The proper functioning of an organization depends on the quality of the relationships within it. This truth is exacerbated in multinational companies as well as in structures that have to collaborate with foreign suppliers or partners. In this case, the management of interculturality represents important economic stakes and must be considered as a problem in its own right. The global operating mode must adapt to this specificity by adopting intercultural management and intercultural communication. In the event of difficulties, tensions or conflicts, it may sometimes be necessary to involve an intercultural mediator.
The different facets of interculturality
Having different cultures means from time to time having a different vision of the world. However, it also means having a specific body language, a way of expressing or not expressing certain things or a particular attitude towards complex situations, tensions and conflicts. Interculturality implies thinking about all these innate behaviors and evaluating their impact on a person from another culture to make professional exchanges more fluid and facilitate collaboration.
This video can explain it:
What is intercultural communication? Communication is a fundamental concept of interculturality. It is about two individuals from different cultures adopting an attitude, a vocabulary and an approach to communication that adapts to the other person in order to facilitate exchanges and avoid misunderstandings. In case of deep-rooted communication problems, intercultural mediation can be a solution. It refers to the fact of intervening between two people of different cultures to facilitate the transmission of knowledge and exchanges. The intercultural mediator has the linguistic and cultural skills and knowledge to facilitate exchanges.
What is intercultural management?
Intercultural management is an essential concept in companies that deal with different cultures. The increasing mobility and globalization of economies make this concept an omnipresent issue in today’s business life. Although exchanges have intensified, this has not reduced cultural barriers. Large international companies sometimes see their performance reduced because of poor management of interculturality. This is where we see the importance of introducing an intercultural management approach to make the most of each culture and to ensure a lasting collaboration between employees from different backgrounds.
By implementing an intercultural management approach in your company, you will be able to adopt the right posture in the context of exchanges involving interculturality. We can take the example of a partnership, a merger, the acquisition of an international subsidiary, internal exchanges with entities in other countries… All professionals with international responsibilities are concerned by the issue of intercultural management.