Passing Grades’s Research Paper: Intercultural communication that takes place in international business environment

Introduction

This research evaluates the intercultural communication that takes place in international both in multilateral as well as bilateral business environments. On that note, the major focus will be to examine Hobbs Limited, a company that deals with a variety of commodities, mainly, women’s clothes and footwear located in the United Kingdom. The aspect of intercultural communication will be covered since modern companies are venturing into new cultures across the globe (Dulebohn, and Hoch, 20-17). The use of social media, emailing and websites have become the best medium that connects business organizations with their prospective clients and customers. The background will explain Hobbs Limited as the company to discuss and the reason behind choosing it. In addition, some concepts of Hofstede’s Intercultural will be used in the findings to explain how the company approaches the issue of intercultural communication (Hofstede, 2009). The conclusion will then be drawn from the findings and the paper will end with suggested recommendations that the company should improve on. Notably, Hobbs Limited had to employ the aspects of High Context culture and Low Context Culture as they interact with different groups of individuals in society (Crawford et al. 2008).

Background

Hobbs Limited is a company located in London that deals with women’s clothes as well as footwear. The company was founded in 1981 by Yoram and Marilyn Anselm as a retail shop at Hampstead targeting women from the middle age of about 20 years and old women of about 40 years. Marilyn, one of the founders of Hobbs Company came up with the idea of building the cloth company because she noticed that there were no quality cloths in the 1970s. Since its establishment, Hobbs Limited has grown over time and had 34 stores in the United Kingdom by 2002. The gradual and consistent growth was highly propelled by the advancement in the field of communication that enabled the company to study new cultures and finding ways on how to reach a new audience in the region and beyond. As a result of the change, the company expanded its branches to the United States of America, Italy, and Germany (Sadri, and Flammia, 2011). This paper chose Hobbs Limited because the company has existed for quite a long and it has grown as well into new territories by exploring a new audience in a new culture. Through intercultural communication, the company has incorporated various norms and values of different cultures to meet the interest and needs of individuals in society (Brown, Levinson, and Levinson, 1987). As well, intercultural communication used in Hobbs Company has helped the organization to interact freely with employees by understanding the cultural norms and values as well as teaching them about new cultures (Lämsä, Säkkinen, and Turjanmaa, 2000). In essence, Hobbs Limited is one of the companies in London that has achieved its success through intercultural communication both in the organization and marketing on social media (Guirdham, 2011).

Findings

The study found out that Hobbs Limited used intercultural communication as it worked hard to reach a wide range of markets in society (Guirdham, 2011). To put things into perspective, the company had to design quality clothes and footwear that fit the cultural and individual needs of the people in the United Kingdom (Crawford et al. 2008).
The company has a website that provides a wide range of information on the products and services of the company. For instance, there is a product displayed with their respective prices that allows the audience to choose the kind of cloth that meets their own interest and price. Also, the clothes displayed are of good quality and fashionable. In addition, the cultural perspective has been put into consideration by the company because most of the designs made are of UK origin and culture. For example, Marie Floral Midi Dress is a brand of women cloth that is flowery, sleeveless dress with a variety of coloring the flower on it. Such cloth attracts the women since they have been brought in a society where people value and treasure flowers. The implications are that the company understood the cultural settings and the norms that concern women in the United Kingdom. This paper also found out that Hobbs Company has used a unique logo that differentiates its products from other products from different companies in the market (Almarza, Martínez, and Llavador, 2017).
The Masculinity vs. Feminity dimension of culture has been effectively employed by the company where men and women are perceived in regard to stereotypes. In this case, Hobbs Company used the non-verbal form of communication to draw the concept of Hofstede’s theory. The feminine stereotype is evident in the color and design of cloths. For instance, most of the dresses were flowery and colored in different colors. That stereotype implies that in the United Kingdom, it is perceived that women, like are attracted by flower hence anything that is flowery, will attract their attention (Hofstede, 2009).

Conclusion

This paper concludes that intercultural communication is significant in every business across the world. In this case, Hobbs Company had to understand the mode of dressing and cultural perception of women towards cloths. Hofstede’s theory has helped Understanding the musicality and feminity stereotypes in society. It was established that women like flowers hence flowery clothes were designed by Hobbs Limited. Verbal and non-verbal communication plays an integral role in determining the success of any business as far as the customers and employees are concerned.

Recommendations

This paper recommends that the Hobbs Company should use the written and verbal language of various cultures to relate directly with the audience on the website. For example, giving more information about the product using the indigenous language of specific cultures in for specific audiences to win their interest and desires in buying the commodities.

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