Insights from Brent D. Ruben’s Guidelines for Cross-Cultural Communication Effectiveness

Brent D Ruben's Guidelines for Cross-Cultural Communication focuses on people's problems adapting to other cultures or subcultures.  It centers on the effectiveness of transferring knowledge and skills of people of different cultural backgrounds.  As though, findings from studies of intracultural competence have seven dimensions of importance to intercultural competence.  It includes the capacity to communicate respect, be nonjudgmental, personalize one's knowledge and perceptions, display empathy, be flexible, have the capacity for turn-taking, and tolerate ambiguity.  Contrary to the mentioned intercultural competence, this paper provides insight into my chosen dimension and my reflection towards cross-cultural communication effectiveness.

Among the seven dimensions of intercultural competence, I regard the capacity to communicate respect for it enables individuals to communicate diversely, avoiding misconceptions.  Notably, expressing respect and positive regard for another person is essential in effective interpersonal relations.  For I believe in the statement, respect begets respect.  This means that even though people come from different cultures, a sign and expression of respect can confer status on the receipt.  This contributes to self-esteem and fosters positive regard for every individual you encounter as it is a source of communicated respect.

Additionally, displaying respect in communication brings the world together.  For instance, if you are in a business situation with a varied group of people around you, you should express your gratitude and welcome them with respect and honor even if you don't know them.  This level of respect contributes to the ease of execution, which has a positive influence.  Even a simple thank you or good day would do, or even through gestures, eye contact, smiles, and words of encouragement would mark a sincere interest in the other person.  As we respect our family, we should also show this to other people because they deserve to be respected no matter what race, religion, gender, and many more that we display in society.

While this intercultural dimension is necessary, individuals rarely adhere to it.  Perhaps, some may just go around without recognizing a person in their path, as if they were in an empty hallway.  Some individuals cannot utter even a simple good day or hello.  These are some of the bad habits that should be eliminated because we all deserve to be recognized as a person.  The least we can do is respect the presence of the person.

Attentively, communication in the display of respect encourages individuals to reciprocate the value of being humane and sincerely put its importance in our minds, hearts, and souls.  Further, respect should always begin at home, where you respect yourself, your father, mother, and siblings.  After that, you can apply it to your community.  For, communicating respect establishes a solid foundation for an effective relationship.  One can create productive and satisfying results if one would facilitate the skills and knowledge with the words and deeds of respect.