Listening and Speaking Without Words: Effective Communication in Multicultural Teams

Effective communication in global teams requires translating meaning across message, relationship, time, and space contexts characterized by members’ distinct, culturally normative communication styles. A review of existing literature reveals that to date, the recommendations for facilitators of effective global team communication are decidedly low context, for example, using a direct communication style, asking clarifying questions, and ensuring meaningful participation. We propose a need for high-context approaches to collaborative multicultural teamwork and offer propositions for future exploration of the four domains of communication context to develop a more nuanced, micro-level understanding of communication challenges and synergies for global teams comprised of both lower- and higher-context communicators.