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ICS03 Working Life Communication
PP 331 Interculturality in Workplace Interactions: Moving Beyond Traditional Approaches to Intercultural Communication
M. Lahti1
1 University of Jyväskylä, University Language Centre, Jyväskylä, Finland
Within the increasingly pluralistic social landscape, the workplace has emerged as a critical site where persons who come from different countries or
speak different languages collaborate and develop relationships, engaging in what is often described as “intercultural communication.”While the theme
of intercultural communication at work has been encouraging intense scholarly interest, it has mostly been examined from organisational perspectives,
employing theoretical frameworks that see culture as an objective set of national/ethnic attributes and experiences that shape interaction. This has led
to the creation of polarised understandings of intercultural issues as either an organisational challenge or an asset. In my presentation, I discuss the main
findings and implications of my doctoral dissertation (Lahti, 2015) where I employed an alternative lens of interculturality to examine the very interper‑
sonal communication processes through which people’s different cultural memberships may surface at work. Interculturality acknowledges the situated,
processual, momentary, subjective and intersubjective character of cultural memberships. The study consists of four articles. The first one is a critical review
of intercultural workplace communication literature. The remaining three articles are empirical research reports that are further informed by critical con‑
structivism and ethnomethodology, and that examine relational development, cultural identification and cultural knowledge sharing. They respectively
draw on interviews with employees of a Finnish recruitment agency and metal workers recruited from Poland, interviews with female Russian immigrants
in Finland performing interaction-intense knowledge work, and records of Skype™ chat conversations of a four-member team embedded in a Finnish or‑
ganisation and dispersed in Finland and Russia. The findings of my study problematise the dominant storylines about intercultural communication at work.
Understandings and manifestations of interculturality are fluid and dynamic, and they are informed by the demands and constraints of the specific working
life context. National, ethnic and linguistic identities are social constructs that may become relevant in different ways across interpersonal relationships,
communication situations and workplace arrangements. While constructions of interculturality may become suffused with ideologies and have material
implications, interculturality is only momentary and not a stable feature of communication. Rather than being a neutral conduit for interactants’ cultural
backgrounds, language is a highly important social tool. Linguistic choices and competences can be a powerful means for identification, and they may
affect the patterns of interaction. Future research should move beyond the polarised understandings of cultural difference by abandoning the dominant
theoretical frameworks, relying more on records of actual workplace interactions, and building thick descriptions of shared workplace cultures developed
in the context of workplace relationships, small groups and teams. On a practical level, my findings warrant a critique of the compelling“step lists”offered
in popular intercultural communication literature and trainings. References: Lahti, M. (2015). Communicating interculturality in the workplace (Doctoral
dissertation). University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Retrieved from
PP 332 Ethical Principles of Interpersonal Communication Competence in Working Life: A Literature Review
A. Laajalahti1
1 University of Jyvaskyla, Department of Communication, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Based on several definitions, interpersonal communication competence includes three overlapping dimensions: knowledge, skills, and motivation. These
cognitive, behavioural, and affective dimensions of competence have most often been assessed by focusing on two criteria of competence: effectiveness
and appropriateness. (See e.g., Spitzberg & Cupach, 2011.) Besides above-mentioned dimensions, it has been stated that interpersonal communication
competence contains a meta-cognitive level of competence, required in planning, controlling, and analysing communication and social interaction (see
e.g., Laajalahti, 2014; Valkonen, 2003). Additionally, interpersonal communication competence is strongly intertwined to the discussion of ethics and re‑
sponsible communication, and several researchers include also various ethical principles, such as a sense of moral responsibility and the desire to respect
interpersonal trust, in the definition of interpersonal communication competence (e.g., Jablin & Sias, 2001; Laajalahti, 2014; Morreale, 2009; Valkonen,
2003). However, although the requirements of ethics in interpersonal communication and social interaction have been implicit in many previous studies,
there is a lack of research focusing directly on the ethical aspects of interpersonal communication competence needed in working life. The aim of this
presentation is to review previous research literature on interpersonal communication competence in working life and to bring together current knowledge
on professional ethics of interpersonal communication competence. The main research question is as follows: How are ethical principles noticed in the liter‑
ature of interpersonal communication competence in working life and how are they studied? In addition, the purpose is to identify current research trends
and approaches on the topic, as well as find out gaps yet to be covered. The study is completed following the protocol of a systematic literature review (e.g.,
Jesson et al., 2011).The search is conducted inmultiple multidisciplinary databases (e.g., EBSCOhost, Primo Central Index, ProQuest, PubMed, ScienceDirect,
SCOPUS (Elsevier), SpringerLink, Web of Sciences, and Wiley Online Library) and limited to recent scientific research articles on interpersonal communica‑
tion competence in working life, published 2005–2016 in English peer-reviewed journals. Various search terms and their combinations are used to find
the articles (including “interpersonal communication”or “communication”or “social”+“competence”or “skills”+“working life”or “professional”+“ethics”
or “ethical” or “responsibility”). The data are analysed from a data-driven perspective using thematic analysis, utilising qualitative data analysis software
ATLAS.ti to ease the organization of the data and to help to keep the analysis process systematic, consistent, and transparent. The guiding questions are:
1) How are ethical principles intertwined to the definitions of interpersonal communication competence in working life? 2) What kind of ethical aspects
of interpersonal communication competence are studied in working life and how? 3) How are the role and the nature of ethical principles as a part of in‑
terpersonal communication competence in working approached? The research findings contribute to previous research by clarifying the research tradition
of interpersonal communication competence in working life from the viewpoint of ethics. In the end of presentation, the findings are further elaborated in
order to promote concept development, along with discussion of limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research.