Building cross-cultural competence model for expatriate managers in low-to-middle levels

Abstract

Cross-cultural Competence (CC) is referred to the knowledge, traits and abilities that individuals display under different cultural situations, and this knowledge, traits and abilities are closely related to work performance required by cross-cultural contexts. This paper firstly constructs a conceptual model of CC for Chinese expatriate managers in low-to-middle levels on the basis of literature study, then collects data through questionnaire survey from Chinese MNCs, and tests the conceptual model based on the data analysis. The CC model developed in this study is composed of 4 dimensions (Knowledge, Personal Traits, Behavioral Abilities, and Motives) and 15 elements. This study finds that the dimension of personal traits varies according to the variance of industry. This study also gives suggestions for Chinese MNCs to improve the CC of expatriate managers through the following ways: establishing a complete selecting system for expatriate managers, match the right expatriate managers with the right host environments, providing specific training for CC, and promoting experience sharing and communication as well as feedback mechanism.