Linguistically and culturally diverse project partnerships and teams

Abstract

This chapter examines conceptual and empirical research into the impact of language and culture on project partnerships and teams. Research on this topic takes place in several different disciplinary fields, with international business/management being particularly dominant. This chapter thus includes work in this area, as well as in pragmatics/discourse studies. The first main section, which takes a historical perspective, argues that much work in the international business field has attempted to demonstrate the impact (positive or negative) of the diversity of team members on team performance, yet has found a complex picture that requires a more contextual and process-oriented approach. Early work on language demonstrated the importance of language choice as well as the need to pay close attention to the construction of mutual understanding. The following sections explore ways in which this can be carried out, including research into critical issues such as the benefits and challenges of teamwork, virtual teams, team life cycles, and the impact of culture. Current research foci are reviewed, including the impact of faultlines, power relations and language proficiency, and team relations, as well as the wide variety of research methods used to investigate such issues. The chapter ends with several recommendations for practice and future research directions, including the need for more case studies that are longitudinal and/or process-oriented.