Even though the number of international students and employees within US organizations is increasing (Rivas, Burke, and Hale, 2019), intercultural differences, language barriers, and a desire to avoid conflict and/or offensive language continue to be common communication struggles for both American and international individuals (Rivas et al., 2019; Subtirelu et al., 2022). Hoffman & Zhang (2022) explain that many people also avoid intercultural communication because they struggle to simultaneously maintain their culture and respect others’ cultures due to different cultural interpretations/meanings ascribed to verbal and nonverbal communication (e.g., eye contact as aggressive or respectful). When members of different cultural backgrounds interact, they are potentially opposed to each other because of their different expectations/perceptions, creating a clear sense of “us” and “them” (Gallois, Watson, and Giles, 2018). Such communication can be tense and hostile, and it can descend into overt discrimination and misunderstandings. Thus, understanding and negotiating intercultural conflict is imperative to resolving misunderstandings.
Cultural competency is the management of human interactions across our…
