Intercultural relations and communication at work. How do cultural differences influence intercultural relations? (PDF)

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1.7, University of Aarhus, language: English, abstract: This paper examines how cultural differences influence intercultural relations. This will be discussed based on theories of culture, intercultural communication and illustrated by examples. Firstly, the concept of culture will be discussed, and different concepts are presented, in order to see the change of the perception of culture in history. Afterwards, intercultural relations will be defined and in order to see the traps one risks to fall in when working intercultural, a national perception of culture will be described.

Subsequently, the concept of essentialism, othering, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and stereotyping will be examined, to demonstrate how negative their impact is on intercultural relations. As another big part of intercultural relations, the importance of intercultural communication will be discussed.

The concepts presented are finally illustrated by two examples. Firstly, by the study of Ifversen and Thunø, which analyses the influence of cultural differences and the perception of culture when working intercultural. In particular, the cultural differences of the concepts of face and respect are examined and the results of the study will be presented and interpreted. Secondly, the text of Kalin will be displayed, which highlights intercultural problems in the asylum search. The focus here is on the cultural relativity of concepts and different time perceptions.