Critique the literature on Intercultural (Business) Communication - Essay Example

In business, there has to be a common language. Thus, English has emerged as the basic official language for businesses in the corporate world. This may seem as a step towards intercultural communication, but Charles (2007, p. 278) differs. He says that the choice of languages is a tricky issue. He highlights the complex nature of it and argues that that English is more present in multinational regions thus creating its own operational culture. In a sense, it merges the culture of a region with the required operational necessities of the business under question.

One has to fully consider the regions and their cultures before venturing into that market. Without proper analysis of these factors, one will not fully grasp the market that is available. This makes entrepreneurs have to do quite a lot of research before venturing. According to Johnson (2006, p. 539), scholars and researchers have only looked at cultural competence as a collection of attributes that are measurable in terms of knowledge, skill and technical know-how of cross-cultural communication instead of paying more attention on the effectiveness the attributes if and when applied correctly.

That is to say, rather than just talk/teach about it, those that are informed should practice these attributes in order to achieve maximum prowess as business people. Thus, now people should be educated in ways of making effective uses of these attributes rather than just being taught about them. This will help bridge the gap that occurs between the two cultures. Holmes (2012, p. 708) looks at the concept of cultural competence in another light. Though many scholars have come up with different ways looking at cultural competence, they have failed to take into consideration of the methodology used.

He uses the PEER – Prepare, Engage, Evaluate, Reflect – model