Multicultural Skills in the EU Public Administration

Abstract

This study examined multicultural skills in the EU public administration on a sample of 284 public administration managers from the European Commission and 26 Member States. The results show that personality and personal traits play a role in possessing multicultural skills; so does on-the-job training. The most influential was a set of traits that we called ‘desirable personal traits.’ The results further indicate the possible negative effects of working in the same PA institution for a long time. Next, public administration managers' possession of higher levels of multicultural skills is related to some important organizational outcomes in a PA institution, more specifically to openness and transparency, stakeholders’ satisfaction and support, productivity, and successful change leadership. Managers with higher levels of multicultural skills also tend to have higher levels of other competencies. Finally, the implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.