Advancing Otherness and Othering of the cultural Other during ‘Intercultural Encounters’ in Cross-Cultural Management Research

Abstract

This article argues that theorising Otherness and Othering of the cultural Other is integral to identity construction during intercultural encounters, but has largely been neglected in Cross-Cultural Management (CCM) research. Intercultural encounters entail the exchange of cultural identities and ideas when individuals from different cultures interact with each other or multicultural organizations. Otherness signals the ascribed qualities attributed to the Other and is expressed through conceptual boundary markers regarding what constitutes Us and Them. Othering, however, reflects the above boundary-production as an underlying cultural process which maintains (and reproduces) such boundaries. Consequently, the CCM research agenda has overly focused on “cultural differences,” values and broad-stroke dimensions of fixed “national cultures” at the expense of identity constructions that transpire when individuals from different cultures are interacting. This article builds theory through advancing the Otherness and Othering concepts, which are key missing interrelationships to Self in CCM research. This is achieved by coupling CCM theory with intellectual developments in Social Anthropology and Sociology.