Intercultural Competency

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Lecture 15

• Intercultural Competency
• and Effectiveness

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Becoming Interculturally Effective

• IC competency and effectiveness is one of the
  main goals of the study of and training in
  intercultural communication.
• Becoming interculturally competent leads to being
  interculturally effective.
• The result of IC effectiveness is the ability to
  function in a culture.

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E-model of IC Effectiveness
Interpersonal Relationships
Intercultural Competence
Adaptability
Task
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Dimensions of Intercultural Effectiveness

• Factor I Ability to deal with Psychological
  Stress
• frustration
• stress
• anxiety
• different political systems
• pressure to conform
• social alienation
• financial difficulties
• interpersonal conflict

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Dimensions of Intercultural Effectiveness (cont)

• Factor II Ability to Effectively Communicate
• ability to enter into meaningful dialogue
• ability to initiate interaction with a stranger
• ability to deal with communication
  misunderstandings
• ability to effectively deal with different
  communication styles

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Dimensions of Intercultural Effectiveness (cont)

• Factor III Ability to Establish Interpersonal
  Relationships
• ability to develop satisfying interpersonal
  relationships
• ability to maintain satisfying interpersonal
  relationships
• ability to accurately understand the feelings of
  other people
• ability to effectively work with other people

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Being Interculturally Effective

• Five personality characteristics for being
  interculturally are tested in the Multicultural
  Personality Questionnaire (van Oudenhoven and
  van der Zee)
• Cultural empathy
• Open-mindedness
• Emotional stability
• Flexibility
• Social initiative

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Cultural Empathy

• Also referred to as cultural sensitivity
• Def The capacity to clearly project an interest
  in other, as well as obtain and to reflect a
  reasonably complete and accurate sense of
  anothers thoughts, feelings, and/or
  experiences.
• Very important to be able to empathize with the
  feelings, thoughts and behaviors or members from
  different cultural groups.

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Open-mindedness

• The ability to have an open and unprejudiced
  attitude towards outgroup members and towards
  different cultural norms and values.
• One needs to have a freedom from prejudice, and a
  true interest in the local people.

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Emotional Stability

• The tendency to remain calm in stressful
  situations versus a tendency to show strong
  emotional reactions under stressful
  circumstances.
• One truly needs an ability to deal effectively
  with psychological stress.

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Flexibility

• One must be able to switch easily from one
  strategy to another because the familiar ways of
  handling things will not necessarily work in a
  new cultural environment.
• Elements of flexibility
• Ability to learn from mistakes
• Adjustment of behavior when required
• Ability to learn from new experiences

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Social Initiative

• A tendency to approach social situations in an
  active way and to take initiatives.
• An ability to establish and maintain contacts.
• Interpersonal skill are very important. One must
  be able to interact with people from the host
  country and to make friends among the locals.
• The courage to make things happen. has been
  cited as important for the international
  executive.