Communicating Across Cultures

Communicating Across Cultures Kara Alaimo, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations, The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, Hofstra University The coronavirus, which emerged in China and spread rapidly across six continents, reminded the world that, as former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan used to say, today’s problems no longer have passports. It was a powerful

example to many people in the field of communication of how important it is to communicate effectively with people from different countries and cultures. The dramatic shift to work from home also reinforced for many professionals that it is possible to successfully collaborate with partners remotely, which I believe will significantly increase

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international cooperation across a range of disciplines. It was therefore no surprise to me that sales of the first edition of my book Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication (Routledge, 2017) increased significantly last year.

The book takes readers on a tour of the world, explaining how to adapt their messages, strategies, and tactics when working in each of the world’s 10 cultural clusters. It also discusses how to work as part of a global team.

The pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have also underlined the importance of effective crisis management. In December, the second edition of my book was published. In addition to updates to all of the country and culture profiles, the new edition includes an additional chapter on global crisis communication. It focuses on many of the new issues that have emerged for practitioners in recent years, including the increased speed with which crises must be handled on social media, fake news, Twitter wars, increased political polarization, the new

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expectation that businesses should articulate political stances, and backlash from employees and endorsers for those stances. This material is also the subject of Hofstra University’s new online MA in Public Relations program, which I helped launch in September. The program has a concentration in Reputation and Crisis Management, which is designed to prepare students to meet the significant industry demand for practitioners who are skilled at responding to these new challenges.

As part of the research for both editions of my book, I conducted interviews with senior communication executives in more than 30 countries. In this article, I will discuss some of the key questions I learned you should ask when communicating professionally with people from other cultures.

How is “risky communication” viewed?

When communicating with colleagues in countries that have been influenced

by Confucianism – such as China, Japan, and South Korea – you should be aware of a concept scholars call “risky communication” (Yu & Wen, 2003). In Confucian culture, people are often taught from a young age that talking about a problem makes the problem worse. Therefore, according to this tradition, the best thing to do when you have a problem is to not tell anyone.

By contrast, in Nordic countries – such as Sweden, Finland, and Denmark – there is an expectation for radical openness and transparency. Charlotte Erkhammar, chief executive officer of the Stockholm-based strategic communications agency Kreab Worldwide, told me that once you are perceived as untrustworthy in Sweden, it can be impossible to recover your reputation.

T he pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have also underlined the importance of effective crisis management.

For example, in the past, one of the official Twitter handles of Sweden, @Sweden, was turned over to a different Swede every week to tweet whatever that person liked – completely unfiltered. When past tweeters posted questionable content – ranging from views perceived as antisemitic to the downright bizarre, such as one woman’s claims that she put urine in her breakfast cereal – managers of the Twitter handle argued that censorship would be inappropriate in their culture.

Understanding how transparency is viewed by the colleagues with whom you work will tell you whether you need to make an extra effort to identify possible issues they may not be raising – or whether you need to be especially careful to convey that you yourself are being fully forthcoming in your communications. As always, keep in mind that individuals may not exhibit the characteristics that researchers find people in their culture display in the aggregate.

Of course, businesses and governments in every part of the world have tried to cover up negative information. This is a terrible idea because I believe the truth almost always emerges – and when it does, organizations that tried to

dissemble only see their reputations damaged even further. When you need to convince a colleague to disclose information, Harlan Loeb, global chair of crisis and reputation risk at Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, told me he recommends that you use examples of situations handled by other organizations in the same country – and ideally the same product sector – to illustrate why transparency is advantageous and cover-ups are calamitous.

The Chinese government’s reluctance to initially release information about COVID-19 is an obvious example.

Another example is the case of Sanlu in China. When the manufacturer discovered in 2008 that its infant formula was contaminated, it elected not to inform parents who had already purchased the product. The parents went on to poison their babies. Sanlu is no longer in business.

What are local concepts of reputation management?

In the United States, professionals work to maintain their personal reputations by not doing or saying things that would embarrass themselves. However, in other cultures, preserving one’s personal reputation also requires protecting the reputations of others.

In Asia, for example, the concept of “face” requires protecting your own reputation as well as the reputations of those with whom you interact. Scholars Michael Kent and Maureen Taylor (2011) explained that “in some cultures (like the mainstream United States), being perceived as clever for making a witty comment in a public situation, thereby embarrassing someone else or making him or her look foolish, is sometimes seen as being socially acceptable. In high face cultures, however, embarrassing someone else with a snide comment both makes the Hofstra HORIZONS t Spring 2021

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Stereotypes about your organization’s country of origin will also affect how people perceive and interact with you.

recipient of the comment look bad, and the person who made the comment look worse.”

The concept of face requires not only not embarrassing other people, but also not allowing others to be embarrassed in your presence. You can do this, for example, by being certain that a business partner is aware of a proposal your organization plans to make in advance of a meeting, so that your partner is not caught off guard.

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Is it more important to convey facts or emotions?

According to scholar R.S. Zaharna (1995), differences in communication styles between the West and the Arab world can be drawn back to how the English and Arabic languages evolved.

In some cultures that value face, almost nothing is more important than maintaining one’s personal reputation.

For example, scholars Ni Chen and Hugh M. Culbertson (2009) noted that “in China, loss of face is often considered to be worse than loss of a limb.”

English evolved “primarily as a means for record keeping and documentation,” she explained, and therefore English speakers expect that when you communicate, you will be precisely accurate. The same is true of other Western cultures. For example, the French and Germans are notoriously skeptical, so it is important to have facts and figures at the ready to back up your claims when communicating with people from these cultures and to be prepared for a healthy debate.

Consider how your colleagues view their personal reputations before interacting with them, since you may need to make extra efforts to ensure that “face” is preserved in Asian cultures, for example. When in doubt, however, erring on the side of not embarrassing others tends to be good global practice.

By contrast, Zaharna said, Arabic evolved orally as a means for promoting nationalism and religion. For this reason, Arabic speakers often focus on conveying emotions rather than literal facts. When discussing a heated topic with an Arabic speaker, if you do not visibly display emotion, you may not be trusted.

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Zaharna wrote that this difference in emphasis explains why English speakers will often perceive Arab communicators to be vague and even hyperbolic. Being aware of these differences can help an English speaker reinterpret information received from a colleague as simply stemming from a difference in communication styles.

How do security concerns affect local communication preferences?

Leslie Gaines-Ross, former chief reputation strategist for the global public relations firm Weber Shandwick, told me that some heads of Latin American corporations do not want their pictures posted online because they fear becoming victims of crime.

Therefore, you should never post pictures of colleagues and business partners on social media without their permission.

In other situations, colleagues may not wish to have their plans known publicly in advance. For example, when I worked in the Obama administration and my colleagues and I traveled to countries such as Lebanon, where there were significant security concerns, I

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sometimes waited until we landed in the country to announce our trips to the media, so that it would be more difficult for terrorists to target us for an attack.

Security concerns will also affect how you handle information. For example, when traveling to countries where there is a significant risk of espionage, you will want to be especially careful not to leave proprietary information behind in your hotel room, and all organizations need to be cognizant of how electronic information is protected in today’s era of cyberattacks.

It is best to ask permission from colleagues before sharing their images or information about them and to collaborate with them on how to best protect sensitive business information in their nations.

How do people set goals?

Consider whether, when your colleagues discuss goals, they are being realistic or aspirational.

Fleming Voetmann, head of public affairs and leadership communication for the global manufacturer Danfoss, observed that, in the United States, “people try to be very, very ambitious.

It’s not unusual to set yourself bold targets like going to the moon or Mars.” Americans realize that “even if we don’t go to Mars, it’s a bold ambition, and a lot of good stuff might come out of it.”

When discussing goals with your colleagues and partners, it is important to consider whether they view hitting such targets as mandatory or merely ideal. If you are leading a global team, it may make sense to discuss this question as a group and set and enforce a standard for how everyone in your unit will discuss your objectives.

What stereotypes do people have about me and my organization?

Fair or not, your partners are likely to have stereotypes about people from different countries that will influence how they interact with you and your colleagues.

For example, Judd (2013, p. 17) noted that, if you hire a Singaporean to work in a managerial position in mainland China, you may encounter issues “because some Chinese perceive Singaporeans as arrogant and may balk at such a reporting arrangement.”

Stereotypes about your organization’s country of origin will also affect how people perceive and interact with you.

For example, Rodrigo Soares, former general manager of communications at the Brazilian mining company Vale, told me that after Vale bought Canada’s largest mining company, a Canadian

newspaper ran a picture of a scantily clothed Brazilian woman at Carnival, “exposing the stereotype they had about us.” Soares said he tried to overcome this perception in his local communications.

Consider what stereotypes about your country of origin – and those of your colleagues and your organization – you may need to address when communicating with people from different countries.

Am I communicating equally with all members of my team?

Laura Liswood (2010, pp. 84-85), a former senior advisor at Goldman Sachs, warned that there may be less mentoring between colleagues who are different from one another, because people do not immediately identify with others who are not like them. Similarly, managers may offer less feedback – especially when it is negative – to colleagues from other cultures. This is because, when the person is of the same culture, “the manager can break the ice, find commonalities, or provide reassurance that will be appreciated, understood, and heard the way the manager intended,” while it is harder to predict how someone from a different culture will react.

By contrast, Voetmann said, “in Asia, no one would make going to Mars a success criteria unless they were 100 percent sure they could get there.” This is because, in some parts of Asia, failure is considered to be deeply shameful and unacceptable (Judd, 2013, p. 31).

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However, it is important to not afford more access to those who are similar to you and to provide constructive feedback to all members of your team, since such information is critical to a person’s ability to learn and improve.

Which communication mediums do my colleagues prefer?

Gary Weaver, executive director of the Intercultural Management Institute at American University, warned that, in the United States and northern Europe, professionals tend to communicate in writing, while in other parts of the world, it is more common to discuss issues verbally, either in person or on the phone (Judd, 2013). (I learned this the hard way when I worked at the United Nations, and my colleagues simply ignored many of my long emails.)

Consider the platforms with which your colleagues are most comfortable – and on which they are most effective – when deciding how to communicate with your global team and partners.

Am I using language that everyone can understand?

Glenn Goldberg, chief executive officer of Parallel Communications Group, a global agency that specializes in

business-to-business communications, told me that while people in the United States often use baseball metaphors – saying, for example, that someone struck out or that an idea was a home run – many people in other countries truly do not understand these references.

Similarly, some words have different connotations in different cultures. For example, in the United States, saying that “we are on a parallel course” indicates agreement with a proposal, while in Japan, it indicates disagreement, because parallel lines never meet. Additionally, humor does not typically translate well across cultures (Samovar et. al, 2013).

When communicating with global colleagues and partners, it is therefore usually best to use simple and direct language.

References Chen, N., & Culbertson, H. M. (2009).

Public relations in mainland China: An adolescent with growing pains.

In K. Sriramesh & D. Vercic (Eds.), The global public relations handbook: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.) (pp. 175-197). New York, NY: Routledge.

Judd, E. (2013). Building and managing a global public affairs function. Washington, DC: Foundation for Public Affairs. Retrieved from http://pac.org/wp-content/uploads/ Building-and-Managing-a-Global-PAFunction.pdf Kent, M., & Taylor, M. (2011). How intercultural communication theory informs public relations practice in global settings. In N. Bardhan & C. K. Weaver (Eds.), Public relations in global cultural contexts: Multiparadigmatic perspectives (pp. 50-76).

New York, NY: Routledge.

Liswood, L. (2010). The loudest duck: Moving beyond diversity while embracing differences to achieve success at work. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2013).

Communication between cultures (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Yu, T. H., & Wen, W. C. (2003). Crisis communication in Chinese culture: A case study in Taiwan. Asian Journal of Communication, 13 (2), 50-64.

Zaharna, R. S. (1995). Understanding cultural preferences of Arab communication patterns. Public Relations Review, 21 (3), 241-255.

Kara Alaimo is associate professor of journalism, media studies, and public relations and coordinator of the online Master of Arts in Public Relations program (concentration in reputation and crisis management) at The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University. Her research focuses on international and political communication. Dr. Alaimo previously served as Treasury spokesperson for international affairs in the administration of President Barack Obama and as a communicator for the United Nations and the City of New York during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration. She has written numerous op-eds for CNN Opinion and Bloomberg Opinion, and her research has been published in academic journals such as the International Journal of Communication, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Public Affairs, Social Media & Society, and Case Studies in Strategic Communication. In 2017, she received the Titan of the Future award at the World Communication Forum gala in Geneva and was named one of the 50 Game-Changers of PR by PR News. Her Twitter handle is @karaalaimo.

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