Inclusion in the academic workplace: accounts of intercultural communication between faculty

ABSTRACT

This study addresses how foreign faculty adapt their communicative behaviors to the academic workplace. Through a descriptive qualitative approach, the results showed how and why these adaptations occur and how culture is an undeniable component of communication. Two themes emerged, cultural expectations and accent. Together, these factors can prevent foreign faculty from fully adjusting to the academic workplace and create a feeling of otherness. The results of this study suggest that the U.S. academic workplace needs to improve communication among all faculty so that diversity, equity, and inclusion are continuously respected and cultivated. This research is significant because it extends a gap in the literature about the acculturation of foreign-born faculty.

KEYWORDS:

• Intercultural communication
• university workplace
• international faculty
• diversity
• phenomenology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alessia Zanin-Yost

Alessia Zanin-Yost Ph.D. (Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2020), is an assistant professor in the Library Department at Slippery Rock University, PA. Her reserch focuses on intercultural communication and health communication.