One World
Diverse Cultures
Common Goals
Basics and Capabilities
using the power of cultural diversity
Success Abroad
achieving goals without frontiers
Integration
cooperating in different cultures
Nothing coins the image of a company as much
as its ability
to appropriately deal
with different cultures.
This is the reason why
it is so important for
CICB Center of Intercultural Competence
to utilize
the potential of intercultural competence.
What is intercultural competence?
Typical examples of cultural differences
How assessing intercultural competence?
What is intercultural competence?
The topic of intercultural competence became more and more important during the past years: globalisation and worldwide contacts between companies, organizations and individuals need the ability to communicate in a successful way.
Basic needs are sensitivity and self-consciousness: the understanding of other behaviours and ways of thinking as well as the ability to express one’s own point of view in a transparent way with the aim to be understood and respected by staying flexible where this is possible, and being clear and transparent where this is necessary.
Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures. This ability can exist in someone at a young age, or may be developed and improved due to willpower and competence. The bases for a successful intercultural communication are emotional competence, together with intercultural sensitivity.
The goal of assessing intercultural competence is to find out if a person has this ability or the potential for it.
Cultures can be different not only between continents or nations, but also within the same company or even family: every human being has their own history, their own life and therefore also (in a
certain extent) their own culture resp. cultural affiliation (geographical, ethnical, moral, ethical, religious, political, historical). 
Why intercultural competence?
Intercultural competence is needed as the basic ability for any interaction! It is not only necessary to have social skills, but also to improve the sensitivity and understanding for other values, views, ways of living and thinking, as well as being self-conscious in transferring one’s own values and views in a clear, but appropriate way.
Intercultural competence helps understanding others and achieving goals.
Typical examples of cultural differences
The perception is different and often selective:
- Expressions are differentiated according their importance: for the Inuits (Eskimos) snow is part of their everyday life, so many words exist to describe it. Similarly the Zulus use many words for the color „green”.
- In Arabic countries the odors (of condiments, coffee etc.) are often perceived in more differentiated ways than e. g. in northern America.
- In Asian countries the perception of time is rather past-oriented (ancestors, values), in Latin American countries as well as southern European countries rather present-oriented, and in western Europe as well as Noth America rather future-oriented.
Behavior and gestures are interpreted differently:
- Shaking the head in a horizontal direction in most countries means „no”, while in India it means „yes”, and in hindi language the voice lowers in pitch at the end of a question.
- Showing the thumb held upwards means in Latin America, especially Brazil, „everything’s ok”, while it is understood in Islamic countries as a rude sexual sign.
- „Everything ok” is shown in western European countries, especially between pilots and divers, with the sign of the thumb and forefinger forming an „O”. This sign means in Japan „now we may talk about money”, in southern France the contrary („nothing, without any value”), in Spain, some Latin American countries, Eastern Europe and Russia it is an indecent sexual sign.
- In North America as well as in Arabic countries the pauses between words are usually not too long, while in Japan pauses can give a contradictory sense to the spoken words by the meaning of pauses. Enduring silence is perceived as comfortable in Japan, while in Europe and North America it may cause insecureness and embarrassment. Scandinavians, by Western standards, are more tolerant of silent breaks during conversations.
- Laughing is connoted in most countries with happiness - in Japan it is often a sign of confusion, insecureness and embarrassment.
- In the UK Ireland and Commonwealth countries, the word „compromise” has a positive meaning (as a consent, an agreement where both parties win something); in the USA it may rather have negative connotations (as both parties lose something).
- In Mediterranean European countries, Latin America and Sub Saharan Africa, it is normal, or at least widely tolerated, to arrive half an hour late for a dinner invitaiton, whereas in Germany and Switzerland this would be extremely rude.
- If invited to dinner, in many Asian countries and Central America it is well-mannered to leave right after the dinner: the ones who don’t leave may indicate they have not eaten enough. In the Indian Sub-Continent, European and North American countries this is considered rude, indicating that the guest only wanted to eat but wouldn’t enjoy the company with the hosts.
- In Africa, saying to a female friend one has not seen for a while that she has put on weight means she is physically healthier than
before or had a nice holiday, whereas this would be considered as an insult in Europe, North America and Australia.
How to assess intercultural competence?
Although its importance is more and more recognized, only few companies and organisations assess intercultural competence in a specific and structured way. Social skills are part of every assessment, but intercultural competence is mostly judged by an assessor concerning his or her subjective impression.
Intercultural competence can hardly be defined in numbers or in a percentage-profile, but many different tools allow a reliable statement:
- computer-based validity-testing by questioning
- computer-based simulation-tests
- structured biographical interviews
- simulation-games by interacting in groups and specific situations
- differentiating between respect/empathy, prejudices, frustration-tolerance and learning-/ contact-activity
- analyzing self-assurance and adaptation-tendency
- structuring mental, emotional and spiritual competence and related cross-connections
Using similar tests allows to increase the validity; using different tests allows to increase the evidency.