Through Western Eyes: Insights into the Intercultural Training Field
Organization Studies · 2009 · Volume 30 · Issue 9
Abstract
Intercultural corporate training is a growing branch of the coaching and consulting industries and it appears to be both theory and practice driven. The growth of the relevant academic literature reveals a focus on the successful adaptation to host cultures and organizations, but little attention to the ethical dimensions of newly learned rules and newly accepted values. This article introduces a number of concerns related to ethical principles within this growing industry. The issues of profit-maximization, knowledge-access inequalities, the authenticity dilemma and the in-built Western bias of cross-cultural research are presented. Triggered by the author’s experiences in the intercultural corporate training industry and inspired by participation in a number of field-specific training-for-trainers events, this essai is an opening statement in a long-overdue discussion on ethics in intercultural training.
Keywords
authenticity, cross-cultural competence, ethics, intercultural training
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