Effect of Biographical Variables on Employees' Adaptation to Intercultural Communication in a University of Technology

Abstract

Effective intercultural communication is one possible way of improving intercultural competency and ultimately assisting an organisation to achieve success. Employees from different cultural backgrounds are required to adapt and accommodate each other in intercultural communication interactions. Therefore, this article sought to establish the effects of biographical variables on employees at a university of technology. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data. A total of 294 respondents completed the questionnaire. Likert items were used to obtain responses to the questions, and SPSS software was used to analyse the data. The findings showed that biographical variables such as education, age, language, race, and country of origin do not influence the adaptation to intercultural communication, competence in intercultural communication, the impact of culture on communication, recognition, and understanding of cultural differences, intercultural communication as a source of team cohesion and improvement of intercultural communication. Additionally, the findings showed that women and men perceive the above intercultural communication variables in the same way. The article advocates for the continuous enhancement of intercultural communication.