This chapter introduces the background, statement of the problem, research purposes, research questions, significance of this study and definitions of terms. The background describes the characteristics of multicultural workplace. The need of research on intercultural training programs in organization and significance of this study are both addressed. Moreover, the research purposes and questions are depicted.
Key terms of this study are defined in the end.
Background of the Study
Cross-border investment, transnational marriages and workers in multinational organizations are common features in the modern society under globalization. One of the four aspects identified by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about globalization is “migration and movement of people” (IMF, 2000). Based on the number provided by Ministry of Labor (2016), the foreign workers in Taiwan are increasing from 338,755 in 2006 to 618,924 in 2016, November. Not only the workforce is composed with diverse groups but also the schools are recruiting more and more international students. International students in Taiwan are reached to 38,622 in 2015 academic year since it is only 24,104 four years ago (Ministry of Education, 2016).
The increasing migration and movement of people create more interactions from interpersonal to international as well as the increasing conflicts and prejudices in society.
An interdisciplinary and policy-oriented research project, Definition and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo), carried out by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is trying to answer a critical question: What competencies, apart from reading, writing, and computing, are necessary for individuals to lead an overall
successful life and for society to face the challenges of the present and the future (Rychen & Salganik, 2003)? There are three competencies suggested in DeSeCo project:
(1) interacting in socially heterogeneous groups, (2) acting autonomously, and (3) using tools interactively. The first competency includes the ability to relate well to others, to cooperate, and to manage and resolve conflicts.
With the tendency that workplaces are composed by people from different backgrounds and diverse characteristics, how to handle the cultural shock, differences between values and language barriers becomes critical for organizations. Having employees with sufficient skills and intercultural competence to work effectively with colleagues, business partners and customers from different cultural backgrounds is a significant challenge. As the definition addressed by Deardorff (2004), intercultural competence is “the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (p.194).
Lectures, workshops and readings are frequently used in intercultural learning. In response to the needs of cultivating talents in global market, intercultural training has been advocated as a mean to facilitate effective intercultural interactions and to equip individuals with intercultural competence in dealing with diverse and cross-cultural challenges. More and more organizations, governments and schools invest a big amount of resources in providing such trainings. In a report published by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in 2009, “conducting ongoing training to promote better understanding among employees with different backgrounds and creating opportunities for employees in minority groups to network with each other” (p.41) is common practice in promoting diversity to organizations in all regions. Thus, training is a common tool for organizations to promote intercultural competence. An effective
and when lots of resources and investments have been allocated in cultivating talents.
Developing an effective intercultural training program for employees in multicultural workplaces is the main purpose of this study. Practical suggestions for organizations when designing intercultural training program in multicultural workplaces are provided as well.
Statement of the Problem
“How to develop an effective intercultural training program?” is the question to be answered in this study. People with higher intercultural competence are able to communicate and interact effectively with others. The ability could be improved via trainings including the important elements such as CQ (known as cultural quotient or cultural intelligence) and communication skills. CQ is defined as an individual’s capability to work effectively in diverse cultural settings (Ang & Van, 2008a). With mentioned background in previous section, providing effective trainings to cultivate talents in multicultural workplaces is a challenging assignment for organizations.
Intercultural trainings are well discussed in many researches (Batchelder & Warner, 1977; Dolhun, Muñoz, & Grumbach, 2003). However, some researches also indicate the ineffectiveness and obstacles of training programs. Organizations intend to take trainings as a shortcut to change employees’ behaviors in a fast pace, yet, leading to opposite effect or even creating misunderstandings between different groups (Kalev, Dobbin, & Kelly, 2006; Maister, 2006). When it comes to “culture”, Schein (1992) divided it into three levels: artifacts, espoused beliefs & values, and underlying assumptions. Most of the current intercultural training programs are planed with surface knowledge, such as history, customs and taboos of a specific culture; some emphasize on introducing the differences between values, such as power distance, individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 2001); less is
touched to the advanced level of underlying assumptions. It is not enough for individuals only understand the surface behaviors instead of learning the underlying knowledge which usually leads to prejudices (Kalev, Dobbin, & Kelly, 2006) and plays as the root influencing individual’s behaviors.
Besides, present researches on intercultural trainings are more likely to take student as training subjects because of the approachable access (Erez et al., 2013;
MacNab, 2012; Ramsey & Lorenz, 2016). Due to the characteristics between students in academic environment and employees in workplaces are different, the workplaces seem to be more stressful, fast-pacing and unpredictable. With above characteristics, the results from previous mentioned researches may not applied effectively in workplace. There is a need to investigate the criteria for developing intercultural trainings in multicultural workplaces. Therefore, the purpose of this study is trying to answer the remaining questions in organizations.
Research Purpose
This study aims to develop an effective training program so that to equip employees with intercultural competence and to prevent organizations from wasting resources. Especially for those individuals who work in a multicultural workplace. This study attempts to combine the experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984) and the identified characteristics of multicultural workplace in structuring the intercultural training program. The effectiveness of training program is evaluated through a quasi-experimental design. And implications to organizations is provided in order to improve current design for intercultural training programs.
Research Questions
Based on experiential learning theory (ELT) developed by Kolb in 1984, this study makes a hypothesis as participants will demonstrate an improvement on CQ dimensions (Ang, Van, & Koh, 2006) and effectiveness of communication after receiving the designed training program.
Question 1: What are the characteristics of a cultural incident in multicultural workplace?
Question 2: How to develop an intercultural training program based on identified characteristics of cultural incidents?
Question 3: What is the training outcomes of the developed intercultural program?
Significance of the Study
Nowadays, keeping a completive edge is one of the priorities for organizations.
Thus, retaining and cultivating talents play a critical role in organizational development.
Trainings are the common way when organizations are trying to achieve operational objectives. An effective training program can not only help on the talent development but also save a big amount of expenses. This study uses an experiential learning approach in developing intercultural trainings in multicultural workplace. From the developing process, the study elaborate the training elements which need to be take into concerns when doing a customized intercultural training program. By applying the trainings in organization, this study provides an empirical analysis on developing an effective training program for improving individual’s intercultural competence in multicultural workplaces. The outcomes of this study could be a reference for organizational development.
Definition of Terms Intercultural Competence
Lustig & Koester (2010) explain, “culture is a learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms and social practices, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people” (p.25). Deardorff (2004) also defined intercultural competence as “the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (p.194). With regards to the components of intercultural competence, researchers also have tried to explain why people result in different outcomes when communicating across cultural boundaries. Bennett (2004) introduced the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) for “generating greater intercultural sensitivity and the potential for more intercultural competence” (p.75) which supports our standing that intercultural competence can be developed through a developmental training aims at broadening worldview.
Cultural Intelligence (CQ)
Cultural intelligence (CQ) is defined as an individual’s capability to work effectively in diverse cultural settings (Ang & Van, 2008a) as is separated from a personality trait, CQ represents adjustments a person can make to be effective across cultures, whereas a personality trait describes what a person will normally do across time and situations (Ang et al., 2007; Costa & McCrae, 1992). Ang, Van, & Koh (2006) stated that CQ is composed by four dimensions which are cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, behavioral CQ and metacognitive CQ. Cognitive CQ represented to the available cultural norms, practice, routines in different cultures. In the study, the 20-item CQ
Employees in Multicultural Workplace
This study recruits participants who are working in the environment with the addressed characteristics as multicultural workplace. The job content usually includes interactions with diverse cultural groups. Considering the similarity of job content, this study cooperates with the program managers of Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) and the employees in organizations who are tasked with international affairs, trainings or overseas business in organizations.
Training Program Development
This study employs the ADDIE model in developing the training program with a theoretical base. Earley and Peterson (2004) commended the existing intercultural trainings used to assume that the needs of all individuals are similar. In order to better fit individuals’ needs, a needs assessment is conducted to analyze the characteristics of multicultural workplace and obstacles occurred to TaiwanICDF program managers during interactions. According to the result of needs assessment, training program is designed, implemented and evaluated. Furthermore, the work experiences from program managers in multicultural workplaces not only provide great resource of case study but also relate to personal needs in work. The experiential learning theory (ELT) thence is embedded to the training design to better utilize above material. Feedbacks from the program managers are taken as the hands-on information in delivering an effective training program.