Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson has one foot in academia, specialising in intercultural communication and cross-cultural management, and one foot in the business world, working as a cultural awareness trainer and consultant. Through his lecture courses and training programmes he aims to develop awareness of cultural differences and promote practical strategies for ensuring effective interpersonal relations in multicultural contexts.

Robert has lectured at a number of different institutions, including Birkbeck College, University of London and Surrey University, and has undertaken consultancy and training work for a wide variety of organisations, including Accenture, Adidas, BSkyB, Deloitte, EADS, Ernst & Young, Hitachi, KPMG, Sony, Toyota and Unilever. Clients in the public sector have included ACAS, the National School of Government, Department for Transport and UKTI. He has extensive experience of living and working in France, Germany, Japan and China, and speaks French, German and Japanese.

He is a former Board Member of SIETAR Europa (the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research).

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, achieved through examination, July 2023
• MA in Intercultural Communication with Distinction, University of Luton (Bedfordshire), UK, 2003
• BA Joint Honours Degree in Modern Languages (French and German), 2:1, St Anne's College, Oxford University, UK, 1996

• August 2008 – current, Lecturer in Cross-Cultural Studies (0.8), Regent's University London
• January 2005 – current, Cross-Cultural Trainer and Consultant, London
• September 2005 – Visiting Lecturer in Intercultural Communication, Birkbeck College, University of London (from Sep 2007); and the University of Surrey, Guildford (from June 2011)
• July 2003 – September 2006, Lecturer in ELT and Intercultural Communication, Department of Language and Communication, University of Bedfordshire

• ‘Whose ‘Culture’ is it Anyway?’ Article for The Linguist (Journal of the Chartered Institute of Linguists), Vol.57 (3), June/July 2018 (also available online: https://www.ciol.org.uk/whose-%E2%80%98culture-it-anyway) 
• ‘Intercultural Communication: Origins and Destinations’, BATJ Journal (Journal of the British Association of Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language), No.16, Sep 2015 [ISSN : 1477-4704]
• Johnson, R, Nagasaka, T, Curtis, R and Savage, C. (2003). ‘Dear KIDS - One and All: Haikei KIDS no Minasan - Kusa no Ne no Kokusai Shinzen.' [Grassroots International Relations] Kanazawa: Maeda

• Supervise BA and MA dissertations in the field of cross-cultural management, especially qualitative investigations of culture shock and expatriation.

• Developing global leadership competence
• International negotiations and conflict resolution
• Pedagogical approaches to the development of intercultural skills
• Japanese language and culture in business

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) accredited through examination, July 2023
• Accreditation as Mediator (Alternative Dispute Resolution), completed 40-hour practical course at the School of Psychotherapy and Psychology, Regent’s University London, Dec 2013
• Member of SIETAR UK (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) – former President 2005-7
• IALIC (International Association of Languages and Intercultural Communication)
• Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute

• Delivered an interactive workshop entitled ‘Can Young and Old See Eye to Eye? Culture and Intergenerational Relations’ for SIETAR UK, January 2017, Shoreditch, London.
• Delivered a staff development workshop for Regent’s Institute of Languages and Culture, on the theme of ‘Culture in Context: Lessons learned from an intercultural training assignment’, Nov 2015.
• Was invited to give a keynote lecture (‘Quo Vadis? Recent Developments in Intercultural Communication’) at the 17th Annual Conference of the British Association of Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (BATJ), Regents University London, UK, August 2014.
• Delivered a keynote address at the Chartered Institute of Linguistics Annual General Meeting, entitled ‘Interpretation as Cultural Mediation’, London, June 2013.
• Undertook a major project for CILT, the National Centre for Languages, to develop a comprehensive programme of cultural diversity training for managers across London, sponsored by the Learning and Skills Council.

• (2017). ‘Who am I? Who are we? What’s next in the Intercultural Profession?’ 90-minute Development Workshop for the SIETAR Europa Congress, Dublin, Ireland.
• (2016). ‘Facilitating Intercultural Skills Development in International Internships’, Workshop, (with D. Mendez, University of Texas at Austin and M. Torres, IES Abroad, at the Forum on Education Abroad Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• (2012). ‘Have you caught the virus yet? Using a cultural metaphor to transform the way we teach intercultural communication’: Conference Paper at the 11^th IALIC Conference, ‘Intercultural Dialogue: Current Challenges/Future Directions’, Durham University
• (2010). ‘Developing the Intercultural Competence of BA Students’ Conference Paper (with Karine Mangion) at Travelling Languages: Culture, Communication and Translation in a Mobile World, Leeds Metropolitan University.
• (2008). ‘Attitudes to Teaching and Learning: Exploring the Experiences of Teachers in Taiwan’ Presentation and Workshop at the 4th International Conference on ‘Promoting Partnership: Responding to the Needs of the East Asian Learner in Higher Education’, University of Portsmouth.
• (2007). ‘Can Cross-Cultural Training make matters worse? Lessons to be learnt from an empirical study of sojourners in Taiwan’ Presentation (with Wei Ju Liao) for the SIETAR Europa Congress, Sofia, Bulgaria.
• (2005). ‘The Learning Experience of International Students’ Presentation and workshop for the University of Luton (Bedfordshire) Teaching and Learning Conference, based on original quantitative and qualitative research.