Introduction
Cultural competence is vital in the modern world, which is full of various cultures. It enables the creation of safe, efficient teams and communities with fewer conflicts and harmonious relationships between their members. It is based on cultural sensitivity, awareness toward all cultures, and inclusion, providing equal opportunities to everyone without prejudices. Only the personal qualities and skills of the person should determine their opportunities and relationships. If the person is aggressive and arrogant, they should be indeed fired, but not if they are Black or Native American. To analyze cultural competence and its applications, terms connected with this topic should be defined first. Then, communication styles, prejudices, biases, and acculturation will be discussed and analyzed, and several points on how to create an inclusive workplace are to be elucidated. In conclusion, one may find five resources with actual information about cultural competence and its application in the workplace.
Definitions
Cultural Competence
Cultural competence is the ability to understand various cultures, be aware of them, and communicate with them efficiently. It helps one understand people from cultures other than one’s and is usually used in psychology to describe culturally competent specialists (Gopalkrishnan, 2018). However, cultural competence is important in other fields, such as healthcare, business, and education, as people with various cultural backgrounds often see the same things differently (Shepherd et al., 2019). Those differences may cause misunderstanding, which may lead to alienation and even conflicts (Zakaria, 2017). In that way, cultural competence is necessary in the modern world; it is connected with several other terms that will be discussed further.
Cultural Sensitivity
Cultural sensitivity means the awareness toward all cultures in which representatives are present, for example, in a workplace, and openness to learn and understand the currently unknown cultures. An insensitive approach means that other cultures are seen simply as structures that should be influenced and exploited or assimilated if the exploitation is not possible (Viken et al., 2021). Thus, cultural sensitivity allows one to avoid the destruction and repression of cultures while opening possibilities of learning them and utilizing their strong sides. This term is interconnected with another, acculturation, which means the adoption of other cultures and some of their principles (De Leersnyder, 2017). Those concepts are crucial for intercultural communication, creating a basis for harmonious interactions between various cultural backgrounds.
Cultural Identity
Cultural identity is how individuals perceive themselves and the world around them: it is a crucial element of one’s psyche, and problems with it may result in mental issues. It starts to form in childhood, and one may distinguish three factors of identity formation: cognitive, biological, and social (Crocetti, 2017). Cognitive factors include thoughts and attitudes, biological ones are physiological peculiarities, and social factors are education and various social norms that influence one’s personality. Thus, the identity is formed based on the culture in which the person was raised, and it is the form in which the culture influences the individual’s life (Lilgendahl et al., 2018). Cultural identity is always connected with group identity, and thus, one’s perception of themselves as a member of a team and as the representative of their culture should be integrated appropriately (Klyukanov, 2020). If the cultural identity is unstable or broken, the person may express negative feelings or even have mental issues (Gopalkrishnan, 2018). Thus, it is essential to be aware of the cultural identity of employees to ensure their psychological well-being in the workplace.
Cultural Values
Cultural values are norms, principles, relations, and attitudes that are seen as important or even sacred for a specific culture’s representatives. Examples are the great reverence of Native Americans for nature, and some trees and forests are so vital that they may cease to live if they are destroyed (Bisbal & Jones, 2019). The example of Native Americans shows that harming people’s cultural values is very painful and leads to depression and other mental health problems in the culture’s representatives. Fulfillment of one’s values is highly pleasurable and facilitates one’s personal development (Oppenheim-Weller & Kurman, 2017). Therefore, cultural values may be considered as the element of the personality’s core: they determine one’s desires, fears, and style of behavior, and by understanding them, one will be much closer to understanding others.
A Worldview
A worldview is a result of identity, cultural background and values, personal views, and knowledge of the individual: it may be expressed in one’s attitude toward everything in the world. Theists, based on beliefs in higher powers; naturalists, based on beliefs in science and laws of nature; and nihilists, based on the rejection of all possible beliefs, are examples of various worldviews (Sire, 2020). As mentioned, cultural values have a profound influence on one’s psyche and, thus, on their worldview: American Indians have a pantheist worldview based on unity with nature, and if nature is destroying, they are suffering, too (Bisbal & Jones, 2019). In the context of this handbook, a culturally competent worldview may be defined. It is characterized by the people-centric approach: the focus is on increasing people’s life quality, working, and learning efficiency (Nolet, 2017). This worldview is not universal for everyone; instead, it contains several points that are entirely consistent with any other worldview, regardless of one’s culture. Those points will be elucidated and described further in this handbook.
Intercultural Communication Styles
Communication styles are approaches to make communication more efficient and convenient for both parties. Intercultural studies help in understanding how various cultures perceive communication and, thus, how to maintain good relationships between their representatives (Panocová, 2020). There are several categories of communication styles: analytical/holistic, high- and low-context, self-enhancement and self-effacement, and elaborative/succinite styles (Liu, 2016). The first category explores the type of thinking that is used during communication: either logical, analytical thinking, or holistic, dialectical one. The second category shows the relative power of cultural background present in the culture: high-context cultures rely primarily on their context and pre-existing cultural knowledge, while low-context ones prefer clear, explicit words. The third category shows how people perceive themselves: either they tend to actively promote themselves and be bright or speak a little about themselves and let their deeds speak instead. Lastly, the elaborative style prefers active and emotional speeches, while the succinite one favors silence and often pauses between words. Examples of several communication styles are provided to show the possible awkward situations and how they may be resolved.
Elaborative communication includes many exaggerations and active speeches and sometimes may be perceived as aggressive. If an employee with such a communication style presents their project, for example, it will be a loud presentation with many details, and she will highly emphasize their role in the project. Such a position seems boastful, and it may evoke discontent among her colleagues, worsening the relationships in the team. However, she probably did not mean to brag, thinking that it was absolutely normal and polite to emphasize her achievements and contribution to the team. If someone feels offended by her speech, the best way is to talk with her directly: people with such a communication style usually are happy to talk about everything. It will clarify her position to colleagues, making them sure that she is not boasting but is proud and happy to work with them.
The second example is succinite or understated communication style: it is characterized by pauses and a low amount of speech in general. People that use this style love to make long pauses in words, and the silence between their speeches usually have a larger sense than the speech itself. At the workplace, if an employee with such a communication style wants to say some important fact, he will probably tell it as short as possible and will be silent then. Meanwhile, he will be observing their colleague’s reactions carefully, remembering them, and his future actions will be based on their attitudes toward those reactions. If a colleague pays little attention to his short speech, he will probably worsen his opinion about this colleague and will be less friendly toward them while not revealing the reason for this unfriendliness. It may create tensions in the team, which is hard to solve, as he will be unwilling to speak about this situation due to his cultural background. A possible solution is talking about that fact, which is crucial for him: it will show that the colleague is not rejecting him, improving the relationship.
The third example is high-context culture: it may be considered one of the most challenging cases, as people with such a communication style may be hard to understand other cultures’ representatives. If a new employee with such a cultural background is accepted into the workplace, her colleagues may hardly understand them. She will probably behave in a way that is different from other employees, without any explanations: for example, eat only at a specific time and refuse to eat meat. In addition, she will probably not explain her actions in general, as she thinks that those explanations are unnecessary or even impolite (Zakaria, 2017). The solution may be to talk about her culture: she will probably be happy to talk about her large cultural background, which will help in understanding her actions and establishing good relationships with her.
Stereotypes and Prejudices
Stereotypes
Stereotypes are mental attitudes about things, people, social groups, and other categories: they form patterns of thought. For example, when Caucasian and Black people see each other, they may both have some predictions about how each of them will behave based on their past experience and cultural background. Negative experiences, thus, increase the prevalence of negative stereotypes that, in turn, increase intercultural violence. As one may see in Figure 1, stereotypes are closely interconnected with prejudices and discriminative behavior, and negative stereotypes are correlated with discrimination (Worthy et al., 2020). Therefore, stereotypes are brain constructs that define how one should think about everything, significantly limiting all other thinking options.
Prejudices
Prejudices are beliefs and emotions caused by them, targeted toward some social group; usually, they are negative. Racism, radical nationalism, xenophobia, and homophobia are typical examples of prejudices: active negative attitudes toward some category of people. Their bases are fear and suspicion, as intercultural contact is always accompanied by uncertainty (Klyukanov, 2020). One fears and avoids those who seem alien to them, as they may be a threat. If one has not had enough critical thinking and cannot deal with this uncertainty, those feeling may future evolve into hate and intolerance. Figure 1 shows the central position of prejudices, the affective element, in the formation of discriminative and aggressive behavior (Worthy et al., 2020). Prejudices are influenced by stereotypes and, in turn, make them emotionally charged and stronger. In that way, prejudices are the central element of cultural conflict: they may be considered the fuel for other elements.
Discriminative Behavior
Discrimination is the selective attitude toward people based on their cultural identity without considering their personal qualities. It is often accompanied by aggression toward those people caused by prejudices. As Figure 1 shows, both affects (prejudices) and thoughts (stereotypes) influence discriminative behavior, and it, in turn, strengthens them, creating a negative experience that motivates them to be even more prejudiced (Worthy et al., 2020). Therefore, the discriminative, xenophobic behavior, if once it becomes typical for the individual, tends to strengthen itself. However, it may be significantly weakened by freeing from stereotypes and reducing the power of prejudices and biases.
Acculturation
Acculturation is the process of changes in one’s psyche, which is the result of intercultural contact. It is the inevitable process in multicultural communities and companies: people will communicate with each other, and each communication leaves a trace of an alien culture in them (De Leersnyder, 2017). At the workplace, one may encounter people with various cultural backgrounds and, in addition, the culture of the workplace itself. It may cause rejection, increasing the potential for conflicts, but in case of successful cultural fusion, it will form a new cultural basis that will unite both cultures’ strong sides (Croucher & Kramer, 2016). If one experiences the influence of several cultures, one needs to integrate them without inner conflicts; in other cases, employees may encounter mental issues and other problems (Lilgendahl et al., 2018; Oppenheim-Weller & Kurman, 2017). Therefore, successful and comfortable acculturation is necessary to create an inclusive and efficient workplace.
Discussion: An Inclusive Workplace
Based on the definitions and explanations above, one can elucidate three main points of creating an inclusive and culturally sensitive workplace.
- Critical thinking is crucial, as it facilitates analyzing and understanding other cultures’ components. It, in turn, enables one to understand how to behave with those cultures’ representatives without hurting them. In addition, analyzing cultural peculiarities shows how they may help solve various educational and business problems (Nolet, 2017). For example, people with an elaborative communication style are usually very good in marketing and advertising due to their tendency to give loud, active, and exaggerated speeches.
- Openness without prejudices and stereotypes helps to see the world as it is, without personal biases. It allows seeing the connections between various cultures and their components, including one’s own culture, with understanding their complexity (Verkuyten & Yogeeswaran, 2020). One will see the person as a whole rather than stereotypes about the person’s culture or social status, and it will help to make the right decisions about them based on their personal qualities.
- The cooperative position is essential, as it enables employees to see the unifying idea rather than the differences between them and other employees. While other people are different, they often have similar interests, goals, and desires, and working together with them will help them achieve those goals much more quickly.
Thus, successful acculturation and inclusiveness may be achieved by increasing employees’ critical thinking skills, working with their fears and prejudices, and ensuring they have cooperative positions. Those positions may be rejected at first, and it usually takes time to master them, but one will accept them more readily if one sees their advantages. Critical thinking increases the efficiency of all actions, as it facilitates planning and decision-making that become more rational. The openness principle allows seeing the world as it is, rather than a set of stereotypes in its place, increasing the efficiency of one’s actions and making them evidence-based. The cooperative position helps to engage other people with similar goals and interests in achieving one’s goals, allowing them to do it much more quickly.
Conclusion: A Resource to Increase Cultural Competence
Cultural competence is crucial for every community where representatives of more than one culture are present, and it is indispensable for fields of business, education, and healthcare. People of different cultures often perceive even the principles of business and education differently. For example, they may have different opinions about how to think, present themselves, and which words to use in their speeches. In that way, it is crucial to understand their positions and teach them to understand the positions of others, showing that it will help them to become more successful in their lives. Cultural competence opens possibilities to create multicultural teams based on mutual respect and understanding. In such collectives, each culture’s peculiarity helps to increase the overall team’s efficiency while not repressing and offending anyone’s feelings. Critical thinking, openness, freedom from biases, and a cooperative position are three crucial components in establishing an inclusive, culturally sensitive, and efficient workplace.
The list of resources below contains essential information about cultural competency and may be used to help employees become more culturally sensitive; some of them were used as sources for this handbook.
- The work of Worthy et al. (2020) is an excellent example of cultural competence book, as it contains several chapters in which various fields of knowledge are explained in a cultural context. Examples are cognition, personality development, sexuality, physical and mental health, communication, and morality.
- Panocová’s (2020) textbook explores several theories of intercultural communication and their application. It helps study communication styles and their efficiency in various situations.
- The article of Nolet (2017) is short yet valuable for understanding the multicultural worldview. It is focused on the field of education and discusses how teachers may use critical thinking and a people-centric approach to educate children from various cultures successfully and without conflicts. The principles proposed and discussed in this article also apply to the workplace; in addition, it has an extensive list of other useful sources.
- The book of Berry (2019) is a comprehensive guide about acculturation that is helpful for those who want to increase their cultural competence.
- The work of Klyukanov (2020) is a book that contains ten principles crucial for intercultural communication. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to a specific principle, providing a comprehensive overview of them and how they may be applied. A clear review of the principle is present on the first page of each chapter.
References
Berry, J. W. (2019). Acculturation. Cambridge University Press. Web.
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Crocetti, E. (2017). Identity formation in adolescence: The dynamic of forming and consolidating identity commitments. Child Development Perspectives, 11(2), 145–150. Web.
Croucher, S. M., & Kramer, E. (2016). Cultural fusion theory: An alternative to acculturation. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 10(2), 97–114. Web.
De Leersnyder, J. (2017). Emotional acculturation: A first review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 67–73. Web.
Gopalkrishnan, N. (2018). Cultural diversity and mental health: Considerations for policy and practice. Frontiers in Public Health, 6(179). Web.
Klyukanov, I. (2020). Principles of intercultural communication. Routledge.
Lilgendahl, J. P., Benet-Martinez, V., Bishop, M., Gilson, K., Festa, L., Levenson, C., & Rosenblum, R. (2018). “So now, I wonder, what am I?”: A narrative approach to bicultural identity integration. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(10), 1596–1624. Web.
Liu, M. (2016). Verbal communication styles and culture. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford University Press. Web,
Nolet, V. (2017). Quality education: Cultural competence and a sustainability worldview. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 53(4), 162–167. Web.
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Panocová, R. (2020). Theories of intercultural communication. Pavol Jozef Šafárik University.
Shepherd, S. M., Willis-Esqueda, C., Newton, D., Sivasubramaniam, D., & Paradies, Y. (2019). The challenge of cultural competence in the workplace: Perspectives of healthcare providers. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1–11. Springer. Web.
Sire, J. W. (2020). The universe next door: A basic worldview catalog. Inscribe Digital.
Verkuyten, M., & Yogeeswaran, K. (2020). Cultural diversity and its implications for intergroup relations. Current Opinion in Psychology, 32, 1–5. Web.
Viken, A., Höckert, E., & Grimwood, B. S. R. (2021). Cultural sensitivity: Engaging difference in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 89, 103223. Web.
Worthy, L. D., Lavigne, T., & Romero, F. (2020). Culture and psychology: How people shape and are shaped by culture. Glendale Community College.
Zakaria, N. (2017). Emergent patterns of switching behaviors and intercultural communication styles of global virtual teams during distributed decision making. Journal of International Management, 23(4), 350–366. Web.