An Exploration of Greek Business Executives’ Intercultural Communication Competence

Abstract

Managers’ ability to build global organizations and synergies is imperative, which in turn necessitates effective and appropriate intercultural communication skills. Literature to date primarily focuses on countries whose financial/corporate interdependence is of utmost importance. Not surprisingly then, the body of literature indicates that existing research addressing ICC within a Greek business context is inexistent. Consequently, this study is a preliminary attempt to start redressing this balance and hence, this proposed research aims to contribute to a poorly existing knowledge base by reporting on an enquiry undertaken to quantitatively determine middle managers’ ICC in Greece by measuring intercultural sensitivity -a determining factor of ICC. Quantitative data was obtained using the ISS from a body of fifty-five Greek middle-level managers. The results indicated that overall these managers have a high level of ICC; however no significant statistical correlations were found between the demographic variables explored and intercultural sensitivity. This paper concludes with some practical implications and recommendations for further research.