EL MUNDO hOy. GESTIÓN DE LA DIVERSIDAD. UN IMPERATIVO ...

The Successful Adaptation of Expatriates and the Intercultural...
The cognitive, the dimension known as intercultural awareness, refers
to «the knowledge of the similarities and differences between cultures,
as well as of the cultural standards that affect the way in which we
think and behave» (Santos, 2004). It is also known as «cognitive communicative
competence» (Rodrigo, 1999), ‘self awareness and cultural
awareness’ (Chen and Starosta, 1996), and ‘knolwdge, understanding
and awareness’ (Vilà, 2002).
The affective, the dimension also known as intercultural sensitivity,
refers to «the motivation shown by the people to know, understand,
appreciate and accept the differences between different cultures» (Santos,
2004). This is also known as «empathy» (Chen and Starosta, 2000)
and ‘motivation’ (Rodrigo, 1999).
Finally the behavioural, the dimension known as intercultural efficiency,
is understood as the «ability to interact interculturally and attain
the communication objectives by means of verbal and non verbal communicative
skills» (Santos, 2004). This is also known as «intercultural
skills» (Chen and Starosta, 1996), ‘acting efficiently’ (Rodrigo, 1999),
and ‘verbal and non verbal skills’ (Vilà, 2002).
Also Iglesias (2003) claims that the intercultural communicative
competence includes a number of skills: faith, attitudes, knowledge and
competences and therefore the following hypothesis is stated:
H2: Intercultural communicative competence is a multidimensional
construct.
On the other hand, Morley and Flynn (2003) claim that the intercultural
communicative competence makes the job, social and general
adaptation easier. For this paper we established the following hypothesis.
H3a-c: The intercultural communicative competence makes the general
(a), social (b) and job (c) adaptation of the expatriate easier.
5. Methodology
5.1. Sample
The questionnaire was available on the web site of Ex-A-Tec Graduates
of the Monterrey Technological College during the months of July
and August of 2005. Former students with experience of international
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