ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by outlining some reasons why traditional cross-cultural management education and training approaches are no longer appropriate in the second decade of the twenty-first century, and some shortcomings of the theoretical concept ‘intercultural competence’. It discusses how terms such as ‘culture’ and ‘identity’, when no longer treated as solid and static states, and multilingualism offer possibilities for new understandings of intercultural encounters. Making sense of the interplay among the variables means that assigning identity markers to individuals becomes meaningless: identity is a fluid or liquid ambiguous concept brought into being in interaction and through the relationships people hold with one another, whether proximate or distant. Students need ways of understanding how interlocutors socially construct their own and others’ identities in and through intercultural communication. This understanding can be developed by teachers providing real-life opportunities for prolonged engagement with other people in communities, the workplace, or via study-abroad experience.
