Intercultural Communication Institute

29 | Culture, Technology, and Communication in the Global Workplace

Globalization and new computer/communication technologies are transforming the world of work (as well as the domains of social relationships and learning). Increasingly, managers and employees, teachers and students are interacting—individually and in groups—across geographic and cultural borders via new collaborative and collective intelligence tools, but with variable, and often disappointing, results. Our responsibility as interculturalists is to engage with these new forms of human interaction and use them to deepen cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.

Designed for
Individuals who work for or who train/consult with organizations utilizing new technologies across geographic and cultural borders.

Review research on the complex interrelationships among culture, technology, and communication
Examine new asynchronous and synchronous tools, such as email, audio and videoconferencing, web meetings, instant messaging, social networking, blogs, threaded discussions, wikis, and virtual worlds
Examine the concept of dialogue and its relevance to cross-cultural understanding
Understand the challenges and opportunities of new technologies to global collaboration, including global teamworking, coaching across distances, running virtual meetings, marketing, and training
Formulate cross-cultural principles and practices for utilizing new technologies in selected activities; e.g., global teamwork, coaching, running meetings

Learning Activities
This session is a meta-dialogue on cross-cultural dialogue via technology. Activities will include:

Brief presentations of conceptual frameworks and models
Examination of facilitator and participant cross-cultural experiences with new technologies
Face-to-face and technology-mediated dialogues
Technology-mediated groupwork to combine our collective knowledge and intelligence to discover principles and practices that enable successful global collaboration

(Participants should bring a laptop because some of the dialogue will be conducted via technology.)

Faculty: Terence Brake

Terence Brake is the president of TMA-Americas, a consultancy focused on providing learning solutions for organizations experiencing the human challenges of globalization. In 1994 Terry received the ASTD International Area Award for his work on the cultural challenges of cross-border business. He has authored several books, including The Global Leader and Managing Globally, and has contributed chapters on globalization issues to many others. His latest book on global collaboration is due to be published in 2008.