Communicative Competence of Overseas Chinese Students in an MBA Program in a Private University in Malaysia

Abstract

An increasing number of Chinese university students choose to study
abroad and attention should be paid to their communicative
competence that may affect their scores, performance in class, social
interactions, and knowledge acquisition. Chinese MBA students need
good communicative competence as an essential quality so they can
play an important role in business and management fields. This study
investigates the level of communicative competence of a sample of
Chinese MBA students enrolled at a private university in Selangor,
Malaysia. Their communicative competence was assessed from the
following aspects: affiliation and support, empathy, interaction
management, social relaxation and behavioural flexibility. The data
were collected in this study by means of a 36-item communicative
competence questionnaire. There were a total of 164 questionnaires
completed and 157 were used in the study. The findings of this study
are as follows: The level of communicative competence of MBA students from China in the private university ranged from good to very
good with respect to affiliation and support, empathy, interaction
management, social relaxation and behavioural flexibility. Chinese
MBA students investigated with respect to affiliation and support,
empathy, interaction management, and behavioural flexibility.
However, male students outperformed female students in terms of
social relaxation. There were no age differences in the communicative
competence of the sample of Chinese MBA students investigated.
There were no differences in the communicative competence between
students with working experience and students without working
experience. Communicative competence of students in the sample who
communicated with both Chinese and foreign interactants were better
than those who communicated with mostly Chinese interactants.