Language Use on Topic Management Patterns in Intercultural and Intracultural Decision-Making Meetings

Research on topic management has focused on how individuals manage topics that reflect thought patterns of their cultural orientations. The representation of this line of the theory is Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Kaplan’s linear-spiral thinking patterns.This presentation reports findings of a Hong Kong Government-funded joint research project. The study examines whether bilingual individuals use similar or different topic management patterns when they used English (low-context) language in intercultural meetings as compared to when they used their high-context native languages (Cantonese for Hong Kong Chinese and Japanese for Japanese business professionals) in their intracultural meetings. In the presentation I will highlight the development of the Study 1 and Study 2 and update the findings of the present study (Study 3).Research scholars have developed extensive theories and empirical studies on the impact of the languages used by communicators on their communication and thought patterns (see, Du- Babcock, 1999, 2006; Hall, 1976; Ma, 1993; Kaplan, 1987). The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis addresses this issue by theorizing about siz