Culture in general sense is the combination of traditions, beliefs, norms, values, etc. Its all about how a person behaves in group or with others. Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic taken for granted’ fashion or organization’s view of its self and its environment – Edgar Schein

Communication is the main part of any culture because nobody can explain how he feels or wants to do without communicating with the other. Before understanding the communication in culture, first we have to understand the term communication. Communication is the exchange of facts, ideas, opinions, information, thoughts and feeling from one entity to another.

Today different experts of communication are giving training to the employees working on international level, so that they can face the challenges of working internationally. The communication training is essential for the people working and living abroad to learn how to behave in particular circumstances.

After studying all the six links given on managing across cultural staff, I have selected two links which are useful for me to understand and analyzing how communication helps in managing different cultures. I have chosen two links on the basis of CRAP test which is very effective tool to choose particular link among various.

DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS

As the all six links content information regarding cross culture communication but the selection of two links are quite difficult so for choosing right links, I have done the CRAP test on each link that is discussed below:-

1st Link

“Cross Cultural Communication”

Currency :-

• The site was last updated on 16 Nov, 2009
• So the information is not very old.

Reliability :-

• The information contains the origin of need of cross cultural communication telling how it all started.
• The content is explained with the appropriate examples.
• The references regarding information are also given.

Authority :-

• As the Wikipedia published the content.
• Wikipedia is a known publisher.
• There is no advertisement posted with the information.

Purpose :-

• This is facts of USA.

2nd Link

“Quality Management: a cross-cultural perspective”

Currency :-

• The article provided was published in 2009.
• There is no information given regarding update.

Reliability :-

• Its a research article so the information is restricted.
• Other aspects are also explained with the subject matter.
• There is no references given.

Authority :-

• Authors- Alessandra Vecchi, Louis Brennan
• Journal- “Cross cultural mgt: An international journal”,2009
• Publisher- Emerald group publishing ltd.
• The publisher also showed his interest in selling the document.

Purpose :-

• The information is not relevant to our research.
• the publisher is trying to sell his product.

3rd Link

“Cross-cultural training: Learning to make the most of increasing internationalization”

Currency :-

• The information posted on 11 may, 2005, so it was not recent.
• It was not updated after posting once.

Reliability :-

• The information actually describe the businesses facing the problem of cross culture.
• The article is balanced.

Authority :-

• Author- Sarah Murray
• Publisher- FT.com
• Due to commercial site there are some advertisements too.
• Different case studies are described to understand the need of cross cultural training.

Purpose :-

• The given information is relevant to our research.
• As the site is commercial but the publisher haven’t showed any interest in selling something.
• It is biased information based on different case studies.

4th Link

“Managing Cross Culture Differences”

Currency :-

• Information related to posting and updating is not given.

Reliability :-

• The information is described systematically giving the strong examples.
• The article describes some main reasons behind cross cultural communication

Authority :-

• This article is created by Anastasis bibicova and Vadim Kotelnikov.
• There is no such credential to the topic.
• The publisher’s main object is to sell his product.
• Lots of advertisements are there on site.

Purpose :-

• Information provided is fact and explained with examples.
• Most of the data is relevant to the research topic we are looking for.

5th Link

“Anthropologists in Cross Cultural management”

Currency :-

• The information is posted on 28 Feb, 2009, so its recent.
• No information related to update is given.

Reliability :-

• It is stated that how cultural problems arise when people work together.
• The content is balanced.
• The creator has explained the ideas of Hofstede and Trompenaars.

Authority :-

• Alfonsvanmarrewijk is the creator of the information.
• Publisher- WordPress.com
• There is some advertisements on the site.

Purpose :-

• This is fact and biased article.
• As the site is commercial but the Author hasn’t try to sale anuthing.
• Information provided is much relevant to the research topic.

6th Link

“Cross Cultural Psychology”

Currency :-

• The information given is of 18th century and book is of 1997.

Reliability :-

• Information given is related with the psychology.
• Content is balanced and references are also provided.

Authority :-

• Author- John W. Berry, Marshall H. Segall, Cigdem Kagitcibasi,
• Publisher- John W. Berry
• There is no advertisement.

Purpose :-

• The content is fact and unbiased.
• There is broad information given explaining each aspect of the research.

Choosing two links among six links and the reasons behind that :-

As the six links on managing cross culture staff are given by Mr. Peter. All the links contain information related to the research topic but I have chosen the following links-

Link 3 – “Cross-cultural training: Learning to make the most of increasing internationalization”

As the site is published by FT.com which has its name in the field of newspapers, the contents given are significant and fulfill the desired need of our research topic. Sarah Murray has presented the view of different persons for explaining how cross culture problems arise and affect the business, the reason behind that is miscommunication. Sarah has also discussed the importance of training to employees so that it will be easy to understand the different culture they are dealing with.

Link 5 – “Anthropologists in Cross Cultural management”