Twenty-third International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

Often being viewed as “the other” within a host society, migrant workers are seen as a marginalized group by the host members. The COVID-19 pandemic has paved the way for people to become more attuned to “the other” and find new meanings of competent communication. This opens opportunities to interrogate migrant workers’ perspectives on intercultural competence. Drawing from Deardorff’s (2004, 2006) work, the paper explores how migrant workers learn the ropes when socializing with the Malaysian locals and construe intercultural competence in their workplace. Informants were selected from three economic sectors, namely, plantation, manufacturing, and construction. Fourteen in-depth interviews with informants from six countries were carried out. A qualitative analysis following Braun and Clarks’ (2006) approach to thematic analysis was conducted. Findings indicated two important themes that describe how the migrant workers learn the ropes: grasping cultural differences and learning the host language. The findings suggest implications for learning the value of culture including the need to reconsider intercultural competence in the Malaysian context.