Achieving Communicative Clarity within Cross-cultural Teams in Digital Settings : A Study on Sedia Choices and Communicative Strategies

Sammanfattning

Background: As globalisation expands the boundaries of organisational collaboration, cross-cultural teams are increasingly relying on digital platforms as their primary means of communication. This creates a challenge where lean digital media filters out non-verbal cues that are essential for accurate interpretation. Cultural differences further extend the challenge as they shape how the remaining cues are decoded. Existing frameworks address these dimensions in isolation, leaving a gap in understanding how digital filtering and cross-cultural interpretation interact to obstruct communicative clarity. Purpose: This study examines how cross-cultural teams achieve communicative clarity in digital work environments and identifies the strategies through which such clarity is pursued. It also investigates how media choices enable or obstruct shared understanding across cultural boundaries. Method: This study follows a qualitative, interpretivist approach. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with participants working in cross-cultural digital teams across multiple industries and national contexts. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. Conclusion: Cross-cultural teams operating in digital environments are found to achieve communicative clarity through deliberate effort rather than by default. Collective and individual convergence strategies emerge as the primary means through which team members bridge cultural and digital gaps. The strategic sequencing of lean and rich media proved essential as rich media builds relational trust that makes subsequent lean media exchanges more effective. Overall, the findings show that communicative clarity in cross-cultural digital teams depends on the interplay between communication strategy, media choice, and relational trust.