ABSTRACT
In recent years, workforce diversity in terms of age, gender, cultural and ethnic background, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and educational background has become an important issue in many sectors in society. The driving need for workforce diversity not only comes from ethical and legal requirements, but also arises from the potential benefi ts that a diverse workforce can bring to an organisation. In a workforce diversity guide for engineering businesses commissioned by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, it is argued that workforce diversity can increase productivity and effectiveness of the workplace, attract talent, develop wider appeal amongst customers and open up new business. In this chapter, we will consider the workplace as a site of intercultural communication and look into opportunities as well as the challenges for intercultural communication that come with workforce diversity. We will focus on general features of the workplace, irrespective of its business, professional or organisational nature, and leave features specific to business communication to the next chapter.
