This submission examines how Western self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) managing micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, develop intercultural communicative competence through informal field-based learning. Standard pre-departure cross-cultural training equips managers with cultural knowledge but cannot deliver the situational, relational, and contextual judgment that Vietnamese high-context workplace communication requires. Drawing on Billett's (2023) theory of informal workplace learning and Brashers' (2001) Uncertainty Management Theory, this paper proposes a three-stage developmental model — Recognition, Interpretation, and Navigation — through which Western SIEs progressively learn to read and respond to communicative signals they were not socialised to understand. The model identifies six practical skills that accelerate this development and three common traps that impede it. Rather than treating intercultural communicative competence as a fixed trait or a product of formal instruction, this paper reconceptualises it as a process-oriented skill that emerges through daily, iterative, experiential engagement with the workplace environment. The contribution bridges theory and practice: it addresses practitioners navigating high-context communicative environments while advancing a theoretical argument for integrating informal learning frameworks into intercultural communication research.

Authors:
Olga Rodionova, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Malaysia

About the Presenter(s)
Olga Rodionova, PhD Candidate, APU Malaysia. Interests: intercultural communication, expatriate adjustment, high-context environments. Current project: communicative uncertainty and informal learning among Western SIEs in Vietnamese micro-businesses.

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