Promoting Cultural Awareness On Global Business Communication

Globalization is upcoming. 'Global Village' means awareness of neighbors. Noone can avoid being involved in globalization. International business affects theactivities of every consumer, worker, company, and government. And, achievinginternational business success requires people who can communicate effectivelyby cultivating their cultural intelligence and multiculturalism. We have theresponsibility to be pace setters in helping the world articulate ideas morecompletely and with as few misunderstandings in cross-cultural businesscommunication as possible. In this thesis I use many vivid business case studiesto introduce every section and analyze cultural issues in the DaimlerChryslermerger case to demonstrate the importance of cultural awareness and thenillustrate how to cultivate cultural awareness based on some models of culturallearning such as: Hanvey's Levels of Cross-Cultural Awareness;Hoopes's TheIntercultural Learning Process;Brown's Stages of Acculturation;Bennett'sIntercultural Sensitivity;Kim's Stress-Adaptation-Growth Dynamic. By showingmany vivid examples I intend to arouse people's cultural awareness in businesssettings. Because many internationally active companies remain naivelyunaware of how profoundly cultural difference affect businesscommunication and cooperation. Another important consequence of culturalawareness in international business communication is we can greatly shorten theprocess of business activities by promoting cultural awareness and consequentlydecrease business cost and improve business process. Of course, completecultural intelligence and multiculturalism is almost impossible to achieve,but working towards reaching the final step on the journey will bebeneficial in any intercultural business interaction.