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Intercultural Strategic Competences in the business context (English Version)

Start with the Strategic Competences test

Welcome to our Strategic Competences-Test!


On the left hand side, you can find the information on the cultural dimensions (in bold) and intercultural competences, which are referred to in the particular intercultural conflict situation.

Please read the different cases carefully and then choose one of the three possible behavioural strategies.

On the right hand side, you can then click on the corresponding box on the right (labelled with 1, 2 or 3). You will then be presented with a colour. In the legend on the bottom of the page, you can check which colour is referring to which behavioural strategy.

Please choose one of the behavioural strategies for each case first before you read the descriptions of the strategies below.

1. Topic: Emotionality
Intercultural competences: Meta-communication, Change of Perspective

You have been working in a leading position of an international team here in Germany for three months already. One of the international colleagues is always quiet and you have never heard him say his opinion out loud. You would like him to interact more with the team. How do you behave?

  1. I will just tell him that I would like him to participate more. 
  2. I do not think that he is a good fit for the team if he behaves that way. I think he should be sent back home.
  3. Maybe the others take up too much room and he does not get the chance to speak. I will try to talk t to him more often to ask him about his opinion.

2. Topic: Power Distance, Context Orientation
Intercultural Competences: Mediation Skills, Conflict-Solving Skills, Intercultural Communication Skills, Interpretation Skills, Adaptation

You have got a leading position in an international company. One of your employees from a foreign subsidiary company is new to your department. Since you have trained her and introduced her to the department, she has not informed you about her work progress yet. You start asking her repeatedly whether everything is okay with her, but she only responds that everything is alright. On the day on which she is supposed to present her work, you find out that she only finished half of it. When you ask her about it, she admits that she got stuck at one point and did not know how to proceed from there. How do you react as her boss?

  1. Why are so few foreigners just honest? I will give her a warning.
  2. I do not understand why she did not tell me about her problems before. I will show her that I am not a monster and that she can come and talk to me anytime.
  3. Next time, I will ask her to inform me in detail about her current work status continuously until the official deadline date. In this way, I will be able to help her earlier if she has any problems.  

3. Topic: Uncertainty Avoidance, Performance Orientation
Intercultural Competences: Intercultural Communication Skills, Mediation Skills, Ambiguity Tolerance, Adaptation
 

You are going abroad for three days with your team in order to meet four members of the project team of your cooperation partner, who you are planning to implement a project with. As you do not have much time on your hands to finish up the project, you are trying to work effectively by e-mailing the other project members the agenda of your meeting and ask whether there is anything else that they would like to discuss. Unfortunately, you do not get any replies from them before you go on the business trip to meet them.
When you arrive to the host country, your team and you are picked up from the airport. On the first day, all of you get to do a sightseeing tour of the town and have a nice dinner together with the other project team members. You are starting to feel a bit nervous, because nothing of importance about the project is being discussed so far. On the day after, one member of the project team that you are cooperating with is one hour late to your meeting with them. Finally, the meeting can start, but you still feel very nervous about the project plan, because your boss is expecting some good progress and satisfactory results as soon as you return back to Germany. What are you going to do next?
 

  1. I thank them for the nice sightseeing and evening program and then immediately start with the first point of negotiation on the agenda. For the whole day, I continue going through all my points rigorously without letting anyone stop me.
  2. I refrain from discussing the agenda that I brought with me and then openly ask my project cooperation partners on how they would like to go about the negotiations.
  3. I call up my boss in Germany and tell him about my opinion on this company that they are very unprofessional.

4. Topic: Structuring Time
Intercultural Competences:  Intercultural Communication Skills, Ambiguity Tolerance, Change of Perspective, Adaptation
 

You are the project manager of a team. Three months ago, a new colleague arrived from abroad to work in your team. Since then, he has been late to a couple of meetings. Two times, he even cancelled five minutes before the start of the meeting even though his attendance is mandatory. In today’s meeting, he again was 20 minutes late and just mumbled a short “Sorry” when he sat down. You want to talk to him about his behaviour after the meeting. How do you approach him?

  1. I will openly express my displeasure. 
  2. I will not approach him, because it would not change anything anyways. In the future, I will not let him work on any important tasks anymore as he does not seem to be a reliable person.
  3. I approach him and ask for the reason why he is often being late to the meetings. I show him that I want to work on this problem together with him. Then I will discuss with him about our possible next steps.

5. Topic: Rule Orientation, Power Distance
Intercultural Competences:  Interpretation Skills, Change of Perspective, Reframing, Ambiguity Tolerance
 

You work abroad in a consular office. As you work in an important position, local friends often approach you to issue them a visa for someone whose application has already been declined. Obviously, this would mean breaking the rules of the consulate. How do you react?
 

  1. I try to explain to them that this would break the law and that accordingly, I am not able help them.
  2. I know that in some countries you can work around existing rules quite easily. That is why I will try to find out why the visa has been denied and whether there is anything I could do.
  3. Someone who is asking me to do such a thing is not my friend. I will try to avoid those people in the future.

6. Topic: Power Distance
Intercultural Competences:   Ambiguity Tolerance, Adaption, Meta-Communication
 

You work abroad in an international company with a strong hierarchical system. You have been working in your department for four months and you feel quite comfortable in the new work environment already. Unfortunately, you are only granted a low scope for decision-making. All decisions have to be discussed with your boss first and you need her blessing in order to be able to proceed with your work. It happens quite often that you have to wait for your boss’s reply and are then unable to continue working until she gets back to you. What are you going to do about it?
 

  1. I think that the leadership concept in this country is not very efficient and that it is not possible to be successful in this way. If there is nothing I can do to change something about it, I will try to find another job.
  2. I will ask for a personal conversation with my boss and tell her that I think that there is a potential to optimise the work process in order to increase our efficiency.
  3. It looks like this rigid work hierarchy is normal here. I will ask my colleagues on how they handle it.

7. Topic: Context Orientation
Intercultural Competences:   Change of Perspective, Reframing, Adaption, Reconciliation
 

You are working in a joint venture with a foreign company. In the negotiations, both of your parties agree on the terms quite quickly and sign the contract in mutual agreement. However, a couple of months later, the foreign company asks for another meeting to lead new negotiations because the conditions in their company have changed. What do you do?

  1. I understand their situation, but I do not want to give up my benefits. I will try to find a compromise.
  2. I will try to convince them to stick to their word.
  3. Contract is contract and it is not so easy for them to just get out of it. I will call my lawyers and if needed, I will take legal actions against my partner. 

8. Topic: Performance Orientation, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism, Context Orientation
Intercultural Competences: Change of Perspective, Reframing, Adaption
 

You are the manager of an oversea branch of your company. In order to meet the deadline for an important project, your team is working under extreme time pressure. During this time of an immense workload, you hear about one of your team members helping another colleague with the application for his daughter’s scholarship in his work time. How do you react?  

  1. In some countries, good collegial relationships are important in order to work together effectively. I will still speak to him in order to understand the reason for his behaviour.
  2. I will give him a warning.
  3. I think it is great that he is helping his colleague out, but I still ask him to do it in their time off.

Evaluation Strategic Competences

The Strategic Competences test is based upon a holistic concept. This means that your preferred strategy for dealing with intercultural situations is not absolute or unchanging. Instead, depending on the situations, their past experiences, and their emotional state of mind, individuals generally choose one of these three strategies. The preferred strategy does represent your dominant way of looking at the relationship between different cultures and is relatively consistent. But your preferred strategy could change over time and because of new learning and experiences.
If you answered most of the cases with a ethno-relative tendency and your ethno-minimalist and ethno-centric answers are kept to a minimum, you are already good at dealing with intercultural competences in a sensitive way.

Ethno-centric strategy

Ethnocentrism indicates that the norms of one’s own culture are central to an individual’s worldview. The norms and rules of behaviour, which are predominant in one’s own culture, are seen as the standard and used as benchmarks to which all other cultures are judged.
                               
Strengths: Those who prefer this strategy are:
  • Strongly aware of cultural differences and are able to recognise them.
  • Assertive and able to articulate their own point of view.
  • Use their own belief system in order to choose what is right or wrong for them.
           
Challenges: Those who prefer this strategy:
  • Think that their own norms and behavioural patterns are superior to ones of people from other cultural backgrounds, which makes it very difficult to work together effectively and solve arising conflicts.
  • Are perceived as dominant and they are unable to accept different perspectives.
  • Have difficulties with dealing with difficult dynamic situations and adapting to them.
Ethno-minimisation strategy

Minimisation is a hidden form of ethnocentrism. It emphasises the similarities that people of different cultures have with one another. Cultures are considered to be driven by similar universal values. Cultural differences are not recognised.
 
Strengths: Those who prefer this strategy:
  • Have a strong belief in equal rights and respect for people irrespective of skin colour, gender, ethnicity, etc.
  • Take up a humanistic world view.
  • Are ready to find compromises.
 
Challenges: Those who prefer this strategy:
  • Face the danger of neglecting to acknowledge different cultural values and behavioural patterns.
  • Often ignore the effect of cultural norms on someone’s behaviour, which could make them attribute conflicts to the personality of the individual person rather than to his/her intercultural imprint.
  • Find it difficult to change perspectives as the cultural differences between people tend to be minimised.
  • Are unable to deal with conflicts between cultural groups effectively, because the intercultural differences between those groups are ignored.
Ethno-relative strategy

An ethno-relative strategy recognises and values one’s own culture as well as other cultures and acknowledges the differences between them. One’s own cultural norms, expectations, opinions, etc. can be reflected and relativized. Other values, points of view, rules, etc. of other cultures are respected and interpreted according to the respective context.
 
Strengths: Those who prefer this strategy:
  • Are able to take up multiple perspectives.
  • Can evaluate and reinterpret situations flexibly and are able to communicate effectively in a number of different cultures.
  • Appreciate that cultural diversity provides the potential for creativity and high complex solutions, but they are aware that it can also lead to misunderstandings and conflicts.
  • They are able to synergise different approaches and ways of thinking.
 
Challenges: Those who prefer this strategy:
  • Risk putting their own interests and convictions at last.
  • Often find it difficult to identify strongly with any group or culture.
  • Need to learn how to deal with intercultural conflicts effectively by using their own communication skills in order to solve them.


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    Erstellt am17. Dez 2019