ABSTRACT
This chapter takes an emic approach to the use of language in business organizations, and investigates the choices made and interactional preferences declared by individuals in multicultural workplace communication. It discusses the case of Dubai as a multilingual hub with a workforce comprised of around 220 different national cultures, and the affirmative action program called Emiratization intended to increase the number of local employees in the private sector. While accommodation and other studies of the multicultural/multilingual workplace suggest a typical drive towards integrating with other nationalities, the Dubai workplace presents some very particular conditions that impact heavily on interactions between locals and foreigners. In terms of demographics, gender and age played no role in determining a preference for communication with other Emiratis. Educational level, on the other hand, showed some influence in that more college- or university-educated respondents did not express a preference for intra-ethnic communication.
