Employee Competencies of Taiwanese International Trade

Abstract

Dozens of severe changes have forced international trade practitioners to face overwhelming challenges which require them to acquire a new set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes to face the diversity and complication of the global business environment successfully. Therefore, it is important to reveal employers' perceptions of the importance of international trade competencies. The main purpose of this quantitative study was to use survey investigation to understand international trade competencies perceived as important by Taiwanese international trade employers. The survey instrument of this study consisting of the generic competency survey and the professional competency survey were derived from Hsieh's (2009) ”The International Trade Survey Instruments,” which was based on Taiwanese literature in the business field. The study revealed several findings based on 420 Taiwanese employers’ perceptions: 1. The factor of Personal Qualities was the most important generic competency factor, followed by Executive skills, Thinking Skills, then Insight. 2. Employers rated top three professional competency components in order as International Finance and Marketing, Importing/Exporting Practices and International Communication Skills. 3. Employers placed greater importance on generic competencies than professional competencies. 4. Employers were concerned about what competencies employees had rather than what certificates they obtained. 5. Generally speaking, employers' perceptions of the importance of international trade competencies were highly consistent in statistics. 6. The complementary relationship existing between generic and professional competencies may be used to predict the importance of one by that of another.