Intercultural Communication

Intercultural Communication

Introduction

Intercultural communication can be defined as the form of the global communication. This type of communication is used to define a variety of communication problems that rise in the multicultural organizations. In these types of organizations people have different social, religious, cultural and ethnic background. Intercultural communication is also sometimes called as the cross-cultural communication. In this sense this theory aims at observing people from different cultures and backgrounds, their interaction with other people and how these different people perceive the world around them. Many experts in the field of communication argue that culture is the essential part of people and most of the messages that are encoded by people are influenced by their culture. Similarly, the culture of a person also determines that by which medium he or she will transmit their message. Also, it is also believed that a person interprets the message based on his understanding. The intercultural communication also plays an important role in understanding the cultures, customs, traditions and languages of people around the world. An important role is also played by the intercultural communication in the fields of the cultural studies, anthropology, psychology and the linguistics. Moreover, in all the international businesses the intercultural communication is considered as very important. The intercultural communication is very helpful in understanding the different problems of the people. It also enables people from the different cultures to communicate and understand each other. People around different cultures do not only understand each other's problems with the help of the intercultural communication but it also help in understanding each other's problems in a better way. There are many theories related to intercultural communication but there will only be the discussion of three important theories.

Discussion

There are various theories which define different aspects of the intercultural communication. But before we move on to the different theories of the intercultural communication we must have a clear understanding of what the intercultural communication is actually. Intercultural Communication is the management of messages for the purpose of creating meaning across cultures. This definition clearly states that intercultural communication is not mainly related to the business, neither it is the concept related mainly to the business. The intercultural communication is directly related to the communication. It is a type of communication which aims at reducing communication difficulties across different cultures. Similarly, it also focuses on managing the messages across different cultures so that people around different cultures understand each other. We will now discuss three important theories of intercultural communication. We will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each theory. Similarly, there will be the discussion that how each theory deals with the process of intercultural communication. The three theories which will be discussed are Anxiety uncertainty management theory, cross cultural adaptation theory and cultural critical studies.

Anxiety Uncertainty Management Theory

This is very important theory in the domain of intercultural communication. This theory defines that when the two people from different cultural backgrounds interact with each other then they express the feelings of anxiety and ...