Multicultural Identity and Multicultural Competence

Lesson 9.

“The ‘intercultural person’ projects the fundamental outlook of a person who has achieved a high level of identity transformation through a prolonged process of stress, adaptation, and growth experiences through intercultural encounters.”

W. Gudykunst and Y.Y. Kim

“Communication with the culturally different is frequently associated with adverse emotional responses leading to feelings of awkwardness and anxiety” [Spencer-Rodgers & McGovern, 2002, p. 610]. Consequently, individuals must be prepared to meet the challenges of language differences, unfamiliar and perhaps strange customs and behaviours, and cultural variability in both verbal and nonverbal communication styles, to achieve success. Some special skills should be developed to become a competent intercultural communicator with a multicultural personality. The level of competence one develops is a matter of personal preference and can range from native-like communication skills, to acceptance in the host culture, to just surviving.

Communication competence refers to a social judgment that people make about others. The judgment depends on the context, the relationship between the interactants, the goals or objectives that the interactants want to achieve, and the specific verbal and nonverbal messages that are used to accomplish those goals [Lustig & Koester, 2010, p. 66].

Intercultural competence can be referred the degree to which an individual is able to exchange information effectively and appropriately with individuals who are culturally dissimilar.

B. Spitzberg says that intercultural communication competence is simply “behaviour that is appropriate and effective in a given context” [Spitzberg, 2009, p. 381]. Y. Y. Kim offers a more detailed definition when she notes that intercultural communication competence is “the overall internal capability of an individual to manage key challenging features of intercultural communication: namely, cultural differences and unfamiliarity, inter-group posture, and the accompanying experience of stress” [Kim, 1991, p. 259].

A competent intercultural communicator is one who has the ability to interact effectively and appropriately with members of another linguistic-cultural background on their terms (Pittinsky, 2007).

Most of the research in the area of intercultural communication competence reveals five components of competence that influence one’s ability to interact effectively and appropriately in another culture. These are: 1) motivation to communicate, 2) an appropriate fund of cultural knowledge, 3) appropriate communication skills, 4) sensitivity or attitude, and 5) character or behaviour (Lustig & Koester, 2010; Pittinsky et al., 2007; Ponterotto et al., 2006; Samovar et al, 2010; Spitzberg, 2009; Ting-Toomey, 1999).

Motivation is an individual component of intercultural communication competence, the desire to make a commitment in relationships, to learn about the self and others, and to remain flexible. T. Pittinsky, S. Rosenthal, and R. Montoya say that motivation as it relates to intercultural communication competence means that an individual possesses a personal desire to improve his or her communication abilities (Pittinsky et al., 2007).

The knowledge component of intercultural communication competence means that individuals are self-aware and understand the rules, norms, and expectations associated with the culture of the people with whom you are interacting.

The knowledge component comprises various cognitive aspects of communication competence; it involves what we know about ourselves and others and about various aspects of communication.

J. Martin and T. Nakayama define several types of knowledge. Self-knowledge is the quality of knowing how one is perceived as a communicator, as well as one’s strengths and weaknesses. Other-knowledge is knowledge about how people from other cultures think and behave that will also help you be a more effective communicator. Linguistic knowledge is knowledge of other languages besides one’s native language or of the difficulty of learning a second or third language [Martin & Nakayama, 2010, p. 468-469].

Skills that are considered most important in intercultural communication are the following: be able to listen, observe, analyse, and interpret and apply these specific behaviours in a manner that enables a person to achieve definite goals [Pittinsky et al., 2007]. These skills need to be adapted to the rules of interaction that are appropriate to the host culture. However, it is necessary to keep in mind that communication skills which are successful with one group might be inappropriate with other cultures.

Communication competence requires that the participants to an interaction be sensitive to one another and to the cultures represented in an interaction [Samovar et al., 2010, p. 386].

Sensitivity, according to T. Pittinsky, S. Rosenthal and R. Montoya (2007), means being flexible, patient, empathic, curious about other cultures, open to diversity, and comfortable with others; it also involves a tolerance for ambiguity. The truly sensitive communicator must move beyond merely being tolerant of other people and other cultures and develop feelings of allophila, which is a liking for others and the behaviour that inspires liking.

Some researches speak about special attitudes (it is very close to the notion of sensitivity). Attitudes are individual’s dispositions or mental sets. As a component of intercultural communication competence, attitudes include tolerance for ambiguity, empathy, and nonjudgmentalism. Tolerance for ambiguity is the ease with which an individual copes with situations in which a great deal is unknown. Tolerance for ambiguity is one of the most difficult things to attain As mentioned previously, people have a natural preference for predictability and uncertainty can be disquieting. Empathy is the capacity to “walk in another person’s shoes,” to imagine oneself in another role, within the context of one’s cultural identity. Empathic skills are culture bound. We cannot really view the world through another person’s eyes without knowing something about his or her experiences and life.

The idea behind including character is simple: if we are not perceived by our communication partner as a person of good character, your chances for success will be diminished. Trustworthiness is the most praised quality. Traits often associated with the trustworthy person are: honesty, respect, fairness, ability to make good choices, as well as honor, altruism, sincerity, and goodwill.

Our character usually determines our behaviour, another component of intercultural competence. What are the most competent behaviours? Are there any universal behaviours that work well in all cultural contexts? Communication scholar Brent D. Ruben devised a list of universal behaviours that actually includes some attitudes. These behaviours are: a display of respect, interaction management, ambiguity tolerance, empathy, relational rather than task behaviour, and interaction posture (Ruben, 1976, 1977). Some general behaviours seem applicable to many cultural groups and contexts. However, these skills become problematic when we try to apply them in specific ways. For example, being respectful works well in all intercultural interactions, and many scholars identify this particular skill as important (Martin & Hammer, 1989). However, how one expresses respect behaviourally may vary from culture to culture and from context to context. It is not enough to know how competent behaviours vary from culture to culture, one needs to be able to put that knowledge into practice by demonstrating those behaviours appropriately.

Communication scholar Milton Bennett (1998) suggests a “Platinum Rule” of communication: “Do unto others as they themselves would have done unto them” instead of the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have done unto you” [Bennet, 1998, p. 213]. This rule highlights that it is not an easy task to become a multicultural person. To hold on a Platinum Rule during the communication process requires from its participants a serious movement beyond a culture-bound sympathy or empathy for others and demands a high degree of personal identity transformation.

A very interesting and detailed description of the multicultural personality (that supports the previous information) has been offered by Joseph G. Ponterotto, Shawn O. Utsey, and Paul B. Pedersen, who noted that the multicultural personality is characterised by a cluster of affective, attitudinal, and behavioural components [Ponterotto et al., 2006, p. 326]. These components include emotional stability and wide-reaching empathic ability; secure racial, ethnic, and other identities; and a spiritual essence and sense of connectedness to all persons. Additional components of the multicultural personality include a self-reflective stance, cognitive flexibility, sense of humor, and commitment to social activism in fighting racism and other forms of oppression.

The table below summarises the theoretical model of the multicultural personality components. The first column lists the model of focus, while the second column extracts key characteristics of the model as they relate to the multicultural personality. (We miss the third column that highlights instruments that have been developed to operationalise and test the constructs).

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1125