Intercultural communication in transnational work

Just take a minute to reflect: Imagine you would like to start an information campaign for your new volunteer project. You personally like the colours orange and green. Green because it remembers you of the colours of nature, and orange because you associate it with positive energy. Most probably most Western Europeans would have the same associations with these colours. But then your colleague tells you, that for him being of Muslim religion green is a religious colour. Would you still want to use this colour for your campaign?

Colours have a cultural background and they are one of the speaking elements in many communication strategies of organisations. When creating the image of your organisation you should be aware of cultural signals like in the example.

When it comes to establishing long-term relationships in business, it is said that trust “is a key variable when structuring and developing any relational exchange” (Usunier and Lee, 2005, p. 495). According to Usunier and Lee (2005, p. 481), credibility is the basis for trustworthiness in business relations.

However, trust can be withdrawn. In an international context, one of the reasons for this is that cultural differences lead to mistrust (Usunier and Lee, 2005, p. 495).

In fact, from an intercultural point of view, trust has much to do with finding similarities in people from other cultures. Just think of this quote “when people are like each other, they tend to like each other” (Tony Robbins). When we discover sameness in views, beliefs, values etc. – when we seem to share a common culture – we naturally trust because we do not perceive elements of otherness. [LINK Unit 3 Module 1]

https://pixabay.com/de/images/download/railway-1758208_1920.jpg?attachment&modal (16.7.2020)

Interestingly, the importance of trust as a value in the business world builds a link to your work.

For you as a volunteer or non-profit organisation wanting to internationalise it is highly important to be perceived from the outside as trustworthy and coherent in values in order to be able to reach, for example, stakeholders, partners, volunteers and donors. This is why you should be clear about which elements contribute to a positive image of your organisation.

It may be interesting for you as an organisation wanting to establish international contacts to reflect in which way you could mold your intercultural image enhancing at the same time your credibility and trustworthiness of your work. Although you may be hesitant in applying to your organisation similar strategies as profit-organisations, because you may see them as a contradiction to you social ideals and humanitarian values, it may be helpful to cast a glance at those approaches.