conflict management skills as an essential part of intercultural competence

Culture through crisis

Backdrop Centre for Intercultural Management and

International Communication, Lessius University College Years of training- and consulting practice within

different working areas (education, student-exchange programmes, international business, civil society and international cooperation)

Bachelor after bachelor in Intercultural Management and International Communication

Research project ‘Measuring Intercultural Competence: building a coherent frame of reference’ (2009-2011)

Goals Contribute to the general research on

intercultural competence Definition of concept intercultural competence Further development of diagnostic tools for

this concept Actively explore and define practical insights

and approaches

The broader picture: ICC Intercultural competence is viewed and constructed as an

integrated concept, consisting of nine components :1. Cultural self-knowledge: knowing your own frame of reference and

roots2. Cultural flexibility: willingness to adapt and explore alternatives3. Cultural resilience : able to overcome stress and negative feelings

caused by difficult intercultural encounter4. Cultural receptiveness: openness to listen to other views and capacity

to correctly position own views and ideas5. Cultural knowledge: interest in exploring factual knowledge on

cultural differences and capacity to use this knowledge in an appropriate manner

6. Cultural relational competence: willingness to invest time and energy in the building of trust and willingness to connect

7. Cultural communicative competence: ability to explore the particularities of own communication style and approaches, to remediate if necessary and to explore the communication style and approach of counterparts

8. Cultural conflict management: consciousness of potential positive forces of intercultural conflict and knowledge of own conflict management-style

9. Multi perspectiveness: able to view a single issue from different perspectives and appreciating this various perspectives

An inspiring thought (Erwin Jans)

CLASH Or ... CRASH

Cultural conflict as a chance for growth, creativity, strength and improvement Margalit Cohen-Emerique: the analysis of

‘critical incidents: decentration (shifting of perspective) the exploration of sensitive zones, personal or

societal taboos (self-knowledge).

Igor Klyukanov: “the real goal of intercultural dialogue is not to prevent conflict, but to manage it so as to benefit fully of the transformative potential conflict offers.”

Ground rules To ‘benefit’ from intercultural conflict, two

elements are essential: having a clear idea of what the added value of

diversity is having a clear idea of where your boundaries lie

and what type of transgression is or is not acceptable (Hoffman)

Culture through crisis: mindshift Become involved in a deeper kind of learning,

a learning that offers not only a solution to a question at hand, but also allows us to develop new problem-solving strategies. (double loop learning, Argyris/Shön)

Accept the creative and operational forces of

(inter)cultural conflict -> redefining conflict as part of a change-process, a constructive crisis => reclaiming agency and ‘control’.

Competence in cultural conflict management People on the level of advanced intercultural

competence, view open dialogue on the topic of boundaries as an essential part of the intercultural encounter. They can define and name transgression – both on a cognitive and an emotional level -, but they are also open to negotiation. Acceptance and appreciation of difference is the final aim.

People on the level of advanced intercultural competence have a good understanding of their own conflict management style. They are also empathic to the conflict management style of their counterpart. They do not fear conflict, to the extent that they actually actively seek out feedback of others.

Preffered style?

Case: teamleaders CARE Systematic ‘underscore’ on conflict

management Linked to underscore in flexibility (resilience) Important lever in trainingdesign:

Focus on case-analysis Focus on dealing with culture-shock Focus on definition of added ‘value’ Exploring company communication culture in

broader sense (stepstones)

Conclusion Dealing with intercultural conflict can train us

in many important skills. If we are able to transcend the idea of clash,

of wanting one system to beat the other or prove the other one wrong, we can actively combine the differences experienced and the frictions experienced in the crash become energy.

Thus, through intercultural conflict, we are able to create a synergy that in fact constitutes new culture for new, more diverse times.