Abstract
Spending time abroad is important in order to develop intercultural competences — but it won’t develop them all by itself. They’re not like a suntan that happens just from being in the sun! To be effective and at ease in dealing with other cultures, we need to build on our abilities to listen, respond to signals, make and maintain networks and manage the newness of places and people strange to us. And the key to intercultural competence is our cross-cultural friendships.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The need to define more clearly criteria for intercultural effectiveness is argued for by David C. Thomas and Stacey R. Fitzsimmons (2008) ‘Cross-Cultural Skills and Abilities’, in Peter B. Smith and Mark F Peterson (eds) The Handbook of Cross-Cultural Management Research (London: SAGE) pp. 201–15.
Brookfield Global Relocation Services (2012) Global Relocation Trends: 2012 Survey Report.
That 400-year-old class distinctions still have their effect on today’s managerial relationships in France has been convincingly argued by Philippe d’Iribarne (1989) La Logique de L’Honneur: Gestion des Entreprises et Traditions Nationales (Paris, France: Édition du Seuil).
For empirical studies testing the long-term effects of different cultural traditions in the US, see Richard E. Nisbett and Doy Cohen (1996) Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South (Colorado: Westview Press).
Hilary Harris and Chris Brewster (1999) ‘The Coffee-Machine System: How International Selection Really Works’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Volume 10(3), pp. 488–500. The example of the conversation about Simon is based on the description Harris and Brewster provide on p. 497.
US Census Bureau (May 2012) The Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 2010 (http://www.census.gov).
CEDEFOP The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Report No. 30 (2013) Quantifying Skill Needs in Europe: Occupational Skills Profiles: Methodology and Application (http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/Files/5530_en.pdf).
Joachim Wagner (2012) ‘Neue Fakten über Exporteure und Importeure. Eine Auswertung von Transaktionsdaten für 2009. Wirtschaftsdienst’, Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, Volume 92(7), pp. 496–98.
Jean-Christophe Dumont and Georges Lemaître (2008) ‘Counting Foreign-Born and Expatriates in OECD Countries: A New Perspective’, in James Raymer and Frans Willekens (eds) International Migration in Europe: Data, Models and Estimates (Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons) pp. 11–40. Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (http://www.cbs.nl).
European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice (2012) Developing Key Competences at School in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities for Policy. Eurydice Report (Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union) p. 1.
The Language Technology Centre Ltd (2009) The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation: The Size of the Language Industry in the EU.
For statistics on the growth of internet and social media usage over this period: International Telecommunication Union (2011) The World in 2011. ICT Facts and Figures (Geneva, Switzerland) (http://www.itu.int/ict, retrieved 16 July 2013).
Edward T Hall’s contribution to the field is captured by E. M. Rogers, W. B. Hart and Y. Miike (2002) ‘Edward T Hall and the History of Intercultural Communication: The United States and Japan’, Keio Communication Review, Volume 24(3), pp. 3–26.
How intercultural training developed in the Peace Corps in the 1960s is described by Laurette Bennhold-Samaan (2004) ‘The Evolution of Cross-Cultural Training in the Peace Corps’, in Dan Landis, Janet M. Bennett and Milton J. Bennett (eds) Handbook of Intercultural Training, 3rd edition (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE) pp. 363–95. In the same book, see the chapter by Margaret D. Pusch, ‘Intercultural Training in Historical Perspective’, pp. 13–36.
We used the indices developed by Alberto Alesina, Arnaud Devleeschauwer, William Easterly, Sergio Kurlat and Romain Wacziarg (2003) ‘Fractionalization’, Journal of Economic Growth, Volume 8(2), pp. 155–94.
The first studies on the ‘mere exposure effect’ were published by Robert B. Zajonc (1968) ‘Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 9(2, Part 2), pp. 1–27.
A meta-analysis of findings was published by Robert F. Bornstein and Paul R. d’Agostino (1992) ‘Stimulus Recognition and the Mere Exposure Effect’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 63(4), pp. 545–52.
Gordon W Allport (1954) The Nature of Prejudice (Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley).
Thomas F. Pettigrew and Linda R. Tropp (2011) When Groups Meet: The Dynamics of Intergroup Contact (New York, NY: Psychology Press).
Marian S. van Bakel (2012) In Touch with the Dutch. A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of a Local Host on the Success of the Expatriate Assignment (Centre for PhD Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands).
Purnima Bhaskar-Shrinivas, David A. Harrison, Margaret A. Shaffer and Dora M. Luk (2005) ‘Input-Based and Time-Based Models of International Adjustment: Meta-Analytic Evidence and Theoretical Extensions’, The Academy of Management Journal, Volume 48(2), pp. 257–81.
In particular, the authors aimed to test, and found support for, an influential model of expatriate adjustment, proposed by Mark E. Mendenhall and Gary Oddou (1985) ‘The Dimensions of Expatriate Acculturation: A Review’, The Academy of Management Review, Volume 10(1), pp. 39–47
Stewart J. Black, Mark E. Mendenhall and Gary Oddou (1991) ‘Toward a Comprehensive Model of International Adjustment: An Integration of Multiple Theoretical Perspectives’, The Academy of Management Review, Volume 16(2), pp. 291–317.
Stefan Mol, Marise Ph. Born, Madde E. Willemsen and Henk van der Molen (2005) ‘Predicting Expatriate Job Performance for Selection Purposes: A Quantitative Review’, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Volume 36(5), pp. 590–620.
Copyright information
© 2014 Ursula Brinkmann and Oscar van Weerdenburg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brinkmann, U., van Weerdenburg, O. (2014). Intercultural Competences Develop by Themselves: True or False?. In: Intercultural Readiness. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137346988_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137346988_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-46719-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-34698-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)