BENEFITS OF A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY WITH REFERENCE TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Introduction
Globalization is characterized by the bringing of people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds together due to the increase in the number of contacts in business as well as immigration. People from different cultures have been forced to come together sharing common resources thus the need for constructive communication between the groups from different cultural backgrounds. Intercultural communication refers to communication that transpires between different social groups or culture with the chief aim of sharing information (Kotthoff & Spencer-Oatey, 2007).
This paper explores the benefits presented by multicultural society like Australia with emphasis on how it enables intercultural communication.


Benefits of Multicultural Societies in Intercultural Communication
Multicultural societies include people from several culturalied settings. The people are drawn from different races, nationalities, languages and live together as one community (Roloff, 2011). When such people live together they share ideas and perspectives amongst them, they therefore learn new ways of seeing the world and situations (Roloff, 2011). This leads to an open minded population capable of cooperating towards the development of communication. This often has been beneficial especially to the diversified workplaces where the employees from different cultural settings are able to fuse towards one goal.


Social conflicts often arise as a result of difference in goals and expectations. Consequently, when people from different cultures communicate, they have to come up with different ways of managing the conflicts (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy, 2013). Pseudo conflicts occur as a result of communicative misunderstanding between parties. However, the people being culturally diverse develop amicable communication styles that are preferable by either party (Samovar et al., 2013). This increases knowledge transfer and information sharing amongst the people. Whenever, conflicts arise as a result of cultural differences, the parties involved are able to take the initiative of using to the best of their knowledge the methods of conflict resolution (Roloff, 2011). This also makes it possible for knowledge transfer as different ways of solving a status quo are explored and the best ones fused through effective communication (Roloff, 2011). This actually changes the perspectives of either party making it possible to coherently communicate with each other. The people are able to develop good negotiation skills that help in solving any differences that may exist.


The people who are culturally diverse often develop relationships between them. As a result of integration the individuals are able to forge one culture that is not biased. This makes people feel close and appreciated. As a result all the past prejudices that created intercultural communication barriers are addressed (Samovar et al., 2013). Additionally, there is also ease in developing a curriculum that takes into consideration the cultural perspectives so that knowledge transfer in a multicultural society is not affected. Additionally, the culturally diverse population is able to come up with a language that is used by all cultures in communication (Kotthoff & Spencer-Oatey, 2007).


The knowledge about cultural competence at organization and personal levels make it possible to have better interpersonal skills and have cultural self awareness that makes people appreciate their own culture and thus have a better understanding and explanation of that of others (Roloff, 2011). As one develops better listening skills they are able to bridge the gap between two cultures and foster good collaborations through effective communication. Multicultural societies like Australia have intercultural identity that is founded upon the learning of intercultural differences and application of intercultural communication skills (Samovar et al., 2013). People with different cultural orientations also have time for cultural adaptation. The problem of culture shock is able to be maintained through learning of different cultures altogether (Roloff, 2011).As a result the intercultural communication is strengthened in the whole process from contact to biculturalism or multiculturalism.


Conclusion
Multicultural societies draw people from various backgrounds together. As a result of cultural difference, the groups involved engage in cultural adaptation stages. Conflicts might also arise in the process of living together as a society. As can be seen in the paper, intercultural communication helps solve all the problems that come along with cultural diversification. Cultural competence then develops at individual and organizational levels. When there is intercultural identity, there is peaceful coexistence and people are able to change their perspectives on other cultures.

Bibliography
Kotthoff, H., & Spencer-Oatey, H. 2007, “Handbook of intercultural communication”. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Roloff, M. 2011, “Communication Yearbook 23”. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.
Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. 2013, “Communication between cultures”. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.