In this chapter, conclusions are presented in the first section; managerial implications are presented in the second section. Recommendations for further study are presented in the final section.
Conclusions
The purposes of this study aimed to explore intercultural competences for professional financial workers, to explore communication barriers they met in
intercultural context, and to investigate the developmental approaches of intercultural competences for them.
To achieve the purposes, the study adopted qualitative approach to gain an in-depth understanding of Taiwanese financial professionals. This study employed semi-structured interview and observation instruments to collect data. There were 9 professionals interviewed in the study, including investment analysts, research associates, equity sales, and secretary. Their main tasks are helping investors make decisions by providing value-added and insightful analysis, developing relationship with investing clients, marketing and road show.
The interviews were recorded and all contents were transformed as transcripts.
Coding process was conducted and the analysis is as below, which include the tasks and job contents of professionals, intercultural competences needed by professionals, barriers of intercultural communications, and developmental approaches of
intercultural competences.
There are many intercultural competences needed for Taiwanese financial professionals. Among these intercultural competences, language ability is the most
often mentioned competence. Owing to financial professionals often need to
communicate with foreigner clients, and to develop relationship with investing clients, proficiency of language is regarded as a basic intercultural competence. Lack of language proficiency, different accent, and the difficulty of translation are common barriers they have in intercultural communications. The developmental method for language ability proposed by the interviewees is to exposure under environment of that language. Read more and listen more, and then one can develop nature sense of that language.
Presentation skill is a more important intercultural competence than language ability. An interesting presentation can impress clients. The style of presentation suggested is to present your findings or conclusions firstly, and then follows your ideas and discourses. This presentation style conforms to the thinking style of foreigner clients; therefore it can catch clients’ attention easier than Taiwanese thinking style. Other suggestions are to slow down speaking speed, and to get rid of the weed and keep key points only.
Other intercultural competences financial professionals needed are networking ability, being observant, ability of summarizing, communication skills, cultural sensitivity, the cognition of foreigner is not a specific group, business knowledge, cultural knowledge, respect for other cultures, and be willing to step outside of their comfort zone, being curiosity for seeking out cultural differences, being confident of oneself, being active, and being open-mind.
Except language and different thinking styles, different communication styles, lack of cultural knowledge, cultural difference, and lack of conversation topics are also barriers these professionals faced in intercultural communications. The Westerners tend to face conflicts or problems directly, while the Easterners tend to avoid facing confrontation directly. In addition, lack of cultural knowledge and
cultural difference may cause serious intercultural communication barriers when one communicates with clients having elaborate cultural system.
The difficulties of developmental approach for intercultural competence are the effect of training cannot stand for long and lack of suitable training courses. Therefore, a long-term developmental process is proposed as a better method to develop
intercultural competences. Working under intercultural environment and abroad experience are developmental methods for cognition. To exposure under English environment develops language proficiency. Presentation skill training, experience sharing, and conference calls are training methods for skill and knowledge. Besides, reading materials such as Bloomberg, The Economist and Financial Time are also important. Through reading these most read materials, financial professionals can know the news in the world and have same topics with clients that avoid silence in intercultural communication.
The table below showed the research finding of the study.
Table 5.1
Summary of Research Finding Dimension Intercultural
competences
Intercultural
communication barriers
Developmental methods Ability • Language proficiency • Lack of language
proficiency
Table 5.1 (continued) Dimension Intercultural
competences
Intercultural
communication barriers
Developmental methods Skills • Communication skills • Difference of
communication styles
• Experience sharing
• Presentation skill • Difference of thinking style
• Presentation skill training Cognitive • Cultural sensitivity
• The cognition of Knowledge • Business knowledge
• Knowledge about
Attitude • Respect for other cultures
• Be willing to step outside of their comfort zone
Personality • Curiosity for seeking out cultural
• Courage to take stand
• Open-mind
Recommendations for Financial Professionals
Recommendations for financial professionals are as following.
Summarizing Key Points
International financial professionals often have limited time. Thus, summarizing key points of your presentation or discourses can help readers catch your points easier.
The suggested way is to summarize one sentence for each section, then put the summarizing key points in the front of emails, presentations, or reports. Besides, it is better to present the conclusions firstly and discourses the next. This way confirms to thinking style of international financial professionals.
Suggested Reading Materials
The suggested reading materials for financial professionals are The Economist, Financial Time, and news of Bloomberg. These can help professionals gain related knowledge, and know the news taking place in the world. Besides, because these are the most read materials of international financial professionals, professionals can have same topics with clients and avoid silence in intercultural communication.
Develop Cultural Knowledge
Among intercultural competences, knowledge is the competence which is most likely to be gained through training. Therefore, the researcher suggests professionals could make more efforts on this competence. The knowledge dimension of
intercultural competence includes knowledge of target culture, business knowledge, and knowledge about own culture. Professionals could gain cultural knowledge through training courses, experience sharing, travel experience, Discovery channel, and etc.
Do Not Regard Foreigners as a Special Group
Do not regard foreigners as a special group, or you may have different attitude and behavior toward foreigners. To face foreigners as the ordinary person, and then you can have relations on an equal basis. The importance is to understand the difference between you and them. Do not regard one’s own culture as superior or inferior culture, or experience one’s own culture as the only real one.
Be Confident
Many Taiwanese are timid and without confidence when they communicate with foreigners. Be confident. Catch every chance which you can communicate with foreigners. Once you get familiar with foreigners, you will have more confidence in intercultural communications.
Be Courage to Take a Stand
Be courage to take a stand. The main task of financial professionals is to help investors make decisions by providing value-added and insightful analysis. The courage to take stand helps your persuasion more powerful.
Be Open-mind
Do not think you know everything of the country even though you have lived there for many years. Be open-mind and do not judge things through past experience.
Avoid prejudices and stereotypes in intercultural context.
Recommendations for Future Studies
There are many clusters of departments in financial industry, including credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds and some government sponsored enterprises. Therefore, to explore intercultural competences needed for specific clusters are suggested for future study.
Limited to contexts available, this study only presented developmental methods of intercultural competence which practitioners have had. To design detailed
developmental process, such as analysis of training needs, training design, and training evaluation, is suggested for future study.
With the rapid growth of economic, China became an investment target of international cash flows. Taiwan, with special political and economic environment with China, can be fortunate to take a ride with this trend. Owing to the language barriers and limited investment environment of China, foreigner investors are difficult to get financial information. It is an opportunity for Taiwanese financial professionals to be as the bridge between China and foreigner investment. Relative topics are suggested to future researchers.
Future study can also make an effort on sophisticating DMIS model. Subjects of DMIS were students and had relative shorter intercultural experience, while
practitioners and professionals may have longer intercultural experience. Therefore, there may have gaps between theory and practical experience. Elements and
development of stages could become more sophisticate in future study.
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<Original text>
Shiu Shu Fen (許淑芬). (2007). 我國企業金融的發展策略與作法。台灣智 庫通訊企業金融專題企畫，第二十一期 PP 2-4.
APPENDIX A. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
訪談問題：
1. 請問您在此公司的工作職掌與內容。
2. 您認為這份工作需要什麼能力(知識、技能、態度)?
3. 請問您工作中與外國人士接觸的頻率為何?
□每天 □一週 1~3 次 □一月 1~3 次 □一年 1~3 次 □其他___________
以何種方式接觸? □面對面 □電話 □E-Mail 4. 請分享您工作中與外國人士交流的經驗(跨文化經驗)。
5. 面對外國人士，您曾有溝通困難、或印象深刻的事嗎? 請描述。
6. 您如何使您與外國人士間的溝通更為有效?
7. 在跨文化環境下工作，您認為哪些能力(知識、技能、態度)可以提升您的工 作績效?請就此三方面分別舉例。
8. 您曾經受過跨文化訓練嗎? 若有，請描述此訓練。
9. 您平時如何充實自己，以加強此份工作的能力，或與外國人士溝通的能力。
10. 若您的機構要施行訓練課程，您認為哪些課程能提升跨文化能力? 在課程內 致受訪者:
您好，我是「國立臺灣師範大學國際人力資源發展研究所」的研究生，目前 正進行一份與「跨文化職能」相關的研究。希望了解在多元文化環境下工作的金 融業專家，所需要的能力，及種種經驗、困難、感受與對策。在此希望藉由您的 寶貴經驗，為本研究提供實務的參考資料，俾使研究更加完善。
本次訪談內容僅供學術研究參考使用，訪談紀錄將以不具名方式呈現，絕不 對外公開，請您安心受訪。謝謝您!
國立臺灣師範大學國際人力資源發展研究所 指導教授：蔡錫濤教授 研究生：張純真
容、上課方式上有什麼建議嗎?
個人資料：
性別: □男 □女
年齡: □21~25 □26~30 □31~35 □36~40 □41~45 □46~50 □50+
工作年資: __________年
部門: _______________________
職稱: _______________________
語言能力:____________________
是否曾在國外生活過:□無 □1 年以內 □1 年~3 年 □3 年~5 年 □5 年以上