Oct 20, 2026 Reza Saberi

Language and Interaction in Multicultural Workplace Meetings

As workplaces become increasingly international, effective communication across linguistic and cultural backgrounds has become an important organizational challenge. This presentation explores communication practices in multicultural workplace meetings where English serves as a shared working language. Drawing on authentic meeting interactions from a Finnish organization, the study examines how participants use language to share information, coordinate tasks, make decisions, and negotiate responsibilities.

Particular attention is given to the influence of workplace roles, meeting objectives, and participation rights on interaction. The findings suggest that communication practices are shaped not only by organizational structures and professional expertise but also by the immediate demands of the interaction. Participants adapt their communicative strategies to accomplish workplace goals, manage collaboration, and maintain mutual understanding in a multicultural environment.

By highlighting the relationship between language, participation, and organizational processes, this presentation contributes to a better understanding of communication in contemporary international workplaces and offers insights into the dynamics of collaboration in culturally diverse professional settings.

Bionote

Reza Saberi is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, specializing in linguistics, workplace communication, intercultural collaboration and English as a lingua franca in organizations. His research focuses on speech acts and workplace interaction. Reza Saberi examines how professionals from linguistic and cultural backgrounds coordinate work negotiate decisions and build shared understanding in multicultural meetings. He draws on real-world data, aiming to generate insights that support more effective communication, collaboration and inclusion, in globally connected workplaces.