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| Stunning & magical city of Davos |
On March 10-11, 2015, took place in the Davos Congress
Centre the 6th World Communication Forum - #WCFDavos. Bringing and bridging together 33
nations through politicians, global PR experts and representatives from
Communication departments of diverse international organisations. Annually, #WCFDavos identifies and defines the trends on global communications for the months to come, until the meeting is held again in the Swiss Alps.
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| Faith Muthambi, Minister of Communication of South Africa, speaking at the #WCFDavos |
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| Having lunch with Mr. Kim Kyong-Hae, known as Korea's PR father |
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| BRICS for Communication |
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| Masha Aladzhova and Lars Hilse - Like & Comment #WCFDavos |
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| Flavio Oliveira and Faith Muthambi, Minister of Communication (South Africa) |
Now, the debate and many other very interesting & pertinent
presentations on PR, communication and digital media have become a book, the
first one of its kind, edited by the World Communication Forum Association,
this book brings a lot of knowledge on the current status of global
communications – a must read for PR & Communications’ professionals
worldwide.
Here I will republish the article I have written
in-cooperation with Rana Nejem and Dr. Volker Stoltz.
The main question of this debate relied on the
assumption that there are two forms of communication when dealing in an
international level. On one side, global communications encompassing the
international dimension of the communication process, that is, when the
communication is established with counterparts located and/or originally from
two or more nations. On another side, cross-cultural communication which would
consider communication when dealing with two or more different cultures. Rather
than the initial question of which would be the communication of the future,
the debate relied much more in the discussion whether there should be any
difference between those terms at all.
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The debate was moderated by Flavio Oliveira (http://www.forumdavos.com/people/135), Global PR Consultant
and #WCFDavos Ambassador.
The debaters were, defending cross-cultural
communications: Rana Nejem (http://www.forumdavos.com/people/204) – an expert in
cross-cultural communications and business protocol with a long track record of
improving diplomatic awareness on cultural differences in Jordan/Middle East.
On the other side, defending global communications, Dr. Volker Stoltz (http://www.forumdavos.com/people/219) , a veteran in the
field of global PR & communications, founder of the Global Communication Institute - http://www.globcom.org/.
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| Flavio Oliveira |
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| Rana Nejem |
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| Dr. Volker Stoltz |
The compilation of the ideas defended by Rana Nejem is follows:
“Several sociologists and
culturalists have developed different models that aim to help us understand how
culture affects the way we approach certain tasks or view things. Among those is Roland Muller, who did anthropological and
sociological research among the Bedouin.
An organisation called KnowledgeWorkxs then
carried that theory further into application for the business world.
Muller suggested that all societies could be grouped
into three main categories or worldviews with reference to the main motivators
that drive behaviour. He called these three groups:
• Innocence /Guilt societies
• Honor/Shame societies
• Power/Fear societies
He proposed that every society has a unique mixture of
these three worldviews, making each one distinct from the other. The first principle to remember is that the
all three worldviews are always present in every person or group of
people. So you will never get a pure
honour/shame culture, a pure power/fear culture, or a pure innocence/guilt
culture. Each worldview has its
strengths and weaknesses, and all also have abuse mechanisms.
[...]
Then
the question is: can the gap be bridged? Rana’s answer is yes, it can. But it requires a conscious and continuous
effort by businesses, governments and communicators around the world.
To make that effort
to open up and first start by taking an honest look at one’s own cultural beliefs and values and the glasses
through which he determines what is right and what is wrong and then open up to
see that there are other ways of doing things, other ways of seeing things and
other ways of saying things.
Inter-cultural
Intelligence is defined as the ability to anticipate other people’s culturally motivated behaviour; correctly interpret
that behaviour; and then adjust one’s own behaviour accordingly. This requires a continuous conscious effort that starts with a healthy
degree of self-awareness.”
One the other side, defending Global Communications,
was the global PR veteran Dr. Volker Stoltz. During his presentation, he
introduced the following thoughts:
§ We all speak English (Lingua
Franca);
§ We all eat Hamburgers;
§ We all drink Coke;
§ We all watch Hollywood films;
§ We all „google“;
§ We all look for „ Facebook
friends“;
§ We all consume: same news /
same time;
§ Development to a sort of „
global culture“ on a lowest denominator;
§ A sort of „McDonaldisation“ of
our world – as some fear?
§ The good news : The impact of
the McDonal- disation varies from culture to culture.
Therefore, Global Communication,
is inevitably cross-cultural. If it
deals with more than one country, and consequently, with more than one culture,
global communications will always be cross-cultural. From the ideas proposed by
Rana during her initial speech and after Dr. Volker proposed his ideas, it was
clear that the initial question of the debate about which type of communication
should be the communication of the future was soon let aside to give stage to a
more pertinent question: is there a differen between the terms?
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The debate which started with the question whether
cross-cultural communication or global communications should be the
communication of the future concluded that there should not be such question.
Global
communications or international PR, or any communication effort involving two
or more different nations, should consider cultural dimensions in the
communication process to achieve better outcomes and avoid [manage] possible
conflict. 
As per Hofstede quote: “culture is more often a source
of conflict rather than synergy”. However, the debaters also concluded that if
we manage cross-cultural communication processes properly, it is be possible to
achieve states of cultural synergy, where the sum of the efforts of each of the
individuals from different cultures, will have more creative and successful
results.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE "WORLD COMMUNICATION REVIEW - GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS AGENDA 2015" - GET YOUR FREE COPY NOW, CLICK ON THE IMAGE! :-)
#PR #RP #communication #culture #global #globalcommunication #international #managament #Hofstede #cultural #culturaldifferences
Thank you for reading this post and do not forget to keep on smiling :-)
Tot zo!
Thank you for reading this post and do not forget to keep on smiling :-)
Tot zo!
