Manager's intercultural competence in the organization of Lithuania

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos vadovų tarpkultūrinės kompetencijos problemos Lietuvos organizacijose; analizuojama tarpkultūrinės komunikacijos įtaka vadovų tarpkultūrinei kompetencijai ir pateikiama tarpkultūrinės kompetencijos samprata. Taip pat straipsnyje pateikiama Lietuvos organizacijose atlikto pilotinio tyrimo, apibūdinančio vadovų tarpkultūrinė. kompetenciją, rezultatų analizė.Although in the world of trade internecine dependence is increasing constantly in between particular parties, and business is becoming more and more international, national traditions, attitudes, certitudes and beliefs retain their peculiarity. A human being perceives everything he sees or hears very individually, thus a foreign partner might conceive the same things in a completely different, sometimes even surprising way. It is essential to avoid misunderstandings in businesslike affairs, yet in case they derive the perception of their causes will decline unfavorable consequences. Foreign language, communicability, cultural flexibility, knowledge about cultural differences and peculiarities of management become specifically important aspects if there is an intension to expand business in a foreign country successfully, to collaborate with other countries or to work fruitfully at home with representatives from other countries. Intercultural competence of leaders is a new sphere of science. A few authors only analyze intercultural competence from theoretical point of view; sunder the elements of intercultural competence. The conception of this notion is introduced in this study - intercultural competence is defined as individual capability to work effectively in a multicultural environment. Competence of a leader determines results of business, because prosperity of a company and its competitiveness in the international market depend on them. The purpose of this study is to analyze the definition of intercultural competence, to perform a research on international competence of organizations' leaders in Lithuania, and to determine its problems. In the study analysis of scientific literature sources and structured survey for organizations' leaders from different levels are being used. The core results of the study. The majority of interviewed leaders speaks three, four or five foreign languages; furthermore, respondents' average knowledge of foreign languages (oral comprehension, reading comprehension and speaking) was sufficient, nonetheless it is expedient to improve comprehension and speaking skills in order to ensure effective verbal communication as not only the language differs while communicating but also the culture. Personal traits that are necessary to ensure effective intercultural communication - such as communicability, cultural sensitiveness, flexibility, ability to adapt in a new environment and tolerance towards others - were evaluated in very high scores. Respondents' poor knowledge of their and other countries' cultural and management peculiarities is the main weakness causing lots of intcrcultural collaboration problems in their work. 60% of respondents were preparing for the work with representatives from other, different country/culture; 40% of leaders didn't prepare for intercultural work at all. 85% of leaders don't solve problems deriving from intercultural work in their organization. Half of the interviewed leaders educates and trains their organizational employees for the work in intercultural environment. Thus, study revealed that different languages, different cultures and different practices remain as latent barriers in the world of trade (this aggravates intercultural collaboration a lot), therefore it is extremely important to deal with derived problems in one or another way, and improve the intercultural competence of all-level- Ieaders