Kategorisierungen des kulturell Fremden in einer High-Tech-Firma

The theory and practice of Intercultural Communication focuses on
the “between cultures”. It is the fundamental assumption of that
discipline that the cultural boundary – the difference between “We”
and “the Other” – can be located and that the Interculturalist
possesses the capability of doing so. But what is really happening
in the so called "Intercultural Fields"? In my dissertation that is
based on two years of ethnographic research, I present the case of
a German High-Tech-Company where the boundary between “We” and “the
Other” cannot be defined precisely anymore. Instead of simple
distinctions between national cultures the actors in the field –
highly-qualified engineers who are working together at a German and
an Indian company site – construct collective identity according to
context and very often in contrast to the external discourse of
national cultural differences. The actors’ perception of cultural
difference is multiple, heterogenous, sometimes ambiguous and
context-specific. According to context, they possess the agency to
use many discourses of "We" and "the Other" if it serves their
needs. Thus, also the difficulties the actors in the field
experience in cross-site work do not match management assumptions
and depend on the respective actor's interpretation of their own
boundary conditions like re-organisation from above, the discourse
of globalisation and the conflicting topic of technical ownership.
As this interpretative approach to global interaction in
multinational companies shows, cross-site work is often "beyond
national culture".