To Become Certified? Did CD Come to Be? Why Intercultural Competence? Young boys from Ghana. Want to explore Ghana? Click here. Intercultural competence is of crucial importance in our interconnected world. Says who? How do they know? This influences the skills and competencies we need, the policies and systems we design, and the ways we develop employees and leaders. Organizations must adapt and develop so that key decision-makers, managers and leaders start making truly inclusive decisions in all aspects of people management.
Intercultural competence, as defined and explored in this article, is a key enabler of this professional and organizational development. Tools exist to apply these concepts in practical ways at the individual, team and organization levels.
Research and experience show that we all think we are better than we actually are at communicating and working with people from different cultural backgrounds.
Most people believe that our common humanity is most relevant to achieving a common understanding and thus underestimate the actual effect of cultural difference. The Golden Rule states, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Believing this, it seems natural that if we all just act as we normally do, then we will be able to understand each other. This inaccurate assumption prevents the deeper understanding needed to ensure successful outcomes.
Overcoming this assumption enables an organization to build a truly inclusive workplace that harnesses its diversity to drive productivity, innovation and creativity.
The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness GLOBE program was initiated in in the early s to study how culture is related to societal, organizational and leader effectiveness. This research is considered the most comprehensive in understanding the relationship between culture and leadership in organizations. Intercultural sensitivity is about appreciating the deeper impact of cultural difference on how we interact with other people and the effect this has on one's own perceptions of other people.
Intercultural competence is a measure of one's effectiveness in such interactions with other people. The relevance of intercultural sensitivity to interactions with people from different parts of the world tends to be clear to many people. The relevance to working effectively with people down the hall from your office may be less clear. Cultural difference stems from any aspect of diversity—not just national origin. Hofstede 1, 2 and the GLOBE study, 3 for example, have shown that people from a particular country tend to share cultural norms that are distinct from other countries.
Groups and individuals within a country have their own variations from the cultural norms. These other differences make intercultural competence relevant even for small organizations located entirely within one geographic area. Consider a hypothetical U. The team includes members who are Asian-American, Black, Latino and white. Two members are second-generation immigrants, from Thailand and the Dominican Republic. Add a mix of spiritual beliefs, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and organizational functions.
The team is culturally very diverse. Team members may be unaware of the full scope of their diversity. They likely have different life experiences, communication styles and work habits. Moreover, individual preferences and assumptions regarding recognition, organizational hierarchy and dealing with uncertainty vary. These differences may either hinder or boost productivity and innovation. To operate and succeed, the above hypothetical team and any organization must carry out the following functions effectively:.
Communication is at the core of all these functions. Productivity and innovation require that people communicate well and use work methods that actively draw on everyone's unique perspectives and input.
Realizing the benefits of this hypothetical team's diversity calls for teammates to acquire the knowledge and develop the interpersonal skills needed to work well together. This will enable them to create new ways to work together so that each member may fully contribute and the team's results will build on everyone's input.
As the team develops its intercultural sensitivity and competence, it will identify new ways to become even more inclusive, productive and innovative. See How to Bridge Cultural Divides. The above hypothetical team illustrates some of the many ways in which people may be similar to or different from each other. The definition of diversity can include many dimensions, such as:. Each person is a blend of many dimensions with an "answer" to his or her view of self for each dimension.
The more alike two people are, the more answers they have in common and vice-versa. Working with these dimensions can help people gain a deeper understanding of their own and other peoples' cultural identity and the effect of these identities in the workplace. Cultural awareness is a big step, but organizations have to keep moving forward and measuring their progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. As our workplaces become more culturally diverse, organizations understand the need to collaborate internally and externally.
It is essential to good customer service that the people we serve feel heard and that they are engaged in meaningful, culturally competent ways. Our workers and our individuals and institutions can no longer deny the sometimes-uncomfortable realities of cultural diversity. Organizations have to understand the role that identity plays in the customer experience. And doing this means bridging a cultural divide.
Cross-cultural competence helps you develop the mutual understanding and human relationships that are necessary for achieving your professional goals. But what exactly makes up cross-cultural competence?
What are the specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes that make someone cross-culturally competent? Louise Rasmussen and Winston Sieck conducted a study to address these questions. They described their model of cross-cultural competence in an article published in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations.
Rasmussen was also granted an award from the Defense Language and National Security Education Office to further study and validate the model, which describes 12 elements of cross-cultural competence. Rasmussen and her team interviewed cross-cultural experts about their experiences interacting in foreign cultures. These experts were military personnel who had a great deal of cross-cultural experience.
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