Cross-cultural Communication Research to Improve Indonesia’s Human Resources Competitiveness.

On Monday, 11 March 2019, some of the members of RIG CrossComm, Bhernadetta Pravita Wahyuningtyas, S.Sos., M.Si. and Mario Nugroho Willyarto, S. Kom., M.Pd., with the RIG  leader, Dr. Ulani Yunus, had the very first meeting on planning for the research on Cross-cultural Communication to Improve Indonesia’s Human Resource Competitiveness, funded by Kemenristekdikti (Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia) for year 2019-2021.

The competition of people among nations has become an issue that is currently being discussed in the current discourse and practice of Indonesia’s society. Indonesia has a lot of uniqueness, which can be shown through cross-cultural communication.  In Indonesia, cross-cultural communication occurs in people interaction, especially at Binus University which is preparing to become World Class University. This research can also be the input for the foreign ministry and the ministry of tourism that cross-cultural communication models are examined. This research also has the potential to contribute to Indonesian social education. This study focuses on international cross-cultural communication and the quality of human resources in Indonesia. The research will take locations in Binus Jakarta, Bandung and Malang. International Office of the Bnus University, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Manpower will be involved in group discussions.

We were immediately distributing tasks to prepare everything needed for the research. There will be some outputs from the result of the research such as publications in proceedings, journals publications, books and proposal for government policy. Each of us got different tasks according to our expertise and experience, from preparing articles for publications to the scheduling in collecting data in Binus Jakarta, Bandung, and Malang. We are looking ahead on some conferences for publications such as ICA (International Communication Association), Aspikom (Asosiasi Pendidikan Tinggi Ilmu Komunikasi / Association of Higher Education in Communication Studies) and ISKI (Ikatan Sarjana Komunikasi Indonesia / Indonesian Communication Sholar Community) Conferences, in Bali, Aceh and Makasar, to disseminate our research.

The target of the research is to find a model for international cross-cultural communication in Indonesia and to improve the quality of Indonesian human resources. The fundamental contribution of the results of this study is the discovery of a cross-cultural international communication model in Indonesia which can eventually be developed into an application to bring investors and tourists to Indonesia as part of the nation’s competitiveness.

The process of the research and the result will be updated on the RIG Crosscomm website regularly, besides on the other outputs. So, please stay put. (MNW)