| Summary: | 博士 === 逢甲大學 === 商學博士學位學程 === 106 === In the era of globalization, cross-cultural issues have been widely discussed. However, research concerning cultural barriers expatriates face in foreign subsidiaries are relatively rare. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate and prioritize barriers that expatriates encounter during cross-cultural interactions. This study integrates a review of the literatures and expert’s experiences to construct an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model. AHP questionnaires were distributed to multinational corporations (MNCs) and were analyzed using Expert Choice software. After obtaining the weights from AHP, applied to Fuzzy using Matlab software and the results are then confirmed by Fuzzy AHP. This study finds that national culture bonded barriers are the most critical factors that hinder expatriates’ cross-cultural interactions with the host country. In addition, the sub-factor, ethnocentrism, has the largest impact on national culture bonded barriers, it can intensify the degree of stereotypes and prejudice expatriates have on HCNs. However, with cross-cultural trainings and better cross-cultural interactions with host country nationals (HCNs) can lessen expatriates’ ethnocentrism. Furthermore, headquarter strategy generates the highest influence on organizational barriers. It is noted that when headquarter-subsidiary relationship is eased, the subsidiary’s role tends to be more positive and vice versa. Moreover, cross-cultural communication is the most important factor within the category of individual rooted barriers. It is observed that cross-cultural communication can help improve expatriates’ cultural competence and enhance cultural intelligence. Finally, this study concludes that because cultural barriers are the main factors causing the failures of expatriates, it is crucial for MNCs to provide their employees with cross-cultural trainings that prepare expatriates’ language and cultural abilities for cross-cultural interactions with the host country and non-work social networks to facilitate the cross-cultural adjustment in MNCs.
Keywords: Cross-cultural Interaction, Cultural Barrier, Expatriate
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