Ethical and Intercultural Challenges for Technical Communicators and Managers in a Shrinking Global Marketplace

摘要

In today's shrinking global marketplace, many technical communicators face challenges related to intercultural communication. This presentation examines ethical issues in intercultural communication using the guidelines for ethical communication developed by Allen and Voss. Of Allen and Voss' ten basic values for ethical communication, we focus on legality, privacy, teamwork, social responsibility, and cultural sensitivity. We offer specific suggestions for avoiding stereotyping, tokenism, and ethnocentrism in technical documentation. In the past two decades there has been a significant increase in international business and in the number of multinational corporations (MNCs) (Gabel and Bruner 2003). The United States has the largest number of these corporations, and in today's workplace many technical communicators face new challenges related to intercultural communication. Some of these challenges raise ethical issues. This presentation takes a practical look at how to handle ethical issues in intercultural communication, using the guidelines for ethical technical communication proposed by Allen and Voss (1997).