Intercultural communication in the global workplace, critical approaches

Abstract

The critical intercultural turn in intercultural communication and cross-cultural management research has begun to question dominating traditional (positivist) approaches. Therefore, preparing people for the global workplace requires understanding of intercultural communication informed by critical scholarship: questioning the theory and practices of the “metropole” (or developed “North”), it also requires complementary research, education, and training that gives voice to those in the “global South” who may be marginalized, disenfranchised, poor, and exploited. Community diversity and interconnectivity, whether through communication technologies or movement of people, have placed new demands on preparing critical intercultural citizens for communication in the global workplace: people who can appreciate similarity and difference; who are capable of taking nonessentialist approaches to cultures, languages, and communities; who understand the role of the intercultural speaker; and who acknowledge the multiple languages and lingua franca Englishes at play, and the translingual, transcultural practices this recognition entails.