Avoiding the iceberg: conceptual and didactic alternatives to essentialist paradigms of intercultural communication

Abstract

The dominant paradigm in the field of intercultural communication is the dimensional model of national cultures developed by Geert Hofstede and further elaborated by authors such as Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, Richard Lewis and the authors of the GLOBE report. This model seeks to explain the behavior of individuals, especially in business contexts, through reference to numerical or relative values extrapolated from empirical data on the level of individual countries for a specific number of abstract variables that are supposedly connected with fundamental questions of social organization. This paradigm has enjoyed considerable favour in the area of intercultural studies, especially in the area of training, but in recent years it has also been subject to sustained critique from academics who have raised fundamental objections to its theoretical foundations, its methodology, its conclusions, and its claims to practical relevance. The current paper summarizes these objections and considers their