Challenges of Teaching Intercultural Business Communication in Times of Turbulence

Abstract

Whereas many scholars criticize the traditional approach to teaching intercultural communication and suggest new theoretical orientations in research, little has been said on how the subject should be taught and what activities should be implemented in response. In this paper, we make suggestions based on experiences of implementing and reflecting on a course on intercultural business communication with focus on East Asia at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). Three objectives were chosen for the course: (1) develop students’ skills in observations, (2) train students to handle complexity, and (3) encourage students to reflect on and be critical of existing theories and texts. To fulfil the three objectives, we implemented different activities that turned out to be complementary; reflection texts, role-plays and case studies. The chapter provides practical examples from the course followed by a critical reflection of the process and the outcomes. The course was elected by the students as one of the four most innovative and engaging at NHH in 2014. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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