Cross-Cultural Communication

Abstract

Cross-cultural communication is a field of study composed of two streams: (i) cross-cultural comparisons of how individuals from one culture communicate differently than those from another culture and (ii) communication dynamics involving interactions of people from different cultures. The critical difference between the two streams is that the former does not necessarily involve interactions among members from different cultures whereas the latter does. Nevertheless, cross-cultural communication and intercultural communication are often used interchangeably, partly because intercultural communication is fraught with cross-cultural communication differences and assumes such differences as given. Therefore, cultural differences are the dominating frameworks, such as Hofstede’s national culture dimensions (Hofstede 1980, cited under Hofstede’s National Cultural Dimensions and Communication), for studying both cross-cultural communication differences and intercultural communication dynamics. Many references included here adopt the term “intercultural communication,” yet the content is primarily about cross-cultural differences in communication; a few, however, are exclusively devoted to interactions of people from different cultures. The bibliography that we have built therefore centers around how various cultural dimensions affect and account for between culture communication differences and inter-cultural communication dynamics and how cross-cultural or intercultural communication competence affects intercultural-communication effectiveness.