Intercultural Communication: Opportunities and Challenges for Young Adults

In the age of globalization, there are various multicultural organizations, and employees must be adaptive to the multicultural environment. Working in a cross-cultural environment brings opportunities for graduates; however, they also face some challenges. 

Opportunities

Intercultural communication improves confidence in work and life. Communication is the primary obstacle that each worker must overcome in a multicultural workplace. Your productivity at work will rise as a result of your ability to confidently explain your ideas to those from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. People with strong cross-cultural communication abilities will be aware of and observe various countries' communication cultures in order to avoid making dumb communication errors. For instance, greetings between partners and colleagues differ significantly between France and the US.  Taking down barriers will provide a basis for establishing trust and a chance for individuals to be more open and understanding with one another. On that foundation, trust is developed and employees become more tolerant of one another's errors, resulting in a collaborative and cordial work atmosphere.

Regarding the intrinsic benefit, developing cross-cultural communication skills can help you gradually learn more about who you are via listening to, observing, and speaking with others. As you connect, collaborate, and share ideas with people from many various cultures, strengths and flaws will gradually come to light. At that point, you may both acknowledge and address them.

Challenges

Discrimination will occur when many cultures exist in the workplace because many people do not respect differences between cultures. They will laugh when people do something which is not the same as other people. Bullying in the workplace can occur from discrimination. This affects negatively the mental health and job satisfaction of employees. Differences in cultures can cause misunderstandings Sometimes the actions of people of other backgrounds can lead to misunderstanding situations. This causes some errors in the working process and conflicts between people in the workplace. 

In addition, in a multicultural environment, people who cannot adapt to this environment will be pressured and even stress because they are not suitable for this culture. In some regions of Asia, they have strict cultural standards which not all people can understand and accept it. If your superiors always keep their cultures, you are in difficult situations and even pressure and stress.