ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses intercultural communication in organizations from the aspects of globalization and its impacts, types of organizations and organizational cultures, cultural variations in organizations, flows of organizational communication, and cross-cultural adjustment and cross-cultural training. Regarding organizations, globalization has demonstrated profound and far-reaching impacts, bringing about major organizational changes. Globalization has made way for free trade and business, and it has created cross-cultural communication between various parts of the world. Process-oriented cultures are dominated by technical and bureaucratic routines while results-oriented cultures by a common concern for outcomes. According to T. B. Whale, it was Roger Harrison who first held the idea that organizations have cultures that can be identified, categorized, and managed. J. Hannaway found evidence suggesting hierarchical level and environment uncertainty may affect the communication behavior of organization members. Thus, senior managers usually take more part in conversations and meetings than do lower level managers under conditions of high uncertainty.
