Intercultural Communication in International Business

Maria Loura

Living in Finland, from Brazil

"Some information on InterNations helped me a great deal, and I'm sure other expats in Helsinki feel the same way."

Francois Bertrand

Living in Finland, from Canada

"I found a former Helsinki expat who had recently moved back to Brazil, so we swapped all the important need-to-knows."

Is “cross-cultural communication” just another one of those buzzwords that’s being used everywhere but nobody really knows what it means? Despite the potential hype, cross-cultural competence is nevertheless a widely recognized and valid concept which every expat should be familiar with.

Being familiar with cross-cultural communication doesn’t just imply having a vague or rudimentary idea of what the expression means and how it works. In order to become an IEP, an interculturally effective person, you need to understand the concept with all its components. Moreover, you should be able to translate the theory into action.

An Introduction

Whole books have been written on cross-cultural communication; it has even become a popular subject in academia. The basics, as well as its practical uses, are hardly rocket science, though. Our introduction to intercultural communication attempts a simple definition of the topic and explains the idea behind it, with a focus on illustrating its importance for expats. We have included case studies to show how you can profit from a basic knowledge of communication across cultures and how you can put this into practice. Cross-cultural communication in a business context, while being based on the same principles, requires some additional analysis and preparation. Our article on cross-cultural training for business purposes focuses on giving business presentations to an international audience. By pointing out some common international business issues and showing how to analyze your audience and their expectations effectively, this guide touches upon an important aspect of cross-cultural training for many expatriates.