Intercultural Readiness: Four Competences for Working Across Cultures

231 Pages·2014·1.14 MB·English

by  Ursula Brinkmann

Intercultural Readiness
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Intercultural Readiness
Ursula Brinkmann
Oscar van Weerdenburg
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© Ursula Brinkmann and Oscar van Weerdenburg 2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-34697-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identifi ed as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-46719-8 ISBN 978-1-137-34698-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137346988
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managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
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Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 Intercultural Readiness: Translating Talent into
Competence 9
2 Why We Need Intercultural Competences 19
3 The Four Competences 35
4 Diff erent Talents, New Abilities 64
5 Intercultural Competences Develop
by Themselves: True or False? 95
6 Intercultural Competences for Culturally
Diverse Teams 135
7 What Makes an Organization Interculturally
Competent? 176
Notes 198
Index 216
v
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List of Figures and Tables
Figures
4.1 Intercultural Sensitivity self-check 70
4.2 Intercultural Communication self-check 77
4.3 Building Commitment self-check 86
4.4 Managing Uncertainty self-check 92
6.1 People, process, performance – Key elements aff ecting
diverse teams 154
Tables
2.1 Relationship between Intercultural Sensitivity scores,
beliefs about own performance and sense of comfort with
intercultural interaction among executives 31
3.1 The four IRC competences and their facets 36
3.2 Intercultural Sensitivity and management position 41
3.3 Schmid Mast et al.’s modest style as opposed to
self-promoting style in interviews 47
3.4 Fischer and Orasanu’s six ways of giving instructions 47
3.5 Building Commitment – a competence developed
by executives 52
5.1 IRC competence scores for fi ve age groups 105
5.2 IRC competence scores for three cohorts of 21- to 28-year-old
respondents 107
vi
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List of Figures and Tables vii
5.3 IRC competence scores for US American and European
respondents 112
5.4 Intercultural Sensitivity, friends from other cultures and
time spent abroad 125
5.5 Managing Uncertainty, friends from other cultures and
time spent abroad 126
7.1 Industry sectors and respondents per sector in the IRC
benchmarking study 179
7.2 Proportion of men and women by management level 182
7.3 Diversity beliefs by gender depending on
management level 187
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Acknowledgements
This book is based on years of research and consulting in the fi eld of
intercultural management development. Many people have contributed,
either by their own work on the subject and related topics, or by the
direct support they provided throughout those years. Here we want to
name only those who supported us directly.
We especially thank those who agreed to be interviewed and to contribute
to this book with their stories and experience: Jack Barocas, Dominique
Fournier, Vinciane Klein, Anneke Luijkenaar, Pieter de Man, Ann Means,
Heiko Meyer and Ralf Schneider. They have shared with us numerous
examples of where intercultural readiness was needed in a globalizing
world, and where they demonstrated this quality as long-term expatriates
and intercultural researchers, as leaders of culturally diverse teams and of
internationally-operating organizations.
Throughout the development of our Intercultural Readiness Check
questionnaire, we have been fortunate to work with seasoned intercultural
professionals who have contributed to our work on intercultural
competence development. For their insights and valuable feedback on
the development of the IRC, we are especially grateful to Lisa Newson,
Yvonne van der Pol and Juanita Wijnands. For their new perspectives
and positive criticism we are grateful to Sundae Schneider-Bean and Tao
Yue. Maarten Asser has been especially helpful in showing new ways of
making the IRC valuable to diff erent client groups, and Sjaak Pappe has
helped us greatly in refl ecting on how international students can benefi t
from feedback on their intercultural competences.
viii
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Acknowledgements ix
From the start of developing the IRC, we have been privileged to work
with outstanding professionals from business economics and psychology.
In particular, we would like to thank Karen van der Zee for her help
with developing the fi rst version of the IRC, and to Koen Beirens, Frank
Brück, Johnny Fontaine, Dianne van Hemert and Wouter Schoonman for
their support with developing its second version. We benefi tted greatly
from the fruitful discussions with Stephanie Gruttauer, Andrea Lachnik,
Elisabeth Prechtl, Carsten Schermuly and Sundae Schneider-Bean about
intercultural competences needed in teams. Special thanks go to Cris
Rabaglia for her concise and powerful analyses of the entire IRC database.
We would like to thank Eric Vos, of Vos Text and Hypertext, for his
relentless support in developing a robust and transparent online system.
In writing this book, we have very much appreciated Lucille Redmond’s
invaluable comments on the manuscript, and especially her constant
reminders that a theoretical argument needs a ‘kitten’, an example as
concrete as a little cat, to illustrate what’s meant.
We have always enjoyed and appreciated the collegial spirit, enthusiasm
and professional insights of the IRC licensees, who have helped to launch
the approach in diff erent parts of the world, and who have generously
shared with us their ideas on practical applications and ways of giving
constructive feedback to respondents from diff erent cultures and countries.
Our appreciation also goes to our clients, and the participants of our
programmes, who have been curious to learn more about assessing and
developing intercultural competences. Their feedback and practical
comments have been extremely valuable to us, and have given us new
ideas for how to combine competence assessment with intercultural
learning and development programmes.
Ever since we started our work as intercultural consultants, we have
benefi tted greatly from working with Fons Trompenaars and Charles
Hampden-Turner. Thanks to their creative thinking, wit and inventive
contributions to the fi eld, the close cooperation in particular between
Oscar, Fons and Charles has enriched our understanding of intercultural
management development. We have always enjoyed our conversations
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