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AUTHOR(S): Margaret Gabrielle Pesik, Parulian Hutapea, Gema Muhammad Ramadhan
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TITLE Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges of Indonesian Remote Workers for Foreign Companies |
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ABSTRACT Remote work has been on the rise worldwide since 2019, largely accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates, about 260 million people, 7.9% of global employment, were remote workers in 2019 [1]. Indonesia has similarly experienced a significant surge in remote work adoption in recent years. Furthermore, at the height of Indonesia's lockdown, it is estimated that 46% of employees had to work from home under government restrictions. While remote work offers numerous advantages, it faces many problems, such as different cultures between the workers and the company cause problem in building virtual teams; language barriers and lack of non‑verbal cues may create inefficiency in communication and improve team performance. The study has two main objectives: to identify the types of cross-cultural communication challenges faced by Indonesian professionals in remote international settings, to examine how cultural norms affect communication with foreign colleagues and managers . The data show that remote work provides benefits such as flexible scheduling, reduced commuting, and exposure to diverse work cultures. Discomfort with direct feedback from foreign colleagues, reflecting mismatches in cultural expectations for hierarchy. Language differences, tone misinterpretations, and synchronous‑asynchronous scheduling conflicts further complicated interactions. Feelings of isolation were common, as remote workers lacked spontaneous social encounters and found it difficult to build trust with colleagues. |
KEYWORDS Cross-cultural communication, Cultural adaptation, Indonesian remote workers, Remote work, Virtual teams, Multinational companies |
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Cite this paper Margaret Gabrielle Pesik, Parulian Hutapea, Gema Muhammad Ramadhan . (2026) Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges of Indonesian Remote Workers for Foreign Companies. International Journal of Cultural Heritage, 11, 11-32 |
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