This book explores the intercultural problems related to the widespread use of English in written and oral communication by native and non-native speakers in institutional and business settings. Each chapter looks at a different set of issues emerging from the confrontation of cultures across national, institutional and organizational discourse communities, taking an intercultural or cross-cultural approach. The focus is on workplace settings, both in institutional and business contexts (e.g. politics, public services, media, international corporate communication, advertising, business negotiations, etc.). The theme is all the more interesting today not only in consideration of the sheer magnitude of this phenomenon and its capillary spread, but above all on account of the pervasive penetration of English into professional and workplace contexts as a communication language also for local/internal communication. The complexity of intercultural communication as an object of research is reflected in the variety of the topics explored, the range of settings investigated, and the diversity of methodological approaches taken.

This volume features representative studies focusing on the evolution of text genres in corporate and professional communication. Genre change is explored in various contexts in light of the increasing importance of new media and the profound social changes that have occurred in the last few decades. Major theoretical issues are raised and discussed, highlighting the need to reconsider the repertoire of conventions traditionally identified in each specific genre, and to reassess and update the analytical tools used to investigate them, about three decades after the emergence of genre analysis.