This investigation analyzes critically the conceptual base and educational goals of a new interdisciplinary academic field of enquiry, Intercultural Business Communication, as it is pursued in the context of the Germany higher education system. To this end a corpus of 24 academic articles was analysed from a CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) perspective. The investigation debates the validity claims made by these authors in respect to globalisation forces and the educational promise of intercultural understanding through intercultural training. In addition to this, it shows how changes in the higher education system, in particular the attempt to offer services for the business world, can impact upon and alter academic genres. The generic hybridity of the corpus will be discussed in relation to the changing understanding of the nature, form and function of academic knowledge production in society.

Dr. Karin Zotzmann works as a lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Southampton and supervises doctoral students in the field of Education at Walden University (U.S.A.). Previously she worked as a lecturer in Applied Linguistics at different universities in Mexico.