled by destiny. Those with strong focus of control will believe in taking action to get results and chances or fates determines the course of an event (Triandis, 2001).

Uncertainty avoidance inthe meeting

At NIKE, the aim of a meeting is clearly set out to avoid uncertainty. Memos are circulated and by the time the meeting is taking place, employees at NIKE know the agenda. The saying ‘let’s get down to business’ means going straight to the purpose of the meeting and nothing else beyond the meeting agenda because it’s a business meeting. However, different cultures have different perspectives of “getting down to business in a meeting. To some cultures, a meeting is ground to build relationships and bond with colleagues (Knight, 2015). They will even start telling stories of what has been going on the business. While chairing such meetings at NIKE headquarters, it is advisable to bear in mind the various cultural-communication differences and backgrounds of the participants. The chair can carry out a detailed research to know if the participants have similar cultural backgrounds or they have ever participated in another meeting. The study will help the chair to know the kind of cultural behaviors he expects in the meeting. According to Triandis (2001) some cultures also avoid taking risks in business like the Russians compared to the Chinese and such differences will influence key decisions in the meeting.

Non-verbal Behavior

In international companies like NIKE, one can find participants in the meeting are from the four corners of the globe. Each of the participants has their way of showing respect and etiquette, gestures and different ways of expressing themselves. In such cases, NIKE is advised to train their staff on cultural understandings to reduce cases of indifferences in meetings. If the differences are not acute, it will be up to the chair to try and understand the different ways of showing etiquette, gestures and signs. Different signs and positions mean different things across all cultures. By doing so, the chair will be able to minimize cultural impact in the meeting (Gannon, 2002).

Set Expectations to AvoidNoise in the Meeting

Noise is the lack of understanding when communicating between different cultures. Before the meeting, it is advisable to make it clear to the attendants the purpose of the meeting. The goal of the meeting should also be made clear to all the attendants. Let them know why they have been requested to attend. If all is clear from the chairs side, then he can send a memo explaining the agenda of the meeting. All the participants will be sailing in one boat by the time they attend the meeting thus noise will be regulated or avoided. If the meeting is a disciplinary one, let them know what they expect before the meeting begins (Jack, 2009). A brainstorming meeting should require all of them to come up with at least two ideas. Finally, when the framework is in place, the attendants will have known their place in the meeting.

Conflict Creativity

In professional meetings at NIKEs headquarters, conflicts in debate and exchange of ideas cannot be avoided because of cross-cultural differences. The only way the managers can handle the conflicts is by being creative when they occur. Take the dispute and rephrase it to sound like a positive view in the meeting. However, this can also be mitigated before the meeting by having the participants email their ideas. Then the ideas are grouped into themes and concepts that will be shared once everyone is together.

Be Flexible

Since cultural differences can be tricky, it is wise to also gather points and views from other workers then have the ideas discussed in the meeting. This way, the attendants are given the opportunity to give feedback to the ideas (Søderberg, 2002). Besides, the chair can request the attendees to answer or give their feedbacks relating to their cultures and have the ideas discussed in the meeting. Giving everyone an equal chance will also reduce conflict in the meeting.

Divide the Meeting intoManageable Groups

In NIKEs international meetings, they have realized a small group of participants will be sufficient to manage (Holden, 2002). The small group offers chances for better participation, security and high chances of having the same understanding in communications. It is a good way of managing the conflicts that can occur in large groups. Alternatively, the participants can be divided into two smaller groups. Afterward, the small groups can hold meetings and deliberate on the agenda. Later, the two groups will come together and share their views on the agenda. In the meeting, cross-cultural differences will not occur because the smaller groups had already discussed such issues and solved them

The cross-cultural principles in this article have been well elaborated to help managers in cross-cultural meetings. In can be difficult to manage such a meeting if the manager does not bear in mind the above principles. Professionally, the chair or the leader of the meeting should be able to handle cross-cultural differences that can occur (French, 2010). It is shameful and degrading for arguments to occur in a meeting due to misunderstandings and the chair is not able to resolve the matter. However, the article is educative on the different ways and techniques to use in solving such communication issues.

However, the article misses a few important theoretical principles that should have been discussed. In as much as it shows us how to manage a meeting with cross-cultural communication differences, it did not show how a conflict should be handled or solved (Gesteland, 2002). For instance, if an attendee feels disrespected, as the chair, how are one going to handle such a situation considering the cultural differences that are eminent? The writer should have included the few principles to follow when solving a conflict due to the cultural communication difference. The principles should go hand in hand with the laid down principles of handling a cross-cultural meeting.

The principles will act as a basis under which a person chairing the meeting would use to solve emerging issues. As suggested by Gesteland, (2002), instead of the meeting being disrupted and calling it off, the principles would come in handy in such situations. It is the use of such basic principles that will differentiate between a leader and a boss in chairing such cross-cultural meetings. A boss would boss the attendants around ordering them what to do while the leader would implement these basic principles to solve and calm the meeting down. As stated earlier, the principles of running a cross-cultural meeting should go hand in hand with principles on how to address cross-cultural conflicts in such meetings.

References

Brannen, M. Y. & Thomas, D. C., 2010. Bicultural individuals in organizations implications and opportunity. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 10(1), pp. 5-16.

Chevrier, S., 2003. Cross-cultural management in multinational project groups. Journal of world business, 38(2), pp. 141-149.

French, R., 2010. Cross-cultural management in work organizations. Brookfield Vermont: CIPD Publications.

Gannon, M. J. & Newman, K., 2002. The Blackwell Handbook of Cross-cultural Management. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing.

Gesteland, R. R., 2002. Cross-cultural Business Behavior: Marketing, Negotiating, Sourcing and Managing Across Cultures. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Pr.

Holden, N., 2002. Cross-cultural management: A knowledge management perspective. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Jack, G. & Westwood, R., 2009. International and cross-cultural management studies: A postcolonial reading. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Knight, R., 2015. How to Run a Meeting of People from Different Cultures. [Online]
Available [Accessed 29 March 2016].

Soderberg, A. M. & Holden, N., 2002. Rethinking cross-cultural management in a globalizing business world. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 2(1), pp. 103-121.

Tjosvold, D. & Leung, K., 2003. Cross-cultural Management: Foundations and Future. Farnham: Gower Publishing.

Triandis, H. C., 2001. The study of cross-cultural management and organization: The future. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management,1(1), pp. 17-20.