The latest labour market data about Austria and Germany highlights a significant and ongoing shortage of skilled crafts and engineering professionals, while the proportion of migrant workers is increasing, particularly in the lower-wage sector.[1][2][3] These two trends are especially impactful in the construction sector, where teams are becoming more culturally diverse. Thus, intercultural communication is commonplace in today’s multicultural construction workplaces and must function seamlessly, as any misunderstanding can lead to severe consequences. Effective communication across the whole team is essential to ensure security for all people involved and to achieve a high-quality outcome in line with the contract.

Against this background, our research aims to understand how different actors in the construction sector navigate the growing language and cultural diversity and the associated challenges, such as language barriers, differences in communication styles, thought patterns, role models, work motives, and behaviours (Loosemore & Lee, 2002, p. 518; Ochieng & Price, 2010, p. 450). Accordingly, the central research questions of this project are: How do members of culturally diverse teams within construction companies in Germany and Austria communicate? What practices do they use to communicate, and how do they perceive their multicultural working environment?

To address these questions, our research adopts an ethnographic approach, using multimodal conversation analysis and grounded theory. We rely on three complementary data types: video recordings, field notes, and interviews. Through analysing authentic professional interactions, we aim to identify linguistic and embodied communication practices that project managers, group leaders, and construction workers use in their daily work. We will then triangulate this observational data with interviews. This helps us gain further insight into the different actors’ perspectives, attitudes, and perceptions regarding intercultural communication.

Overall, our findings contribute to the body of research on intercultural communication in the workplace and, in turn, can be used to develop training concepts and course programs that improve communication in this or similar challenging environments.

[1] https://www.statistik.at/fileadmin/publications/Arbeitsmarktsituation-Migrant-innen-2021.pdf

[2] https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Forschung/WorkingPapers/wp36-migranten-am-arbeitsmarkt-in-deutschland.html

[3] https://www.ams.at/content/dam/download/arbeitsmarktdaten/%C3%B6sterreich/berichte-auswertungen/001_spezialthema_0923.pdf