Research On Email-based Business Communication Effectiveness From An Intercultural Perspective

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) plays a prominent part in our lives andworkplaces, especially for those who are working in multinational companies. Email isregarded as the most widely used and efficient verbal/written communication tool.It is common to send and receive many emails every day, but how to develop an effectiveway to boost mutual communication in the business setting still needs further discussion. Tostate it another way, how could we use email to communicate with our foreign colleagues andget the expected feedback? When should we send an email rather than performing face-to-faceinteraction in order to achieve a better communication result?The method of content analysis is adopted in the thesis. Based on sixty-eight emails ontwenty-five subjects selected from3,235emails of a Chinese employee working for amultinational company, the misunderstandings, conflicts and misleading assumptions causedby the email intercultural communication are analyzed. After analyzing the main reasons ofintercultural conflicts caused by email, solutions, strategies or alignments are suggestedaccordingly. The results of the research indicate that a high level of communicationeffectiveness contributes to a high degree of similarities of understandings between the senderand the receiver.The present thesis is composed of five parts. In Chapter One, the author brieflyintroduces the background of computer-mediated communication (CMC) among interculturalcommunication and the basic framework of the research. In Chapter Two, the author reviewsthe main research results of intercultural communication and communication effectivenessrelated to business emails achieved by scholars both at home and abroad. In Chapter Three,the content analysis is introduced for the research and coding frame is explained according tosixty-eight emails on twenty-five subjects. In Chapter Four, business emails are analyzed inthe light of the intercultural communication theories of Hofstede’s five out of six dimensionsand Edward T. Hall’s high-low context as well as four levels of communication effectiveness.In Chapter Five, the author provides conclusions and suggestions for the thesis. This thesisfinds that misunderstanding and conflicts happen inevitably by the email communication due to intercultural differences such as high-low context, power distance and uncertaintyavoidance. From the perspective of communication effects, conflicts, misunderstandings andconfusion may present a hurdle for information transfer in the email. Upon a closerconsideration, the author suggests that disagreements, argument and confusion may requirefurther explanation for the sake of a common target and higher level of understanding.