This monograph reports the findings of a discourse-based study of goal-directed communication in white-collar professional, multicultural workplaces. The focus is on task-related problem solving by dyads and small groups. The report examines discourse strategies of problem-interpretation and resolution, together with interactive devices of clarification and repair which are characteristically mobilized in performing them. It describes also how clarification strategies are deployed in dealing with cross-cultural and pragmatic communication difficulties as they arise. Extensive discourse sample of native/non-native speaker communication are displayed and analysed, with a view to the learning and teaching of these discourse skills in a second language, and in the development of cross-cultural awareness.