| Based on the assumption that communication networks constitute culture, a study was conducted on the impact of organizational communication networks and personal communication technologies (PCTs) use on Korean immigrants’ intercultural development. The research has found that Korean immigrants’ structural positions within their ethnic church communication networks and diversity of their social network have significant influences on their intercultural development, of which the process is facilitated by PCT usage with distinctive ties. A theoretical model of immigrant intercultural development was suggested based on the existing theories of cross-cultural adaptation (Kim, 2001), cultural convergence (Barnett & Kincaid, 1983), and intercultural communication networks (Smith, 1999; Yum, 1988) with a communication-centered view on social networks. The current study first examined the structural composition of Korean immigrants’ communication networks in their ethnic church community, which became the main sources of their social capital, and then measured the effect of their network characteristics (i.e., size, diversity, and centrality) on individuals’ ethnorelative and ethnocentric development (for RQ1 and its related six hypotheses). An organizational member survey of a sample Korean immigrant church was used to construct the whole network of the organization and to analyze the relationships between major constructs (i.e., social capital, PCTs use, and intercultural development). Further, how those network characteristics are related to Korean immigrants’ PCTs use for contacting distinctive social ties (i.e., coethnic vs. host, strong vs. weak ties) were examined (for RQ2 and its four subsidiary questions). Last, this study examined how Korean immigrants’ social capital embedded in their communication networks and PCT usage affect their intercultural development together (i.e., RQ3) via hierarchical multiple regression modeling. As a result of data analyses, two path models for the process of intercultural development were proposed; PCTs use for coethnic strong ties appears to increase Korean immigrant’s network centrality within the ethnic religious community, which leads to ethnocentric development. By contrast, PCTs use for host ties (both strong and weak) seems to increase network diversity, which leads to ethnorelative development. |
