Preface

As a part of my International Business Management Degree I have undertaken a module called ‘Communicating in a Global Business Community’. The objective of this is to provide me with the skills required to communicate successfully in global business, with a weighting on intercultural exchange. Within this I have been required to reflect on my learning experiences throughout the module, focusing on the development of these skills.

Hello my name is Matt Dyson, I have been slowly developing my communication skills and intercultural awareness through my educational and social experiences. This year I have started my first year of a degree in International Business Management. Coming from a school which had many Asian and European boarding students I am once again in a culturally diverse environment. My interpretation of Hofstede’s (1982) definition of culture is a shared mentality that differentiates people from one group from another, and if people belong to a specific category, social class for example, they are more likely to hold certain values than members from another. I consider myself quite culturally ‘narrow’ only living in one country, speaking only one language however I feel through my experiences in education, travelling around the world forming friendships with people from various cultures and the interactions I have had within my different employment positions with people from different cultures my consciousness of cultures effect on successful communication has been increased.

Before University most of my communication, including intercultural and in teams was with people that I had already regular contact with and often friendships. However now in my studies I have the new experience of having to establish regular communication with new people, from a wide range of cultures, to form a team and carry out an assignment. I believe I will have to do this regularly in the rest of my studies and the skills involved in this will be valuable to a future career in international management. Therefore I have undertaken this module to identify my strengths within this and develop my weaknesses.

This module has bettered my recognition that culture is more than these obvious observable factors or ‘categories’ through the introduction to a cultural model (Hampden-Turners & Trompenaars, 1997) and in the first seminar with the ‘Cultural Iceberg’ exercises.