Intercultural Trainers Research Articles

Comparative Study of International Practices in Developing Sociocultural Competence

This article presents a comparative study on international practices in developing sociocultural competence and explores their potential application in the context of Uzbekistan. Sociocultural competence is crucial for effective intercultural understanding and communication in a globalized world. Drawing from a range of global practices, including educational initiatives, intercultural training programs, policies, and community engagement efforts, this study identifies effective strategies for enhancing sociocultural competence. The analysis highlights the importance of integrating sociocultural competence into educational curricula, providing experiential learning opportunities, delivering intercultural communication training, and promoting community engagement. The findings underscore the significance of multicultural policies and inclusive education. Recommendations are presented for educators, policymakers, intercultural trainers, and individuals engaged in cross-cultural interactions in Uzbekistan to foster sociocultural competence. By applying successful strategies from international practices and tailoring them to the Uzbekistan’s context, the article provides guidance to cultivate a culturally inclusive society that values diversity and promotes intercultural understanding and effective communication.

An auto-ethnographic narrative of corporate intercultural training: Insights from the genealogical reordering of the material

Intercultural training is common practice in many organizations. By cross-cultural management scholars, intercultural training is often critiqued as overly simplistic. The argument is that intercultural trainers lack sophisticated cross-cultural management knowledge. Based on 6 years of ethnographic and auto-ethnographic research, I argue that such a categorical rejection of intercultural training practice as inferior functions as a closure mechanism towards higher scholarly relevance: The problem is not that intercultural training practice is overly simplistic but rather that cross-cultural management scholars fail to consider the actual processes of how intercultural training emerges in a certain (simplistic) and not in another (sophisticated) shape. What is required, is thus an investigation of the actual contexts, actors and chains of events, and of the power-relations underlying them, that bring a certain reality into being. To achieve this goal, I propose a practice approach to genealogy (based on Foucault) which I apply to rich auto-ethnographic and ethnographic material. In doing so, I work with ethnographic material in novel ways and move beyond a previously held, more structuralist, archival and textual approach to genealogy. Exemplifying the benefits of genealogy, I show how intercultural training is implicated by other, more intertwined and local, power-effects than those considered by academia, such as intersections of gender (women trainers), job precariousness, dominant male professionalism, organizational pressures and personal agendas. In walking the reader through the construction of a sample genealogy, I provide academics with a concrete approach of how to challenge taken-for-granted scholarly assumptions and make more impactful contributions to practice.

Speech Codes Theory Applied to Problematic Situations in Intercultural Communication A Six-Step Iterative Training Cycle

In this article, we propose a six-step iterative training cycle for intercultural trainers and trainees to understand the cultural codes underlying conflict in intercultural communication. We offer this training cycle, grounded in speech codes theory and ethnographic research methods, as a complementary alternative to traditional prescriptive cultural values approaches. Speech codes theory is a descriptive theory that conceptualizes culture as a system of norms, premises, and symbols about communication that is shared by members of a given speech community. Further, we argue that a corollary of understanding speech codes through our six-step iterative training cycle is the development of emic intercultural communication competence and sensitivity.

Intercultural teaching competence: a multi-disciplinary model for instructor reflection

This article presents a model for Intercultural Teaching Competence (ITC) that instructors may use as a tool for reflection as they prepare to facilitate learning across cultures. Building on previous research on intercultural competence, culturally relevant teaching, intercultural trainer competencies, and student-centred approaches to teaching, the model identifies concrete facilitation techniques for instructors who would like to further develop their own teaching practice or mentor colleagues in effective teaching across cultures. The model consists of 20 instructor competencies grouped into three categories: foundational skills, facilitation skills, and curriculum development skills for intercultural learning. While intended as a tool to guide instructors in individual and group reflection on inclusive teaching practices, the ITC model may also be used by educational developers to guide feedback during classroom observations or while supporting curriculum internationalisation initiatives. Recommendations for use in faculty learning communities and workshops are included at the end of the article. The ITC model will benefit instructors in a variety of disciplines who teach in diverse and multidisciplinary classrooms, discuss global or social justice issues in their class, and those who seek to include intercultural and Indigenous perspectives in their curriculum.

Intercultural Communication in a Dynamic Environment

Intercultural training modules and programmes need to be grounded in theory, and this article presents a theoretical framework that is grounded in economy-based differences between countries, an area that has been hitherto neglected. The framework captures 10 key economy-based differences that can help orient business people to the differences beyond cultural differences in work values. This framework can be readily adopted for education and training purposes by allowing participants to work in a group to develop an understanding of the 10 characteristics of economically developing and developed societies, and discussing ways to deal with various related communication barriers emerging from them. It is hoped that other such frameworks will be explored to enrich the training tool kit of intercultural trainers and academics beyond cultural theory-based frameworks.

Mind the gap: Application-based analysis of cultural adjustment models

Abstract Cross-cultural adaptation literature describes multiple theories and models for addressing culture shock. However, the applicability of such theoretical constructs to intercultural trainers and sojourners is at times difficult to assess. The current research explores the communication strategies used by study abroad professionals to prepare sojourners for culture shock through a qualitative comparison to existing models of cross-cultural adaptation as a means of assessing how such theoretical constructs may inform the applied field of cross-cultural training. Specifically, study abroad advisors at a large Southwestern university were interviewed and observed during interactions with pre-departure sojourners traveling to six different locations around the world (Spain, South Korea, Australia, Senegal, and the UK/Ireland). A collaborative review of the transcriptions was then conducted, including in-depth, qualitative, line-by-line coding. Findings indicate that program coordinators use several communication techniques that reflect theoretical constructions of adaptation when discussing cross-cultural transitions with sojourners, including self-disclosure, uncertainty reduction, fear/efficacy appeals, and linguistic/cultural immersion strategies. Further, the results reveal that one model in particular (Gudykunst's Anxiety-Uncertainty Management model) emerges as the most relevant in the study abroad professionals’ narratives. Interestingly, the study further shows that Witte's Extended Parallel Process Model is also consistently used to communicate about culture shock with potential sojourners. The paper concludes with implications for future research given the preliminary nature of the study.

What Does It Mean to Be Globally Competent?

To contribute to the valuable and ongoing debate regarding the definition of global citizenship and global competency, this study proposes a definition developed through the use of a Delphi Technique involving human resource managers at top transnational corporations, senior international educators, United Nations officials, inter-cultural trainers, and foreign government officers. This definition is used as the foundation for the development of a survey to determine the knowledge, skills, and attitudes and experiences necessary to be considered globally competent. The survey was sent to 133 representatives from universities that self-nominated for recognition in the “Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities—Internationalizing the Campus 2003” (NAFSA: Association of International Educators publication) and the transnational corporation human resource officials serving as members of the National Foreign Trade Council’s Expatriate Management Committee and Global Mobility Roundtable. Results are reported and discussed, and a proposed curricular plan is presented based on the findings.

Training across cultures: What intercultural trainers bring to diversity training

The field of diversity training, being relatively new, can be enhanced by using some of the concepts and methods put into practice for many years by intercultural trainers. Distinguishing between diversity and intercultural training is not always easy. Currently, the two types of training differ more in terms of their goals than in other ways. Intercultural trainers offer four main components to their diversity counterparts: culture, behavior, perception, and communication. This article expands upon these components, defining them, describing the rationale for their inclusion in diversity training, and suggesting specific training methods that diversity trainers could use when incorporating these concepts into their training sessions or that intercultural trainers could use when conducting diversity training.

Intercultural Conflict Patterns and Intercultural Training Implications for Koreans

Scholars and practitioners have developed intercultural training models and techniques and attempted to assess directions in the field by identifying training methodologies and their related theoretical foundations. However, there has been very little effort to apply and test empirically the efficacy and suitability of Euro-American intercultural training models and theories for Asians, especially for Koreans. The author presented differences focusing on language, thought patterns, and value orientations between Asians and Euro-Americans, and introduced some concepts and characteristics of Korean interpersonal interactions. The author also introduced studies in which researchers attempted to test the Western training models on Asian participants and pointed out inappropriateness of the training models. Based on the above discussions, the author suggested that intercultural trainers consider these differences and alter training approaches and methods to reflect the learning styles and cultural backgrounds of trainees from Asia, and in this case, Korean cultures.

Models of Multiculturalism: implications for the twenty‐first century leaders1

Prominent among the challenges facing leaders in the 21st century is multiculturalism. Technology and transportation are fast changing the world and the concept of a global village has never been more real. The “New World Order” as proclaimed by George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, has proclivity to disorder unless new multicultural understanding is embraced. This paper provides a discussion of different models or stages of multiculturalism: denial, assimilationism, affirmative action, valuing diversity, managing diversity, global multiculturalism, and humanistic multiculturalism. It promotes the concept of humanistic multiculturalism as a more holistic, inclusive, emancipatory view of diversity that will be necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The paper concludes with implications for corporate, educational, military, and government leaders as well as for intercultural trainers and researchers. 1. The concepts of this paper were first presented at the 9th World Congress on Comparative Education, Sydney, Australia Quly 1996). The Author wishes to thank Dr Gerald Read (Professor Emeritus and one of the pioneers of the World Council on Comparative Education) and Shirley Yokley of Kent State University for their insightful comments.

Swiss and Germans: Similarities and differences in work-related values, attitudes, and behavior

This paper examines two closely related cultures: Switzerland and Germany. Similarities and differences in values, attitudes, behavior, language usage and skills, communication and conflict solving style are presented; and the impact on work related behavior discussed. One aim is to provide practical information and advice for foreigners working with Swiss and Germans. A second objective is to present these two countries as an example of the hypothesis that differences among neighboring nations with similar cultures may be underestimated and increase the risk of cultural clash. An analysis of culture-common and culture-specific perceptions and attributions can be a useful tool to reduce this risk. Although the Swiss/German similarities and contrasts are presented as static generalizations, the reader must keep in mind real-life individual and regional variation and the risk of stereotyping. A selection of empirical studies, interviews and the experience of the author as an intercultural trainer and consultant serve as the foundation of this article.