Interprets data collected from multi-modal sources (ethnographic interviewing and non-participant observation) using an analytic-inductive method to construct a new Layered Model of Problematic Intercultural Communication. Provides a holistic view of the ways the macro-context, individual (in)competencies, and dyadic communication behaviors interrelate and affect multi-leveled attributions of meaning in intercultural interaction at American-owned assembly plants in Mexico (maquiladoras). (SC)