Sources of miscommunication in email: searching for contextual information in communication between chinese and danish collaborators

Authors:
Renée Korver Michan;Pernille Bjøorn
Affiliations:
IT University, Copenhagen, Denmark;IT University, Copenhagen, Denmark
Venue:
Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Intercultural Collaboration
Year:
2012

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Abstract

Based on an interpretative case study investigating the communication between Danish and Chinese engineers in a global medical engineering company, we identified four key sources of miscommunication: 1) lack of common communication protocols; 2) exclusion of participants; 3) political motives; and 4) misinterpretation of common terms. This paper posits that all four challenges are related to a lack of contextual information due to geographical dislocation and not, as initially assumed, to cultural differences. This finding is essential when investigating cross-cultural communication, because it suggests that we should not forget to examine ordinary communication issues when researching communication between people from different cultural backgrounds.