Introduction to Business Communication: Cultural and Linguistic Perspectives

Introduction to Business Communication Perspectives

Culture-Centered Perspectives

1. Culture-centered perspectives: culture is reflected in communication. In fact, without considering cultural factors, it would not be possible to communicate successfully. Sciences that deals whit this are sociology, anthropology and psychology

Linguistic Perspectives

2. Linguistic perspectives: everything is reflected through language(s). Sciences that deals with this are sociolinguistics, contact linguistics (ELF) and pragmatics

Business Discourse

Business discourse is the use of written and spoken word in all relevant media to convey meaning and to accomplish the tasks of a business. It is fundamental to mention that business discourse in not monolithic, so it is not unitary, homogeneous and basically one large block.

Business Communication Framework

The frame of communication involves:

1. Scenario: when and where?
2. Participants: who?
3. Topic: what?
4. Intention: why?
5. Mode: how?
6. Medium: with what?

5 Arenas of Business Communication

1. The internal arena: communication within the company or, for groups of companies between headquarters and subsidiaries, and among subsidiaries
2. The market area: sales (to sales agents, other distributors and customers) + purchases
3. The financial arena: communication with banks and financial markets
4. The public arena: communication with state and regional institutions
5. The media arena: the company's positioning is society as a whole, its communication with politicians, journalists and the wider public

Scenarios and Participants in Business Communication

• Import/Export negotiations and deals
• Discussion and correspondence between members of a subsidiary company and its foreign owner or between a businessperson and a foreign consultant etc.
• Joint ventures with staff from different countries
• Mergers and acquisitions with international teams
• Visits to the manufacturing site etc.
• A job interview, a fair trade etc.

Intentions in Business Communication

The communicative goals for an effective communication can be divided in 4 macro groups:

1. Instructional: user manual, memo, training, seminars etc.
2. Informational: financial statements, minutes (verbale) of the meeting, reports
3. Persuasive: marketing proposals, bulk sales emails, press releases and conferences
4. Transaction: emails, letters, daily conversations, invoices

Mode and Medium in Business Communication

There are 2 + 1 main categories:

1. Written: emails, contracts, reports, press releases, memos, financial statement, invoices
2. Oral: trainings, seminars, board meetings, presentations, sales pitches, job interviews, negotiation
3. Mixed: reading out a contract, discussing a product description, sight translation, chats (whatsapp etc.)

Community of Practice

It is a group of people that uses an ESP. It has three large components:

1. Domain: identity is defined by a shared domain of interest so, in order to define membership. We need to understand that it implies commitment to the domain. Its members are distinguibile thanks to the shared competence
2. Community: members of a jointly negotiated enterprise that are engaged in the same activities and discussions. Its members are distinguibile thanks to share information, their relationship building and learning from each other
3. Shared practice: not just an interest but its members are practitioners and share a particular repertoire of resources

Speech Community vs Community of Practice vs Discourse Communities

1. Speech Community: a group characterised by a shared set of linguistic tools and ideologies (frequent interactions, shared verbal repertoire, shared language ideologies).

• Variations caused by intersections of geographical space and social factors (class, age, gender, race, styles, etc.).
• Purpose of the interaction can be different.
• Examples: family, friends, residents of different cities (Carate, Sergnano, Milano)

1. Community of Practice: it arises due to shared interests, positions or endeavours (mutual engagement, joint enterprise, shared repertoire)
2. Discourse Communities: they are groupings based on common interests and they focus on communication, shared repertoire, shared public goals. It is important to say that it focuses more on language than action. A discourse community:

• Has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members
• Uses its participatory mechanism primarily to provide information and feedback
• Possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
• Has acquired a specific lexis

Differences Between Communities

They differ from one another due to the use of the language, ideologies and geographical location. In fact community of practice does not need geographically defined groups or costal factors and discourse communities are more focused on language than the other two.

Language Use in Business Contexts

Its main perspective is to apply (socio)linguistics rules, but also manage and organise studies, political science and economics. The most important aspects of the language use in business contexts are:

1. Language needs: comes form language users' prospective, so it is something that needs to be performed
2. Language policies: it concentrates on the way you are supposed to use a specific language. It has to be:

• Purposeful
• Long or medium term
• Future oriented (to achieve certain goals in the future)
• Top-down: company-wide and coming from the management (someone, usually the boss, decides and than it spreads
• Explicit

1. Language practices:

• Unintended (does not have a specific purpose)
• Ad hoc (specifically built)
• Grounded to the past
• Individual or a small group
• Implicitness
• Bottom-up: emerging form the staff

Distinction in Language Use

This distinction is a matter of perspective:

1. Language policies:

• It includes plans, motivations and ideologies
• Developed by actors ranging from state to business and from management to individual employees (terminological issues, ethical and political considerations about the relationship of language and power: Critical Discourse Analysis)

1. Language practices:

• It includes the actual language use of people working in international business(es)
• Use: Descriptive sociolinguistics

Can Language Practices Contradict Language Policies?

Language practices have the goal of reflect policy goals so to be useful and straight to the point. There language reflects needs but it is important to mention that language practices can't have contradict policy goals since language needs unmet. Language practices includes:

• Employees' linguistic habits
• Explicit and/or implicit language policies

Business or Corporate Discourse

Business or corporate discourse is never static, so it changes as new practices emerge. It is also not always transparent, so it ofter hides more than it reveals.

What is Culture?

Culture is notoriously difficult to define, but we can say a shared system of attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviour. Cultural differences manifest in behavioural differences and differences in language practices and policies. It is important to say that culture is dynamic, shaped through interaction.

Intercultural Encounter

In order to understand what intercultural encounter is, we need to differentiate between:

• Large cultures: ethic, national or intercultural groups
• Small cultures: Amy cohesive grouping, focused on social process in specific context. Some examples are workplace norms and practices

Intercultural encounter can be used as an enable for both large and small culture: it involves two (or more) different set of values, norms and habits that influence the parties' communication.

How to Study Culture in the Workplace

Three strands of scholarship:

1. Organisational and management studies
2. Communication-based studies (es. Intercultural communication, international sociolinguistics)
3. Sociolinguistic, pragmatic and discourse-analytic studies

We can represent this by using the image on an onion, in which the outside and the inside stands for two perspectives:

1. Emic: analysis from the culture -> participant perspective, inside
2. Etic: analysis from outside the culture -> observe perspective, outside

Emic Perspective

EMIC . Perspective: from within the culture -> insider view · Approach: culture-specific -> context dependent · Focus: deep understand of one culture · Research Goal: understanding cultural norms, meanings and values form the participants view · Example: detailed ethnographic studies

Etic Perspective

ETIC · Perspective: form outside the culture -> outsider view · Approach: cross-cultural -> search for universals · Focus: generalisable findings across cultures · Research Goal: compare and identify commonalities and differences between cultures · Example: survey or experiments across multiple cultures

Hofstede's Model of Culture

Geert Hofstede was a Dutch social psychologist who conducted employee attitude surveys go IBM globally from 1967 to 1973. He interviewed thousands of people form different countries, which led to his model of culture. Initially, it was based on four, then five, and later six bipolar dimensions:

1. Low and High power distance: it extents to which unequal distribution of power is accepted in society
2. Individualism vs Collectivism: relationship between individuals and groups, whether individual concerns are prioritised over group concerns to guide actions
3. High or Low uncertainty avoidance: degree to which members of a society feel threatened by ambiguous or uncertain situations
4. Masculinity vs Femininity
5. Short vs Long-term oriented
6. Indulge vs Restraint

Low or High Power Distance

• Low: striving for equal power distribution and requiring justification for inequalities.
• High: acceptance of hierarchical order without justification.

Low Power Distance Characteristics

LOW Cecentralised decision structures Flat organisational pyramids Ideal boss: resourceful democrat Subordinates expect to be consulted

High Power Distance Characteristics

HIGH Centralised decision structures Tall organisational pyramids Ideal boss: well-meaning autocrat Subordinates expect to be consulted

Individualism vs Collectivism

Individualism Characteristics

INDIVIDUALISM Self-reliance Equality Autonomy Privacy protection Freedom of speech Es: western corporate cultures

Collectivism Characteristics

COLLECTIVISM Emphasis on group efforts Harmony Es: Eastern corporate cultures

High vs Low Uncertainty Avoidance

UAI = uncertainty avoidance index

• Weak UAI: more relaxed attitude where practice counts more than principles
• Strong UAI: maintenance of rigid codes of beliefs, intolerance of unorthodox behaviour and ideas

Masculinity vs Femininity

• Masculinity or achieving culture: reinforcement of traditional patriarchal values of achievement, control and power. It focuses on competition and material rewards
• Femininity or nurturing or ascriptive cultures: emphasis on cooperation, caring, quality of life and nurturing

Short vs Long-Term Orientation

Short-Term Orientation

SHORT Preference for tradition Face preservation Fulfilment of social obligations Focuses on: present and past Values: stability, tradition, social obligations

Long-Term Orientation

LONG Embrace long-term commitments Virtues related to future rewards Encouragement of thrift, adaptability and persistence Focuses on: future Values: hard work, frugality, perseverance

Indulgence vs Restraint

• Indulgence: allows relatively free gratification of natural human drives related to enjoying life and fun