Contents -- 1 Introduction 13 -- 2 Intercultural Mergers and Acquisitions 16 -- 2.1 The basic phenomenon of intercultural mergers and acquisitions 16 -- 2.2 The role of culture in cross-border M&As 18 -- 2.2.1 What is culture? 19 -- 2.2.2 Communication and intercultural competence 22 -- 2.3 Intercultural mergers - critical side effects 27 -- 2.4 The role of language in cross-border M&As 29 -- 3 Intercultural communication and pragmatics in M&As 36 -- 3.1 Sources of intercultural misunderstandings and pragmatic failures 37 -- 3.2 Intercultural politeness strategies 41 -- 3.3 Politeness and the concept of face 45 -- 3.4 The present study 56 -- 4 Methods of data collection and analysis 58 -- 4.1 Quantitative methods of data collection 58 -- 4.1.1 Questionnaires 58 -- 4.1.2 Discourse Completion Tasks 60 -- 4.1.3 Corpus data 61 -- 4.2 Qualitative methods of data collection 62 -- 4.2.1 Simulations and role-playing games 62 -- 4.2.2 Naturally occurring authentic discourse 64 -- 4.2.3 Interviews 65 -- 4.3 Combination of methods 66 -- 5 The multi-method approach and the results of the present study 68 -- 5.1 The Questionnaire 68 -- 5.1.1 Presentation of the questionnaire results 70 -- 5.1.1.1 Geographic focus and personal background 70 -- 5.1.1.2 Level of importance questions 71 -- 5.1.1.3 Level of agreement/disagreement questions 80 -- 5.1.1.4 Pairs of statements 88 -- 5.1.1.5 Results of the DCT-style data 89 -- 5.1.2 Summary of questionnaire results 93 -- 5.1.2.1 German overall key findings 93 -- 5.1.2.2 Swiss overall key findings 94 -- 5.1.2.3 US-American overall key findings 94 -- 5.1.2.4 Australian overall key findings 95 -- 5.2 The follow-up interview 96 -- 5.2.1 Presentation of the interview results 97 -- 5.2.1.1 Conflict behaviour and harmony maintenance - face loss 97 -- 5.2.1.2 Cultural differences 100.

5.2.1.3 Intercultural communication experiences 104 -- 5.2.1.4 Additional information 110 -- 6 Implications for businesses going global 112 -- 6.1 The implications of developing global managers 113 -- 6.2 The importance of a linguistic focus in intercultural trainings 114 -- 6.3 Critical analysis of a cross-cultural training programme US 116 -- 6.3.1 Module 'Adjusting to a New Culture' 117 -- 6.3.2 Module 'Practical Living in the USA' 119 -- 6.3.3 Module 'Developing Cultural Awareness' 119 -- 6.3.4 Module 'Working Well with US-Americans' 121 -- 6.3.5 Module 'Communication Styles in the USA' 122 -- 6.4 Summary of the critical analysis 123 -- 6.5 Implications for intercultural training programmes 128 -- 7 Conclusions 135 -- 8 References 140 -- Appendices 153 -- Appendix: The Questionnaire 154 -- Appendix: Questionnaire - SPSS tables 158 -- Appendix: Interview Guide 172 -- Index of Figures -- Figure 1: The onion model of culture 20 -- Figure 2: Culture as social grammar in intercultural communication 24 -- Figure 3: Circumstances determining choice of strategy 48 -- Figure 4: Ting-Toomey's Face-Negotiation Model 56 -- Figure 5: Intercultural Communication Training Model 132 -- Index of Tables -- Table 1: Interview results - cultural differences 101 -- Table 2: Appendix - Survey results - demographic data 1 158 -- Table 3: Appendix - Survey results - demographic data 2 158 -- Table 4: Appendix - Survey results - demographic data 3 159 -- Table 5: Appendix - Survey results question 1 159 -- Table 6: Appendix - Survey results question 2 160 -- Table 7: Appendix - Survey results question 3 160 -- Table 8: Appendix - Survey results question 4 161 -- Table 9: Appendix - Survey results question 5 161 -- Table 10: Appendix - Survey results question 6 162 -- Table 11: Appendix - Survey results question 7 162.

Table 12: Appendix - Survey results question 8 163 -- Table 13: Appendix - Survey results question 10 163 -- Table 14: Appendix - Survey results question 11 164 -- Table 15: Appendix - Survey results question 12 164 -- Table 16: Appendix - Survey results question 13 165 -- Table 17: Appendix - Survey results question 14 165 -- Table 18: Appendix - Survey results question 15 166 -- Table 19: Appendix - Survey results question 16 166 -- Table 20: Appendix - Survey results question 17 166 -- Table 21: Appendix - Survey results question 18 167 -- Table 22: Appendix - Survey results question 19 167 -- Table 23: Appendix - Survey results question 20 168 -- Table 24: Appendix - Survey results question 21 168 -- Table 25: Appendix - Survey results question 22 169 -- Table 26: Appendix - Survey results question 23 169 -- Table 27: Appendix - Survey results question 24 170 -- Table 28: Appendix - Survey results question 25 170 -- Table 29: Appendix - Survey results question 26 171 -- Table 30: Appendix - Survey results - Politeness Scale 171.