Spoken and Unspoken between Natives and Non-Natives: Trust at the Heart of Intercultural Professional Collaborations

Abstract

Several contemporary societies are facing important issues regarding the relations between Native and non-Native populations. The difficulties of establishing dialogs based on lasting positive intercultural relations have repercussions within the institutions and organizations of a given society. Between the affective and relational sphere and the professional sphere, links are forged, which reproduce complex social relationships, even conflicting ones. This is the context in which our chapter’s proposal fits. By focusing on the determinants of social relations at work in these daily encounters between non-Natives and Natives in the workplace and the bonds of trust, or mistrust, which ensue, we will question the premises of social relations between non-Natives and Natives. These questions emanate from various research studies that we have carried out in recent years in organizations in the mining and energy sectors.