Business Communication, Social Norms, and Culture in Cambodia vs United States'

Executive Summary
Business communication ensures that information regarding tasks, views, and other business-related opinions is relayed to the audience. Many factors can influence communication as a whole, and culture is one of the major influences that impact communication. Cambodia and the United States differ significantly on culture, necessitating an effective business communication strategy to ensure effective business in the territories. Buddhism religion and Khmer ethnicity are the most important aspects that define Cambodia’s culture and influence business communication. From the most basic things such as greetings, verbal and non-verbal communication, and the calendar, Cambodia’s way of life differs significantly from other civilizations such as the United States. The equality that characterizes most modern civilizations has not been fully addressed in Cambodia, with the country adopting a patriarchal social organization that significantly influences business communication.
Business Communication in Cambodia
Introduction
Communication is a key component of everyday interaction between humans in every society. From a business perspective, communication plays a significant role in ensuring that the human resource in a business environment exchange basic information and any other business-related tasks, ideas, or views in what can be termed as business communication. With an effective business communication strategy, businesses can attain organizational goals by eliminating minor and major errors that inhibit efficiency and effectiveness. Numerous factors influence business communication, and one major factor is culture. Culture defines the norms and behaviors of a person or group (Bovee & Thill, 2018). Cambodia and the United States are two countries whose cultures differ in many ways that affect the countries’ business communication.
Cambodia, Background
Cambodia is one of the culturally rich countries in Southeast Asia, where Buddhism and Hinduism are the most prevalent religions. The country’s history has not been pleasant, marred with economic downtimes, wars, currency crises, and overall underdevelopment (Chandler, 2018). In the recent past, Cambodia has turned out to be a business-friendly country, attracting investors and multinational corporations from across the world, including the U.S. and Europe. The culture in Cambodia is mainly anchored to the Buddhism religion, which makes it easier to draw some cultural differences with the American culture that also impacts business communication.
Social Norms
The society in Cambodia remains largely patriarchal, with the male gender being regarded highly in many social structures of the society (Pen, 2016). Similarly, businesses in Cambodia have adopted the same culture where males are the dominant gender. Decision-making powers in the country are mainly vested in the male gender while the female gender remains highly marginalized. As shown in Figure 1, males are dominant in labor force participation and leadership positions (Statista Research Department, 2021). On the other hand, due to the modern-day civilization that has taken shape, the United States has made it a norm for both genders to hold equal powers. The female gender h...