Assignment: Capella Cross-Cultural Leadership Capabilities Six domains IES Analysis

Overview: Working with People Different from You
Culture is the entire set of values, attitudes, beliefs, prejudices, and social rules that govern the
behavior of a group of people. Because these can vary so widely from culture to culture, it is
often challenging to understand and work with people from other cultures. The same challenge
exists among diverse demographic groups: different generations, ethnic groups, socio-economic
classes, religious affiliations, genders, political parties, and so forth. Although this assessment is
called the “Intercultural Effectiveness Scale,” the dimensions it assesses are applicable to any
difference related to beliefs, values, assumptions, and behaviors that are not shared between
two people or two groups of people.
In fact, no two people are alike, but often it seems easier to get along and therefore work more
effectively with people whom we perceive as similar to us in some obvious (skin color, facial
features) or important way (similar interests, values, experiences, etc.). That’s only
natural—what we share in common gives us a foundation for building a relationship. In today’s
world, however, most of us work with people who differ from us in a variety of ways. Although it
is sometimes challenging to work with them, it helps if we first begin with a clear understanding
of ourselves. If we understand how our tendencies might help or hinder our ability to work well
with those who are different from us, we have a starting point that helps us know how we might
improve.
The Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) focuses on six key areas that influence whether we are
likely to get along with people whose cultural or demographic background differs from ours.
Those six dimensions relate to three major competency areas:
● How we learn about other people and the accuracy of that learning: Continuous Learning
● How we develop and manage relationships with people who are different from us: Interpersonal
Engagement
● How we manage the challenges and stress involved in interacting with people representing
cultural and demographic differences: Hardiness
Each of these major competency areas is comprised of two dimensions that you have been
assessed on, and they are labeled in the grid on the next page.
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I. Your Intercultural Effectiveness Scores
Low Moderate High
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Continuous Learning
Self-Awareness
Exploration
Interpersonal Engagement
World Orientation
Relationship Development
Hardiness
Positive Regard
Emotional Resilience
Overall Intercultural Effectiveness Scale
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Interpreting Your IES Results
Your results on each competency area and its related dimensions place you into one of three
categories: low, moderate, or high. These categories indicate your relative position within a
large sample comprised of a cross-section of tens of thousands of people who have already
completed the IES.
The following pages will help you understand your placement on each of the IES competency
areas and their dimensions relative to all the other people who have taken the instrument.
Keep in mind that your results reflect your perceptions of yourself at the time you answered the
IES questions for each dimension. The survey items are tested for their reliability and stability,
so small differences in your mood or circumstances will not really affect your results. However,
large swings in mood or lack of careful attention when answering the survey questions could
result in misrepresentations in your profile.
Who Is the Comparison Group?
The norm group you are being compared to includes undergraduate and graduate students as
well as working adults across a broad range of occupations, ages, and nationalities. Specifically,
8% of the norm group is under age 20, 64% is between 20 and 29, and 28% is age 30 and above;
57% are male and 43% female. In addition, the norm group is drawn from 69 different
nationalities. When grouped by world regions, North America provided 56% of the norm group,
Asian countries provided 26%, and Europe provided 11%, with the remaining 7% coming from
countries across Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. For more detailed information about
the normative comparison group or about IES validation research, contact the Kozai Group
directly at info@kozaigroup.com.
The Elements of Intercultural Effectiveness
1. Continuous Learning (CL)
Do you continually seek to understand and learn about the activities, behavior, and events that
occur around you? People who consistently strive to learn new things are more successful working
across cultures or demographic differences than those who are comfortable only with what they
already know. Continuous Learning is an important factor of intercultural effectiveness, and it is
made up of two dimensions, Self-Awareness and Exploration.
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Self-Awareness (SA)
This dimension measures to what degree you are continuously learning about yourself. It assesses
how aware you are of your personal strengths, weaknesses, interpersonal style, and behavioral
tendencies and how they impact others. It also measures how much you reflect on this
knowledge in order to pursue personal development and healthy relationships with various kinds
of people.
Higher scorers constantly evaluate their personal growth and reflect on what they can learn from
their experiences. Lower scorers tend to be less interested in self-discovery and find it difficult
to discern how they affect other people; they tend not to be self-motivated to understand this
process or to really discover what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Exploration (EX)
Being open to ideas, values, norms, situations, and behaviors that are different from your own is
another important element of Continuous Learning. The Exploration dimension assesses your
fundamental desire to learn new things and strategically seek out new experiences that can
cause learning or a change in your perspective and behavior. It also includes the ability to learn
from mistakes.
Higher scorers in Exploration are extremely inquisitive, curious, and open to new ideas and
experiences; they are active learners, often initiating their own learning. Lower scorers tend to
have a strong preference for maintaining current habits, traditions, and ways of thinking; they
usually are not that curious about the world around them and learn mostly because the situation
they find themselves in requires them to do so to meet someone’s expectations.
2. Interpersonal Engagement (IE)
Are you passionately interested in other cultures or in people who are different from you? Do you
believe it is important to develop relationships with these people? The development of positive
interpersonal relations is essential for effective performance in an intercultural or diverse
environment. Two dimensions make up the factor of Interpersonal Engagement: World
Orientation and Relationship Development.
World Orientation (WO)
This dimension measures the degree to which you are interested in other cultures and the people
who live in them. This proactive learning can take place from books, the Internet, movies,
foreign media outlets, courses in school, television documentaries, newspapers, and so on.
Having a strong World Orientation provides a foundation from which you can learn to interact
more effectively with people who do not share your beliefs, customs, values and attitudes.
Higher scorers in World Orientation consistently expose themselves to information about other
cultures, and this expands their ability to find common ground with different
kinds of people. Lower scorers tend to be content with familiar things and people, and exert
little effort to learn about other cultures; as a result, this decreases their opportunities to
engage others, understand important differences, and find common ground.
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Relationship Development (RD)
Initiating and maintaining relationships with people from other cultures is crucial to intercultural
and diversity effectiveness. The dimension of Relationship Development includes your inclination
to seek out people from different cultures or demographic groups, as well as your desire and
ability to maintain personal relationships with them. This dimension also measures whether
engaging others is an energy-producing or energy-depleting activity for you, and also gauges your
willingness to learn a foreign language to enable better communication.
Higher scorers in Relationship Development are very interested in initiating new relationships and
then maintaining those friendships; they find this process stimulating and would be willing to
learn and use a foreign language in order to develop relationships with people from other
cultures or demographic groups. Lower scorers tend to put little effort into developing new
friendships and prefer to focus on maintaining existing relationships; they perceive developing
new relationships as requiring too much effort and risk exposing oneself to potentially awkward
situations.
3. Hardiness (H)
Do you have the ability to effectively manage your thoughts and emotions in intercultural and
diverse situations? Can you be open-minded and nonjudgmental about ideas and behaviors that
are new to you? Can you learn from failures and setbacks and then put them in the past? These
are crucial elements of the Hardiness factor. Being able to manage your emotions with resilience
has a direct influence on both your learning and your ability to develop healthy relationships.
Hardiness consists of two dimensions, Positive Regard and Emotional Resilience.
Positive Regard (PR)
This dimension measures the degree to which you naturally assume people are trustworthy,
hardworking and generally good. This is important because it guards against unnecessary
negative stereotyping of those who differ from you culturally or demographically. It also helps
you to avoid getting upset, stressed, frustrated, or angry when you encounter situations, people,
behaviors, and ideas that are different from what you expect.
Higher scorers in Positive Regard seldom resort to negative stereotypes about people; they
assume the best about others and are more accepting of different behaviors, and in turn, people,
including those from other cultures or demographic groups, are more likely to respond positively
toward them. Lower scorers have a tendency to hold negative assumptions and stereotypes about
people and are less likely to give them the benefit of the doubt; as a result, this limits their
attraction to individuals from other cultures and groups and their ability to relate to them.
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Emotional Resilience (ER)
This dimension measures your level of emotional strength and your ability to cope with
challenging emotional experiences. It also assesses your capacity to recover quickly from
psychologically and emotionally stressful situations and setbacks. How you manage these kinds of
experiences influences your tendency to remain open, develop relationships, and interact
effectively with others.
Higher scorers in Emotional Resilience cope well with challenging emotional situations and, as a
result, their recovery from psychologically or emotionally difficult experiences usually takes
little time; this means they have more energy to continue learning about the foreign culture or
diverse groups and develop and maintain effective relationships with them. Lower scorers tend
to find it difficult to handle psychologically and emotionally challenging experiences well, and
their recovery from such experiences tends to be energy depleting and time consuming; as a
result, this tends to limit their ability to remain open to others, lessens their interest in learning
about and from those who share different beliefs and values, and reduces their motivation to
develop relationships with them.
How the Dimensions Work Together
When operating in a cross-cultural or diverse environment, our success depends on the
combination of competencies we utilize.
The competency that most fundamentally affects our ability to adapt and perform well is
our general motivation to learn (Exploration).
Confronting new environments where norms, communication styles, and people are
different also requires a keen interest in foreign things (World Orientation).
The accuracy and completeness of what we learn depends on our openness to understand
what we experience (Positive Regard).
Knowledge gives us a sense of confidence, which is important to be fully engaged in a new
environment. Other people become an additional source of information and give us a feeling
of connectedness and enjoyment. Our learning and emotional experience, therefore, is
incomplete without developing and maintaining healthy relationships (Relationship
Development).
The quality of those relationships is dependent on the extent to which we communicate and
interact appropriately with others. To do so, we must have an excellent understanding of
our own values, norms, and tendencies (Self-Awareness).
Confidence in our understanding of the environment and high-quality relationships give us a
greater sense of belonging, which leads to a positive attitude. This, combined with a natural
ability to manage stress (Emotional Resilience), enables us to perform at high levels.
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Entering Your Scores on the Profile Graph
1. Refer back to your profile on page 4 and note the number (ranging from 1–7) at the top of each column
for your scores on Continuous Learning, Interpersonal Engagement, and Hardiness.
2. On the diagram below, place a dot at that point along each of the scales. For example, if your score in
Continuous Learning was in the column labeled “4”, make a dot next to the 4 on the Continuous
Learning scale
3. Connect the three dots to form a triangle—your IES profile. The following pages provide interpretations
of the various possible IES profiles.
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Your IES Profile
Find the triangle on the following pages that best matches your IES profile from the previous
page. Note that these profiles are based on extreme ranges—the highest and lowest results
possible on the three factors of Continuous Learning, Interpersonal Engagement, and Hardiness
(most people will fall somewhere between the extremes).
Globalist (High CL / High IE / High H)
Globalists Enjoy Learning about foreign places and people,
easily initiate relationships with those who are different from
them, and find such experiences rewarding
People with this profile are quite attentive to their social
environment and very interested in learning—about themselves
and others. Globalists tend to ask a lot of questions, observe,
and read to satisfy their curiosity. They are likely to be very
interested in and more positive about people and things that are
new and different. Globalists believe developing relationships
with people from other cultures is exciting and a means to more knowledge and understanding.
They naturally engage people and places different from them. Although this can be stressful,
Globalists are psychologically strong and able to withstand the hardships and interpersonal
differences that often arise. They get excited about how this process helps them understand
themselves and their own culture better. Globalists use this self-knowledge to help them build
and manage their relationships more effectively.
Detective (High CL / Low IE / High H)
Detectives Are Interested In Learning about people more than
they care about actually engaging people and developing quality
relationships with them. They are also quite resilient in the face of
challenges.
Individuals with this profile enjoy learning. They pay attention to
others reactions to what they say and do, and reflect on their lives
and experiences to gain self-knowledge. They tend to ask a lot of
questions, observe, and read to satisfy their curiosity. However,
their interest is often more intellectual than it is personal. When
Detectives engage people from other cultures, it is equally likely driven by an interest in or need
to complete a task as it is to develop a relationship. Still, although they may lack a natural
interest in other peoples and cultures, they maintain a positive attitude toward them. As a result,
although Detectives often do not initiate new relationships, others may find them enjoyable to
be around. In addition, their positive communications with people from other cultures and their
natural resilience to stress enables Detectives to function quite effectively given the limited
number of relationships they are likely to develop.
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Networker (Low CL / High IE / High H)
Networkers Focus On Developing Links with people more than on
understanding why they are different from them. They are also
quite resilient.
People with this profile tend to be satisfied with their current level
of knowledge and with their own personal development. Reading,
observing, and traveling to places to learn new things are of less
interest to Networkers than developing new relationships.
Maintaining the status quo comes more naturally to them than
initiating new discoveries. Networkers interest in social interactions tends to be more for the
enjoyment of the relationship than for learning things about diverse people (such as their culture,
their personal histories, etc.), although that may happen as a by-product of their interactions
with them. They may easily connect with people who are different from them; however, because
Networkers tend not to explore differences, or the reasons for those differences, their
relationships will likely remain more superficial. Their acceptance of others—regardless of
apparent differences—puts others at ease and helps the development of networks and friendships.
Networkers are also resilient to challenges they confront in new situations, though they tend to
avoid challenges that require learning and adapting to new environments.
Explorer (High CL / High IE / Low H)
Explorers Enjoy Developing Friendships with and learning about
people who differ from them, but it is also emotionally challenging
for them to do so.
This profile describes people who are quite attentive to their social
environment and quite interested in learning more about themselves
and others. Developing relationships with those who are different is
exciting to Explorers because it leads to more knowledge and
self-understanding. However, while this self-knowledge and interest
in other cultures serves as a foundation to build and manage their
interpersonal relationships more effectively, it can be undermined by the Explorers tendency to
assume more negative things about people whom they see as different. This tendency can
discourage others from wanting to develop deep, lasting, cooperative relationships with
Explorers. Further, Explorers are driven to search the world around them and find it
intellectually exciting, but are usually less able to withstand the accompanying emotional and
psychological challenges that confrontations with differences bring. They may need “timeouts”
to retreat and rejuvenate before continuing their explorations.
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Intellectual (High CL / Low IE / Low H)
Intellectuals Are Interested In Analyzing Others Behavior
more than they are in forming relationships. They generally
avoid challenges because of the stress it creates.
This profile describes people who naturally seek learning
opportunities. Intellectuals enjoy acquiring new information and
do so by reading, asking questions, and observing. They also
enjoy reflecting on their lives and experiences in order to gain
self-knowledge. However, Intellectuals are usually more
interested in people and places familiar to them than in those
that are different. They tend to have negative assumptions
about people and this colors their interactions, often discouraging others from cooperating with
them. In fact, interaction with others is typically more for learning new information than for the
relationship itself, and this can be visible to the other members of a team. Intellectuals
difficulties in working with others and their inability to deal well with the differences that come
with a new environment often lead to dissatisfaction and significant personal challenges. They
may well need “timeouts” to rejuvenate and seek to interact with people or things with which
they are already familiar.
Individualists (Low CL / Low IE / High H)
Individualists Are Confident in their abilities to undertake
challenges, but are less interested in understanding people or
exploring differences.
This profile describes people who are fairly satisfied with their
current level of knowledge and with their own personal
development. Reading, observing, and traveling to places to
learn new things are of less interest. Individualists prefer things
that are familiar to them, so meeting new people and developing
new relationships will likely occur out of necessity more than
personal motivation. Because they are not particularly interested
in expanding their personal learning and understanding, and differences in culture and languages
don’t excite them, they don’t see the development of new relationships as a way to learn useful
information. In addition, even though Individualists do not particularly feel a need to develop or
maintain new relationships with those who are different from them, their tendency to be open
and accepting of differences can still attract others to them. This can lead to a network of
relationships that may be helpful to them. Finally, Individualists have a natural resilience to
challenges and are able to deflect many of the normal stresses that others will feel. They tend to
reflect a steadiness that others can depend on.
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Extrovert (Low CL / High IE / Low H)
Extroverts Enjoy Being With People and creating new
relationships. They are less interested in understanding
differences and may find some diverse settings challenging.
Individuals with this profile are very people-focused in general
and typically will have a number of social skills that help them
develop and maintain good relationships. They find it interesting
to meet people who are different from them and this can help
them develop positive relationships across a diverse set of
people. Although they are not always motivated to seek new
experiences that can lead to understanding themselves and
other things better, they do find it interesting to learn about a variety of people and places
unfamiliar to them. Sometimes, however, their lack of resilience can make such experiences
more challenging because they can take an emotional toll. This, combined with a tendency to
label people, can negatively affect some of their relationships and “color” their interpretations
of other cultures and ethnicities.
Traditionalist (Low CL / Low IE / Low H)
Traditionalists Are Satisfied with the status quo, preferring
familiar people and places, and are apprehensive when placed in
new situations where they need to learn or develop new
associations.
People with this profile are satisfied with their current level of
knowledge and are likely not to pursue opportunities for their
own personal development. Differences in others ethnicity or
culture are not of particular interest. Putting themselves in new
situations and learning new things or developing new
relationships is usually more a result of external requirements than internal motivation.
Traditionalists relationships will tend to be made up of family members or others who have been
in close proximity to them over time and where there is clear functionality. Rather than expend
effort to develop social networks, Traditionalists are more likely to spend time with a small
group of friends or engage in solitary activities they enjoy—watching TV, taking a walk, and so on.
Because they have generally surrounded themselves with the familiar and do not often trust or
easily accept others outside their close circle, Traditionalists usually have not developed the
interpersonal skills or the emotional stamina necessary to interact with and understand people
who are different from them. Going outside their realm of familiarity can cause a great deal of
stress.
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II. Your Current and Potential Competency
Awareness of our personal tendencies in these six areas is usually a prerequisite for change. On
the following pages, the general tendencies of different competency categories are paired with
strategies for development.
Continuous Learning: General Tendencies
Continuous Learning consists of Self-Awareness and Exploration. Refer to page 4 and enter your
scores for these dimensions on the horizontal and vertical scales below. The intersection of your
two scores will fall into one of the four quadrants below. Read the description of the profile in
your quadrant and, on the next page, see suggested sample strategies for leveraging high results,
compensating for low results, and developing each dimension.
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Effective Continuous Learning: Strategies
Leveraging High Self-Awareness
● Hold a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses.
● Use your understanding of the source of your emotions to help control them.
Compensating for Low Self-Awareness
● Listen and think carefully before reacting; monitor others reaction to what you say and do.
● Request feedback from trusted others on how you should act in specific situations.
Write in your ideas below for what you can do to increase your Self-Awareness. Here are a few
ideas for you, to trigger your thinking:
● Take self-assessment surveys for feedback on your strengths and weaknesses, traits, and behavioral
styles.
● Keep a self-reflection journal in which you analyze your behavior and how it seems to affect others.
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Leveraging High Exploration
● Volunteer for new assignments, responsibilities or other experiences.
● Seek work that requires creativity, adapting to new circumstances and continuous learning.
Compensating for Low Exploration
● Seek new information or different practices about an issue you’re dealing with before making decisions
or taking action.
● Ask for explanations about an issue from a wide variety of people whose perspectives differ from yours.
Write in your ideas below for what you can do to increase your Exploration. Here are a few ideas
to trigger your thinking:
● Seek out people who are different from you, ask their viewpoint about an issue, and listen to them
without judgment.
● Get in the practice of questioning your habits and accustomed way of thinking; ask “why?” (e.g., “Why
do I always . . . ?” “Why is it so important to me that I . . . ?”)
● Go exploring where you live and see how many interesting things you can find (e.g., take a different
way to and from work; shop at a different grocery store; go into a different ethnic neighborhood and
take notes about what things look like, what’s different and similar, how people behave, etc.).
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Interpersonal Engagement: General Tendencies
Interpersonal Engagement consists of Relationship Development and World Orientation. Refer to
page 4 and enter your scores for these dimensions on the horizontal and vertical scales below.
The intersection of your two scores will fall into one of the four quadrants below. Read the
description of the profile in your quadrant and, on the next page, see suggested example
strategies for leveraging high results, compensating for low results, and developing each
dimension.
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Effective Interpersonal Engagement Strategies
Leveraging High World Orientation
● Use your knowledge about different cultures and diverse practices to develop creative, synergistic
ideas on assignments you’re given.
● Work on multicultural teams and projects.
Compensating for Low World Orientation
● Hire people with international experience and listen to their ideas.
● Acknowledge that your views may be limited and ask for perspectives from people you see as different
from you.
Write in your ideas below for what you can do to increase your World Orientation. Here are a few
ideas for you, to trigger your thinking:
● Watch foreign movies and news programs.
● For vacation, travel to a foreign country or to a different geographical area.
● Seek opportunities to work overseas.
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Leveraging High Relationship Development
● Build an extensive social network that contributes to your effectiveness.
● Get work done in relationship cultures where people work harder for people they like.
Compensating for Low Relationship Development
● Surround yourself with those who have well-developed relationship skills.
● Hire a translator who is also good at relationships.
Write in your ideas below for what you can do to increase your Relationship Development. Here
are a few ideas for you, to trigger your thinking:
● Seek out new friends from other cultures or ethnic groups.
● Commit to devoting a set amount of time to resurrecting past good relationships and maintaining
existing ones.
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Hardiness: General Tendencies
Hardiness consists of Positive Regard and Emotional Resilience. Refer to page 4 and enter your
scores for these dimensions on the horizontal and vertical scales below. The intersection of your
two scores will fall into one of the four quadrants below. Read the description of the profile in
your quadrant and, on the next page, see suggested example strategies for leveraging high
results, compensating for low results, and developing each dimension.
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Effective Hardiness Strategies
Leveraging High Emotional Resilience
● Take on challenging, stressful jobs that others might shy away from.
● Draw upon your stamina to deal with conflict situations.
Compensating for Low Emotional Resilience
● Do not react to situations until emotions are under control.
● Build in psychological safety zones where you can retreat.
Write in your ideas below for what you can do to increase your Emotional Resilience. Here are a
few ideas for you, to trigger your thinking:
● Work with a coach, learn to recognize your stress triggers.
● Develop coping mechanisms that work for you.
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Leveraging High Positive Regard
● When appropriate, show others how their negative views might not be representative of the whole
person or situation. Solidify your reputation as a fairminded individual.
● Provide others with objective feedback that takes more factors into consideration, including the
positive.
Compensating for Low Positive Regard
● In new situations, remind yourself that you need to refrain from making quick judgments. Take your
time to notice additional things beyond your initial impressions.
● Remember there is a reason for the behavior of others, even if you do not understand it. Seek to find
those reasons.
Write in your ideas below for what you can do to increase your Positive Regard. Here are a few
ideas for you, to trigger your thinking:
● Learn to distinguish when stereotypes are helpful and not helpful.
● Look for reasons that explain complex human behavior.
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Creating a Personal Development Plan
You can increase your intercultural effectiveness by creating and carrying out a personal
development plan. Your IES scores provide you with the basis for a solid plan, which may consist
of the following elements.
Assessment: Determine which of the IES dimensions is
your weakest, most urgent to change, and/or most
important for your career. Which one are you most
motivated to develop?
Let’s say you decide Relationship
Development is the dimension that you
want to improve.
General Plans: List a few broad objectives to help you
focus your efforts. Set a deadline by which you will
accomplish these plans.
“Develop an above average level of
communication with the people I will be
living and working with in Germany.”
“Develop friendships with the locals in
my three months there.”
Tactics: These are the concrete “howto’s” that help you
achieve your general plan. Tactics need to be measurable.
Pick tactics you can actually accomplish (not too easy, but
not too hard). We learn best when real effort is required.
“I will study the language 15 minutes in
the morning and 15 minutes in the
evening every day, and I will practice a
new vocabulary word with three
different Germans every day.”
“I will say ‘Yes’ to my German colleagues
when invited to hang out.”
Reporting Results: Results are better when we tell others
about our plan. Without this accountability, it is too easy to
fail to follow through. Find someone who will help by
holding you accountable in a positive way, and decide when
and how you will report to them.
Who: “I will report my language study
and interaction to my cousin back
home.”
How and When: “I will send my report
by email every Sunday evening.”
On the following page, a blank table is provided that you can use to create your own Personal
Development Plan.
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Your Personal Development Plan
ELEMENT YOUR PLAN
Assessment: Determine which of the IES dimensions is
your weakest, most urgent to change, and/or most
important for your career. Which one are you most
motivated to develop?
General Plans: List a few broad objectives to help you
focus your efforts. Set a deadline by which you will
accomplish these plans.
Tactics: These are the concrete “howto’s” that help you
achieve your general plan. Tactics need to be measurable.
Pick tactics you can actually accomplish (not too easy, but
not too hard). We learn best when real effort is required.
Reporting Results: Results are better when we tell
others about our plan. Without this accountability, it is too
easy to fail to follow through. Find someone who will help
by holding you accountable in a positive way, and decide
when and how you will report to them.
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General Suggestions for Developing Intercultural Capacity
1. Know yourself. Learn about your own culture so that you understand the lens through which you view
the rest of the world. Become conscious of the behaviors and routines you’ve learned and enact
unconsciously.
2. Know other cultures. Educate yourself on the ways that cultures generally differ. When dealing with a
specific culture, study it to understand why they hold certain values and tend to think and behave as they
do. This will help you make more accurate attributions and interpretations about cultural behavior.
3. Expose yourself to difference. Seek out people who are different from you (e.g., different ethnicity,
culture, generation, religion, political philosophy). Listen closely to their views so that you can
understand their perspective. As a test, see if you can accurately describe—without arguing or
debating—their perspective on topics that conflict with your own views.
4. Practice reading people. Get in the habit of closely observing people and trying to interpret their
behavior. When working across cultures, we need to be keen observers of behavior and decode the
norms and values that guide it.
5. Clearly identify expectations. Negative reactions often result when other’s behavior does not meet
our expectations, and those expectations are influenced by our own culture and past experiences.
Surfacing and discussing our expectations paves the way for smoother interactions.
6. Suspend judgment. Intercultural encounters often derail when people judge or incorrectly interpret
the other party’s actions. Practice nonjudgmentally describing their behavior and, if puzzled, ask
someone with more cultural knowledge to explain its meaning. Give the other party the benefit of the
doubt and assume there is a logical reason for their beliefs and behaviors, even if you don’t yet
understand.
7. Seek out cultural mentors. In today’s global environment, it’s impossible to master every culture or
understand every co-worker or situation. Cultural mentors can help us fill in our knowledge gaps and
coach us to be more effective.
8. Focus on the individual. Culture doesn’t explain everything—personality, in particular, plays a large
role in understanding behavior in social interactions. When we’re trying to understand someone’s
behavior, we also have to take into consideration things like their personality traits, occupational status,
gender, age and generation, religion, life experiences, and so on.
9. Apply your IES skills wherever you are. Because people are different in a wide variety of ways,
these skills are also useful within your own culture. These skills can help you bridge the gap with people
from different regions, generations, genders, ethnic backgrounds, occupations, religions, and political
parties, to name a few.
Personal & Confidential
IES FEEDBACK REPORT
Results for: Tamicka Summerville
23
III. Other Useful Resources
There are many good books and articles on working effectively across cultures. Below are some
we highly recommend. For more suggestions, please contact the Intercultural Communication
Institute or visit www.intercultural.org/resources.php.
Suggested Readings
Bird, A., & Osland, J.S. (2006). Making sense of intercultural collaboration. International Journal of Management
and Organizations, 35(4), 115-132.
Brett, J., Behfar, K., & Kern, M.C. (2006). Managing multicultural teams. Harvard Business Review, 84(11), 84-91.
Caligiuri, P. (2012). Cultural agility: Building a pipeline of successful global professionals. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Dulewicz, V., & Higgs, M. (2004). Can emotional intelligence be developed? International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 15(1), 95-111.
Gannon, M. (2004). Understanding global cultures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Mendenhall, M.E., Osland, J., Bird, A., Oddou, G., Maznevski, M., Stevens, M.J., & Stahl, G.K. (2013). Global
leadership: Research, practice, and development (2nd edition). London: Routledge.
Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map: Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. New York: Public
Affairs.
Molinsky, A. (2013). Global dexterity: How to adapt your behavior across cultures without losing yourself in the
process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.
Osland, J. S. (1995). The adventure of working abroad: Hero tales from the global frontier. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Osland, J. S., & Bird, A. (2000). Beyond sophisticated stereotyping: Cross-cultural sensemaking in context.
Academy of Management Executive, 14, 1-12.
Sparrow. T. & Knight, A. (2006). Applied EI. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Storti, C. (1990). The art of crossing cultures. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.
Storti, C. (1994). Cross-cultural dialogues: 74 brief encounters with cultural difference. Yarmouth, ME:
Intercultural Press.
Thomas, D., & Inkson, K. (2003). Cultural intelligence: People skills for global business. San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler.
Ting-Toomey, S. (1999). Communicating across cultures. New York: Guilford Press.
Additional IES Resources
For more information about the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale and its uses, please contact the
Intercultural Communication Institute at 503-297-4622 or ici@intercultural.org, or visit
www.kozaigroup.com