International Cooperation Includes Intercultural Cooperation
Global production and sales markets include international cooperation with all human and cultural factors involved resulting in intercultural cooperation. Intercultural occupational competence is essential for the conflict free cooperation of people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
How to ensure the effectiveness of international cooperation? How to master the challenge of communication with little loss of comprehension despite cultural and linguistic barriers?
 
 

The Challenge of Intercultural Communication
Communication by email and phone in every day business life results in a superficial and strictly professional relationship between colleagues. The Asian mentality considers this type of working relationship as much too factual and non-committal and highly insufficient for good cooperation.

Human beings tend to deal with existing language barriers by restricting themselves to absolutely necessary and strictly work related

topics in writing or on the phone and to omit seemingly trivial "details".

This could already be the source of future discontent.

Differences in mentalities will seldom manifest themselves as an entirety. Various types of misunderstandings happen all the time but often they are not identified as such. The business partners try to stay tolerant and polite so as not to jeopardize the cooperation. Subliminal disagreements might nevertheless develop and the partners slowly grow apart. Ignored disagreements accumulate over time and develop into complex problems until finally each partner feels completely misunderstood by the other.
 

A slight reserved tone between partners and colleagues is already a warning signal that business relations need to be improved. How to accomplish a good cooperation between people from different cultural backgrounds by successfully communicating with each other? Is it possible to minimize or even eliminate cultural conflicts beforehand?

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