Intercultural Communication/IMT

Identity Management Theory (linguistics)

Identity Management Theory (also frequently referred to as IMT) is an intercultural communcation theory from the 1990s. It was developed by William R. Cupach and Tadasu Todd Imahori on the basis of Erving Goffman's Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior (1967). Cupach and Imahori distinguish between intercultural communication (speakers from different cultures) and intracultural communication (speakers sharing the same culture).

To understand IMT, it is important to be familiar with Cupach and Imahori's view of identities. Among the multiple identities which an individual possesses, cultural and relational identities are regarded as essential to IMT.

Cupach and Imahori claim that presenting one's face shows facets of an individual's identity. Whether an interlocuter is able to maintain face or not, reveals his or her interpersonal communication competence. The use of stereotypes in intercultural conversations often results from the ignorance of each other's culture; the application of stereotypes, however, is face threatening. Being able to manage the resulting tensions, is part of intercultural communication competence. For becoming competent in developing intercultural relationships, the following three phases have to be passed:

1. "trial and error": act of looking for similar aspects in certain identities.
2. "mixing up" the communicators' identities to achieve a relational identity acceptable for both participants
3. renegotiating the distinctive cultural identities with the help of the relational identity that was created in phase 2

Cupach and Imahori call these phases "cyclical" as they are gone through by intercultural communicators for each aspect of their identities.

References

• Cupach, William R. and Tadasu Todd Imahori. (1993), "Identity management theory: Communication competence in intercultural episodes and relationships", in R. L. Wiseman and J. Koester (eds.), Intercultural communication competence, 112-131, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
• Goffman, Erving. (1967), Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, NY: Anchor.
• Gudykunst, William B. (2003), "Intercultural Communication Theories", in: Gudykunst, William B (ed.), Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication, 167-189, Thousand Oaks: Sage.