Intercultural Communication

Interpreting your INCA survey scores:

Using the results from your INCA survey, complete the table above. You may wish to make a copy of the table by downloading the document or recreate the table in another program.

The goal is to determine your level for each of the 6 Intercultural Competencies. Note that a total score for the INCA survey is not important for the purpose of this assignment.  When you are done, read the information below to help you interpret your results.

Intercultural competence – what does it mean? 

Intercultural competence enables you to interact both effectively and in a way that is acceptable to others when you are working in a group whose members have different cultural backgrounds. The group may consist of two or more people including yourself. ‘Cultural’ may denote all manner of features, including the values and beliefs you have grown up with, your national, regional and local customs and, in particular, attitudes and practices that affect the way you work.

Three strands of cultural competences include:

• Openness

• Knowledge

• Adaptability  

Openness includes respect for otherness and tolerance of ambiguity. > To be open means to be open to the other and to situations in which something is done differently. You can tolerate your partner as being different and doing things differently.

Knowledge includes knowledge discovery as well as empathy. > You not only want to know the ‘hard facts’ about a situation or about a certain culture, but you also want to know, or you know something about, the feelings of the other person. You also know how your interlocutor feels.

Adaptability includes behavioral flexibility and communicative awareness. > You are able to adapt your behavior AND your style of communication

Intercultural competence – what does it consist of? 

It has been observed how people in groups of mixed cultural background recognize and deal with the differences that emerge as the group works together. From such observations, it has been possible to identify a number of ‘elements’ of competence that people bring to bear on the situation. These elements are not definitive. Intercultural competence can include other ‘elements’ of competence, but the INCA project ‘elements’ provide a snapshot, useful as an assessment tool, to provide a baseline to inform training programs.  If you are interculturally competent, you may demonstrate the following characteristics: 

‘Tolerance of ambiguity’ Tolerance of ambiguity is understood as the ability to accept lack of clarity and ambiguity and to be able to deal with it constructively. In other words, you find the unexpected and unfamiliar an enjoyable challenge and want to help resolve possible problems in ways that appeal to as many other group members as possible.  

‘Behavioral flexibility’ Behavioral flexibility is the ability to adapt one’s own behavior to different requirements and situations. In other words, you adapt the way you work with others to avoid unnecessary conflicts of procedure and expectation. You will tend to adopt other people’s customs and courtesies where this is likely to be appreciated, accept less familiar working procedures where this will raise the level of goodwill, and so on. 

‘Communicative awareness’ The ability in intercultural communication to establish relationships between linguistic expressions and cultural contents, to identify, and consciously work with, various communicative conventions of foreign partners, and to modify correspondingly one’s own linguistic forms of expression. In other words, you are alert to the many ways in which misunderstanding might arise through differences in speech, gestures and body language. You may, where this helps, be prepared to adopt less familiar conventions. To be effective, you will always be ready to seek clarification and may need, on occasion, to ask other members of the group to agree on how they will use certain expressions or specialized terms.

‘Knowledge discovery’ The ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to act using that knowledge, those attitudes and those skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction. In other words, you are willing both to research in advance and to learn from intercultural encounters. You will take the trouble to find out about the likely values, customs and practices of those you are going to work with, and will note carefully, as you interact with them, any additional points that might influence the way you choose to work with them.

‘Respect for otherness’ Curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one’s own.  In other words, you are ready to regard other people’s values, customs and practices as worthwhile in their own right and not merely as different from the norm. While you may not share these values, customs and practices, you feel strongly that others are entitled to them and should not lose respect on account of them. You may sometimes need to adopt a firm but diplomatic stance over points of principle on which you disagree.  

‘Empathy’ The ability to intuitively understand what other people think and how they feel in concrete situations. Empathic persons are able to deal appropriately with the feelings, wishes and ways of thinking of other persons. In other words, you are able to get inside other people’s thoughts and feelings and see and feel a situation through their eyes. While this competence often draws on knowledge of how you would expect others to feel, it goes beyond awareness of facts. It often shows itself in a concern not to hurt others’ feelings or infringe their system of values.

Each intercultural competence framework has three levels. These levels are related to your INCA survey results.

Level 1 – Basic Competence

You are already willing to interact successfully with people of other cultures. You tend to pick things up and learn from them as you go along, but you haven’t yet got the experience to work out any system of dealing with intercultural situations in general. You respond to events, rather than planning for them. At this stage you are reasonably tolerant of other values, customs and practices although you may find them odd or surprising and approve or disapprove. 

Level 2 – Intermediate Competence

As a result of experience and/or training, you are beginning to view more coherently some of the aspects of intercultural encounters you used to deal with in a ‘one-off’ way. You have a mental ‘map’ or ‘checklists’ of the sort of situations you are likely to need to deal with and are developing your skills to cope with them. This means that you are more prepared for the need to respond and adapt to the demands of unfamiliar situations. You are quicker to see patterns in the various experiences you have and you are beginning to draw conclusions without having to seek advice. You find it easier to respond in a neutral way to difference, rather than approving or disapproving. 

Level 3 – Full Competence

Many of the competences you developed consciously at level 2 have become intuitive. You are constantly ready for situations and encounters in which you will exercise your knowledge, judgment and skills and have a large repertoire of strategies for dealing with differences in values, customs and practices among members of the intercultural group. You not only accept that people can see things from widely varying perspectives and are entitled to do so, but you are also able to put yourself in their place and avoid behavior you sense would be hurtful or offensive. At this level of operation you are able to intercede when difficulties arise and tactfully support other members of the group in understanding each other. You are confident enough of your position to take a polite stand over issues, despite your respect for the viewpoint of others. 

 

How to complete your assignment, part 1: 

Write a 1 page reflection of your INCA Survey results. You are encouraged to include additional resources to support your reflection. Answer the following questions in your reflection:

1. Describe your results for each of the 6 Intercultural competencies.

2. What does the data tell you?

3. Do you agree with the results? Why/ why not? Explain your answer in detail

Directions for part 2 of your assignment:

Select 3 of the critical incidents below and analyze them. Your analysis should contain at least three scholarly references each that pertain directly to the incident. Your analysis should be completed as formal written report in APA format. You can take the format of an executive briefing or a training session. The analysis should be complete and supported by literature, not an opinion piece.

After you select three critical incidents, choose from the following cultural orientations and themes as they relate to your critical incidents (may be more than one). Explain how your chosen critical incident relates to one or more cultural orientation(s) and theme(s) in your report:

·

· Universalism/Particularism

· Power Distance

· Hierarchy/Equality

· Individualism/Collectivism

· Space: Private/Public

· Face

· Communication: High/Low Context

· Communication: formal/ informal

· Communication: direct/indirect

· Communication: non-verbal

· Competitiveness

· Thinking

· Learning Style

· Interpersonal Distance and Touch

· Time

· Death/dying

· Cheating

· Customs

· Knowledge

· Teacher/student

· Relationship building

· Discipline

· Apology

· Work ethic

· Conflict

· Respect

· Parenting

· Negotiating

· Gender roles

 

What is cultural competency?

Culture is commonly defined as a shared system of beliefs and values that shapes a group's behavior. People interpret the behavior and communication of others through their own cultural biases and typically will identify anything that is different from their own values as "wrong" or "inappropriate."

Communication styles are based largely on cultural values. One researcher who helps us understand cultural values around the world is Geert Hofstede. He lists the following five cultural dimensions and describes how they vary across cultures (Hofstede, 1967–2009).

Power distance is the extent to which a group of people accept the unequal distribution of power among different segments of their society. Venezuela, the Philippines, and Mexico have high power distance and accept the inequality in their societies, whereas Denmark, Austria, and the United States are among the countries that have low power distance, or low tolerance for inequality.

Individualism is the value that a culture places on individual rights and well-being, as opposed to collective rights and well-being. Australia, the United States, and Great Britain tend to be individualistic countries, whereas Colombia, Japan, and Nigeria tend to be collectivist.

Masculinity is the value that a culture places on assertiveness and competitiveness. Japan, Mexico, and Austria are among the more masculine societies, whereas Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are among the more feminine societies. Typically, the more masculine cultures will also stress a greater difference between gender roles in the society.

Uncertainty avoidance is the degree to which a culture is comfortable with doubt and ambiguity. Cultures that tend toward high uncertainty avoidance will seek to avoid multiple choices or positions. Greece, Portugal, and Japan tend to be high on uncertainty avoidance, whereas Singapore, Sweden, and the United States tend toward low uncertainty avoidance and are more comfortable with choice and ambiguous situations.

Polychronic cultures tend to value tradition and long-term goals over short-term goals. Countries such as Brazil, Spain, and China are more patient and less interested in time management, whereas in monochronic countries such as Germany and the United States, the focus is on "saving time," "making time," or "not wasting time."

Additional information about cultural competency is located in our course and at this web site:

http://geert-hofstede.com/dimensions.html

You will want to conduct your own research to learn more information about cultural competencies for the purpose of this assignment.

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Critical Incidents

What are critical incidents?

Critical incidents are tools for increasing our awareness and understanding of human attitudes, expectations, behaviors, and interactions. They are intended to engage participants at a meaningful, personal level as they examine attitudes and behaviors that might be critical to their effectiveness in the roles they are already performing or pre- paring for (in the workplace, in educational settings, and in society at large).

Critical incidents in intercultural communication training are brief descriptions of situations in which a misunderstanding, problem, or conflict arises as a result of the cultural differences of the interacting parties, or a problem of cross-cultural adaptation and communication.

Choose 3 of the following critical incidents for your assignment:

1. A student was not satisfied with her new class. She wanted to move to a higher class. First, she consulted the student advisor who said that she could not move up at this time. The student, still unsatisfied with this answer, asked the other student advisor. The second student advisor gave her the same answer. Next, she made an appointment to see the coordinator of the Language Training Program. The coordinator consulted the student’s teacher and the student’s test scores and explained to the student that, according to the guidelines, she was unable to move to the next level at that time. The student was still not satisfied and made an appointment to see the dean and then intended to talk to the president of the college. Meanwhile, the teacher couldn’t under- stand why the student did not just accept her decision. She also could not understand why the student could not see that there were policies in place so that no matter how high up she went in the college hierarchy, it would not change the outcome for her.

2. Sandra gave her students a grammar test. During the test, a student was looking at another student’s answers and writing them on his paper. The teacher asked him to do the test on his own. The student continued to look at the other student’s answers. The teacher took his paper away and threw it into the garbage in full view of all the other students to make the point that the student’s answers were not an indication of his under- standing of the grammar and that it was pointless to write the test if he was just going to cheat. The student was very upset and went to the office to complain.

3. A young woman had recently arrived in Canada ready to start a new life. She found the weather a little cold but still enjoyed wearing the same style she wore at home—tight skirts and tight tops that had low neck- lines. After about a month, she began to notice people staring at her. She thought they were looking at her because she was a foreigner. Then one day some- one told her that only prostitutes dressed that way. She felt angry and insulted.

Intercultural

competence

INCA questions for

each Intercultural

Competence

Score

Add your results for

the 3 questions from

the INCA survey

Based on your score, enter

"Basic", "Intermediate" or

"Full"

3-4 indicates basic level

5-7 indicates intermediate

level

8-9 indicates full level

Communicative

awareness

Questions 1-33227

Knowledge

discovery

Questions 4-62338

Respect for

otherness

Questions 7-93339

EmpathyQuestions 10-122237

Tolerance of

ambiguity

Questions 13-152316

Behavioural

flexibility

Questions

16-18

1236

Sheet1

Intercultural competence	INCA questions for each Intercultural Competence	Score Add your results for the 3 questions from the INCA survey	Based on your score, enter "Basic", "Intermediate" or "Full" 3-4 indicates basic level 5-7 indicates intermediate level 8-9 indicates full level
Communicative awareness	Questions 1-3	3	2	2	7
Knowledge discovery	Questions 4-6	2	3	3	8
Respect for otherness	Questions 7-9	3	3	3	9
Empathy	Questions 10-12	2	2	3	7
Tolerance of ambiguity	Questions 13-15	2	3	1	6
Behavioural flexibility	Questions 16-18	1	2	3	6