Non- verbal intercultural communication issues
Mr Brown and his team from the United States were welcomed by Mr. Li Kim Son with a handshake and a bow; this is non-verbal intercultural communication. Use of gifts is also a type of non-verbal communication; Mr. Deng received a gift from Mr Brown that was wrapped using white paper, this signifies death in the Chinese culture. Additionally, Mr. Brown's act of grasping Mr. Deng's arm gently is a type of non-verbal communication; it is a token of friendship in the United States culture while it seemed to be disrespectful in Chinese culture.
Literature Review
Hofstede's and Hall's cultural and communication models can be best used to examine the cultural and communication differences between China and the United States. Hofstede model of national culture mentions five cultural dimensions namely: power-distance, collectivism against individualism, femininity against masculinity, uncertainty avoidance as well as long-term orientation versus short-term orientation (Hostetler, 1993). Power distance is defined as the distance between people of different ranks within an organisation. Subordinates in an organization are less expected to contradict their superiors. Collectivism against individualism is the association between a person and his/her colleagues (Hofstede, 2001). Uncertainty avoidance is the desire to avoid uncertainties concerning the future. In femininity against masculinity, masculine cultures value ambition, aggressiveness and high profits whereas femininity is closely linked with the desire for extrinsic compensations and material achievements, the value of money and possessions, aggressiveness and ambitiousness, competitiveness and power (Vellnagel, 2010).
Hofstede's model has a number of weaknesses: the model assumes that culture characterizes National Territory (Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2011). Secondly, all the informers worked in one industry. The model also had technical difficulties. Another weakness of Hofstede's model is that the averages of a nation similar to the citizens of that particular country. Despite the fact that this model is appropriate when it is applied to populations in general, all people cannot be categorized into one cluster.
The model is appropriate when it is used as a lead to understand cultural differences between different nations. Hofstede's model has a number of strengths: the model is most applicable to management issues. Se
