A successful business leans heavily towards effective communication within various cultural backgrounds. There are five core cultural dimensions, in which, heavily influence proper business communication. Within this summary, I will introduce the five dimensions, which are gender, race, age, disability and ethnicity.  I will explain their terminology and how it is important within a business’ success.

It is quite obvious that women and men communicate differently. In order to properly construct business communication, it is important to take note of the differences within communication patterns.  Gender roles in general are society’s expectations, in relation to how men and women interact with each other. Most people view women to be more likely to discuss problems and to seek out advice before making important decisions, where as, men are more susceptible to make decisions without the consultation of others.  Not understanding the differences in communication patterns can create misinterpretations and biases within a business setting.  Eliminating the miscommunication between the two gender roles can reduce confusion and create more of an equilibrium between both men and women.

Eliminating the miscommunication between different ethnic backgrounds can also reduce confusion and create more of equilibrium between coworkers Race consists of people who share the same language, history, and characteristics. People today are still ignorant to the different races and often use stereotypes. Someone can label you incorrectly, in which can be very offensive. It can also become a language barrier. For example, beliefs and values can serve as filter through which message understanding, acceptance or rejection takes place. It is management’s job to educate employees so these types of problems will not arise.

During this hard economic time, it is more prevalent that more and more elderly people are either returning back to work or even working passed their usual retirement ages.  This inclusion of several generations working together has created a stir, in which often can lead to miscommunication within the workplace.  An individual’s age can affect not only how they perceive the world around them, but also how they evaluate certain values and beliefs.  For example, work ethics differ significantly between the different generations.  As a young adult, many older generations accuse our generation as being lazy. They often mix up coming from a upbringing where they worked as early a eight years old to provide for their families.

Physical disabilities are common discriminations that people do, in which they are not aware of.  The physically disabled are often patronized and avoided usually because of the visibility of their difficulties and also our lack of awareness on how to interact with them.  People often feel the need to overly assert themselves in helping them when in most occasions they are well capable of helping themselves.

If a business strives to master these five dimensions of proper business communication and implement in the work environment success will be very well in reach. If not, a company can fall because of ignorance of effective communication because it is essential that all employees of a company can communicate effectively and efficiently towards the common goal.

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