Speaking the Same Language? Cultural Differences in Written Business Communication between Germany and the Asian/IPBC Region

Abstract

In multinational organizations, internal email communication is one of the backbones of coordination across countries and time zones. This paper examines how culturally shaped communication styles influence understanding between a German headquarters and partners in the Asian/IPBC region. The analysis focuses on paired email exchanges and selected interviews from German, Vietnamese and Indian business partners. The findings show that the German side communicates in a direct, task-oriented, and documentation-focused manner, while the Vietnamese side tends to adapt more closely to this style and the Indian side combines relational warmth with a more variable use of directness and indirectness. Misunderstandings arise less from language errors than from different expectations about explicitness, responsibility, urgency, and conflict handling. The paper argues that successful collaboration depends on cultural intelligence, clearer framing of requests, and an awareness that concise email writing can be efficient in one context and potentially ambiguous or abrupt in another.