Abstract

Internationalization has been a trend in higher education around the world. It has increased the demand for individuals who can manage effectively in a foreign environment. Much research has focused on expatriates’ cross-cultural adaptation. Little attention has been paid to the research of investigating university international faculty in terms of intercultural effectiveness. Intercultural effectiveness (ICE) has also been called cross-cultural competence and cross-cultural success (Kelley & Meyers, 1995). Cui (1989) defines ICE as the general assessment of a sojourner’s ability to communicate effectively across cultures. Han (1997, 2002) develops a Five-Competence Model for measuring ICE, i.e., (1) the ability to handle psychological stress, (2) the ability to effectively communicate, (3) the ability to establish interpersonal relationships, (4) the ability to have cross-cultural awareness, and (5) the ability to have cultural empathy. The purpose of this current study was to investigate and compare variables affecting ICE competencies for foreign-born faculty in Taiwan. It also helped identify ICE competencies of the foreign-born faculty in Taiwan and provided baseline information required to analyze and develop2 cross-cultural training programs for international assignees in both public and private sectors, and for foreign-born faculty in educational institutions as a whole.