This month we are featuring an interview with Dr Helen Spencer Oatey. Helen was recently named in the Stanford University/Elsevier 2024 list of the top 2% of scientists who have had the greatest impact on other scientists in her field. She is Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Communication at the University of Warwick and Managing Director of GlobalPeople Consulting Ltd. (GPC)
We asked Helen where her interest in the intercultural field all began, how language and culture interconnect and if we could be doing more to bridge the gap between the Intercultural Communication and Equity Diversity and Inclusion space.
- How long have you been working in the field of Intercultural Communication? What made you enter this field?
When I first graduated from university and went overseas, first to Austria and then to Hong Kong, I’d never heard of the field of intercultural communication. I’d read nothing about cultural differences and so was ‘dropped in at the deep end’, especially in Hong Kong. Almost immediately I experienced the massive interconnection between language and culture. For instance, during my first few days, I went to a local bank at lunchtime, was served by a young man and was extremely surprised when he asked me if I’d had lunch. I thought he was preparing to ask me out! Shortly afterwards, I visited a Chinese home and was served some rather bitter Chinese tea. I ended up drinking 12 cups because I thought I ought to be polite and drink up all I was served. I couldn’t understand why my ‘no, no thanks’ were repeatedly ignored when the host filled my cup!
These and many other experiences showed me how closely interconnected language use and cultural patterns are. When I later went to China to teach, I was asked to teach a course on language and culture, and so I started exploring it in more detail. That led to my first book, The Customs and Language of Social Interaction in English, published in Shanghai in 1987! After leaving China, I decided to do a PhD in the area, and in my subsequent jobs in higher education, I gradually taught more and more courses on language and culture. This eventually led to the setting up of the first master’s degree in the UK on intercultural communication at the University of Bedfordshire (University of Luton at the time) and later a comparable course at the University of Warwick.
- Many practitioners use the terms Intercultural Competence and Cultural Intelligence interchangeably – do you see a difference here?
Within the intercultural field, many different terms have been used, such as cross-cultural, intercultural, transcultural, cultural and global. These are linked in various combinations with terms such as communication, competence, effectiveness, intelligence, fitness, and assessment. There are often nuances of differences between each of the combinations.
Firstly, it’s important to distinguish between ‘cross-cultural’ and ‘intercultural’. Although sometimes they are used interchangeably, in research cross-cultural refers to comparisons across cultures, e.g. how formal business meetings are run in Japan compared with the UK, or how compliments are responded to in Chinese compared with English. Intercultural research, on the other hand, examines interactions between members of different cultural groups, how the communication is managed or mismanaged, the issues that arise, and the synergies that emerge. The term ‘cultural’ is often used when the research takes place within a particular setting and the focus is on cultural aspects.
The second word of the pair refers to the specific aspect being focused on – whether it’s communication, competence, or assessment. Intercultural competence and cultural intelligence have both been defined and unpacked in a variety of ways e.g.1,2 and are very similar in both referring to the qualities and skills needed to perform effectively and appropriately in culturally unfamiliar contexts. For instance, Thomas et al. define cultural intelligence as “a system of interacting knowledge and skills, linked by cultural metacognition, that allows people to adapt to, select, and shape the cultural aspects of their environment.” (p.127)
The term ‘cultural intelligence’ is probably more immediately meaningful to non-specialists than intercultural competence; however, there is a risk that those unfamiliar with the phrase may associate it too closely with IQ intelligence and interpret it as a cognitive capacity that you inherit. In our recent book,3 Peter Franklin, Domna Lazidou and I coined the term ‘global fitness’ to include the multiple facets that both intercultural competence and cultural intelligence aim to cover, while also trying to give it a broader appeal.
- Do you think the fields of Intercultural Communication and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion could work better together to have a greater impact?
Yes, definitely. Both fields seek to enhance positive relationships and mutual understanding among people who are living or working in contexts of cultural diversity. Originally the intercultural field focused on national differences, and to a lesser extent organisational differences, and sought ways of overcoming those differences. More recently, though, there has been an increasing recognition that we all belong to multiple social groups and that our identities resemble a cultural mosaic more than a single pattern. In the EDI field, the focus has also tended to be on fewer characteristics, especially race/ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, and with a strong equity and justice thrust. However, many recognise that other characteristics are important in different contexts.
Personally, I think that each field could benefit from more cooperation. For instance, universities are concerned about both internationalisation and EDI, yet a recent study of universities in Poland and Germany4 found that they functioned separately. The authors concluded, “When looking at the existing academic and political rationales for both internationalisation and diversity, it is rather surprising that so far university leaders and managers seem relatively inattentive to the complementary logic of the two imperatives.” This results in wasted effort and limits the synergies that could be found by collaborating more.
- You were recently named one of the top 2% of scientists having the biggest impact in their fields? How does this make you feel?
This was actually a big surprise – I had no idea that Stanford University and Elsevier produce such lists, let alone that I’d be listed in the top 2% for the number of citations by other scientists of my publications in linguistics, education and communication. It took a little while to sink in and then I felt a mixture of emotions – honoured and grateful that so many people have appreciated my work, but a little sad that neither of my parents are alive to hear about this. Shortly before my mother’s death, I was working on my first book with a UK publisher and my contract was cancelled midway through. Both she and I were upset, but this is life with publishing – there are ups and downs, and we need to persevere. I’m quite amazed that so many years later, others have appreciated my writing so much, and deeply grateful that I have simultaneously benefited from the stimulating and inspiring ideas of so many academic colleagues around the world.
5.Are you working on any research at the moment? Or which areas would you like to explore in the future?
Since my retirement from the University of Warwick, I’ve been focusing on ‘translating’ my academic work into more accessible writings and usable tools. I’ve always had a strong interest in working relationships and rapport, and when former students and acquaintances shared with me the awful relationship challenges they were experiencing in their work, I felt a strong desire to do something about it. This led to my latest book5, Making Working Relationships Work, which provides a conceptual framework and lots of authentic case studies and activities to help people manage a range of issues and relationships in the workplace. I’ve also recently piloted the Relationship Management Profiler (RELMAP) which probes how managers and their direct reports each perceive the strengths and weaknesses in how they relate to each other, and hence the aspects that would be helpful for them to focus on. I’m hoping to continue exploring this work on rapport management in the future.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Helen for sharing her time and views on the field of intercultural communication and look forward to learning more about her current work on working relationships and rapport in the future.
Notes
1 Spencer-Oatey, H., & Franklin, P. (2009). Intercultural interaction. A multidisciplinary approach to intercultural communication. Palgrave Macmillan.
2 Thomas, D. C., Elron, E., Stahl, G., Ekelund, B., Ravlin, E. C., Cerdin, J.-L., Poelmans, S., Brislin, R., Pekerti, A., Aycan, Z., Maznevski, M., Au, K., & Lazarova, M. B. (2008). Cultural intelligence. Domain and assessment. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 8(2), 123–143.
3 Spencer-Oatey, H., Franklin, P., & Lazidou, D. (2022). Global fitness for global people: How to manage and leverage cultural diversity at work. Castledown.
4 Kaldewey, D., Rymarzak, M., Stoppa, B., Schmitt, K., & Riedmiller, L. (2024). Managing internationalisation versus managing diversity? Global imperatives and national trajectories in German and Polish universities. European Journal of Higher Education, Online first.
5 Spencer-Oatey, H., & Lazidou, D. (2024). Making Working Relationships Work. The TRIPS Toolkit for handling relationship challenges and promoting rapport. Castledown.
Bio
Helen is Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Communication at the University of Warwick and Managing Director of GlobalPeople Consulting Ltd. (GPC). Much of her early career was spent in East Asia and the culture and communication challenges she experienced at that time sparked her interest in relationship management, especially in contexts of diversity. Her academic background is in both social psychology and pragmatics and she has published extensively at the interface of these two disciplines. In addition to many journal articles, her books include Making Working Relationships Work (with Lazidou, Castledown 2024), Global Fitness for Global People (with Franklin & Lazidou, Castledown 2022), Intercultural Politeness: Managing Relations across Cultures (with Kádár, Cambridge University Press 2021), Intercultural Interaction (with Franklin, Palgrave 2009) and Culturally Speaking (Bloomsbury 2000/2008. She is named in the Stanford University/Elsevier 2024 list of top 2% of scientists who have had the greatest impact on other scientists in her field. She has developed a wide range of diagnostic and training resources (e.g. Global Teamworking Profiler; Relationship Management Profiler; Global People@Work e-Course), which have been used and highly appreciated by professionals all over the world.