There are four parts of this chapter, including conclusion, implications, limitations and suggestion. The conclusion includes a brief summary of this research, main findings, and theoretical contribution. Implications for individuals and organizations are both presented.
Limitation of this research was also discussed. Eventually, suggestion on future research are given as well.
Conclusion
This research aims at exploring practical intercultural and inter-linguistic communication strategies which are applicable at global workplace. Literatures regarding communication, intercultural communication and communication strategies were reviewed to provide the research base for this study. To gain insightful information with quality, the technique of triangulation and peer debriefing was applied. All the content were coded, categorized, and finalized into three main dimensions to answer research questions. Three dimensions were about intercultural communication strategies, inter-linguistic communication strategies and rationales. Furthermore, rationales for Facilitators to select certain strategies were also explored and analyzed.
Main Findings
The main findings showed that paraphrase, appeal for assistance, double check and manipulation were commonly used inter-linguistic communication strategies. It also showed that being mission-oriented, shortening cultural distance and touching the culture were primary intercultural communication strategies applied by Cultural Facilitators. Among all the communication strategies, manipulation and touching the culture were regarded as the most useful strategies. Manipulation brought out expected feedback, facilitating intercultural communication and interaction which was the main feature and focus of Nan Ying International Folklore Festival. Touching the culture was also widely applied, for it was an easy way to open an intercultural communication. As for rationales, feedback, noise, and channel were found, which were analyzed with corresponding strategies as well, providing future researchers or practitioners guidelines for selecting strategies. Main findings also reflected certain theories reviewed previously, supporting the literatures and developing new concept accordingly, which were viewed as theoretical contribution of this study and presented below.
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Theoretical Contribution
The findings of this research echoed with previous literatures and theories, and further brought out new concepts. First, the strategy of manipulation resonated with Gerbner’s (1956) communication model which described the modification of contents during communication process. The application of manipulation particularly presented obvious evidence on how communicators perceived and modified messages under certain circumstances.
Second, research participants also mentioned how communicators had different perception and interpretation on the same message. In other words, according to Saussure (1966), this finding referred to that one signifier associated with different signifieds held by different communicators simultaneously. Moreover, this communication process was categorized as semantic noise which was one of the ten components of communication established by Jandt (2007). Due to the similar concepts, this findings was reconstructed as the signifieds as noise. Signifieds referred to various mental concepts of the same message and the noise was the semantic noise.
Third, Jandt’s (2007) ten components of communication, as the theoretical foundation, were found not only in intercultural communication between local people and intercultural counterpart, but also in the translation process completed by the Cultural Facilitator. A new communication process, which embodied nine components of communication, was found during the translation process. This new communication process was viewed as sub-components within channel which referred to the Cultural Facilitators. This finding drew more attentions on the intercultural communication when a translator was involved.
Finally, the results regarding communication strategies and rationales for particular selection of strategies contribute to the future researches on intercultural communication strategies. This research added to the current literatures related to intercultural communication and provided some empirical base for further researches on communication strategies.
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Implications
Implications for Individuals Working at Multicultural Workplace
Nowadays, due to the booming of the multinational corporations, more and more people have to work in a multicultural context. Intercultural and inter-linguistic communication is inevitable. Knowing how to communicate with intercultural counterpart contribute to the positive and productive result of intercultural communication. The main findings regarding communication strategies could serve as references for individuals who need to communicate with international counterpart. As for the findings about rationales, individuals could check their own circumstances in accordingly and applied optimal strategies at workplace.
Implications for Language Management in Organizations
With the growing attention to the language management in organizations, the results of this research could be of help to organizations on this aspect. The findings concerning inter-linguistic communication strategies could be the guideline for organization to set policies for language management. For example, based on the results, prescriptive language, which defines the correct language, was not the primary concern for Cultural Facilitators when they worked during the festival. Instead, they focused on communicating messages, facilitating intercultural communication. In other words, communicative language was more important, which could be achieved by referring to inter-linguistic communication strategies.
The findings also coincided with the language management policy implemented in Rakuten (Mikitani, 2012), which implied that the results were applicable in corporate.
Moreover, intercultural communication also benefitted the organization of which employees or expatriates that have to work at global workplace. In summary, the research contributes to managing language-related policies and establishing international talent pool for multinational corporations.
Limitations
This research adopted triangulation to ensure the quality of the analysis. However, the main findings of the research were not necessarily generalizable due to the following limitations. First, the research participants were all selected from Cultural Facilitators serving in the 2012 Nan Ying International Folklore Festival. Their experiences and responses might not be applicable for others working in different international events. As for the event itself, the International Folklore Festival featured in intercultural interaction. In other words, participants, staff, or even organizers tended to be more open-minded in interacting with
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people of miscellaneous backgrounds. They had probably gone through the process of self-selection.
Furthermore, the folklore festival invited art performers to participate in the event, who were tended to be more romantic or of feeling centered. Their personalities and characteristics might be different form people working in business. Third, as previously mentioned, the Cultural Facilitators might have selected themselves. Their traveling or studying abroad experiences and educational background contributed to their capability of being a Cultural Facilitator in the festival. Their previous life experiences had probably shaped them to be a competitive Cultural Facilitator. Fourth, the coding and analyzing process might be more or less biased, for the qualitative approach featured in the researcher’s own thinking and analyzing process. Fifth, the research participants were classified into four communication types. All of them fall into the first to third type while no one belongs to the forth type. This study only researches on the first three types, leaving the forth type unexplored, and therefore the result did not benefit the people of this type.
Suggestions
The future researches are recommended to pay more attention to intercultural communication strategies due to growing focuses on intercultural communication especially when only few relevant researches were conducted. Based on the literatures reviewed, few researches explored what kind of intercultural communication strategies could be applicable at workplace. Though some researchers proposed several strategies, they were basically what could be prepared instead of what could be used at the spot. As for inter-linguistic communication strategies, relevant researches were emphasizing on communication strategies used in the second language class setting. In other words, these strategies were not necessarily applicable at workplace since the class setting is far different from the workplace.
Although the findings of this research added to the foundation of relevant researches, the aforementioned limitations constrained the research findings. Therefore, the future researches are suggested to tackle the issues below. First, research participants could be more diverse instead of only participants in a single event. For example, the research participants could also involve those who worked in other kinds of international events. Moreover, the classification of research participants according to communicating languages was not done well since the total number of participants was not big enough to support the results of classification. With various research participants, findings of communication strategies could
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be labeled especially workable or effective for communicating with certain cultures. Research Third, the researcher could try to invite more people of similar academic background to conduct the analysis in order to increase the research credibility. The future researcher could enhance the credibility through the discussion and argumentation with peers. Fourth, people working in the international events are still fundamentally different from those working at business workplace. Hence, this difference might influence the availability of communication strategies found in this study for people working at international business workplace.
Participants are also expected to expand out of the scale of international events. The future researches should take the abovementioned suggestion into consideration and tried to find more diverse research participants.
Ultimately, the future researches are also suggested to conduct a follow-up research on those who adopted the intercultural and inter-linguistic communication strategies to see the contribution of application of these strategies at workplace.
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APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
您好：
本人為臺灣師範大學國際人力資源發展所研究生。目前正在進行論文研究，
研究之主題為「語言與跨文化溝通策略：以台灣國際活動領隊為例。(Language and Intercultural Communication Strategies: A Study on Cultural Facilitators for
International Events in Taiwan)」，擬透過訪談的方式，瞭解領隊在國際活動中運用 之語言與跨文化溝通策略以及選用原因。
本訪談目的是為深入瞭解受訪者參與 2012 南瀛國際藝術節之經驗，時間約 為五十分鐘。為便於後續之資料分析，希望能在訪談期間全程錄音。此外，研究 者將於訪談結束後，將資料整理成文字檔，請您查核以確認陳述內涵的正確性。
受訪者之個人資料及訪談內容將受到保密，並僅供學術使用。在此，非常感謝您 撥冗接受訪談並提供指導，您的參與將使本研究的結果更具價值。
敬祝 順 心
台灣師範大學國際人力發展研究所 研究生 董書豪
指導教授 張媁雯 敬上
董書豪 Shu-Hao Tung Mobile : 0932-979519 Email: shuhaotung@gmail.com
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Consent Form
Dear Sir/Madam
You are being asked to participate in a research. The researcher is the graduate student at Graduate Institute at National Taiwan Normal University. The research title is “Langauge and Intercultural Communication Strategies: A Study of Cultural Facilitators for International Events in Taiwan”. The research aims to identify communication strategies used by Cultural Facilitators for intercultural interaction and to explore rationales for their strategy selection
This form provides you with information about the research. The researcher will introduce the research and answer all your questions. Please read through the following information and make sure you understand everything before participating in this research.
Participants will be asked to participate in an interview lasting about 60 minutes long.
General topics of discussion will include the working experiences in the event, strategies choices, and reasons for selecting certain strategies.
Additional interaction with participants is expected only for clarification purpose.
The interview will be recorded and the researcher will take hand-written notes.
Confidentiality: Contents of interview and other interactions with the researcher regarding this research are confidential. Only the researcher and the relevant personnel (committee members, advisor, and interview recording transcribers) will have the access to the raw data.
Writings that result from this research will not include information that will identify the individual participant. Participants will be assigned a pseudonym to protect their identity.
Contact information of researcher: If you have any concern or question, please contact Shu-Hao Tung via email at shuhaotung@gmail.com, or call +886-932-979519.
Contact information of research advisor: Should you have any further concern about this research, you may contact the research advisor, Dr. Wei-Wen Chang, Professor and Director of IHRD at NTNU via email at changw@ntnu.edu.tw, or call at +886-2-7734-+1620.
I have read and fully understood the consent form. I sign it freely and voluntarily. A copy of this form has been given to me.
________________________ __________________________ _________________
Signature of the Participant Printed Name Date
I hereby confirm that I have personally explained this document to the participant before requesting him-her to sign
_______________________ ____________________
Signature of the Researcher Date
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領隊基本資料表
您好，以下資訊將作為研究之用，絕不對外公開，感謝您的協助。
姓名(中英文皆可)
性別 □男 □女
年齡 □16~20 □21~25 □26~30 □31~35
職業 教育程度 主修 語言能力
(語言，學習時間，證 照或測驗分數)
負責團隊
與團隊溝通語言 其他國際活動領隊經 驗
(活動職責及服務時 間)
出國經驗
(原因、國家及停留時
間)
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Basic Information of Cultural Facilitator
The information is subject to the confidentiality. The data will be only accessible to researcher and relevant personnels (committee members and advisor).
Name
Gender □Male □Female
Age □16~20 □21~25 □26~30 □31~35
Vocation Education Major
Language ability (Language, related certificate, score)
International Ensemble
Language used to communicate
Other experiences of serving in
international events
Experiences of
traveling, working, or
studying abroad
(reason, country, and
time)
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語言與跨文化溝通策略：以台灣國際活動領隊為例 – 領隊訪談大綱
1. 請問在參加 2012 南瀛藝術節之前，您曾為了這個活動做了甚麼樣的準備？請問有 哪些準備對您有實質幫助？
2. 請問您下鄉巡演時，是否曾在與團員溝通過程中遇到任何語言隔閡的問題？如果有，
請您描述這個問題。
3. 承上題，請問您是否嘗試解決這個問題？請問您怎麼解決？為什麼選擇這個方式？
4. 請問您與團隊在和台灣友誼團體交流時，是否曾在與團員溝通過程中遇到任何語言
4. 請問您與團隊在和台灣友誼團體交流時，是否曾在與團員溝通過程中遇到任何語言