Intercultural Communicative Competence and Communication Challenges Among Hotel Employees in Chiang Mai

Patchara Kornkeeratikanr

ผู้แต่ง

Patchara Kornkeeratikanr Bachelor Student of English for International Communication Program Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna

คำสำคัญ:

Intercultural Communicative Competence, Intercultural Communication, Hotel Employees

บทคัดย่อ

This research consists purposes were 1. to compare the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of less experienced and highly experienced hotel employees in Chiang Mai 2. to investigate the intercultural communication challenges encountered by hotel employees when interacting with international guests and 3. to explore the strategies used to overcome intercultural misunderstandings and language barriers. This study employed a mixed-methods design with a dominant quantitative approach supplemented by qualitative data from open-ended questions. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire consisting of five sections covering demographic information, ICC, communication challenges, communication strategies and three open-ended questions regarding the importance of intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes. Twenty hotel employees working in the Front Office and Food and Beverage departments were selected as participants through purposive sampling from 3–4-star hotels in Chiang Mai. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation, while qualitative responses from the open-ended questions were analyzed using content analysis. The research findings revealed that 1) both less experienced and highly experienced hotel employees demonstrated a very high overall level of ICC, with attitudes and knowledge receiving the highest mean scores, while highly experienced employees showed stronger skills of discovery and interaction 2) highly experienced employees reported fewer intercultural communication challenges, with difficulties in understanding different accents and pronunciation, limited speaking fluency and unfamiliarity with technical vocabulary being the most common problems, particularly among less experienced employees and 3) both groups reported a high level of strategy use, with simple words and short sentences, confirmation checks and summarizing or rephrasing key points being the most frequently used strategies to overcome intercultural misunderstandings.

ประวัติผู้แต่ง

Patchara Kornkeeratikanr, Bachelor Student of English for International Communication Program Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna

Bachelor Student of English for International Communication Program Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna

เอกสารอ้างอิง

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