Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Eva Eckenh<strong>of</strong>er
could behave opportunistically. The emergence <strong>of</strong> trust itself is influenced by common norms and
values recognized as valid within a network or society, and <strong>the</strong> trustworthiness <strong>of</strong> an actor which can
be considered as an individual attribute (Tsai and Goshal, 1998).
Ano<strong>the</strong>r factor <strong>of</strong> influence beside interpersonal communication is proximity which is defined as <strong>the</strong>
quality <strong>of</strong> relationships in psychological, cultural, social and physical dimensions that influences <strong>the</strong>
quality and quantity <strong>of</strong> communication (Becerra and Huemer, 2002), (Lechner and Dowling, 2003),
(Gössling, 2007). This implies that real, virtual or mental space is needed for <strong>the</strong> emergence and
development <strong>of</strong> social networks. While modern information and communication technologies can be
used in order to support networking and knowledge sharing (Seufert et al., 1999), more trivial things
have to be taken into consideration beforehand. Cultural differences, language barriers and
physiological distances can hinder proximity and <strong>the</strong> emergence <strong>of</strong> social networks. Network
development, especially <strong>the</strong> emergence <strong>of</strong> informal (not organized) networks, always depends on
personal communication, as <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> trust is highly influenced by unconscious artefacts
(e.g.: body language). Therefore <strong>the</strong> design and architecture <strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>fices plays a vivid role for <strong>the</strong>
creation <strong>of</strong> informal intra-organizational networks.
The influence <strong>of</strong> those factors <strong>of</strong> influence will be analysed in this paper by way <strong>of</strong> a longitudinal
survey <strong>of</strong> a group <strong>of</strong> PhD. Students studying at Tomas Bata University in Zlín (Czech Republic). 72
PhD Students are studying in <strong>the</strong> academic year 2010/2011 at <strong>the</strong> Faculty <strong>of</strong> Management and
Economics. 35% <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m do not come from <strong>the</strong> Czech Republic, but have a different nationality.
Seven students are from <strong>the</strong> Slovak Republic, 5 from Sri Lanka, 3 from Russia and <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs are
from Austria, China, Colombia, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Mongolia, Poland and Vietnam. Foreign
students on Tomas Bata University have a long history as Thomas Bata, founder <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bata Shoe
Empire, already attracted numerous foreigners to his business academy (Rybka, 1999; Lesingrova,
2008). Never<strong>the</strong>less in recent years foreign students have been poorly integrated as <strong>the</strong>y visited
different lectures, had <strong>the</strong>ir <strong>of</strong>fices in different buildings than Czech students, and had <strong>the</strong>ir own
meetings; even Christmas parties were organized separately for foreign students.
Beside <strong>the</strong>se organizational barriers language barriers came into action too. Figure 1 shows a plot <strong>of</strong>
<strong>the</strong> average valued language skills <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> PhD Students. In an online questionnaire <strong>the</strong> students were
asked to indicate <strong>the</strong>ir languages skills as mo<strong>the</strong>r tongue (4), fluent (3), advanced (2) and basic (1).
Figure 1: Language Skills <strong>of</strong> PhD Students on UTB/Fame
The graph shows that foreign students speak Czech on a very low level and fall behind also in
German and Slovak language. The language skills <strong>of</strong> Slovak and Czech students are lower in
Spanish, Russian and o<strong>the</strong>r languages (Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka...). Not only do <strong>the</strong> language skills
<strong>the</strong>mselves play a vivid role, but moreover <strong>the</strong> willingness and self-confidence to speak a foreign
language. Moreover cultural differences as measured and analysed by H<strong>of</strong>stede (1984) have a great
impact on inter-cultural communication and cooperation.
In <strong>the</strong> academic year 2009/2010 organizational changes were made in order to integrate those
students, for mutual benefits. PhD Students were assigned to <strong>of</strong>fices according to <strong>the</strong>ir dissertation
topic so that Czechs and foreigners started to share <strong>the</strong>ir <strong>of</strong>fices. The changes were not aimed solely
for <strong>the</strong> better integration <strong>of</strong> foreigners, but moreover to improve language skills <strong>of</strong> Czech PhD
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