Intercultural competence

A theoretical construct for cross-cultural competence, language proficiency, and regional expertise.

Intercultural competence is a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills that lead to effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures. Effective intercultural communication relates to behaviors that culminate with the accomplishment of the desired goals of the interaction and all parties involved in the situation. Appropriate intercultural communication includes behaviors that suit the expectations of a specific culture, the characteristics of the situation, and the level of the relationship between the parties involved in the situation. It also takes into consideration one's own cultural norms and the best appropriate, comfortable compromise between the different cultural norms.

Basics

It's very important for someone to be culturally competent at work and at school. Individuals that are effective and appropriate in intercultural situations display high levels of cultural self-awareness and understand the influence of culture on behavior, values, and beliefs. Intercultural competence is achieved through a set of skills that includes cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes.

First, cognitive processes imply the understanding of situational and environmental aspects of intercultural interactions and the application of intercultural awareness, which is affected by the understanding of the self and own culture. Self-awareness in intercultural situations refers to the ability of self-monitoring in such interactions to censor anything not acceptable to another culture. On the other hand, cultural awareness leads the individual to an understanding of how his/her own culture determines feelings, thoughts, and personality.

Secondly, affective processes define the emotions that span during intercultural interactions. These emotions are strongly related to self-concept, open-mindedness, non-judgementalism, and social relaxation. In general, positive emotions generate respect for other cultures and their differences.

Finally, behavioral processes refer to how effectively and appropriately the individual directs actions to achieve goals. Actions during intercultural interactions are influenced by the ability to clearly convey a message, proficiency with the foreign language, flexibility and management of behavior, and social skills.

Creating intercultural competence

Intercultural competence is determined by the presence of cognitive, affective, and behavioral abilities that directly shape communication across cultures. These essential abilities can be separated into five specific skills that are obtained through education and experience:

1. Mindfulness: the ability of being cognitively aware of how the communication and interaction with others is developed. It is important to focus more in the process of the interaction than its outcome while maintaining in perspective the desired communication goals. For example, it would be better to formulate questions such as "What can I say or do to help this process?" rather than "What do they mean?"
2. Cognitive flexibility: the ability of creating new categories of information rather than keeping old categories. This skill includes opening to new information, taking more than one perspective, and understanding personal ways of interpreting messages and situations.
3. Tolerance for ambiguity: the ability to maintain focus in situations that are not clear rather than becoming anxious and to methodically determine the best approach as the situation evolves. Generally, low-tolerance individuals look for information that supports their believes while high-tolerance individuals look for information that gives an understanding of the situation and others.
4. Behavioral flexibility: the ability to adapt and accommodate behaviors to a different culture. Although knowing a second language could be important for this skill, it does not necessarily translate into cultural adaptability. The individual must be willing to assimilate the new culture.
5. Cross-cultural empathy: the ability to visualize with the imagination the situation of another person from an intellectual and emotional point of view. Demonstrating empathy includes the abilities of connecting emotionally with people, showing compassion, thinking in more than one perspective, and listening actively.

History in American ethnic studies

The United States in its earliest history had a culture influenced heavily by its Northern European population, primarily from the British Isles, who originally settled in the original British Colonies. While the indigenous peoples, known as Indians, were the largest population of North America, they were slowly pushed away from the Eastern Seaboard into the interior of North America during the 17th century, 18th century, and 19th century (see Indian Removal Act describing specific actions during early 19th century). During this period, people from the British Isles (England and Scotland primarily) brought the culture and religion of the British Isles with them to the United States and became the dominant political and cultural group along the Eastern Seaboard of North America.

Both voluntary immigration from other regions as well as the results of the Atlantic slave trade, brought a mix of people to the Americas, including Europeans, Africans, and, to a lesser extent until the 20th century, Asians. Thus began the process of diversifying the population of the Western Hemisphere. While the majority of the U.S. population were white immigrants from northern and western Europe and their descendants, they maintained most of the power, social and economic, of the nation.

In the U.S. context, immigration from the 1840s onward diversified the ethnic composition of the nation. During the early part of the 20th century, southern and eastern European immigrants and their descendants became a larger percentage of the population, but as recent immigrants concentrated in urban areas were also very often poor and lacking in basic healthy living and working conditions. Descendants of African slaves and immigrants faced a much more difficult challenge due to their skin color and discrimination enforced by legal systems, such as the Jim Crow laws in the United States. Since the 1960s, African Americans as well as other minority groups such as Mexican Americans have gained greater social and economic status and power.

Nonetheless, the dominant models of education and social services retained models developed by northern and western European intellectuals, even such well-meaning and important reformers as Jane Addams and Jacob Riis. After the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, though, social workers, activists, and even healthcare providers began to examine their practices to see if they were as effective in African American, Latino, and even Asian American communities in the U.S. The arrival of more than half a million Southeast Asian refugees, from 1975 to 1992, for example, tested the ability of medical and social workers to continue effective practice among speakers of other languages and among those coming from very different understandings of everything from mental health to charity.

Education in the United States

With the larger population of minorities and racial integration during the 1960s and 1970s, the public school system of the United States had to grapple with issues of cultural sensitivity as most teachers in public school system came from white, middle class backgrounds. Most of these teachers were educated, primarily English speaking, and primarily from the Western European cultures. They often had trouble trying to communicate with speakers of limited English proficiency, let alone people of vastly different value systems and normative behaviors from that of Anglo-European culture. The purpose of training educators and others in the area of cultural competence is to provide new teachers the background and skills to work effectively with children of all backgrounds and social classes.

With the growing diversity of the student body in U.S. public school, it is increasingly imperative that teachers have and continually develop a cultural competence that enables them to connect with, respond to, and interact effectively with their pupils. The achievement gap between cultural minority and majority students suggests a communication disconnect often occurs in minority classrooms because cultural mismatch between teachers and students is common and should not prevent positive, productive for both parties, provided the educator is a culturally competent communicator. Over the last few decades, scholars have increasingly shown interest in the relationship between learning, reading, schema, and culture. People's schema depends on their social location, which, as Anderson (1984) explains, includes a reader's age, sex, race, religion, nationality, and occupation, amongst other factors. Considering schemata determine how people understand, interpret, and analyze everything in their world, it is clear that background and experience really do affect the learning and teaching processes, and how each should be approached in context. "In short," Anderson (1984) says, "the schema that will be brought to bear on a text depends upon the reader's culture" (p. 374-375). More simply, Anderson (1984) describes a person's schema as their "organized knowledge about the world" (p. 372). In considering the role of schema, one of the educator's principal functions in teaching, particularly with literacy, is to "‘bridge the gap between what the learner already knows and what he needs to know before he can successfully learn the task at hand'" (Anderson, 1984, p. 382). This is important because Staton (1989) explains that student learning—i.e. successful communication between instructor and pupil—occurs when teachers and students come to "shared understandings" (p. 364). Thus, teachers must remember that they are "cultural workers, not neutral professionals using skills on a culturally-detached playing field" (Blanchett, Mumford & Beachum, 2005, p. 306).

Teachers and administrators in the public school systems of the United States come in contact with a wide variety of sub-cultures and are at the forefront of the challenge of bringing diverse groups together within a larger American society. Issues confronting teachers and administrators on a daily basis include student learning disabilities, student behavioral problems, child abuse, drug addiction, mental health, and poverty, most of which are handled differently within different cultures and communities.

Examples of cultural conflicts often seen by teachers in the public school system include:

• role of women in the family and the decisions they can make
• practices among cultural groups (e.g. fire cupping)
• symbol systems among cultural groups (see semiotics)

Examples of sub-groups within the United States: African American, Asian American, Indian American, Irish American, Jewish American, Mexican American, Native Americans or American Indians and refugees.

Healthcare

Main article: Cultural competence in healthcare

The provision of culturally tailored health care can improve patient outcomes. In 2005, California passed Assembly Bill 1195 that requires patient-related continuing medical education courses in California medical school to incorporate cultural and linguistic competence training in order to qualify for certification credits. In 2011, HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research implemented the EBAN Experience™ program to reduce health disparities among minority populations, most notably East African immigrants.

Hispanic versus Latin American

The term "Hispanic" is problematic. It is impossible to refer to "a Hispanic-American perspective" or to "a single Latino culture".(1)(2) The label "Hispanic" is controversial because it was coined by the Federal Government to describe a heterogeneous ethnic population whose ancestors come from a Spanish-speaking country. Although these American citizens have Latin American roots, the term "Latino" to characterize them is more correct since it is more inclusive of non-Spanish-speaking Latinos. However, the term "Latino" does not include individuals from Spanish-speaking countries outside of Latin America (e.g., Spain).

There is also a lack of adequate research into how race and ethnicity affects members of a group.(3)(4)(5) There are few life histories and phenomenological studies of illness as experienced by people outside the American white, urban, middle class, especially of immigrant and native populations. Race has been used to explain the absence of research. Racial classifications are based on outmoded concepts and dubious assumptions regarding genetic differences. In fact, outside of skin color, race is poorly correlated with biological or cultural phenomena, which sharply diminishes its validity in biomedical or social research. Yet, unlike race or national origin, ethnicity is a sociological construct highly correlated with behavioral and cultural phenomena, particularly language, dress, adornment, food preference, religion, social interaction, marriage and family customs.

Further research is needed to determine whether race and ethnicity among Latinos are rather driven by mechanisms of discrimination and macrosocial factors or social status. Fortunately, not too long ago, the National Institutes of Health took an important step by insisting that any NIH- supported clinical investigation include, where appropriate, minority populations, women and the aged.(6) However, we must guard against what has been called a new "tokenism", that is, having a large aggregate of "non-whites", and a few African Americans and Hispanics included. This aggregate will never produce a proper sample. Rigorous attention to sample size, composition and sampling strategies is required to research basic psychosocial processes and clinical responses of minority populations. Accordingly, the heterogeneity of the Hispanic community has to be taken into account. The Hispanic's country of origin, cultural history, migration history, language, family, traditions, religion, educational level, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation, age and generation—all need to be explored.

Cross-cultural competence

Main article: Cross-cultural competence

Cross-cultural competence (3C) has generated confusing and contradictory definitions because it has been studied by a wide variety of academic approaches and professional fields. One author identified eleven different terms that have some equivalence to 3C: cultural savvy, astuteness, appreciation, literacy or fluency, adaptability, terrain, expertise, competency, awareness, intelligence, and understanding. The United States Army Research Institute, which is currently engaged in a study of 3C has defined it as "A set of cognitive, behavioral, and affective/motivational components that enable individuals to adapt effectively in intercultural environments".

Organizations in academia, business, health care, government security, and developmental aid agencies have all sought to use 3C in one way or another. Poor results have often been obtained due to a lack of rigorous study of 3C and a reliance on "common sense" approaches.

Cross-cultural competence does not operate in a vacuum, however. One theoretical construct posits that 3C, language proficiency, and regional knowledge are distinct skills that are inextricably linked, but to varying degrees depending on the context in which they are employed. In educational settings, Bloom's affective and cognitive taxonomies serve as an effective framework for describing the overlapping areas among these three disciplines: at the receiving and knowledge levels, 3C can operate with near-independence from language proficiency and regional knowledge. But, as one approaches the internalizing and evaluation levels, the overlapping areas approach totality.

The development of intercultural competence is mostly based on the individual's experiences while he or she is communicating with different cultures. When interacting with people from other cultures, the individual experiences certain obstacles that are caused by differences in cultural understanding between two people from different cultures. Such experiences may motivate the individual to acquire skills that can help him to communicate his point of view to an audience belonging to a different cultural ethnicity and background.

Immigrants and international students

A salient issue, especially for people living in countries other than their native country, is the issue of which culture they should follow: their native culture or the one in their new surroundings.

International students also face this issue: they have a choice of modifying their cultural boundaries and adapting to the culture around them or holding on to their native culture and surrounding themselves with people from their own country. The students who decide to hold on to their native culture are those who experience the most problems in their university life and who encounter frequent culture shocks. But international students who adapt themselves to the culture surrounding them (and who interact more with domestic students) will increase their knowledge of the domestic culture, which may help them to "blend in" more. In the article it stated, "Segmented assimilation theorists argue that students from less affluent and racial and ethnic minority immigrant families face a number of educational hurdles and barriers that often stem from racial, ethnic, and gender biases and discrimination embedded within the U.S. public school system" (Bondy). Such individuals may be said to have adopted bicultural identities.

Ethnocentrism

See also: Ethnocentrism

Another issue that stands out in intercultural communication is the attitude stemming from Ethnocentrism. LeVine and Campbell (as cited in Lin and Rancer, 2003) defines ethnocentrism as people's tendency to view their culture or in-group as superior to other groups, and to judge those groups to their standards. With ethnocentric attitudes, those incapable to expand their view of different cultures could create conflict between groups. Ignorance to diversity and cultural groups contributes to prevention of peaceful interaction in a fast-paced globalizing world. The counterpart of ethnocentrism is ethnorelativism: the ability to see multiple values, beliefs, norms etc. in the world as cultural rather than universal; being able to understand and accept different cultures as equally valid as ones' own. It is a mindset that moves beyond in-group out-group to see all groups as equally important and valid and individuals to be seen in terms of their own cultural context.

Cultural differences

See also: Geert Hofstede

Cultural characteristics can be measured along several dimensions that were defined by Geert Hofstede in his studies of cultural differences. The ability to perceive them and to cope with them is fundamental for intercultural competence. These characteristics include:

Individualism versus Collectivism

• Collectivism
  • Decisions are based on the benefits of the group rather than the individual;
  • Strong loyalty to the group as the main social unit;
  • The group is expected to take care of each individual;
  • Collectivist cultures include Pakistan, India, Japan, and Guatemala.
• Individualism
  • Autonomy of the individual has the highest importance;
  • Promotes the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance;
  • Decisions prioritize the benefits of the individual rather than the group;
  • Individualistic cultures are Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States.

Masculinity versus Femininity

• Masculine Cultures
  • Value behaviors that indicate assertiveness and wealth;
  • Judge people based on the degree of ambition and achievement;
  • General behaviors are associated with male behavior;
  • Sex roles are clearly defined and sexual inequality is acceptable;
  • Masculine cultures include Austria, Italy, Japan, and Mexico.
• Feminine Cultures
  • Value behaviors that promote the quality of life such as caring for others and nurturing;
  • Gender roles overlap and sexual equality is preferred as the norm;
  • Nurturing behaviors are acceptable for both women and men;
  • Feminine cultures are Chile, Portugal, Sweden, and Thailand.

Uncertainty avoidance

• Reflects the extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty;
• Uncertainty avoidance dimension expresses the degree to which a person in society feels comfortable with a sense of uncertainty and ambiguity.
  • High uncertainty avoidance cultures
    • Countries exhibiting high Uncertainty Avoidance Index or UAI maintain rigid codes of belief and behavior and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and ideas;
    • Members of society expect consensus about national and societal goals;
    • Society ensures security by setting extensive rules and keeping more structure;
    • High uncertainty avoidance cultures are Greece, Guatemala, Portugal, and Uruguay.
  • Low uncertainty avoidance cultures
    • Low UAI societies maintain a more relaxed attitude in which practice counts more than principles;
    • Low uncertainty avoidance cultures accept and feel comfortable in unstructured situations or changeable environments and try to have as few rules as possible;
    • People in these cultures are more tolerant of change and accept risks;
    • Low uncertainty avoidance cultures are Denmark, Jamaica, Ireland, and Singapore.

Power distance

• Refers to the degree in which cultures accept unequal distribution of power and challenge the decisions of power holders;
• Depending on the culture, some people may be considered superior to others because of a large number of factors such as wealth, age, occupation, gender, personal achievements, family history, etc.
  • High power distance cultures
    • Believe that social and class hierarchy and inequalities are beneficial, that authority should not be challenged, and that people with higher social status have the right to use power;
    • Cultures with high power distance are Arab countries, Guatemala, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
  • Low power distance cultures
    • Believe in reducing inequalities, challenging authority, minimizing hierarchical structures, and using power just when necessary;
    • Low power distance countries are Austria, Denmark, Israel, and New Zealand.

Short-term versus Long-term Time Orientation

See also: Chronemics

• Short-term or Monochronic Orientation
  • Cultures value tradition, personal stability, maintaining "face," and reciprocity during interpersonal interactions;
  • People expect quick results after actions;
  • Historical events and beliefs influence people's actions in the present;
  • Monochronic cultures are Canada, Philippines, Nigeria, Pakistan, and U.S.A.
• Long-term or Polychronic Orientation
  • Cultures value persistence, thriftiness,and humility;
  • People sacrifice immediate gratification for long-term commitments;
  • Cultures believe that past results do not guarantee for the future and are aware of change;
  • Polychronic cultures are China, Japan, Brazil, and India.

Assessment

The assessment of cross-cultural competence is another field that is rife with controversy. One survey identified 86 assessment instruments for 3C. A United States Army Research Institute study narrowed the list down to ten quantitative instruments that were suitable for further exploration of their reliability and validity.

The following characteristics are tested and observed for the assessment of intercultural competence as an existing ability or as the potential to develop it: ambiguity tolerance, openness to contacts, flexibility in behavior, emotional stability, motivation to perform, empathy, metacommunicative competence, and polycentrism.

Quantitative assessment instruments

Three examples of quantitative assessment instruments are:

• the Inter-cultural Intercultural Developmental Inventory
• the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) Measurement
• the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire

Qualitative assessment instruments

Research in the area of 3C assessment, while thin, points to the value of qualitative assessment instruments in concert with quantitative ones. Qualitative instruments, such as scenario-based assessments, are useful for gaining insight into intercultural competence.

Intercultural coaching frameworks, such as the ICCA™ (Intercultural Communication and Collaboration Appraisal), do not attempt an assessment; they provide guidance for personal improvement based upon the identification of personal traits, strengths, and weaknesses.

Criticisms

It is important that cross-cultural competence training and skills does not break down into the application of stereotypes. Although its goal is to promote understanding between groups of individuals that, as a whole, think differently, it may fail to recognize specific differences between individuals of any given group. Such differences can be more significant than the differences between groups, especially in the case of heterogeneous populations and value systems.

Madison (2006) has criticized the tendency of 3C training for its tendency to simplify migration and cross-cultural processes into stages and phases. Madison's article offers an outline of the original research.

See also a recent article by Witte summarizing objections to cultural theories used in business and social life.

See also

Allophilia Anthropologist Bennett scale Cross-cultural communication Cultural assimilation Cultural behavior Cultural competence Cultural diversity Cultural Health Cultural intelligence Cultural pluralism Etiquette in Africa Etiquette in Asia Etiquette in Australia and New Zealand Etiquette in Canada and the United States Etiquette in Europe Etiquette in Latin America Etiquette in the Middle East Existential migration Islamic etiquette

Faux pas Immigration to the United States Interaction Intercultural cities Intercultural communication Intercultural communication principles Intercultural relations Intercultural Universities in Mexico Interculturalism Interpersonal communication Montreal-Philippines cutlery controversy Multiculturalism Proxemics Purnell Model for Cultural Competence Social constructionism Social identity Transculturation Worldwide etiquette Xenocentrism

References

• Anderson, R. C. (1984). Role of the reader's schema in comprehension, learning, and memory. In Learning to read in American schools: Basal readers and content texts (pp. 373–383). Laurence Earlbaum Associates.
• Anderson, M. Moscou, S. (1998) Racism and Ethnicity in Research on Infant Mortality, Methodological Issues in Minority Health Research. Family Practice, Vol. 30#3,224-227
• Blanchett, W. J., Mumford, V., & Beachum, F. (2005). Urban School Failure and Disproportionality in a Post-Brown Era. Remedial and Special Education, 26(2), 70-81.
• Chamberlain, S. P. (2005). Recognizing and responding to cultural differences in the education of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Intervention in School & Clinic, 40(4), 195-211.
• Hayunga, E.G., Pinn, V.W. (1999) NIH Policy on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research. 5-17-99
• Krieger, n. et al. (1993) Racism, Sexism, and Social Class: Implications for Studies in Health, Disease, and Well-being. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Supp. to Vol. 9#4,82-122
• Macaulay, A.C., el. al. (1999) Responsible Research with Communities: Participatory Research in Primary Care. North America Primary Care Research Group Policy Statement.
• Mercedes Martin & Billy E. Vaughn (2007). Strategic Diversity & Inclusion Management magazine, pp. 31–36. DTUI Publications Division: San Francisco, CA.
• Moule, Jean (2012). Cultural Competence: A primer for educators. Wadsworth/Cengage, Belmont, California.
• Nine-Curt, Carmen Judith. (1984) Non-verbal Communication in Puerto Rico. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Sea, M.C., et al. (1994) Latino Cultural Values: Their Role in Adjustment to Disability. Psychological Perspectives on Disability. Select Press CA
• Staton, A. Q. (1989). The interface of communication and instruction: Conceptual considerations and programmatic manifestations. Communication education, 38(4), 364-372.
• Stavans, I. (1995) The Hispanic Condition: Reflections on Culture and Identity in America. Harper Collins
• Stuart, R. B. (2004). Twelve Practical Suggestions for Achieving Multicultural Competence. Professional psychology: Research and practice, 35(1), 3.

External links

• (video) Building Cross-Cultural Partnerships in Public Health, Alabama Department of Public Health
• National Center for Cultural Competence at Georgetown University
• National Association of School Psychologists
• Competency Assessment Tool From Ministry for Children & Families, Government of British Columbia
• Achieving Cultural Competence guidebook from Administration on Aging, Department of Health and Human Services, United States
• University of Michigan Program For Multicultural Health
• Bridging the Health Care Gap through Cultural Competency Continuing Education Programs
• Cross Cultural Health Care Program
• permanent dead link] Diversity in Practice: Becoming Culturally Competent
• What is the Cost of Intercultural Silence?