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Intro -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Transcription Conventions -- 1 Introduction -- Part 1 BASIC CONCEPTS -- Editor's Introduction -- 2 Face, (Im)Politeness and Rapport -- 3 Culture and Communication -- Part 2 CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATICS: EMPIRICAL STUDIES -- Editor's Introduction -- 4 Apologies in Japanese and English -- 5 British and Chinese Reactions to Compliment Responses -- 6 Interactional Work in Greek and German Telephone Conversations -- Suggestions for Further Reading for Part 2 -- Part 3 PROCESSES IN INTERCULTURAL INTERACTION -- Editor's Introduction -- 7 Pragmatic Transfer -- 8 Communication Accommodation Theory -- 9 Adaptation and Identity -- Part 4 INTERCULTURAL PRAGMATICS: EMPIRICAL STUDIES -- Editor's Introduction -- 10 Negotiating Rapport in German-Chinese Conversation -- 11 Negative Assessments in Japanese-American Workplace Interaction -- 12 Impression Management in 'Intercultural' German Job Interviews -- 13 Issues of Face in a Chinese Business Visit to Britain -- Suggestions for Further Reading for Part 4 -- Part 5 METHODOLOGY -- Editor's Introduction -- 14 Data Collection in Pragmatics Research -- 15 Recording and Analysing Talk Across Cultures -- 16 Projects -- Glossary -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.

In today's globalized world of international contact and multicultural interaction, effective intercultural communication is increasingly seen as a pre-requisite for social harmony and organisational success. This handbook takes a "problem-solving" approach to the various issues that arise in real-life intercultural interaction. The editors have brought together experts from a range of disciplines, including linguistics, psychology and anthropology, to provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the field, whilst simultaneously anchoring it in Applied Linguistics. Key features: provides a state-of-the-art description of different areas in the context of intercultural communication presents a critical appraisal of the relevance of the field offers solutions of everyday language-related problems international handbook with contributions from renown experts in the field.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how newly formed culturally diverse project teams develop and implement rules, and how these processes may be affected by language-fluency asymmetries.Design/methodology/approachUsing a case-study research design, the authors investigated three multicultural project teams within a management integration program in a multinational company in France. Their complete data set includes 37.5 hours of observations and 49 hours of semi-structured interviews.FindingsFindings revealed that subgroups formed on the basis of language-fluency and this affected the development and implementation of rules. While rule-setting mechanisms emerged across teams, they varied in form. On the one hand, tightly structured rules emerged and rules were rigidly applied when there were greater language inequalities. In contrast, implicit behavior controls guided interactions when language-fluency subgroupings were less salient. The findings also revealed that the alignment of other individual attributes with language fluency reinforced subgroup divisions, further impacting the rule development and implementation processes.Practical implicationsUnderstanding rule development and implementation in culturally diverse teams and how these processes are impacted by language disparities enables managers to help members develop more successful behavioral patterns by keeping language-fluency (and other) attributes in mind.Originality/valueThe study extends and complements previous team research by providing in-depth insights into the process of rule development and implementation. It demonstrates the impact of language-fluency asymmetries and subgroup dynamics on these processes. The authors propose a model to capture the processes by which culturally diverse teams create rules, and how the rule-setting mechanisms might be moderated by faultlines such as language-based disparities.

Based on an ethnographic-like case study comprising observations and interviews with members of three newly formed multinational project teams, our study explores the micro-processes of interactional teamwork and captures how the three teams develop strategies for managing the challenges of code-switching in their interactions. Findings from our study suggest that teams interpret the impact of code-switching challenges differently in spite of the fact that they are performing similar activities, suggesting that adopting (clearly defined) rules for managing interactions may not be as effective as the presence of other factors within the teams. Our findings extend theory on the use of a common working language in multinational teams and go beyond this by illustrating how individual teams establish practices for handling the challenges of code-switching and the effects of these on team interactions.

Compliments are usually intended to have a positive effect on interpersonal relations, yet for the outcome actually to be positive, both the compliment and the compliment response need to be handled appropriately. This paper focuses on different types of compliment responses, and explores Chinese people's evaluative judgements of these different types. Gao and Ting-Toomey (1998) argue that modesty is an important component of Chinese politeness, and that to blatantly accept a compliment is considered impolite. Several studies (e.g. Chen 1993, Yuan 1996 and Loh 1993) have indeed found that compliments are rejected more frequently in Chinese than in English, yet other evidence suggests that acceptance responses are also relatively common in Chinese. This paper explores a number of hypotheses associated with these issues. It reports a study carried out in Mainland China and Hong Kong, and discusses the notion of Chinese modesty in relation to the findings.

1. Introduction -- 2. Global Leadership: Key Concepts and Frameworks -- 3. Leadership in Africa: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives -- 4. The Historical, Political, and Demographic Context of Leadership in Africa -- 5. Methodology -- 6. Young Leaders Transforming Science in Ghana -- 7. Leadership and Culture in Corporate Organisations in Nigeria -- 8. Bridging the Generation Gap: Perceptions of Leadership by Senior and Young Leaders in Tanzania -- 9. Changing Leadership Perceptions: Leaders in the Private Sector in Kenya -- 10. Emerging People-oriented Leadership in Rural Development in Rwanda -- 11. Leadership Development needs and Experiences: Survey Findings -- 12. Understanding Leadership and Its Development in Africa.

The present study aimed at investigating possible cultural effects on the perceived importance of interactional concerns in service encounters. Individual values were examined to establish an explanatory framework for any effects that might emerge. Hong Kong Chinese and Filipinos participated in the present study by rating the importance of 12 interactional concerns in five hypothetical scenarios involving service provision. "Rapport promotion" was the only consistent factor of interactional concerns to emerge from the five scenarios in each of the two cultural groups. The dimensions of individual values, labeled "Conservation" and "Self-Transcendence" by Schwartz (1992), significantly predicted a respondent's level of rapport promotion across all scenarios, with self-transcendence partially unpackaging the cultural difference that emerged in one of the service scenarios. We use these results to support a model of communication in service provision that predicts communication concerns as arising from cultural socialization for personal characteristics and situational features of the encounter, leading to the petitioner's being more dependent on the good will of the service provider.