Interviewer’s name: ________________________

Bridging Cultural Differences and Contradictions at Workplace

Research Project

This interview is carried out in absolute confidentiality for the purpose of academic
research only. Neither the name of the company nor the name of interviewee will be
revealed to anyone in any form. All interview recording will be erased on completing
of the project. Under this condition, the interviewee grants permission to audiotape
the conversation.

Signed by:
____________________

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Start recording here. Make sure the recording machine works.

Script

Interviewer

Hi, sir. How are you? I'm Mohd Fadzil, final year student of Master of Corporate
Communications, Universiti Putra Malaysia, representing my friends to conduct this
interview for Intercultural Communication subjects. If you dont mind, shall we
proceed with the interview now?

I am interested to learn about your own personal experiences in working and

collaborating with Malaysian co-workers. I would like to emphasize the
confidentiality of this conversation. There is no right or wrong answer, so please be
candid and detail as possible in answering my questions.

As an introduction, can I ask you a little bit about your personal information?

01 Interviewee ID number

02 Interviewee gender (1=male, 2=female)

03 Nationality of expatriate: _________________________________

04 Type of organization 1= multinational organization

2= joint venture organization
3= Malaysian conglomerate

05 Are you married or single? (1=married, 2=single)

06 Would you mind indicating one of the following age categories?

(1=20’s, 2=30’s, 3=40’s, 4=50’s, 5=60’s)

07 What is your highest educational qualification? 1= Diploma

2= Bachelor degree
3= Master degree
4= Ph. D degree

08 How long you have been working in this company?

___ year(s) ___ month(s)

09 What is your current job title in this organization? ________________

10 Have you received or attended intercultural or cross-cultural training

before? Could you describe them?

Ok, now can I ask more details about contact and interaction.

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CONTACT & INTERACTION

11 How is your daily routine interacting with Malaysia co-workers. In other

words, how many Malaysians do you work with, and for how many hours per
day on the average?

12 Could you name five persons with whom you work closely in this company.
How many of them are Malaysian co-workers?

13 Next, i would like you to name ten persons in this company whom you
consider as your friends. How many of them are Malaysian co-workers?

14 Do you socialize with Malaysian co-workers outside the workplace and spend
time doing things that are unrelated to work?

If yes, ask: What kinds of socialization or activity do you do with Malaysian

co-workers?

If no, ask: What might be the reasons for not socializing with Malaysian co-
workers?

Ok sir. Thank you for your answer. Now, I have to ask you about your experiences in
cultural differences.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

15 Generally speaking, are there any differences between working with co-
expatriates and working with Malaysians? If yes there are, can you describe
the differences?

If the answer is “no difference,” ask: Would you elaborate on that please?
What do you mean by no difference?

16 Have you noticed any differences between expatriate and Malaysian workers
in their attitude toward work and the way they carry their work? If there are
would you describe the differences?

Follow-up question on each difference:

Do you think this difference is due to cultural difference? Or due to some

other reasons such as individual personalities involved?

If the answer is “no difference,” ask: Would you explain what do you mean by
no difference, please.

COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES

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17 Have you ever experienced difficulties in communicating with Malaysian co-
workers? If so, what kinds of communication difficulties? Could you describe
it in detail?

Follow-up question on each difficulty:

Do you have any method of dealing with it? Have you tried that method? And
does it seem to work?

If the answer is “no problem,” ask: Do you feel communicating with

Malaysian co-workers is as easy as with co-expatriates?

18 Can you recall a specific incident in which you had a problem communicating
with Malaysian co-workers? Would you describe what happened? Please take
time, and think about a specific incident.

Follow-up question, if appropriate:

Did you try anything to overcome this problem? What could have prevented
this problem?

ENDING

19 This concludes our prepared questionnaires. Is there anything that you’d like
to compute with regard of your experiences interacting with and relating to
Malaysian co-workers?

That’s all for now, sir. I am grateful and appreciate the great cooperation you
demonstrate throughout this interview session. I am looking forward to meet again
and have a pleasant day. I hope you really enjoy your working here, in our country,
Malaysia. Thank you again.

Interviewer: End the interview by thanking the interviewee sincerely and profusely.

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