Chinese and Thai (im)politeness in intercultural workplace communication

This research explored Chinese and Thai (im)politeness in intercultural workplace communication (IWC) from an emancipatory approach from a cross-cultural perspective. Four impoliteness acts that occurred among one Chinese and two Thai people in IWC were used to explore Chinese and Thai (im)politeness. The aims were to investigate whether there was a significant difference concerning the perceptions of the four impoliteness acts with regard to different nationalities and hierarchies, as well as to explore the metapragmatic evaluations related to Chinese and Thai (im)politeness in IWC. Two hundred participants, 100 Chinese and 100 Thai, were involved in this research. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used for the statistical tests, Likert-scale questionnaires, and metapragmatic evaluations. The statistical test results showed that there was a significant interaction between the effects of nationality and hierarchy in three of the four impoliteness acts. Likert-scale questionnaires and metapragmatic evaluations elicited different viewpoints from the Chinese and the Thai participants. Based on the results, six commonalities in Chinese and Thai (im)politeness in IWC were found, while four differences were also identified. Both the Chinese and the Thai (im)politeness in IWC encompassed respect, fairness, being considerate, and having a “true heart” for politeness. Mutual respect and equality were two important components in Chinese (im)politeness. By contrast, Thai politeness was governed by the ostensible harmony in social interactions.