DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2019.v07i03.002

Pages: 122-127

Cultural differences and communication barriers can create conflict situations, negative job satisfaction and productivity losses. Effective cross cultural communication is necessary for fostering, trust, motivation and staff engagement to achieve organizational goals. This paper examines the relationship between cross cultural communication and interpersonal conflicts as well as job satisfaction in a transnational corporation (TNC) operating in Malaysia. Methodology: Using a Malaysian based French cosmetics TNC with over 800 international as a case study, the data collection tools were a literature review and a questionnaire survey with 133 participants comprising international and local staff to test two hypotheses. The independent variables were cross cultural communication and interpersonal conflict with job satisfaction being the dependent variable. A five point Likert Scale was used for attitude measurement. Results: The findings imply that there is correlation between interpersonal conflict and job satisfaction and interpersonal conflicts decrease job satisfaction. Conclusion/- and Recommendations: Culture is multidimensional and effective cross cultural communication is of key importance in TNCs which have a culturally diverse workforce. In Malaysian TNCs, expatriate staff must take full account of the expectations of the local Malaysian staff in terms of business etiquette, customs and beliefs to avoid interpersonal conflicts leading to negative job satisfaction. Based on the findings, it is recommended that international managers as well as Malaysian staff develop cross culture competencies through training to overcome cross cultural barriers.