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Introduction: The world has become a global village with the development of globalization, technology, transportation opportunities, and socioeconomic living conditions. Multinational, multicultural businesses have been formed with the effect of globalization. Tourism activities have also gained a global dynamic. People from different cultures travel to different geographies for different purposes, and this highlights the need for managers and employees of tourism businesses to adapt to people from different cultures and multicultural environments.

Aim: In order to achieve success in intercultural communication, it is necessary to work with employees with a high level of intercultural sensitivity. Respect for different cultures without prejudices is very important in hotel businesses to provide quality service. For this reason, the high level of intercultural sensitivity of the employees in tourism businesses, which have a multicultural structure both with their customers and managers, will significantly affect their competitiveness in the sector. The aim of this study is to examine the intercultural sensitivity level of department managers working in hotel businesses according to some demographic features.

Method: The data collected via a survey were analyzed with statistical software. Frequency, percentage, etc., descriptive analysis and difference tests were performed.

Result: Intercultural sensitivity levels of hotel managers were examined according to some demographic characteristics. It was revealed that intercultural sensitivity levels of the managers working in hotel enterprises who participated in the research were far from ethnocentrism.

Implication: In the research, it was found that those who received tourism education respected intercultural differences more than those who did not receive any tourism education, and that they were affected by intercultural interaction more than those who did not receive any tourism education. For those working in the tourism sector, the recruitment of qualified personnel who received tourism education is important in order to achieve intercultural communication.

Originality of Study: The research was conducted on the department managers working in 4 and 5-star hotel enterprises in Marmaris and Bodrum districts of Muğla Province. There are a very limited number of studies in terms of determining the intercultural levels of employees and managers in hotel enterprises and examining them according to demographic characteristics. The research achieved results supporting similar studies. It is deemed significant in terms of determining according to which variables the concept of intercultural sensitivity differ and achieving results that can be generalized. Furthermore, the results which emphasized the importance of intercultural communication in the recruitment of the employees who received tourism education within the sector were also obtained.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the intercultural sensitivity of students in teacher educational programs at higher education institutes (HEIs) in Georgia.

This research explored the intercultural sensitivity among 355 randomly selected students in teacher education programs at higher education institutions in Georgia. A questionnaire based on the Development Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) and Cushner et al. (2006) model of sources of cultural identity was developed as a research instrument and adjusted to the Georgian context to measure the students’ intercultural sensitivity.

The results showed that a majority of the students were in the ethnocentric phase of intercultural sensitivity, as defined by Bennett (1993); students in teachers’ educational programs were selectively sensitive to different sources of cultural identity; students were selectively tolerant to different groups in the population with the same source of cultural identity and the level of educational attainment, as well as the location of the higher education institution affected students’ level of intercultural sensitivity.

The findings of this study carry valuable practical importance as they can be used to improve teacher education programs at higher education institutions in Georgia.

The study has scientific value in that the instrument used to assess intercultural sensitivity was developed for the Georgian context, and students’ intercultural sensitivity to 12 different sources of cultural identity was investigated.

The significant increase in service offerings throughout the world has caused marketing scholars to focus their attention on the characteristics of the service encounter. With the growth in global business, more attention is also being paid to cross‐culture service encounters. This study proposes adding to that trend by attempting to measure the effect of intercultural sensitivity on the cross‐cultural performance of service employees.

Questionnaires were carried out in four‐ and five‐diamond hotels located in the state of Florida with reputations for attracting foreign guests.

The results indicate that employees with high intercultural sensitivity scored significantly (p<0.05) higher than employees with low intercultural sensitivity in terms of service attentiveness, revenue contribution, interpersonal skills, job satisfaction, and social satisfaction as they relate to cross‐cultural encounters. There was no significant difference in scores for motivation‐to‐work and perceptions of primary rewards (compensation, recognition, etc.).

The study was limited to upscale in Florida hotels.

Results suggest that service firms would benefit from testing for and providing training in intercultural sensitivity for employees involved in cross‐cultural service encounters.

The purpose of this study is to examine relevant demographic and socio-economic factors as they relate to progress towards intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and intercultural sensitivity for ethnic-minority Latinx middle school English learners (ELs) using a mobile-assisted funds-of-knowledge-featured writing practice.

Through the theoretical lens of funds of knowledge, this three-year study implemented a survey-based quasi-experimental design centered on the Latinx ELs’ ICC development with the implementation of an intercultural sensitivity questionnaire (Chen and Starosta, 2000). The authors first investigated the relationship between ELs’ intercultural sensitivity and associated demographic and socio-economic factors. The authors then examined the changes of ELs’ intercultural sensitivity. Over ten weeks, the intervention group completed five funds-of-knowledge-featured narrative essays using pen and paper and mobile-based writing tools alternatively.

Findings indicated that ELs’ intercultural sensitivity increased as they advanced to a higher-level grade from sixth to eighth. The embedded mobile-assisted funds-of-knowledge writing practice as intervention promoted ELs’ intercultural sensitivity in interaction engagement, respect of cultural differences, interaction enjoyment and interaction attentiveness. Among the variables, interaction enjoyment was portrayed the most. ELs who reported not speaking English at home were statistically significant in this experiment.

This study acknowledges the robust and variance of funds of knowledge as a niche to address the interculturality and hybridity of ELs’ cultural practices accumulated through Latinx ELs’ family socialization and social development using mobile-assisted writing practice. This study could provide implications for optimizing inclusive experience to promote computer-assisted language learning in a contemporary, postcolonial global world.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the intercultural competence of pre-service special education teacher candidates through the contents of a graduate-level multicultural perspectives course.

This study used a graduate-level multicultural perspectives course to examine the intercultural competence of special education teacher candidates. A paired-samples t-test of significance was performed to investigate the pre- and post-growth of participants’s cultural sensitivity using the intercultural development inventory (IDI).

Participants’ intercultural sensitivity mean score suggested that their intercultural competence needs to be improved. The results showed no significant difference in the overall mean developmental scores between pre- and post-tests. However, significant differences were found between the pre- and post-test scores in perceived orientation and acceptance cluster.

A significantly higher perceived score was identified suggesting that participants might overestimate their level of intercultural sensitivity. Different from the existing literature, this study suggested that gender and education level were significant predictors of post-test developmental scores.

The purpose of this paper is to identify themes on international experiences that impact culture and how these findings will intervene in understanding cross-cultural training programs. Thereby an attempt is made to: evaluate cross-cultural insensitivity influences on cross-cultural shock and willingness to adapt, identify cultural impressions over a short overseas period, provide some insights on cross-cultural training that will improve training practices for cross-cultural assignments.

A diary method was used to analyze the data using NVivo. This research uses diary studies because they have been popular in identifying factors that influence learners to learn, as well as found to be productive to achieve short term experiences. They allow for in-depth analysis, uncovering several findings unlike observation and interviews that cannot reach. In addition, diary text is said to give information on areas of social reality that are not contained in the text. Following this the study used the theme category frequencies to enable us to undertake non-parametric testing of contingency tables.

Several descriptors were identified in this study; the χ²-test indicates that there is a difference in cultural shock experiences on negative cultural sensitivity but no difference in positive cultural sensitivity which was found significant at the p=0.05 level. On the other hand there is a significant association between positive cultural sensitivity and willingness to adjust and no significant association between negative cultural sensitivity and willingness to adjust which was found significant at the p=0.05 level.

This research shows how learning in higher education can take into account the experiences by which learners can use their knowledge and skills for future cross-cultural training in international careers.

These results can be useful in guiding vocational interests. The results of the research offer descriptors of an exploratory nature which can also be used as a reference analysis for consequent phases in cross-cultural training.

Research provides several descriptors on international culture such as culture shock, positive and negative intercultural sensitivity, and willingness to adapt, some of which were significant. Diary method to analyze data are used which is distinctive and unique to understand behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to develop recommendations for measures assessing intercultural training needs for international human resource management. Based on scientific as well as application‐oriented criteria the aim is to select six measures assessing general intercultural competencies and with the help of behaviour ratings in interactive intercultural exercises to evaluate the psychometric quality and practicability of the questionnaires for training purposes.

Psychometric quality including prognostic power of ICSI, FLCS, NVCCS, ISAS, TIHK, and SIB was tested by correlating subjects' questionnaires results with observations of their actual behaviour in intercultural exercises.

Satisfying psychometric quality and prognostic validity of almost all measures was found. Especially TIHK, ICSI, and FLCS score well for assessing training needs whereas the results for SIB were problematic.

The study observed student participants of the same culture. Replication studies should examine large samples of different cultural backgrounds and manager populations.

Human resource managers may benefit from gaining knowledge about which measures to use for identifying employee's weaknesses in intercultural competence in order to create tailor‐made training interventions.

The study is the first providing information about the psychometric quality, including predictive power, of six measures, that assess intercultural skills to detect intercultural training needs.

This chapter analyzes the impact of intercultural academic experiences on students in the areas of intercultural sensitivity and multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills.

Cottey College’s mission statement includes a clause about educating students to be useful members of a global society (Mission, n.d., para. 1). Toward achieving the mission, each of Cottey College’s second year students is offered an international experience over spring break that is largely paid for by endowed funds. For spring break 2015, the author of this chapter and a colleague offered a trip to Thailand. To participate, students were required to take part in a Step into the World!: Thailand course that was intended to prepare them to successfully navigate, and later reflect upon, their experience abroad. The trip portion of the course spanned 10 days. To measure what impacts the course may have had, students were asked to complete a pre-course and post-course survey, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Fritz, Möllenberg, & Chen, 2002), and to complete journal entries and a personal impact statement by which their multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills were assessed.

Analysis of the results suggests the Step into the World!: Thailand course had a positive impact on the majority of students’ intercultural sensitivity and multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills.

The findings support the importance of intentionally combining inside and outside of the classroom experiences to enhance student outcomes.

This study investigated the effects of an intercultural communication (IC) course on Emirati university students' intercultural sensitivity (IS).

The participants were 89 Emirati students. The course required student involvement in a variety of tasks and activities, both inside and outside the classroom. The development of the students' IS was tracked using two instruments: the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) and a reflective writing task.

The difference between the students' overall pre-test and post-test scores was at a statistically significant level. The data from the reflective writing papers showed that the course developed the students' IS with a particular effect on their awareness of other cultures, barriers to effective communication and self-confidence.

In an increasingly globalized world, the findings of this study highlight the importance of a course designed to enhance university students' IS and therefore intercultural competence. They also indicate the need for more experiential learning to bridge in-class and out-of-class experiences which facilitate the development of students' intercultural competence.