Enhancing Business Students’ Cross-Cultural Skills

Abstract

Considering the present-day international context, with the increasing workforce mobility and the global exchange of knowledge and best practices, most companies expect their workers to be able to communicate effectively across cultures. Thus, since cross-cultural competence in today’s multicultural globalised world is an absolute prerequisite, we argue that students – as candidates in the global job market – need to acquire not only linguistic skills, but also cross-cultural competence. Consequently, drawing on a number of theories put forward by Melanie Moll (2012), Geert Hofstede (1980, 1991), E.T. Hall (1976), or Paul Verluyten (1999), this paper will look into the cultural frameworks that account for people’s behaviour, with a view to identify the students’ perception of the cultural issues likely to occur in cross-cultural encounters. More precisely, we will explore ways in which we can build and expand the students’ intercultural awareness and cross-cultural communicative competence, with a focus on the students enrolled at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, within the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, Romania.