This study investigated the factors associated with cultural intelligence development and how it improves cross-cultural adjustment. It also supported personality type openness to experience as variable that was impacted cultural intelligence and consequently adjustment rate. This study transcended our understanding of culture distance by exploring the perception of distance between institutions. By disregarding the region or origin and focuses on the individual differences, a more holistic view of how people respond to change in the environment can be observed. To gain a more in depth understanding about how cross-cultural adjustment is affected, the researcher suggests the following for further research:
Firstly, adjustment level either increases or decreases over time due to the individuals’ particular experiences. A longitudinal study would be a better predictor of the
adjustment level of international students. In this study, the minimum length of time stayed in Taiwan was set at 6 months, measuring adjustment levels at time of first arrival and then again after 6 months could provide better information about the change in adjustment rather than measuring in one instance. A comparison between the difference in adjustment level across time and for different student types can provide more information on which experience produces a better learning environment and can have great implications for universities looking to recruit students.
Secondly, language proficiency matters. Although this study’s participants included students who identified themselves as language students, it did not focus on the proficiency of the students. Based on experience in the researcher’s own university (NTNU), language proficiency varied despite student’s identification. Some short-term students (e.g., Mainland Chinese exchange students) have better proficiency and adjustment despite the amount of time experienced in Taiwan. In the study, cultural adjustment rate of exchange students, language students, and degree-seeking students were based on their proficiency of English as a second language. Language proficiency in mandarin would certainly affect interaction adjustment between local Taiwanese and international students.
Thirdly, investigating the effect of the length of exposure compared with student type can further contribute to cultural intelligence enhancement. Do degree-seeking students enrolled in 2-4 year programs have a different exposure than language students enrolled for 6 months? Further research should investigate the type of exposure and in context of international cross-cultural adjustment.
Lastly, personality has been seen as an important individualistic factor that affects learning and adjustment therefore future research should explore other methods of testing personality other than the BIG 5. Research suggests that individual perception of their surroundings affects their adjustment; other factors related to perception of cultural settings should be explored, such as self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, self-confidence, conforming
& acceptance.
REFERENCES
Al-Jarrah, A. (2016). The cultural intelligence level among international students in Jordanian Universities. Educational Research Quarterly, 39(3), 23-39.
Alsahafi, N., & Shin, S. C. (2017). Factors affecting the academic and cultural adjustment of saudi international students in Australian universities. Journal of International Students, 7(1), 53-63.
Ang, S., Van Dyne, L., & Koh, C. (2006). Personality correlates of the four-factor model of cultural intelligence. Group & Organization Management, 31(1), 100-123.
Ang, S., Van Dyke, L., Koh, C., & Ng, K.Y. (2004). The measurement of cultural intelligence. Paper presented at the Academy of Management Meeting’s Symposium on
Cultural Intelligence in the 21st Century. New Orleans, LA.
Ang, S., Van Dyne, L., Koh, C., Ng, K. Y., Templer, K. J., Tay, C., & Chandrasekar, N. A.
(2007). Cultural intelligence: Its measurement and effects on cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance. Management and Organization Review, 3(3), 335-371.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychology research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,51(6),1173-1182.
Benet-Martínez, V., & John, O. P. (1998). Los cinco grandes across cultures and ethnic groups: Multitrait-multimethod analyses of the big five in Spanish and English.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(3), 729-750. doi:10.1037/0022- Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis
of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88(3), 588.
doi. 3514.75.3.729
Berger, C. R., & Gudykunst, W. B. (1991). Uncertainty and communication. Progress in Communication Sciences, 10(1), 21-66.
Berry, H., Guillén, M. F., & Zhou, N. (2010). An institutional approach to cross-national distance. Journal of International Business Studies, 41(9), 1460-1480.
Black, J. S., Mendenhall, M., & Oddou, G. (1991). Toward a comprehensive model of international adjustment: An integration of multiple theoretical
perspectives. Academy of Management Review, 16(2), 291-317.
Black, J. S., & Stephens, G. K. (1989). The influence of the spouse on American expatriate adjustment and intent to stay in Pacific Rim overseas assignments. Journal of Management, 15(4), 529-544.
Brislin, R., Worthley, R., & Macnab, B. (2006). Cultural intelligence understanding
behaviors that serve people’s goals. Group & Organization Management, 31(1), 40-55.
Brown, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. Testing structural equation models. Scientific Research Publishing, 2(6), 136-162.
Caligiuri, P. M. (2000). Selecting expatriates for personality characteristics: A moderating effect of personality on the relationship between host national contact and cross-cultural adjustment. MIR: Management International Review, 40(1), 61-80.
Carmines, E. G., & McIver, J. P. (1981). Analyzing models with unobserved variables:
Analysis of covariance structures. Social Measurement: 4(2), 65-115.
Chamorro- Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A., (2009). Mainly openness: The relationship between the big five personality traits and learning approaches. Learning and Individual Differences, 19(4), 524-529.
Chen, G., Kirkman, B. L., Kim, K. A., Farh, C. I. C., & Tangirala, S. (2010) When does cross- cultural motivation enhance expatriate effectiveness? A multilevel
investigation of the moderating roles of subsidiary support and cultural distance.
Academy of Management Journal, 53(5), 1110-1130.
Costa, P. T., Jr & McCrae, R. R. (1988). From catalog to classification: Murray’s needs and the five-factor model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(5), 258-265.
Costa, P. T., McCrae, R. R., & Dye, D. A. (1991). Facet scales for agreeableness and conscientiousness: A revision of the NEO personality inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 12(9), 887-898.
Crowne, K. A. (2008). What leads to cultural intelligence? Business Horizon, 51(5), 391-399.
Crowne, K. A. (2013) Cultural exposure, emotional intelligence, and cultural intelligence: An exploratory study. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management 13(10) 5-22.
Crowne, K. A., & Engle, R. L. (2016). Antecedents of cross-cultural adaptation stress in short-term international assignments. Organization Management Journal
(Routledge), 13(1), 32-47. doi:10.1080/15416518.2015.1129308
Drogendijk, R., Slangen, A. (2006). Hofstede, Schwartz, or managerial perceptions? The effects of different cultural distance measures on establishment mode choices by multinational enterprises. International Business Review 15(4), 361-380.
Dweck, C. S. (2008). Can Personality Be Changed? The role of beliefs in personality and change. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(6), 391-394.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008. 00612.x
Depula, P.D., Azzollini, S.C., Cosentino, A.C., & Castillo, S.E. (2016). Personality, character strength & cultural intelligence: “extraversion” or “openness” as further factors associated to the cultural skills. Avances en Psicologia Latinoamericana, 34(2), 415-436.
Earley, P. C., & Ang, S. (2003). Cultural intelligence. Individual interactions across cultures. Standford, CA: Standford University Press.
Earley, P. C., & Peterson, R. S. (2004). The elusive cultural chameleon: Cultural intelligence as a new approach to intercultural training for the global manager. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3(1), 100-118.
Edwards, J. R. (1996). An examination of competing versions of the person-environment fit approach to stress. Academy of Management Journal, 39(2), 292-339.
Engle, R. L., & Crowne, K. A. (2014). The impact of international experience on cultural intelligence: an application of contact theory in a structured short-term
programme. Human Resource Development International, 17(1), 30-46.
Farkas, D. & Gabor, O. (2013). The link between ego-resiliency and changes in big five traits after decision-making: The case of extraversion. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(4), 440-445.
Furnham, A., Eracleous, A., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2009). Personality, motivation and job satisfaction: Hertzberg meets the big five. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24(8), 765-779.
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2003). Reliability analysis. SPSS for windows, step by step: A simple guide and reference, 14th edn. Boston, Ma: Allyn & Bacon.
Ghemawat, P. (2001). Distance still matters. Harvard Business Review, 79(8), 137-147.
Gliem, J. A., & Gliem, R. R. (2003). Calculating, interpreting, and reporting Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for Likert-type scales. Midwest research-to-practice conference in adult, continuing, and community education. Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies 4(3), 82-88.
Goldberg, L. R. (1981). Language and individual differences: The search for universals in personality lexicons. Review of Personality and Social Psychology, 2(1), 141-165.
Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative “description of personality”: The big-five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 121-1229.
Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B. (2003). A very brief measure of the big-five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(6), 504-528.
Gough, H. G. (1987). California psychological inventory administrator’s guide. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Gouveia, V. V., & Ros, M. (2000). Hofstede and Schwartz models for classifying
individualism at the cultural level: their relation to macro-social and macro-economic variables. Psicothema, 12(1), 25-33.
Gudykunst, W. B., & Nishida, T. (2001). Anxiety, uncertainty, and perceived effectiveness of communication across relationships and cultures. International Journal of
Intercultural Relations, 25(1), 55-71.
Harisson J. K., Chadwick, M., & Scales, M. (1996). The relationship between cross-cultural adjustment and the personality variables of self-efficacy and self-monitoring.
Intercultural Relations, 20(2), 167-188.
Hasan, M., Ibrahim, Y., & Uddin, M. (2016) Institutional distance factors influencing firm performance: A hypothetical framework from cross-border mergers and
acquisitions. The Journal of Developing Areas, 50(6), 377-386.
Hays, R. D. (1974). Expatriate selection: Insuring success and avoiding failure. Journal of International Business Studies, 5(1), 25-37.
Hechanova, R., Beehr, T. A., & Christiansen, N. D. (2003). Antecedents and consequences of employees’ adjustment to overseas assignment: A meta-‐‑analytic review. Applied Psychology, 52(2), 213-236.
Hinkin, T. R. (1998). A brief tutorial on the development of measures for use in survey questionnaires. Organizational Research Methods, 1(1), 104-121.
Huang, T. J., Chi, S. C., & Lawler, J. J. (2005). The relationship between expatriates' personality traits and their adjustment to international assignments. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(9), 1656-1670.
Huff, K. C., Song, P., & Gresch, E. B. (2014). Cultural intelligence, personality, and cross-cultural adjustment: A study of expatriates in Japan. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 3(8), 151-157.
ICEF Monitor. Retrieved from http://monitor.icef.com/2016/11/taiwan-aims-double international-student-numbers-2019/
Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörborm, D. (1993). LISREL VII user's reference guide. Lincolnwood, IL:
Scientific Software International, Inc.
Koo Moon, H., Kwon Choi, B. & Shik Jung, J. (2012). Previous international experience, cross-cultural training, and expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment: Effects of cultural intelligence and goal orientation. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 23(3), 285-330. doi:10.1002/hrdq.21131
Kostova, T., & Roth, K. (2002). Adoption of an organizational practice by subsidiaries of multinational corporations: Institutional and relational effects. Academy of
Management Journal, 45(1), 215-233.
Kostova, T., & Zaheer, S. (1999). Organizational legitimacy under conditions of complexity:
The case of the multinational enterprise. Academy of Management Review, 24(1), 64-81.
Kurpis, L. H., & Hunter, J. (2017). Developing students’ cultural intelligence through an experiential learning activity: A cross-cultural consumer behavior interview. Journal of Marketing Education, 39(1), 30-46.
Linghui, T., & Koveos, P. E. (2008). A framework to update Hofstede's cultural value indices: economic dynamics and institutional stability. Journal of International Business Studies, 39(6), 1045-1063.
Lo, W. Y. (2014). University rankings: Implications for higher education in Taiwan. Hong Kong: Springer Science & Business Media.
MacNab, B. R., & Worthley, R. (2012). Individual characteristics as predictors of cultural intelligence development: The relevance of self-efficacy. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36(1), 62-71.
Maertz, C. P., Hassan, A., & Magnusson, P. (2009). When learning is not enough: A process model of expatriate adjustment as cultural cognitive dissonance
reduction. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108(1), 66-78.
Martin, D., Katz-Buonincontro, J., & Livert, D. (2015). Understanding the role of openness to experience in study abroad students. Journal of College Student
Development, 56(6), 619-625.
McCracken, L. M., Spertus, I. L., Janeck, A. S., Sinclair, D., & Wetzel, F. T. (1999).
Behavioral dimensions of adjustment in persons with chronic pain: pain-related anxiety and acceptance. Pain, 80(1), 283-289.
McCrae, R. R. (1987). Creativity, divergent thinking, and openness to experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(6), 12-58.
McCrae, R. R. & Costa, P. T., Jr (1987) Validation of five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52(1), 81-90 McCrae, R. R., & Costa Jr., P. T. (1994). The stability of personality: Observations and
evaluations. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3(6), 173-175.
doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770693
McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60(2), 175-215.
McKeown, M. G., Beck, I. L., & Blake, R. G. (2009). Rethinking reading comprehension instruction: A comparison of instruction for strategies and content
approaches. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(3), 218-253.
Mol, S. T., Born, M. P., Willemsen, M. E., & Van Der Molen, H. T. (2005). Predicting expatriate job performance for selection purposes: A quantitative review. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36(5), 590-620.
Mullen, B. (1991). Group composition, salience, and cognitive representations: The phenomenology of being in a group. Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 27(4), 297-323.
Norman, W. T. (1967). 2800 Personality trait descriptors: normative operating
characteristics for a university population. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Peng, A. C., Van Dyne, L., & Oh, K. (2015). The influence of motivational cultural
intelligence on cultural effectiveness based on study abroad: The moderating role of participant’s cultural identity. Journal of Management Education, 39(5), 572-596.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63(22), 539-569.
Ramsey, J. R. (2005). The Role of other orientation on the relationship between institutional distance and expatriate adjustment. Journal of International Management, 11(3), 337-396.
Ramsey, J. R. (2013). Institutional distance: A measurement validation and link to job and international business travel strain. International Journal of Stress Management, 20(3), 163-192. doi:10.1037/a0033253
Ramsey, J. R., Lorenz, M. (2016). Exploring the impact of cross-cultural management education on cultural intelligence, student satisfaction, and commitment, Academy Management Learning & Education, 15(1), 79-99.
Rockstuhl, T., Seiler, S., Ang, S., Van Dyne, L., & Annen, H. (2011). Beyond general intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ): The role of cultural intelligence (CQ) on cross-‐border leadership effectiveness in a globalized world. Journal of Social Issues, 67(4), 825-840.
Sam, D. L., & Berry, J. W. (2010). Acculturation: When individuals and groups of different cultural backgrounds meet. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 472-481.
Samuel D. Gosling, Peter J. Rentfrow, William B. Swann Jr., (2013). A very brief measure of the big-five personality domains, Journal of Research in Personality, 37(6), 504-528.
Savicki, V., Binder, F., & Heller, L. (2008). Contrasts and changes in potential and actual psychological intercultural adjustment. Developing Intercultural Competence and Transformation: Theory, Research and Application in International Education.
Sterling: Stylus, 10(2), 111-27.
Schwens, C., Eiche, J., & Kabst, R. (2011). The moderating impact of informal institutional distance and formal institutional risk on SME entry mode choice. Journal of
Management Studies, 48(2), 330-351. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010. 00970.x Scott, W. R. (1995). Institutions and organizations. Foundations for organizational science.
London,UK: A Sage Publication Series.
Scott, W. R. (2004). Institutional Theory: Contributing to a theoretical research program.
great minds in management: The process of theory development. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press.
Scott, W. R. (2008). Approaching adulthood: The maturing of institutional theory. Theory and Society, 37(5), 427.
Sjöberg, L. (2015). Correction for faking in self-report personality tests. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 56(5), 582-591. doi:10.1111/sjop.12231
Teagarden, M. B., & Gordon, G. D. (1995). Corporate selection strategies and expatriate manager success. Expatriate Management: New Ideas for International
Business, 84(5), 10-66.
Thomas, D., & Inkson, K. (2004). Cultivating your cultural intelligence. Security Management, 48(8), 30-33.
Tucker, L. R., & Lewis, C. (1973). A reliability coefficient for maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 38(1), 1-10.
Van Dyne, L., Ang, S., & Koh, C. (2008). Development and validation of the CQS. Handbook of Cultural Intelligence, New York, Ny: Routledge
Van Oudenhoven, J. P., & Van der Zee, K. I. (2002). Predicting multicultural effectiveness of international students: The Multicultural personality questionnaire. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 26(6), 679-694.
Ward, C., Bochner, S., & Furnham, A. (2005). The psychology of culture shock. Philadelphia, PA: Routledge.
Ward, C., & Kennedy, A. (1993). Where's the" culture" in cross-cultural transition?
Comparative studies of sojourner adjustment. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 24(2), 221-249.
Ward, C., & Kennedy, A. (1999). The measurement of sociocultural adaptation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 23(4), 659-677.
Zuckerman, M. (1979). Sensation seeking: Beyond the optimal level of arousal. Hillsdale, NJ : Lawerence Erlbaum Associates.
Zuckerman, M., Kuhlman, D. M., Thornquist, M., & Kiers, H. (1991). Five (or three) robust questionnaire scale factors of personality without culture. Personality and Individual Differences, 12(9), 929-941.