Intercultural Communication in a World of Diversity

In the third chapter of the text Excellence in Business Communication, authors John V. Thill, Courtland L. Bovee, Wendy Keller and K. M. Moran talk about aspects of intercultural communication in a professional environment. The chapter Communicating in a World of Diversity briefly describes some of the key elements of intercultural communication such as opportunities, challenges, ethnocentrism and stereotyping. The authors argue that diversity is something that includes all the characteristics that define people as an individual and an individual must communicate with people from different cultures own throughout their career (Thill, Bovee, Keller, & Moran, p. 67). The chapter focuses on providing extensive guidelines to the students for adapting to any type of business culture. By analyzing the chapter and comparing it with the MGMT2601:0 Introduction to Business Communication course outline, it is seen that the authors have pointed out issues in intercultural communication and has set some specific guidelines to improve intercultural communication skills and it serves one of the prime resolutions of the course which is to teach the students to consider some theoretical, cultural and ethical bases of effective communication, which might be obscured from a casual skimming of the chapter. This is important because these qualities are often expected from students and graduates in a professional intercultural business environment