Exploring Intercultural Competence at the Macro and Micro Scale: A Case Study from Albanian University Students

Abstract

Globalization and increasing cultural diversity have resulted in the growing necessity of being able to communicate effectively across cultural and linguistic contexts—that is, of intercultural communication competence. This study adapted extant empirically-based scales to explore the constructs of communication competence at the macro (cultural) and micro (regional) scale, the variations based on demographic characteristics, and the relationship between macro and micro constructs. Participants from five Albanian universities in Tirana (Albania), Pristina (Kosovo), and Tetovo (Macedonia) completed the self-administered survey. The exploratory factor analysis generated two factors for intercultural items and three factors for regional items. The intercultural and regional measures were positively correlated. The results of this study suggest that a comprehensive definition of intercultural communication competence and culture general measurement could be conceptualized/designed as a macro-micro continuum.