Deutsch-schwedische Wirtschaftskommunikation unter Berücksichtigung der Imagearbeit

The dissertation deals with German-Swedish business communication. The aims were to investigate German and Swedish businessmen’s perceptions concerning their business contacts as well as to analyze authentic oral business communication between German and Swedish businessmen. An interdisciplinary approach has been chosen. 37 semi-structured interviews (about 38 hours) with German and Swedish businessmen were conducted and analyzed mainly in qualitative terms. The businessmen often used stereotypes and took their personal experiences as a pervasive truth. Hypotheses concerning possible cultural differences occurring in German-Swedish business communication were proposed on the basis of the conducted interviews and of conversation analysis literature. Furthermore, authentic oral business communication consisting of five business discussions (80 minutes) conducted at different trade fairs was analyzed in terms of facework activities. The aim was to find out which general politeness strategies the different groups preferably use. Furthermore, the different groups’ preferred linguistic realizations of positive and of negative politeness strategies were analyzed. The analysis revealed no noteworthy differences in the usage of general politeness strategies but in the linguistic realization of positive and negative politeness. A comparison between the analysis of oral business communication and the interviewees’ descriptions showed contradictory findings concerning the use of general politeness strategies. The linguistic realizations of some of the positive and negative politeness strategies however corresponded with the interview results. Therefore, the hypothesis is that some linguistic realizations of positive and negative politeness strategies shape the picture of the ‘other’, which was expressed in the interviews in a stereotypical way.