Diana Bebenova–Nikolova
University of Rousse „Angel Kancev”
E-mail: dbebenova@uni-ruse.bg
Juliana Popova
University of Rousse „Angel Kancev”
E-mail: jppopova@uni-ruse.bg
Prof. Lyudmila Mihaylova
University of Rousse „Angel Kancev”
E-mail: liudmilla@abv.bg
Abstract: This article presents a study on the impact of communication on the intercultural competence of cross-border team members, who participated in the Cross-Border Cooperation Program (CBC) Romania – Bulgaria 2007-2013. The theoretical basis of the survey includes an in-depth analysis of various aspects of the management of a multicultural team, including: the specificities of planning and managing projects „across borders“; the impact of the program requirements on the team relationships and the diverse communication channels. The conclusions imply the use of Bebelova-Nikolova’s „Integrated Process Model of Intercultural Competence“. The latter presents the communication process as an algorithm which, under certain conditions, leads to the acquisition of the necessary competencies. The construction of the research tools (questionnaire and structured interview) is based on the same model, which demonstrates the consistency of the approach. The article presents the framework of the author’s interview questionnaire and the scenario of the in-depth interview, highlighting the structural link between them and the Integrated Model. This toolkit is used to conduct a quantitative and qualitative survey on the acquisition of intercultural competency of 83 participants in project teams under the CBC program. At the end, the article reports the conclusions of the statistically analyzed results and outlines the significance of some aspects of communication for the formation and correlation of some components of the intercultural competence of members of cross-border teams.
Keywords: intercultural competence, quantitative and qualitative research, correlation