Politeness as a universal variable in the cross culture managerial communication International journal of organizational analysis; Bowling Green; Jan

1997; Brown and Levinson It is an international journal of organizational analysis done by Brown and Levinson in January 1997; it states the importance of effective communication and politeness for enhancing the cross culture management. The basic objective of the paper is to tell that the training programs designed to enhance managerial effectiveness at cross-cultural communication tend to be directed at specific target cultures. This paper argues that an etic approach, one based on universal variables that occur in every culture and that vary across cultures, comprises an important alternative. This paper reviews anthropological/sociolinguistic research on one universal variable, politeness. Politeness, or linguistic indirection used to show social consideration, is a crucial element of interpersonal communication in all human cultures. Implications of politeness for managerial cross-cultural communication are explored in the paper. It tells that in the present economic global scenario we observe an increasing degree of communication across different cultures and how the politeness is important in the field of management when we communicate with the people. There are several examples given in the paper which tells that A large percentage of expatriate managers on foreign assignments terminate their assignments early due to their inability to adjust to foreign cultures (Black & Mendenhall, 1990). Bowling in the paper contrasts the importance of two divergent approaches to training, approaches that are either universalistic (etic) or particularistic (emic) in nature. While most extant literature on cross-cultural communication focuses primarily on culture-specific-emic-approaches, this paper stresses the value of also drawing on pan-cultural-universalistic-approaches. Specifically, emic approaches are valued for their ability to provide us a thick description of a particular culture. The paper specifies that the existing literature on cross-cultural managerial communication usually takes such an ideographic, or emic, approach, focusing upon a particular target culture. On the other hand it says that an etic approach may prove especially fruitful for managers whose international duties span numerous continents and cultures. Bowling in his paper says that all humans, within all cultures of the world, project a public "face". He has given another term for politeness is linguistic indirection he says that linguistic behavior is a vital constituents of social interaction. This research also specifies that politeness can be reliably gauged and the degrees of politeness are reliably assessed. This paper for eg elaborates about the most common comparison involves Americans and Europeans versus Japanese and other Asian cultures. In Asian cultures, the importance of remaining in "good face" assumes a particularly high value. Many applications of cross culture is also given, according to the author politeness in behaviors are an equally central element of social interaction because such linguistic because this may create an interpersonal conflict in the organization. According to the author politeness is value-free. In everyday language, politeness may carry a positive connotation and hence an implication that less politeness tends towards "rudeness" and is thus undesirable. Yet, in contrast, the model of politeness discussed here shows the cultural relativity of normative levels of politeness. Brown and levinson also says that one culture's standards are no better or worse than another.

Submitted by: - Aditya Partani PGDM IB-002