Page 302 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

280 Peter Franklin

Experience of dysfunctional intercultural management communication sug-
gests that other topics for applied linguistic investigation that are potentially
fruitful for the intercultural training field include:
– the role of meta-communication in the creation of understanding;
– the negotiation of meaning in intercultural management interaction;
– how both of the above are realized in language, and in particular how inter-
actants with higher or lower levels of competence in the language of the in-
teraction can contribute to these processes – a need evidenced by the lack of
lingua franca skills reported in the case study presented here.

Research into such questions could generate insights about intercultural in-
teraction, regardless of the cultures involved, that could be useful for culture-
general training, and – especially valuably – about interaction in particular cul-
tural pairings.
Knowledge and insights of this kind generated by applied linguistics could
be the source of the solutions and remedies for the training context which inter-
national managers and management development professionals quite rightly so
urgently demand, and which go beyond awareness-raising and the creation of
understanding of cultural differences. They would complement the scientific
underpinning of intercultural training, making it more communication-oriented,
and thereby contributing to the improvement of its results.
Such research and such data exist to a limited extent but, given the increas-
ing global integration of business activity, there is an urgent need in intercultural
management for much more. The insights generated from the research that
exists have not generally found their way into intercultural training practice. For
reasons which can be speculated on, the contribution of applied linguistics to the
preparation of international managers and business people for their work sadly
seems to be restricted, in Europe at least, largely to the admittedly significant
one made by foreign language pedagogy.

Notes

1. Grateful acknowledgement is made of a grant awarded by the German Federal Minis-
try of Education and Research, of assistance given by Stephanie Frei and Ann Francis
and of the support provided by the managers and companies that took part in the case
study.
2. Incidentally, it is also perhaps important and certainly interesting to reflect on why the
British reported the intercultural communication with their foreign colleagues to be
relatively easy and the Germans reported considerably more difficulties. Do the Brit-
ish experience fewer problems because they are able to use their mother tongue? Or
are the recognition of problems and their discussion a valued behaviour in German
management culture in a way which is not the case in British management culture?