Defining culture and interculturality in the workplace : how cultures interact within organisations

Texte d'une présentation orale (panel)This communication seeks to define the notions of cross-cultural, intercultural and multicultural communication, by considering the relationship between culture and communication processes. By situating culture on the level of the social group (company culture, departmental culture, and not simply national or “ethnic minority” culture) it becomes possible to identify more clearly the influence of different “cultures” on interactions within the workplace, and their impact on the form of the organisation itself. If interculturality is a process associated with multicultural settings, whether on a micro-social (interactional), meso-social (organisational) or macro-social (societal) level, exploring the relationship between these levels can enhance our understanding of the process itself. More precisely, a communicational semiopragmatics approach to interpersonal encounters, highlighting the way that different prefigured cultural traits are activated and performed during an interaction, can help us to articulate the different levels of analysis, in order to better understand the influence of our cultures on our communication and of our communication on our cultures