Should we teach women to interrupt? Cultural variables in management communication courses

The “universal” principles of effective communication taught in most management communication courses ‐ directness, simplicity, forcefulness ‐ are, from an inter‐cultural perspective, American and male. Should women students of business be taught to imitate the speech behaviour stereotypically associated with American businessmen? Or is the behaviour stereotypically associated with women equally, or even more, effective in business situations? Because there is little research to support the masculine model of business speech, because coercing women to change their speech produces pedagogically unwarranted stress, and because the feminine stereotype is actually better suited to global business communication, this paper argues that business and management communication should be taught from a gender‐independent postmodern approach.