Interpersonal Intercultural Adaptation Orientations: A Qualitative Study of Engineering Professionals

Professionals in engineering and many other fields are often expected to work on global teams, setting the stage for frequent interpersonal interactions that span cultural boundaries. To further investigate the nature of such experiences, the findings presented in this paper are based on data collected via interviews and focus groups with 23 technical professionals who had varying levels of exposure to intercultural teamwork. Using an inductive thematic analysis approach to our data, we initially observed contrasting patterns of dyadic interactions in the examples and remarks of our study participants. Through further analysis, we developed a two-dimensional framework for such interactions that takes into consideration a given individual’s orientation toward both their own cultural defaults and the defaults held by others in interpersonal teamwork situations. The five specific orientation patterns we identified are arranged from lesser to greater levels of individual concern for one’s own cultural defaults, along with the defaults and norms held by others. In addition to representing a novel contribution to the existing research literature, we anticipate that our findings are useful for intercultural education and training initiatives, including raising awareness of cultural adaptation strategies and orientations among students and professionals. We also hope that our results help stimulate further research on intercultural adaptation, especially in the context of dyadic and other collaborative interactions that are commonplace in global work settings.