Chapter published in:
Intercultural Experience in Narrative: Expatriate stories from a multicultural workplace
Michał Wilczewski
[Studies in Narrative 26] 2019
► pp. 132–168

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