The impact of cultural difference in international business communication

Cultural differences in business communication certainly are factors, which should be taken into consideration when getting into contact in a cross-cultural business interaction. Geert Hofstede regards them as a crucial aspect causing considerable problems. On the front page of his website he claims that "culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster". Corresponding to this viewpoint, a lot of literature is dedicated to the awareness of culture in business. Most of these works refer to models of national culture, which are used as a basis for discussion in this essay as well. As the emphasis should lay on the way in which cultural differences in non-verbal communication might influence business interactions, the knowledge about these concepts is presumed and therefore the individual dimensions are not explained in detail. For the two neighbouring countries, France and Germany, which are used to elucidate the topics, one might expect a more or less common way of communicating and doing business. Yet there are some hidden but rather important cultural differences, mostly rooted in underlying concepts, which shall be taken under the umbrella term of non-verbal communication as well.