Managing communication and cultural barriers in intercultural service encounters

Abstract

Understanding how satisfaction can be guaranteed when participants arrive from different and diverse national cultures is of crucial importance. The objective of our study is to identify key factors that influence the participants involved in intercultural service encounters in their efforts to solve problems arising during encounters within a hotel context. As part of our study, we carried out in-depth interviews with representatives from both the service provider and the customer. A comprehensive framework was constructed based on the analyses of the interviews with the help of constructivist grounded theory, in order to identify the factors that may prove to be significant in intercultural service encounters. Findings of the study highlight the potential communication and cultural barriers faced by participants of the interaction when their efforts to solve problems, as they transpire, ultimately depends on their personal characteristics and experience as well as their knowledge of and openness to other cultures. Managerial implications of this study suggest that flexibility of the service employees’ behaviour and their adaptation to customer needs are an important part of training programs, but also need to include elements of intercultural sensitivity. An important implication for marketers is that they should reflect on the basic expectations of customers relating to the need for adaptation or the need for exploring the differences. While it is important to know and react properly to customers’ expectations, it is just as important to manage them through communication tools.