Negotiating Reality : A Theory of Action Approach to Intercultural Competence
By: FRIEDMAN, Victor J
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Contributor(s): ANTAL, Ariane Berthoin.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage publications, March 2005Subject(s): Cross cultural conflict resolution | Intercultural communication | International management | AprendizagemManagement Learning - The Journal for managerial and organization learning 36, 1, p. 69-86Abstract: In an increasingly global business environment, managers must interact effectively with culturally complex people in culturally complex situations. The dominant stream of thought in international management literature frames this situation as a problem of conflict and offers generalized models of cultural difference as guides to adaptation for avoiding conflict. This article offers an alternative approach to intercultural competence, negotiating reality, that engages cultural conflict as a resource for learning. Negotiating reality draws on concepts from action science and identity-based conflict to take a new look at the meaning of competence in intercultural interactions. This article analyses and critiques the approach to culture implicit in the dominant international management literature and the adaptation model. It then describes negotiating reality and the kinds of thinking and behaviour that must be adopted in order to put this approach to intercultural competence into practice.
In an increasingly global business environment, managers must interact effectively with culturally complex people in culturally complex situations. The dominant stream of thought in international management literature frames this situation as a problem of conflict and offers generalized models of cultural difference as guides to adaptation for avoiding conflict. This article offers an alternative approach to intercultural competence, negotiating reality, that engages cultural conflict as a resource for learning. Negotiating reality draws on concepts from action science and identity-based conflict to take a new look at the meaning of competence in intercultural interactions. This article analyses and critiques the approach to culture implicit in the dominant international management literature and the adaptation model. It then describes negotiating reality and the kinds of thinking and behaviour that must be adopted in order to put this approach to intercultural competence into practice.
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