Chapter 7
Language and intercultural communication issues
Article outline
- 7.0Introduction
- 7.1Method
- 7.1.1Interviewees and local personnel
- 7.1.2MNC’s communication policy
- 7.1.3Materials
- 7.1.4Procedure
- 7.1.5Analyses
- 7.2Findings
- 7.2.1Communication challenges
- 7.2.1.1“A war journey”: Communication in non-work contexts
- 7.2.1.2“My first encounter with my superior”: Language and communication barriers
- 7.2.1.3“You need to go that way!”: Ambiguous messages
- 7.2.1.4“I understood virtually nothing”: Communication in the office
- 7.2.1.5“But I did say that!”: Language and power struggles
- 7.2.1.6“Abbreviations and misunderstandings”: Knowledge of company jargon
- 7.2.2Strategies for effective communication
- 7.2.2.1“In their shoes”: Imitating locals’ behaviors
- 7.2.2.2“The rule of thumb”: Communicating via the superior
- 7.2.2.3“They read my jokes entirely seriously”: Communicating clear messages
- 7.2.3Factors that hamper and foster expatriate-local personnel communication
- 7.2.3.1“Lunch with the Chinese”: Language and integration
- 7.2.3.2“The decision was taken… without us”: Language and expatriates’ access to information
- 7.2.3.3“Speak only English as he does not understand anything”: Showing openness toward cultural others
- 7.2.3.4“Everything looks pretty, from the outside”: Understanding fosters communication and performance
- 7.2.3.5“The broken test”: How critical incidents lead to learning
- 7.2.3.6“Everything is OK!”: The role of feedback in expatriate-local personnel communication
- 7.2.3.7“Getting to know each (cultural) other”: The role of cross-cultural training in expatriate-local personnel communication
- 7.3Discussion and conclusion