Cultural Communication & Education

Here is another web tool for you to use in your cross cultural communication.

Company Hierarchy

Some cultures expect you to pay more attention to a company hierarchy than others. They need to be able to identify the leaders. They might only want to speak to the person with the right title or who is at an appropriate level for them. Very often cultures will only work on a peer to peer level.

There are some cultures that respond better with stronger communication on company hierarchy. These are cultures with a strong belief in authority and hierarchy.

Cultural barriers will pop up if you don’t work towards these needs in your foreign culture.

As you get to know your foreign markets, pay attention to their needs in being informed of your company hierarchy. You may not need to change what you already have on your website.

Do some online market research in your target country to see how other local websites present their company’s hierarchy.

You might want to:

• highlight your executive team a little differently
• present your company’s executives in a different way.
• include other members of your staff.
• be careful how you translate job functions

Determine what your foreign market needs and give it to them.

The Right Touch

Remember…

These web tools are not sure solutions to barriers that will pop up in your cross cultural communication. You will need to find the right mix of tools to communicate effectively with your particular markets.

Different things drive the different cultures. Everyone has their own communication style, and needs. It is seldom a simple mix, you have to work to make sure you are actually doing the right things.

This is not about whether to put any reference to company hierarchy on your website or not. You need to test:

• the most appropriate place to display information on your website
• how your website is viewed in your target countries

There are other tools you will need to highlight as well. Luckily it is easy to test results with online marketing. As we go through this series of cross cultural communication web tools, use the knowledge you have on your foreign markets, do a little foreign market research and test your own mix of these tools.