Silence in Intercultural Collaboration: A Sino-Dutch Research Centre

Abstract

China is widely recognized as a significant scientific partner for Western universities. Given that many Western universities are now operating in the Chinese context, this study investigates the everyday conversations in which international partnerships are collaboratively developed and implemented. In particular, it draws attention to the interpretations of the meanings attached to silence in these conversations, and how these can have unintended consequences for how these joint partnerships are accomplished. The findings come from an ethnographic case study that investigated collaboration within the context of setting up a Sino-Dutch research centre between the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and South China University of Technology (SCUT) as experienced by Dutch researchers in their interaction with their Chinese partners. The findings reveal that the Dutch researchers attached meaning to what was not said by the Chinese, interpreting it as lack of communication, resulting in judgements, uncontested trusts, and distancing that negatively influenced the achievement of common goals. Finally, the relevance of the findings is discussed for those managing communication in international academic partnerships.

Silence in English Cross-Cultural Interaction

“…The study found an important negative correlation between team-member exchange and silence behavior, while workplace loneliness and silence behavior showed a positive relationship, as did psychological capital and silence behavior. Verouden et al (2018) also confirmed the silence of Chinese interlocutors. The researchers faced difficulty in obtaining information from them during their experiments.…”

The multiple meanings of silence in social psychology

“…Over the past couple of decades, the research discourse on silence has engaged in the quest for a more profound understanding of silence. Recent contributions to research-based knowledge include the consideration of misperceived silence in communication [43,44] , the reinterpretation of silent behaviour in multicultural contexts [45,46] , the dynamics of frustration with silence in intercultural communication [47][48][49] , the process of negotiating multiple identities [50] , the range of meanings decoded in silent experiences [23,51,52] , and the modifiability of behaviour [53][54][55] .…”

How Should We Interpret Silence in Qualitative Communication Studies?

“…Paying attention to silence in qualitative research has been presented as a need and a growing trend, particularly in the scientific domain (Mellor and Webster 2017) and in the context of different communication interactions (Verouden et al 2018). The analysis of silence's social and affective functions is necessarily more interpretative than the study of the cognitive or pragmatic functions.…”