Cross-cultural competence
Cross-cultural competence is the ability to do one’s job (professional skills) in different cultural spaces. Combining different ages, skills, work styles, and mindsets leads to resourceful and innovative solutions. In a broad sense, cultural differences will be an important characteristic in the development of organizations. Communicating, interacting, and performing your tasks in heterogeneous teams is critical. Most of the authors mentioned in Part 11 describe the term ambiguously.
The ICP Tool
The ICP tool was developed to assess the intercultural competence of participants or organizations. This tool does not focus on one area of knowledge about culture but looks at it broadly. In this assessment tool, the authors distinguish four aspects of intercultural competence: recognition, respect, reconciliation, and implementation.
Recognition
Recognition focuses on a person’s ability to recognize their position in society. The IAP – the Intercultural Awareness Profiler – was created to help people better understand their cultural orientation (Trompenaars & Woolliams, 2006). Determining an employee’s cultural orientation helps to improve their productivity and ability to work. The main purpose of this diagnosis is to help employees enhance their professionalism and to develop skills in adapting to situations of diversity. This tool cannot be perceived as a stand-alone; it should not be used in conjunction with training, coaching, and other similar processes.
Respect
Respect is a fundamental quality of human beings, their ability to realize that all people are equal and have equal rights. According to Kelly, there are three categories of respect for the human dignity and uniqueness of the person of another culture, respect for one’s rights to self-determination, and acceptance of the values of another culture.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation is a person’s ability to cope with the awareness of cultural differences. The authors considered three levels of reconciliation: Reconciliation of aspects of human relationships, elements of time, and reconciliation of inner and outer worlds.
Realization
Realization is interpreting the three past aspects into the real world. It is very important to use the knowledge gained in practice, which is why this aspect is so important. There are three components of realization: goal achievement, management of a team or group, and management of individuals.
Reference
Trompenaars, F., & Woolliams, P. (2006). Cross-cultural competence: Assessment and diagnosis. Adaptive Options, 177-191.