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The ‘cultural turn’ in business and management discourse: Political and ethical considerations

The ‘cultural turn’ in business and management discourse: Political and ethical considerations
The ‘cultural turn’ in business and management discourse: Political and ethical considerations
The focus of this chapter is on the academic field of Intercultural or Cross Cultural Business Communication, an area that has, from the 1980s onwards, witnessed an explosive rate of publications and widespread public, professional and academic attention. The academic endeavor is coupled with consultancy practices and intercultural training for managers, a trend that is unsurprisingly related to the internationalization of business activities.
The field of Intercultural and Cross-Cultural Business Communication has developed partly as a reaction to the shortcomings of mainstream neoclassical economics which holds that through the spread of global competition all cultures and organizations will converge to a point of homogeneity. Interculturalists, in contrast, claim that human beings are profoundly shaped by their respective cultural communities and that these differences will persist despite the forces of globalization.

I argue in this chapter that the emphasis on culture, values and identity responds appropriately to the deficiencies of the predominant neo-classical approach. Intercultural approaches can thereby, at least superficially and intuitively, explain a wider range of phenomena related to processes of ‘globalization’. However, by turning culture into an all-encompassing notion with strong causal power and by ignoring the complexities of economic internationalization, inter- and cross-culturalists ‘flip’ from economic to cultural reductionism. This means that they cannot account satisfactorily for communication in international business contexts and might even perpetuate pre-existing stereotypes and prejudices on the part of students or clients. In order to capture these shortcomings, I analyze the two neoclassical metaphors (human beings behave like homo oeconomici, markets are regulated by the invisible hand of the market) and the responses developed by the field of Cross- or Intercultural Business Communication.
intercultural business communication, cultural turn, business discourse, neoclassical economics
0773446508
Edwin Mellen
Zotzmann, Karin
83cb3ab3-c9cd-43c5-946e-cc48462ac234
Gueldry, Michel
Zotzmann, Karin
83cb3ab3-c9cd-43c5-946e-cc48462ac234
Gueldry, Michel

Zotzmann, Karin (2010) The ‘cultural turn’ in business and management discourse: Political and ethical considerations. In, Gueldry, Michel (ed.) How Globalizing Professions Deal with National Languages: Studies in Cultural Studies and Cooperation. Ceredigion, County of, GB. Edwin Mellen.

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is on the academic field of Intercultural or Cross Cultural Business Communication, an area that has, from the 1980s onwards, witnessed an explosive rate of publications and widespread public, professional and academic attention. The academic endeavor is coupled with consultancy practices and intercultural training for managers, a trend that is unsurprisingly related to the internationalization of business activities.
The field of Intercultural and Cross-Cultural Business Communication has developed partly as a reaction to the shortcomings of mainstream neoclassical economics which holds that through the spread of global competition all cultures and organizations will converge to a point of homogeneity. Interculturalists, in contrast, claim that human beings are profoundly shaped by their respective cultural communities and that these differences will persist despite the forces of globalization.

I argue in this chapter that the emphasis on culture, values and identity responds appropriately to the deficiencies of the predominant neo-classical approach. Intercultural approaches can thereby, at least superficially and intuitively, explain a wider range of phenomena related to processes of ‘globalization’. However, by turning culture into an all-encompassing notion with strong causal power and by ignoring the complexities of economic internationalization, inter- and cross-culturalists ‘flip’ from economic to cultural reductionism. This means that they cannot account satisfactorily for communication in international business contexts and might even perpetuate pre-existing stereotypes and prejudices on the part of students or clients. In order to capture these shortcomings, I analyze the two neoclassical metaphors (human beings behave like homo oeconomici, markets are regulated by the invisible hand of the market) and the responses developed by the field of Cross- or Intercultural Business Communication.

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More information

Published date: 2010
Keywords: intercultural business communication, cultural turn, business discourse, neoclassical economics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 177957
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/177957
ISBN: 0773446508
PURE UUID: da252da2-e95b-4c57-ae0e-adb307466d7f

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Date deposited: 22 Mar 2011 11:19
Last modified: 10 Dec 2021 18:57

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Contributors

Author: Karin Zotzmann
Editor: Michel Gueldry

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