There are four parts in this chapter, including conclusion, limitations, recommendations for practitioners and recommendations for future research. Details are addressed in following.
Conclusion
Most of the current intercultural training programs are planed with surface knowledge, such as history, customs and taboos of a specific culture. This study developed a training program and embedded with experiential learning theory which not only provided knowledge but also created a learning cycle for participants. The designed training tried to increase participants’ ability on being aware of cultural differences and with a mindset in making proper responses to new situations.
Furthermore, differed from many researches on intercultural trainings, this study recruited employees in multicultural workplaces instead of the student population as training subjects, the result helped to enhance more empirical evidence on workplaces.
This research aims at developing intercultural training program which is applicable at multicultural workplace. Literatures regarding to intercultural competence development, employees in multicultural workplace and training program development were reviewed to provide theoretical background for this study. To obtain insightful information, the critical incident technique (CIT) and experiential learning theory (ELT) were employed in developing the training program. A quasi-experimental design was applied to examine the effectiveness of the designed training program. Furthermore, the results of this research echoed with ELT. Participants perform better when learning through the transformation of experience, also learn more when the transformation
further creates knowledge.
The results of this research highlight some important points. Needs assessment is an essential step for developing intercultural training program for employees in multicultural workplace. The employees have different experiences on intercultural interactions, needs assessment not only help the instructor to have a clear picture of the participants but also enable to utilize the identified cultural incidents as training materials. Furthermore, the structure and content of the training in this research response the training needs of the participants. The training was designed according to the needs and applied ELT into the structure, it contributed to a significant outcome on the experimental group. The post-surveys of experimental and control groups present the difference between two interventions.
Finally, the results regarding intercultural training program development contribute to the future researcher on enhancing employees’ intercultural competency.
This research added to the current literatures related to training program development in multicultural workplace and provide some empirical base for future study on this field.
Research Limitations
There are three limitations presented in this research. First of all, the quasi-experimental design was conducted in this study, participants were required to pay extra efforts apart from work and go through the pre-survey, intercultural training program, and post-survey. Comparing with the one-time survey design, such a long time frame creates a potential risk of losing participants during the study process. Besides, the longer time frame may also bring multiple confounding variables during
confounding effect, the design of control group along with the experimental group was applied. It allows the researcher to compare the effectiveness of the training program between the experimental group and control group and helps to enhance research validity.
Secondly, the sample size is small due to the first limitation. Most of the participants are working in universities, which the work environment is considered different to employees working in other industries. Therefore, the results might not be applicable for others working in different industries. In addition, it is difficult to approach people voluntarily and randomly participating such research with long time frame. Particularly, the targeted participants are employees; the risk of losing participants becomes a big concern while conducting the training program.
Furthermore, the Cronbach alpha values on 4 sub-dimensions of IE are low. This might attributed to the small sample size and reverse question design in the IE scale.
According to Sonderen, Sanderman and Coyne (2013), there is a potential risk using reverse wording in preventing response bias. However, among the 20-item scale, there are 9 reversing items. Although the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of this IE scale was 0.85, this research presented low values in some sub-dimensions due to the limitations.
Recommendations for Practitioners
There are some suggestions for practitioners regarding to training program development. For organization managers, it is important to understand what the participants already have and what is missing, thus the instructor will be able to design an effective training according to the training needs without wasting resources.
Therefore, needs assessment should be take into account to have a clear picture of
current situation and abilities of the targeted participants when planning a training program.
As the training program for experimental group resulting a significant difference in the post-survey, experimental learning theory played an important role during the process. This study is an example for training designers. Utilizing ELT when developing a training program could contribute to better training outcomes since experiences from employees are good assets to training designers. Moreover, such data are convenient for training designers to reach from the targeted groups. Yet the designed training program performed an overall positive result, still didn’t reach significance on every variables. This may attributed from the high level of prior knowledge from the participants. Training designers may consider to take tenure as an indicator for grouping.
Therefore, the training outcomes could be better distinguished and compared.
Furthermore, for employees when participating such trainings, learning to make use of past experiences is important. The previous experiences could be a database for individuals to better catch up current situations and the training contents. Besides, it encourages reflections during experience sharing. Therefore, individuals not only create a learning cycle but also improve the effectiveness of learning.
Suggestions for Future Research
As the limitations mentioned previously, experimental design requires longer participation, which increases the risk of losing samples; therefore, future research is suggested to increase the number of participants, so that the reliability may be presented differently. Besides, when Portalla and Chen first developed the 20-item IE scale in 2010, the participants are college students and the process was conducted in English.
employees, the 20-item version of IE scale may not fully applicable to others. Overall, IE scale maybe done a good result under certain situations, future studies are recommended to add a pilot test to develop a new version which is suitable for further research, or look for other tools could better evaluate the performance according to the research design.
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APPENDIX A: NEEDS ASSESSMENT SURVEY
國合會駐校經理跨文化互動問卷調查
親愛的駐校經理，您好：
感謝您填寫本問卷。本問卷主要是在瞭解您個人在進行跨文化互動的情形。您 的填答將協助未來發展跨文化能力的訓練。
本問卷的內容共包含兩部分：第一部分為基本資料、第二部分是簡答題，請您 分享一個在跨文化互動中對你重要的事件/或難忘的事件。請依自身實際經驗依 序填答。
謝謝您熱心的參與及協助。祝 順心如意！
國立台灣師範大學國際人力資源發展研究所
研究生：周奕伶 敬啟 中華民國 105 年 12 月 第一部分：基本資料
1. 服務學校： 2. 服務系所：
3. 性別： 男 女 4. 出生年：
5. 擔任駐校經理職位多久? 年 個月
6. 我曾與來自不同國家的外籍人士互動，例如上課、工作、交友等。
有 沒有
7. 是否曾經出國？ 是(請續答 8~9 題) 否，未曾出國
8. 去過哪些國家？
9. 出國的目的？(可複選)
短期觀光 (2 週以內) 次數：
中長期旅遊 (2 週以上) 次數：
留/遊學/交換學生 次數： 共多久：
出國打工 次數： 共多久：
其他，請說明
第二部分：跨文化互動的重要事件
請您回想自己執行駐校經理任務時與外籍生的互動經驗，選擇一個曾經發生過 且對您重要的事件(或者印象深刻的事件)加以描述。
（一） 事件背景
時間、地點、有哪些人物？
（二） 發生了什麼事？ 有什麼問題？
（三） 您的反應是什麼？ 或採取了什麼行動？
（四） 結果如何呢？
（五） 您學到什麼？
（六） 您認為執行駐校經理任務時，所面臨的最大難題或挑戰是什麼?為什 麼?
《問卷結束，感謝您的填答!》
APPENDIX B: PRE-& POST-SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
跨文化互動與溝通問卷調查
親愛的駐校經理，您好：
感謝您填寫本問卷。本問卷主要是在瞭解您個人在進行跨文化互動與溝通的情 形。您的填答將協助未來發展跨文化能力的分析與訓練。
本問卷的內容共包含三部分：第一部分為基本資料、第二部分是文化互動行為 的量表、第三部分是文化溝通行為的量表。請依自身實際經驗依序填答。
謝謝您熱心的參與及協助。祝 順心如意！
國立台灣師範大學國際人力資源發展研究所
研究生：周奕伶 敬啟 中華民國 105 年 12 月 第一部分：基本資料
10. 姓名： 11. 性別： 男 女
12. 服務學校： 13. 服務系所：
14. 擔任駐校經理職位多久? 年 個月
第二部分：文化互動量表
11. 我享受與不同文化的人互
動。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
12. 我有信心可以在陌生文化環
境中與當地人交流。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
13. 我能處理適應新文化所帶來
的壓力。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
14. 我享受在陌生文化中的生
活。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
15. 我有信心我能適應不同文化
中的購物習慣。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
16. 為因應跨文化場合需求，我 會改變我的口語習慣(如，
口音、語調)。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
17. 我會配合不同的跨文化狀 況，適時地運用停頓與沉
默。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
18. 為因應跨文化場合的需求，
我會改變我的說話速度。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
19. 為因應跨文化場合需求，我
會改變我的非口語行為。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
20. 為因應跨文化互動之需求，
我會調整我的臉部表情。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
第三部分：文化溝通量表
31. 與不同文化背景人士交流
43. 我能夠運用策略促進跨文化
溝通效能。 1 2 3 4 5
44. 我能掌握與外籍生的溝通情
況與策略。 1 2 3 4 5
45. 我能掌握與校方人員的溝通
情況與策略。 1 2 3 4 5
46. 我能掌握與使館人員的溝通
情況與策略。 1 2 3 4 5
備註 1：以蛋糕來說明，一般性訊息是指蛋糕的原料、作法等客觀資訊；然而
備註 1：以蛋糕來說明，一般性訊息是指蛋糕的原料、作法等客觀資訊；然而