1 Introduction 1.1 The use of English in the Netherlands 1.2 Previous studies 1.2.1 Needs analysis surveys 1.2.2 Ethnographic accounts 1.2.3 Genre studies of organisational communication 1.2.4 Cross-cultural and intercultural discourse 1.3 The study 1.3.1 Research aims 1.3.2 Analytical framework 1.3.3 Research methods and respondents 1.4 Overview of the study 2 Literature review 2.1 Social constructionism 2.2 Genre 2.3 Structuration 2.4 Conclusion 3 Analytical framework 3.1 Context and situation 3.2 Genre characteristics 3.3 The analysis of discourse 3.4 Conclusion 4 Contextual factors affecting the use of written English within British subsidiaries in the Netherlands 4.1 The relevance of corporate culture 4.2 The relevance of corporate activity 4.3 Operationalisation of contextual factors 4.3.1 Factors related to corporate culture 4.3.2 Factors related to corporate activity 4.3.3 Additional communication patterns 4.4 The survey 4.4.1 The respondents 4.4.2 Results and discussion 4.5 Summary and conclusions 5 Genres used by Dutch writers at British subsidiary companies 5.1 The corpus of documents 5.1.1 General characteristics 5.1.2 Participants 5.1.3 Communicative goals, substance and structure 5.2 Recurrent situations, exigences and rhetorical action 5.2.1 Communication with Head Office and internally 5.2.2 Communication with other subsidiaries, service providers and customers 5.2.3 Summary of findings 5.3 Conclusion 6 Discourse strategies used by Dutch writers at British subsidiary companies 6.1 Detailed analysis of genre I 6.1.1 Data selection 6.1.2 Medium and layout 6.1.3 Discourse structure: moves and strategies 6.2 Rhetorical strategies 6.2.1 Intertextuality 6.2.2 Interpersonal strategies 6.3 Conclusion 7 Genres and discourse strategies used by Dutch and British writers in internal e-mail communication 7.1 Previous studies on the use of electronic media 7.1.1 The use of different media by corporations 7.1.2 E-mail as a genre of organisational communication 7.2 Data and data collection 7.3 Findings and discussion 7.3.1 Message types, participants and code 7.3.2 Situations, actions, substance and form 7.3.3 Discourse: Textualisations, organisation and strategies 7.4 Conclusion 8 Conclusion 8.1 The genres and discourse strategies used by Dutch writers in English 8.1.1 Context 8.1.2 Situation 8.1.3 Genre 8.1.4 Discourse 8.1.5 Summary of findings 8.2 Limitations of the study and suggestion for further research 8.3 The implications of the study for research into organisational discourse 8.4 The implications of the study for the teaching of business English Notes References Appendix 1: Questionnaire 1 Appendix 2: Questionnaire 2