The need for multicultural communication

By Isaac Twumasi Quantus in Accra.

Lack of knowledge of another culture can result in mistakes that may confuse or even offend the people with whom an organization intends to communicate.
I heard on the news the other day that the Ghana Investment Promotion center (GIPC) set out to train its staff in multicultural communication strategies and skills to communicate in a more professional and appropriate manner and I thought that's a great step taken.

GIPC staff is in the front line division that deals directly and daily with foreign investors. And I thought enhancing one’s multicultural communication skills can help to prevent many mistakes and building better business relationships.

I think every organization must consider enhancing multicultural communication skills as prime objective, style of communication, integrity, message and language barriers. Advertising messages, signs and languages have different meanings in different countries.

In Ghana, we exist amongst diverse groups which are culturally distinctive and which allows us to communicate in different ways. This makes us multicultural. Language influences thought and thought influences language, and each is influenced by culture. One may find that people from different cultures may speak the language on different levels of fluency. These varieties also influence the ones perception of the messages one receives from others.

I wish to take this opportunity to say kudo’s to the management of Ghana Investment Promotion centre (GIPC) who have overseas business interests and the ability to understand the perspectives of someone living or working in another culture. What is considered as appropriate behavior in one culture may not be considered appropriate in another culture. In international business, hurting the sentiments of people from another culture may cause mistrust, which may eventually affect business relationships.

Working with people from different parts of the world can be a daunting task. One wrong step can spoil the whole relationship or cause a project to get delayed by months. At the same time, understanding and showing appreciation toward a different culture could possibly ease communication barriers and build better relationships and this would be reflected in the business relationships.

It is about time organizations in Africa start looking at applying multicultural communication in all departments of their businesses. Why do I think it is important? The short answer is: because the world is changing, including your little corner of it.

The snapshot of today’s workforce reveals diverse work teams that predictions say will become even more diverse as the demographics change.

This article was originally posted on West Africa Business Communities

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