International English the sphere of influence of English-speaking countries. Here English may serve as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and language groups. Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce, and so on, may all be carried out predominantly in English. The "expanding circle" refers to those countries where English has no official role, but is nonetheless important for certain functions, e.g. international business and tourism. By the twenty-first century, non-native English speakers have come to outnumber native speakers by a factor of three, according to the British Council. Darius Degher, a professor at Malmö University in Sweden, uses the term
Lateral communication errors in vertical information flows. In an organization, lateral communication is communication between different individuals/departments at the same organizational level. The term lateral communication can be used interchangeably with horizontal communication. In his text entitled "Organizational Communication", Michael J. Papa defines horizontal communication as "the flow of messages across functional areas at a given level of an organization". People at the same level "communicate directly without going through several levels of organization". Given this elasticity, members of an organization have an easier time with "problem-solving, information sharing across different work groups, and task coordination between departments or project teams". The