Abstract:

Intercultural approaches have long shown their benefits for cultural interaction situations, both in academic and research contexts. The present study aims to capture a snapshot of the complex relationships between culture, communication and business. The theoretical construct of intercultural communication in business, emerging from the current socio-economic, synergically combines these three complex and polysemantic concepts. Using the results of the applied study on cultural stereotypes and prejudices, we intend to draw some theoretical underlying guidelines that could inform the development of the interdisciplinary study area, intercultural communication in business. As an academic subject, it could cover a gap in the network of disciplines that shape the growth and expertise of future managers working in the geographical area of the study, Transylvania, with a potential for informing more general studies on how intercultural interactions impact economic and social environment. The applied study reported here is based on qualitative research methodology and uses a semi-structured interview to collect data from 30 business agents, of Italian, German and Romanian origin, operating in Transylvania, at the time when the study was conducted. The results do not confirm the main hypothesis of the research, indicating that, when describing the Romanian manager, self-stereotypes are less favourable than hetero-stereotypes.These insights could be useful as guiding principles in educating managers and business decision-makers from a specific socio-cultural environment to become more interculturally competent.

Keywords:

Intercultural communicative competence, Cultural determination, Stereotype, Prejudice.