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1. Perceptual expectations – Having good perceptual expectations is troubled because of people’s tendency to discriminate such as stereotyping. On the job people tend to think that every person from a certain national group will have the same characteristics of the group for example people stereotype all Chinese workers by saying that all Chinese people are good in mathematical calculations, have good hand eye coordination, are precise etc when it’s not all of the workers who are like this. In order to understand cross cultural relations, one must overcome discrimination.
2. Ethnocentrism – Another barrier to cross cultural relations is ethnocentrism which means that you assume that your way is the best way to get things done. People believe that their own way is the only way of living and this brings about a consequence of people from one culture preferring people from other cultures who share their way of living, example an English person would have a more comfortable attitude towards an Australian than a Mexican.
3. Different norms and codes of conduct – Different groups have their own norms for example men walking ahead of women in Saudi Arabia. As for codes of conduct, in one group a code of conduct might be permissible but in another group, it might be punishable by law. Example in the USA it is permissible to publish satirical cartoons about political leaders without fear of government penalty. However, if someone publishes satires about Arab leaders in the UAE the person will be fined, put in jail for a certain period of time and then finally deported the latter being the case if he or she is an expat. Business practices are also subject to cultural norms and as a result a practice might seem strange to foreigners, for example in Asian firm’s people do not address a person by their first name unless they are in the same position at work or they know each other personally and at meetings people in high positions are addressed as Sir or madam while amongst Europeans, Americans, Canadians even high position people will be called by their first name.
4. Micro inequities – Another reason as to why barriers to cross cultural relations occur are because a person might not know when he or she is making fun of someone or singling out a person from others and this is called micro inequities. By having a better understanding of micro inequities, a person can change their one on one relationship with another person.