Home Social Sciences Misunderstanding in intercultural electronic written communication in Chinese business field
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Misunderstanding in intercultural electronic written communication in Chinese business field

  • Xiaoxi Guo EMAIL logo and Mahani Binti Stapa
Published/Copyright: July 19, 2023

Abstract

The prevalence of intercultural communication in the business domain has led to an increase in the occurrence of misunderstandings. The advancement of telecommunication technology and the implementation of epidemic prevention policies in various countries have resulted in electronic written communication becoming the most widely utilized method for business interactions, thereby giving rise to a significant number of misunderstandings. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the specific reasons for misunderstandings within a particular country. Given China’s prominent global position, it is crucial to conduct a thorough examination of Chinese companies and workers. Thus, this article aims to identify the sources and strategies employed to address misunderstandings in intercultural electronic written communication in China by analyzing naturally occurring electronic written communication documents and conducting interviews with Chinese businesspersons. The findings reveal that language-related and culture-related factors are the primary causes of misunderstandings. Chinese businesspersons have employed strategies such as seeking advice from familiar Chinese coworkers, engaging in further communication with the interlocutors, and modifying their own expression habits to resolve and prevent misunderstandings. Researching the distinctive forms and causes of misunderstandings in electronic written communication is essential for individuals engaged in international business to identify solutions and enhance communication efficiency by minimizing misunderstandings.


Corresponding author: Xiaoxi Guo, Language Academy, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), D06, UTM Skudai, 80990 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, E-mail:

  1. Declaration: On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

References

Bazzanella, C. and Damiano, R. (1999). The interactional handling of misunderstanding in everyday conversations. J. Pragmat. 31: 817–836, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-2166(98)00058-7.Search in Google Scholar

Belt, E.S. and Lowenthal, P.R. (2023). Synchronous video-based communication and online learning: an exploration of instructors’ perceptions and experiences. Educ. Inf. Technol. 28: 4941–4964, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11360-6.Search in Google Scholar

Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 3: 77–101, https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.Search in Google Scholar

Carter, K.A. (2003). Type me how you feel: quasi-nonverbal cues in computer-mediated communication. Etc A Rev. Gen. Semant. 60: 29–39.Search in Google Scholar

Chew, S.Y., Ng, L.L., Chew, S.Y., and Ng, L.L. (2021). Computer-mediated communication (CMC). In: Interpersonal interactions and language learning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 27–52.10.1007/978-3-030-67425-0_3Search in Google Scholar

Dixson, M.D., Greenwell, M.R., Rogers-Stacy, C., Weister, T., and Lauer, S. (2017). Nonverbal immediacy behaviors and online student engagement: bringing past instructional research into the present virtual classroom. Commun. Educ. 66: 37–53, https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2016.1209222.Search in Google Scholar

Edwards, R., Frost, J., Harvey, J.A., Navarro, M., and Adams, T.B. (2020). Relationships among misunderstanding, relationship type, channel, and relational satisfaction. Commun. Res. Rep. 37: 298–308, https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2020.1864313.Search in Google Scholar

Erlandson, D.A., Harris, E.L., Skipper, B.L., and Allen, S.D. (1993). Doing naturalistic inquiry: a guide to methods. Sage, Washington, DC.Search in Google Scholar

Gumperz, J.J. (1978). Dialect and conversational inference in urban communication 1. Lang. Soc. 7: 393–409, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404500005790.Search in Google Scholar

Günthner, S. (2008). Interactional sociolinguistics. In: Handbook of interpersonal communication, Vol. 2. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 53–76.10.1515/9783110211399.1.53Search in Google Scholar

Haryono, H.E., Samsudin, A., Aini, K.N., and Siahaan, P. (2021). Teams’ games tournaments with cognitive conflict instruction (CCI) model to unveil students’ misconceptions. Cypriot J. Educ. Sci. 16: 1343–1355, https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v16i4.5983.Search in Google Scholar

Hinner, M.B. (2017). Intercultural misunderstandings: causes and solutions. Russ. J. Linguist. 21: 885–909, https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-9182-2017-21-4-885-909.Search in Google Scholar

Honghui, Z. and Dongchun, C. (2019). Understanding misunderstandings from socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics. Int. J. Lang. Ling. 7: 194–201, https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190705.13.Search in Google Scholar

House, J. (1996). Contrastive discourse analysis and misunderstanding: the case of German and English. Contributions to The Sociology of Language,  Int. J. Soc. Lang. 71: 345–362.10.1515/9783110811551.345Search in Google Scholar

Jameson, D.A. (2007). Reconceptualizing cultural identity and its role in intercultural business communication. J. Bus. Commun. 44: 199–235, https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943607301346.Search in Google Scholar

Kale, U., Herrera, M., and Nagy, A. (2021). Examining pragmatic failure and other language-related risks in global aviation. Aircraft Eng. Aero. Technol. 93: 1313–1322, https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat-03-2021-0081.Search in Google Scholar

Kalman, Y.M., Scissors, L.E., Gill, A.J., and Gergle, D. (2013). Online chronemics convey social information. Comput. Hum. Behav. 29: 1260–1269, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.036.Search in Google Scholar

Kaur, J. (2011). Intercultural communication in English as a lingua franca: some sources of misunderstanding. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.10.1515/IPRG.2011.004Search in Google Scholar

Kaye, L.K., Malone, S.A., and Wall, H.J. (2017). Emojis: insights, affordances, and possibilities for psychological science. Trends Cognit. Sci. 21: 66–68, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.10.007.Search in Google Scholar

Key, S. (2011). Examining racial profiling from a cognitive perspective. Int. J. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 1: 65–69.Search in Google Scholar

Kimura-Thollander, P. and Kumar, N. (2019). Examining the “global” language of emojis: designing for cultural representation. In: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems, pp. 1–14.10.1145/3290605.3300725Search in Google Scholar

Korkut, P., Dolmaci, M., and Karaca, B. (2018). A study on communication breakdowns: sources of misunderstanding in a cross-cultural setting. Eurasian J. Educ. Res. 18: 139–158, https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2018.78.7.Search in Google Scholar

Kruger, J., Epley, N., Parker, J., and Ng, Z.-W. (2005). Egocentrism over e-mail: can we communicate as well as we think? J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 89: 925, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.925.Search in Google Scholar

Lee, J. and Hong, S. (2021). Help me to help you to help me: a conversation analytic study of other-initiated repairs in a case of Korean--Russian interpreter-mediated investigative interviews in South Korea. Perspectives 29: 522–538, https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676x.2020.1841811.Search in Google Scholar

Mauranen, A. (2006). Signaling and preventing misunderstanding in English as lingua franca communication.10.1515/IJSL.2006.008Search in Google Scholar

Miller, L. (1994). Japanese and American meetings and what goes on before them: a case study of co-worker misunderstanding. Pragmatics 4: 221–238, https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.4.2.03mil.Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. (2019). Systematically working with multimodal data: research methods in multimodal discourse analysis. John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey.10.1002/9781119168355Search in Google Scholar

Norris, S. and Geenen, J.G. (2022). Intercultural teamwork via videoconferencing technology. A multimodal (Inter) action analysis. In: Kecskes, I. (Ed.). Cambridge handbook of intercultural pragmatics. John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, pp. 552–587.10.1017/9781108884303.023Search in Google Scholar

Pflug, J. (2011). Contextuality and computer-mediated communication: a cross cultural comparison. Comput. Hum. Behav. 27: 131–137, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2009.10.008.Search in Google Scholar

Pylyshyn, Z.W. (1973). The role of competence theories in cognitive psychology. J. Psycholinguist. Res. 2: 21–50.10.1007/BF01067110Search in Google Scholar

Riordan, M.A. and Kreuz, R.J. (2010). Emotion encoding and interpretation in computer-mediated communication: reasons for use. Comput. Hum. Behav. 26: 1667–1673, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.06.015.Search in Google Scholar

Riordan, M.A. and Trichtinger, L.A. (2017). Overconfidence at the keyboard: confidence and accuracy in interpreting affect in e-mail exchanges. Hum. Commun. Res. 43: 1–24, https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12093.Search in Google Scholar

Sarangi, S. (1994). Intercultural or not? Beyond celebration of cultural differences in miscommunication analysis. Pragmatics 4: 409–427, https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.4.3.05sar.Search in Google Scholar

Schegloff, E.A. (1987). Some sources of misunderstanding in talk-in-interaction. Linguistics 25: 201–218, https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1987.25.1.201.Search in Google Scholar

Tang, Y. and Hew, K.F. (2020). Does mobile instant messaging facilitate social presence in online communication? A two-stage study of higher education students. Int. J. Educ. Technol. High. Educ. 17: 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00188-0.Search in Google Scholar

Tarone, E. and Yule, G. (1987). Communication strategies in East-West interactions. In: Discourse across cultures: strategies in world Englishes. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, pp. 49–65.Search in Google Scholar

Tsutsui, K. (2009). Culturally and linguistically driven misunderstanding? The analysis of intercultural misunderstanding. Institute for Intercultural Communication, Available at: Http:://Commcourses. Com/Iic.Search in Google Scholar

Van Wieringen, J.C.M., Harmsen, J.A.M., and Bruijnzeels, M.A. (2002). Intercultural communication in general practice. Eur. J. Publ. Health 12: 63–68, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/12.1.63.Search in Google Scholar

Völker, J. and Mannheim, C. (2021). Tuned in on senders’ self-revelation: emojis and emotional intelligence influence interpretation of WhatsApp messages. Comput. Hum. Behav. Rep. 3: 100062, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100062.Search in Google Scholar

Weigand, E. (1999). Misunderstanding: the standard case. J. Pragmat. 31: 763–785, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-2166(98)00068-x.Search in Google Scholar

Yuasa, M., Saito, K., and Mukawa, N. (2011). Brain activity when reading sentences and emoticons: an fMRI study of verbal and nonverbal communication. Electron. Commun. Jpn. 94: 17–24, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecj.10311.Search in Google Scholar

Zaefferer, D. (1977). Understanding misunderstanding: a proposal for an explanation of reading choices. J. Pragmat. 1: 329–346, https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(77)90027-3.Search in Google Scholar

Zhang, L. (2006). Communication in academic libraries: an East Asian perspective. Ref. Serv. Rev. 34: 164–176.10.1108/00907320610648842Search in Google Scholar

Zummo, M.L. (2018). The effect of CMC in business emails in lingua franca: discourse features and misunderstandings. Int. J. Soc. Cult. Lang. 6: 47–59.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2022-11-20
Accepted: 2023-06-20
Published Online: 2023-07-19

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 28.1.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/mc-2022-0026/html
Scroll to top button