Intercultural Communication Paper Instructions

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 recognise 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 programmes. 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.

‘Behavioural flexibility’ Behavioural flexibility is the ability to adapt one’s own behaviour 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 specialised 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, judgement 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 behaviour 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.