Cultural Competence
Cultural competence is the ability to communicate and understand people from different cultures effectively. You will need to know what to do and not do during cross-cultural interactions. You should be sure to study cultural differences before traveling to other countries or attempting to do business abroad. Read this chapter and reflect on how you can use the advice it presents to improve your skills.
Cross-Cultural Training through Education and Personal Experience: Low and High Rigor
Current research suggests that cross-cultural training can influence cultural intelligence. At a basic level, you can acquire cultural intelligence by taking classes in your program. Research has shown that taking cross-cultural management courses can enhance cultural intelligence.
For example, in a study of 152 MBA students, researchers found that cultural intelligence of the students increased after they took a cross-cultural management course. In another longitudinal study, researchers found that study abroad has a significant impact on the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of cultural intelligence. How do multinationals approach cross-cultural training? The above provides examples of low-rigor training, in which individuals are exposed to critical information to help them understand the realities of a different culture but are not actively and directly engaged with the culture.
In such cases, instructors transfer basic information and knowledge to students through lectures, books, and case studies.
Low-rigor training has several important disadvantages. Participants often just receive information; they learn that differences exist but do not necessarily learn how to deal with cultural differences in a real-life situation. Furthermore, cross-cultural differences can be very subtle and nuanced, and this method cannot expose participants to such nuances. Balancing these significant disadvantages is one key advantage: low-rigor training tends to be the most cost effective.
Companies can also rely on high-rigor methods of training, in which participants are actively engaged in the process and can learn some tacit aspects of cross-cultural differences.
Examples of high-rigor training include classroom language training, case studies, and sensitivity training. High-rigor training also includes more experiential approaches such as role-playing, simulations, and field experiences. Some MNCs (multi-national corporations) also offer on-the-job training, during which employees are coached and trained while working at their jobs. This method allows the trainee not only to see the new culture, but also to learn how that culture interacts with the work environment. The advantage of this method is that it enables the participant to be much more actively engaged in learning, thereby facilitating transfer of knowledge. But as you might have guessed, high-rigor training is much more expensive to provide.
Which method works best? Experts agree that it depends on the nature of the assignment. Longer and more complex international assignments benefit from higher-rigor training.
Furthermore, because international work assignments tend to be more short-term in nature, ways to enhance the metacognitive aspects of cultural intelligence are necessary.
Today, because more managers tend to have more frequent but shorter assignments to international companies, having metacognitive skills is critical. As a result, brief lectures or other low-rigor methods that simply provide information may be useful in helping develop the cognitive aspect but not metacognition. In such cases, high-rigor methods that allow participants to be much more actively engaged with a culture will work well.