MANAGERS’ INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND READINESS FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN AN ORGANISATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

The study’s subject is the relationship between managers’ intercultural communication skills, perceived communication barriers, organisational support, and readiness for international cooperation. Intercultural communication is considered a managerial competence that enables managers to adapt communication styles, recognise cultural and organisational differences, clarify agreements, and maintain constructive professional interaction with foreign partners. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationships among managers’ self-assessed intercultural communication skills, perceived barriers, organisational support, and readiness for international cooperation, and to identify differences in these indicators according to management level, English proficiency, international interaction experience, prior training, and field of professional activity. The study used an exploratory quantitative survey design. The initial dataset contained 166 records. After repeated, nearly identical response profiles were removed, 61 unique responses from participants with managerial experience or managerial functions were retained for analysis. Four composite indices were calculated from five-point Likert-scale items: intercultural communication skills, communication barriers, organisational support, and readiness for international cooperation. The statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, Spearman’s rank correlation, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results revealed a strong positive relationship between intercultural communication skills and readiness for international cooperation (ρ = 0.986, p < 0.001). Organisational support was also positively associated with readiness (ρ = 0.971, p < 0.001), whereas perceived communication barriers showed a strong negative association with it (ρ = −0.944, p < 0.001). Statistically significant differences were identified according to management level, English proficiency, international interaction experience, and prior training. Senior managers, respondents with B2-C1 English proficiency, and those with more than five years of international interaction experience demonstrated higher levels of intercultural communication skills, organisational support, and readiness, as well as lower perceived barriers. No statistically significant differences were found by field of professional activity. The study concludes that readiness for international cooperation is associated with both individual managerial competences and organisational conditions. Therefore, the development of managers’ intercultural communication should combine language preparation, analysis of intercultural situations, negotiation practice, and organisational support mechanisms. The findings also indicate that training should address not only senior managers but also middle and line managers involved in the daily coordination of international interaction. Given the small, non-representative sample, the self-reported data, and the cross-sectional design, the results should be interpreted as preliminary and verified in subsequent research using larger samples and more differentiated measurement instruments.