IMHO by PopopThePatriot: INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS

To understand and overcome barriers created by cultural differences in order to be a more effective communicator, one must understand what culture is.  “Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior” (Hahn, 2005, para. 2).  The first step in understanding a culture is to know what makes up a culture to begin with.  To put into perspective how easily it is to be misled by the term culture, I would like to remind everyone that a cultural difference can be found right in your own back yard, without even crossing into the belief cultural differences have to lie within race or ethnicity.

One of the ways in which I utilize the basic guidelines in the Ten Commandments of Intercultural Communications is in my job where I must understand the “attitudes, values, expectations and norms of behavior” (Hahn, 2005, para. 2) of the customers with whom I am dealing every day.  Because most of the customers my team contacts are farmers and construction contractors; therefore it is important to understand the culture and nature of their work to effectively communicate with them.  

We must understand the values of the customers who are most likely working a family farm which has been in their family for generations (values).  We must understand what the dates for planting, harvesting, breeding and auctioning of livestock, and the economy for both livestock and grains.  We must understand the situations these farmers might be encountering (norms of behavior).  My team needs to understand the culture of the modern farmer in this economy in order to gain acceptance and effectively communicate with them in order to provide the proper type of service to the farmer and continue with the relationship of trust and loyalty my company wants to have with our customers (Jandt, 2013).