Using Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) as a framework, this paper presents a multi-method investigation of the communicative behaviors in culturally heterogeneous workgroups (CHWs). Analysis of observations (participant and non-participant), semi structured interviews, and self-report surveys from both field and student samples provide insight on the communicative behaviors and strategies employed in the production and management of both productive and destructive conflict and outcomes for CHWs. The research demonstrates the usefulness of the CAT framework to analyses of conflict in CHWs and provides fresh insights on the triggers and management strategies associated with conflict in CHWs.
A topical organizational scheme will be used in this section to increase the knowledge of this theory for the reader. As you may perhaps guessed, many scholarly articles focus in the concepts of convergence and divergence when it comes to testing or supporting CAT but instead of stating one research scholarly article at the time with its hypotheses, methods and findings, a synthesis of several articles with overlaps in topics will be given instead. Let’s start with relationships,

One important aspect of speech accommodation theory to consider is how researchers evaluate speech. By examining factors that are used to determine speech behaviors, much can be learned about the study of accommodation. There are several characteristics of speech upon which researchers have focused their attention and that speech accommodation theory takes into consideration. The first of these is how language, dialect, and accent are evaluated. People perceive those who use standard dialect and accent patterns as having "more competence, status, prestige, confidence, and inteUigence than speakers using nonstandard forms" (Street & Hopper, 1982, p. 2). Deha (1975) reports that dialect "serves 16 principally as a cue to norm-relevant values and attitudes rather than to specific dispositional qualities presumed to be possessed by the speaker" (p. 188). The manner that a speaker may adjust his or her speech is also a factor in the Hstener's evaluation. Bflingual speakers are perceived more positively if they converge and adapt to the dominant language used by their bilingual hsteners than if they do not (Street & Hopper, 1982). Even for children, dialect is an important factor in how others are judged. A study of children found that the more closely a person's dialect resembled the hstener's, the more intellectually competent he or she would appear (Wheeler, Wilson,