ANALYSIS OF CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES IN THE MOVIE ‘OUTSOURCED’ (2006)

Afidatul Aqma Mohamad Sabre, Eliyas S. Mohandas

Abstract


Cross-cultural communication has sparked many cultural misunderstandings in today’s world. This happens because of the challenges faced by people from different cultural backgrounds who communicate with each other without having knowledge or familiarity with each other cultures. Besides, different cultural values can be one of the main reasons for cross-cultural communication challenges to happen. This study aims to identify the cross-cultural communication challenges faced by the American and Indian main characters in the movie ‘Outsourced’ (2006). This study investigates the cross-cultural communication challenges faced by the main characters from two different countries: America and India and how the challenges affect them. The researcher employed a qualitative research design by using content analysis to identify the challenges faced by them. The researcher employed two types of data: primary and secondary data, to collect the best materials to support this study to have a better understanding of the study. The researcher employed the purposive sampling method to select the movie that depicted the cross-cultural communication challenges. In this study, the researchers used coding guidelines and coding themes to get the relevant answers to the research questions. The researcher analysed six themes according to the Stumbling Block in Intercultural Communication by Laray M. Barna (1994) to answer the research questions of this study. The results are presented in a table to get a clear view of data on the cross-cultural communication challenges. This study revealed the common challenges of cross-cultural communication faced by people from different cultures based on the movie ‘Outsourced’ (2006) such as the Assumption to Similarity, Language Differences, Nonverbal Misinterpretation, Stereotype or Preconception, Tendency to Evaluate and High Anxiety or Stress. Hence, this study is significant for people who want to learn about cross-cultural communication as well as those who are in a cross-cultural situation at work or institution because it exposes cross-cultural communication challenges and their effects.

 

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Keywords


cross-cultural communication challenges, cross-cultural communication, movies, content analysis

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v9i3.1583

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