Intercultural Competence Self-assessment And Global Leader Competencies

Objectives

The purpose of this part is for each student to gain practice in evaluating and interpreting their Intercultural Effectiveness Scale competencies.

Upon completion of this assignment the student will be able to:

Articulate the meaning of the competencies.

Diagnose personal strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations for development

1. Read Mendenhall et.al.
2. Read personal survey report thoroughly. Reflect on accurateness/fit of the results.
3. Discuss strengths and how you might build upon your intercultural competence. In addition, highlight one area and make suggestions for development.
4. Do not simply state that competencies are high or low; rather discuss the implications for developing intercultural competence.

Scale

This report is based on research using normal adult samples and provides information on dimensions of global and intercultural competency. The information in this report should be viewed as only one source of evaluation and no decisions should be based solely on the information contained in this report. This report is confidential and intended for use by the individual being evaluated and his or her employer or trainer.

Intercultural competence self-assessment and global leader competencies

Considering the statement of Mendenhall, Stevens, Bird, Oddou & Osland (2008), it has been understood that with the rapid globalisation, there have been several social issues and complexities that have contributed to the management of better learning for the students to develop skills and competencies. This also helped to aim at responding to the changing and globalised business environment much efficiently.  From the perspectives of globalization, the people’s skills and knowledge are to be developed, which can be possible with the help of acquiring cross cultural relationship skills, values, traits, global business expertise and also organising and visioning expertise (Mendenhall, Stevens, Bird, Oddou & Osland, 2008). These various dimensions have significantly helped in managing better global leadership and at the same time, develop their own skills and competencies required to work at a foreign nation while being an expatriate.

I have learned that the three most important dimensions of global leadership are the cross-cultural relationship skills, traits and values and cognitive orientation. These dimensions have been closely assessed and reviewed by me for developing intercultural competencies, thereby, allowed me to gain the ability to manage cross-cultural relationships too. According to Stebleton, Soria & Cherney (2013), these dimensions are considered for adjusting to the social, work conditions and cultural dimensions responsible for encouraging higher productivity as well as build relationships and intercultural competencies for influencing expatriate adjustments. Based on the various dimensions of these intercultural competencies, I have understood that the aspects are aligned with the intercultural competencies where the cross-cultural relationships are prioritised on the orientation of others, perceptual dimension focusing on the cognitive direction and self-oriented dimension allowed me to enhance my ability to manage values, beliefs and traits furthermore (Stebleton, Soria & Cherney, 2013).

According to the Pyramid Principle introduced by McKinsey, the major aspects include structured thinking and the process of communication. By following the Pyramid principles, there is a need to start with the answer first, which I have done in certain situations. For example, when the team members asked about the importance of multiculturalism, I made them understood how it could foster the creation of an inclusive workforce and also promote diversity within the workplace. I have also followed the top down approach to make sure that I transfer the information and messages to the subordinates and employees for encouraging a better flow of information along with the improvement of communication process too (Kirkpatrick et al., 2015). I have communicated with the employees, which has not only made them abide by the policies, principles and guidelines but also has helped me to promote an inclusive workforce where diversity is encouraged, and encouragement of new ideas has been possible as well.

Instructions

Based on the self-oriented dimension, to enhance my skills and experiences, I would like to communicate with the host individuals and also understand the way others behave within the working environment. This could also be beneficial for me to acquire cognitive orientation based on the perceptual dimension, thereby, allow for considering the values and beliefs of other foreign individuals, aim at making proper attributions too. I have also learned the importance of gaining confidence to work and perform various tasks, which, according to the self-oriented dimension, has helped in managing traits and values too (Soria & Troisi, 2014). With the management of these values and traits, I have gained the desired self-effectiveness in terms of performance, furthermore could make me perform the job duties correctly, respect own values as well as of others, promote socialisation and communicate with each other for establishing a healthy work culture. This is how the intercultural competence has been built based on these three dimensions, though one such area where there is a need for improvement has been the skills to speak in front of others and guide them towards the right direction (Stebleton, Soria & Cherney, 2013).   

Based on the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale and personal survey report, I also found that my continuous learning skills lacked to a certain extent, due to which, I have been less self-aware as well as lacked specific skills and ability to explore new areas that can give me an edge over others (Jun, 2016). The interpersonal engagement skills is the area where I have been successful the most, as I have always loved communicating with others and developed close relationships, which also helped me to work collaboratively. My interpersonal engagement skills are quite high, which also raised my potential to work as an unit and perform the tasks much easily and conveniently (Miska, Stahl & Mendenhall, 2013). I though lacked positive regard skills; I feel that my emotional resilience has helped me to remain emotionally positive and endure difficult and complex situations much easier. Considering the Pyramid principles, as stated by Messelink, Van Maele & Spencer-Oatey (2015), Due to this, the psychological hardiness has made me acquire the desired emotional skills required to handle complex situations and thereby promote positive behaviours all throughout too. Therefore, these are the implications for developing intercultural competence, which can benefit me in my professional career in the future by allowing me to gain the desired positive behaviours and establish good relationships with people from different backgrounds and cultures too (Messelink, Van Maele & Spencer-Oatey, 2015).

Part One

The objective is to ensure application of an intercultural lens to the mind-set of a global corporate leader and how the various intercultural competencies can encourage positive perceptions, behaviours and skills to deal with complex problems appropriately. According to Read Stahl & Brannen (2013), the cross-cultural leadership skills and competencies are built and it has been based on the interview session conduced with Carlos Ghosn, who is the CEO of Renault Nissan alliance. Being a leader, he has the skills of radical structuring, which favoured many possibilities to change the bad condition of an organisation to new paths of success (Read Stahl & Brannen, 2013). This has also facilitated the cross shareholdings and fostered cross-cultural combination among the various manufacturer and production of automobiles companies. Read Stahl & Brannen (2013) also stated about the leader being transcultural, which enabled many individuals from different backgrounds and cultures to work together as an unit, thereby, promoted cultural diversity and synergies too. Due to this, Carlos Ghosn was considered as a leader without borders, who managed to create equal scopes and opportunities for each and every to learn and educate, furthermore, overcome the language and cultural barriers too to a large extent. This has not only lifted their moral level but also allowed them to work collaboratively and achieved the shared goals and objectives with much ease and efficiency (van Oudenhoven & Benet-Martínez, 2015).

As stated by Mendenhall et al. (2008), cross-cultural relationships are essential for intercultural competencies, and the same can be said for Mr. Ghosn, who believed in cross-cultural adaptation and diversity within the workplace. Moreover, it has also been found that the cognitive orientation of the leadership skills has further helped in making adjustments to the expatriate competencies, thereby, use his personal values, beliefs and traits to bring efficiency within the workforce. As identified by Mendenhall et al. (2008), based on the Pyramid principles, the supporting ideas have been logically ordered and structured, which also favoured the continuous learning of the leader and allowing the employees to learn and educate through participation in training sessions has also contributed to the formation of an intercultural environment where diversity is promoted along with cooperative working (Mendenhall et al., 2008). The leader has also been self-aware, which has assisted him to implement certain philosophies that have been followed by the employees whereas his past experiences favoured him to shape the future of the employees by impacting their behaviours, values and relationships among themselves too (Stevens et al., 2014).

Part Two

For a global business, the management of intercultural competencies is essential for promoting self-awareness and at the same time, encourage individual behaviours and ability to learn more for becoming aware of the behavioural skills, interpersonal skills and leadership competencies currently possessed (Kirkpatrick et al., 2015). Due to this, the leader has also facilitated interpersonal engagement of employees, which contributed to the strong relationships between them along with the formation of healthy work culture to achieve the goals and objectives quite comprehensively.

The CEO of the company made sure to maintain authenticity and role played for valuing the diversity and form an inclusive workforce too where people, also referred to as the expatriates and others can work together as an unit, regardless of the background, culture, race, religion or ethnicity from which, they belonged (Zotzmann, 2015). The intercultural competencies are important considering the fact that the business organisations could function all across the different cultures, thereby, promote practical thinking and acting appropriately for facilitating the process of communication and also allow people from different backgrounds and culture to work in coordination to ensure successful global business management (Leung, Ang & Tan, 2014).

References

Jun, H. (2016). Thinking styles and intercultural competencies. Journal of Intercultural Management, 8(4), 89-116.

https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/joim.2016.8.issue-4/joim-2016-0026/joim-2016-0026.pdf

Kirkpatrick, M. K., Esterhuizen, P., Jesse, E., & Brown, S. T. (2015). Improving self-directed learning/intercultural competencies: breaking the silence. Nurse educator, 40(1), 46-50.

https://journals.lww.com/nurseeducatoronline/Fulltext/2015/01000/Improving_Self_directed_Learning_Intercultural.14.aspx

Leung, K., Ang, S., & Tan, M. L. (2014). Intercultural competence. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav., 1(1), 489-519.

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091229

Mendenhall, M., Stevens, M., Bird, A., Oddou, G., & Osland, J. (2008). Specification of the content domain of the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale. The Kozai monograph series, 1(2), 1-22.

https://intercultural.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/IESTechReport.pdf

Messelink, H. E., Van Maele, J., & Spencer-Oatey, H. (2015). Intercultural competencies: what students in study and placement mobility should be learning. Intercultural Education, 26(1), 62-72.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14675986.2015.993555

Miska, C., Stahl, G. K., & Mendenhall, M. E. (2013). Intercultural competencies as antecedents of responsible global leadership. European Journal of International Management, 7(5), 550-569.

Read Stahl, G. H., & Brannen, M. Y. (2013). Building cross-cultural leadership competence: An interview with Carlos Ghosn. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(3), 494–502.

https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amle.2012.0246

Soria, K. M., & Troisi, J. (2014). Internationalization at home alternatives to study abroad: Implications for students’ development of global, international, and intercultural competencies. Journal of studies in international education, 18(3), 261-280.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1028315313496572

Stebleton, M., Soria, K., & Cherney, B. (2013). The high impact of education abroad: College students' engagement in international experiences and the development of intercultural competencies.

https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/150028

Stevens, M., Bird, A., Mendenhall, M. E., & Oddou, G. (2014). Measuring global leader intercultural competency: Development and validation of the Global Competencies Inventory (GCI). In Advances in global leadership (pp. 115-154). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S1535-120320140000008014

van Oudenhoven, J. P., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2015). In search of a cultural home: From acculturation to frame-switching and intercultural competencies. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 46, 47-54.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176715000450

Zotzmann, K. (2015). The impossibility of defining and measuring intercultural competencies. In Resistance to the Known (pp. 168-191). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137345196_8