Intercultural Competence : Understanding The Values Of People, Cultures, And Lifestyles

In this era, diversity and cultural competence are extremely important to understand, regarding the foundations of human development in the social environment. Diversity can alter or affect an individual’s behavior in many ways. Diversity is considered when an individual is different, or composed of differing elements. Therefore, diversity can include different nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, class, disability, gender identity, immigration status, political ideology, and religion. At any time, an individual is determined as belonging to another group, different from the majority, the individual is considered to be subject to the effects of diversity. Many children coming from different countries have a problem with language. Not being able to speak the language of the community can cause huge barriers for the children to overcome. Many parents believe that the key to a successful life and fulfillment is to get an education. These parents encourage their kids, that with an education nothing can defeat you. It is also very important for the social worker, or human service provider to be comfortable with diversity, and is culturally competent. Cross-cultured means the individual appreciates and compares the differences and the similarities of different cultures as well as their own.

Caleb Rosado, has developed a list of seven adoptable behaviors which can help all groups of people to become more culturally diverse, it is as follows: “Recognition of the abundant diversity of cultures; Respect for the differences; Acknowledging the validity of different cultural expressions and contributions; Valuing what other cultures offer; Encouraging the contribution of diverse groups; Empowering people to strengthen themselves and others to achieve their maximum potential by being critical of their own biases; and Celebrating rather than just tolerating the differences in order to bring about unity through diversity.” In addition, it’s worth noting that in discovering and appreciating our differences, we are likely to find common elements to be enjoyed and even celebrated.

In our today’s society, we are faced with multiple cultures that affect our ways of thinking, acting, and leaving. Cultural competency reflects one’s culture. Culture reflects the way the children are raised, their way of communicating, what is acceptable or not acceptable, the way they overcome challenges, their clothes, and how we go about medical treatment and so on. I know because I come from a very strong cultural background where it is considered bad to look at older people straight in the eyes while talking to them. Culture can be defined as “the learned and shared beliefs, values and life ways of a designated or particular group that are generally transmitted intergenerational and influence one’s thinking and action modes” (Leininger, 2002).

In our world of expanding technology and shrinking geography, people of different cultures have increasing frequency of contact and need for effective communication on a daily basis. Whether through travel, immigration, or international business, having the ability to communicate across many different cultures is an advantage in and of itself. Speaking a different language is an obvious obstacle to intercultural communication, but a greater and more difficult hurdle is to “speak” a different culture. To understand and comprehend and even apply these tiniest

Some of the author’s major points are the lack of understanding of what cultural competence really means which is bringing confusion about ways it can be utilized in the social work field. The confusion of the utilization of cultural competence is leading to the lack of consensus concerning the effective training that providers should obtain and the population being served with the cultural competence skills lack clear description. According to the author, the most popular cultural competence intervention in the healthcare system is the cultural competency training which is for health care providers and the two approaches that have been utilized in creating the intervention are; the programs aimed at improving knowledge which is group specific,

focuses on intercultural competence, specifically cultural, religious, and world views (CRW), at each step in the ethical decision-making process (Luke, Goodrich, & Gilbride, 2013). For example, a counselor using this model, with the same dilemma of breaching student confidentiality, would recognize that within an ethical dilemma CRW elements exist, would identify CRW factors, such as a student’s cultural view, identify school policies and procedures, such as reporting of student drug use, consult with cultural experts to make sure CRW factors identified are accurate, list courses of action, analyze the course of actions with identified CRW factors, and finally select, record, and evaluate the course of action that meets the students cultural, religious, and world-views (Luke, Goodrich, & Gilbride, 2013). The IMED provides careful consideration of differing cultural, religious, and world-views of the students, counselor, and other systems (Luke, Goodrich, & Gilbride, 2013). Although both models are effective in providing methods to resolve ethical and legal issues when working with students, the IMED model would be better suited for a school counselor to use because of the diversity of the students within a school and the IMED step that specifies identifying relevant policies within a school system (Luke, Goodrich, & Gilbride, 2013), thereby providing the counselor to not only consider ethical and legal concerns but the unique policies of a school as well .

Understand cultural competence and why is it important especially for that have a diverse workforce.

Today, we live in a culturally diverse society due to globalization. As our world grows, expands and become increasingly more interconnected, the need for effective interpersonal communication among differing cultures has become apparent. When people from different cultures interact with one another there is intercultural communication because different cultures create different interpretation and expectations about what is seen as competent behaviors that will enable the construction of shared meanings.

After completing the “cultural competence checklist: personal reflection designed by T.D. Goode” for the first time, I was not surprised by my results. The results were a reflection of my personal understanding how culture impacts holistic care and my continuous need to improve my care. I have strived to become non-judgmental. I work to not let my personal beliefs and values influence my nursing care on decisions. When I practice this philosophy it provides better patient outcomes and promotes an improved understanding of cultural differences. This also enhances a safe and caring environment. “It is important for health care providers to recognize that care must be individualized and considerate of the cultural. Racial, and ethnic identity of the patients and their families” (Broome, 2006, p. 486) .There is much diversity in the beliefs and practices of the Indian culture and we should grant these individuals complete freedom to practice their personal cultural variations and the religion they choose.

Being able to understand how people from different cultures and religions communicate, interact, and perceive the environment around them allows for the formation of important guidelines and practices which help combat and avoid anxiety and uncertainty in government, business, and personal intercultural relationships for the purpose of efficient negotiations and merges different cultures into more tolerant cohesive existence.

If one achieve cultural competency, the cultural bias will minimize itself. However, one can follow some steps to get the desired results. The foremost of which is building awareness about the beliefs, attitudes, and thought patterns of people of other cultures.

Orientation to Knowledge- The terms people use to explain themselves and the world around them

More people are exposed to different global cultures through vacation travel, transnational jobs, international conflicts or migration. In these circumstances business that was previously domestic, now has a global precedent. Therefore, countries, in order to work to their advantage, must engage diversity. Multicultural societies are ahead in years beyond monolithic societies. As a matter of fact, intercultural countries have to spend less time and resources, in order to prepare its human resources, than monolithic nations. For these reasons, intercultural societies are dynamic and flexible before unexpected changes of the international arena achieving a better performance in the long

The world has become hugely interconnected over the last couple of year. With globalization being the preferred mode of operation for many businesses, the world has become borderless. Developments made in the field of information communication technology have also played a key role in helping bridge the gap that exists between people from different regions of the world. Thus, the world has become more interconnected with a lot of intercultural sharing. These developments have made it easier for businesses to penetrate and dominate foreign markets. In their videos on Ted talk, both Peter Alfandary and James Sun argue that there is a need for people to try to learn about other cultures as this enhances relation and understanding among people. The paper presents an analysis of existing research and current trends that reiterate or disapprove the views held by these narrators. It seeks to show that though globalization has taken root in today’s world, there is a need to take an interest in learning other cultures as this will ensure a better understand especially when doing business.

'Cross Cultural Competence ' is and should be the aim of all those dealing with multicultural clients, customers or colleagues. 'Competence ' is the final stage of cross cultural understanding and signifies the actor 's ability to work effectively across cultures. Cross cultural competency is beyond knowledge, awareness and sensitivity in that it is the digestion, integration and transformation of all the skills and information acquired through them, applied to create cultural synergy within the workplace.