| Business expatriates can become an important human resource to companies, especially to those with international or multinational operations. To help business expatriates adjust to a foreign environment and work effectively, companies need to provide intercultural training for their expatriate employees. The United States and Taiwan are close trading partners. Since Taiwan's culture is significantly different from that of the United States, it is necessary for U.S. expatriates to acquire Taiwan cultural-specific knowledge and skills when being on assignments to Taiwan.; This study assessed Taiwan cultural-specific training needs of U.S. business expatriates from the perspectives of U.S. expatriates and their Taiwanese colleagues. The instrument was a questionnaire created for the study. Items were grouped into six categories. (1) knowledge of the nation, (2) relationship building, (3) interpersonal communication, (4) business protocol, (5) legal issue, and (6) living in Taiwan. Data collected from 78 U.S. subjects and 78 Taiwanese subjects were analyzed using matched pairs t-tests. Between-group differences for the overall instrument and each category were examined.; Results showed that U.S. subjects generally believed that items listed on the survey are needed somewhat more than their Taiwanese colleagues did. U.S. subjects also perceived items in categories "knowledge of the nation," "relationship building," "business protocol," and "legal issues," as more important than Taiwanese subjects did. However, there were no significant differences between these two groups of subjects in the perceived importance of items in categories "interpersonal communication" and "living in Taiwan."; This study found that U.S. business expatriates perceive the need for intercultural training; however, their companies have not paid enough attention to this area. Findings also indicated that not only cultural-specific training, but there is a lack of cultural general training among U.S. expatriates as well. |
