The Effects of Communication Attitude on Cross-National Communication Barriers with Encoding, Decoding, and Transmitting as Mediating Variables.

Abstract

In this study, hypotheses on the effect of communication attitude on cross-national communication barriers based on the Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR) model developed by Berlo (1960), are proposed and tested. Three indirect effects are compared in light of three mediating variables. In total, 516 employees of companies located in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) in Thailand, an area where many foreign companies operate, participated in a questionnaire survey that was used as the data source. The results from the structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis show that communication attitude positively affected cross-national communication barriers. However, no direct relationship was observed between communication attitude and cross-national communication barriers. Communication attitude affects cross-national communication barriers through encoding and decoding. Encoding plays a positive and the most important role in mediating the indirect effects between communication attitude and cross-national communication barriers, whereas decoding plays a negative and limited role. Additionally, communication attitude does not affect cross-national communication barriers through transmitting. Communicators must appropriately adjust their attitude to improve the quality of cross-national communication and specifically pay attention to encoding and decoding.