Cultural competence has found a good place in almost all Institutions including Health Care, Education, management, and businesses. People have realized the importance of training for diversity in the workplace and are beginning to incorporate diversity training program into their Company culture and Organisation. Before diving deep into how cultural competency trainings are an intelligent way to incorporate diverse Minds in an organization, let’s understand what cultural competency is in the first place. This article contains the necessary information about cultural competency and how it has affected the cultural intelligence centers so far.
What is Cultural Competence?
Basically, cultural competence is the ability of an organization to successfully negotiate cross-cultural differences and involve people of different ethnicity in the accomplishment of practical goals. Cultural competence may be linked to various goals like to interact or fall in with people who speak different languages or are from a different cultural background or maybe developing a cross-cultural team in an organization for a collaborative diversity training program. Four major components to cultural competence are awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills.
Awareness marks the acknowledgment of diverse values and beliefs along with the prejudice and stereotypes being practiced in different cultures and ethnicities which create barriers in the development and learning process. Diversity education can be helpful in unveiling the beliefs and values that create hindrance in the development process of organizations and individuals.
Attitude asserts how the values and beliefs in a cross-cultural context can be the source of different views and opinions. Our attitude towards different values and beliefs may lead us to react emotionally if they collide with different opinions, skin color for example. People with fair skin color may not see any advantage of the same but a person with darker color may look towards it as a reason for oppression.
Knowledge about different cultures and different people makes it more likely to perform well when it comes to managing them and solving community-related problems in cross-cultural interactions and avoiding any miscommunication in that regard.
Skill is another important aspect. One can have the right awareness, attitude, and knowledge about cross-cultural differences but may still lack the skill to manage these differences in an effective manner. This scale has to be learned through the diversity training programs and cultural competency trainings in a renowned cultural intelligence center.
How does Cultural competence reflect Unity?
It focuses more on making people more competent in social interactions along with shifting the focus from social construct to a more capable and productive Outlook. It increases awareness on how incorporating communities from different ethnicities into a single system can inculcate a sense of unity and also Foster relationships in an organization besides increasing its productivity through the effective use of talent. Training for diversity in the workplace can reflect how the communities have been served and their interests are taken care of. Incorporation of inclusive policies and procedures in the cultural intelligence center can often teach diversity management skills which are inclusive of all values and believes for a productive society and lets them pass through the leadership tests.
The best way to ensure training for diversity in a workplace is to carefully and strongly address the prejudices regarding differences in the community and carefully curbing them in the most professional and authentic ways possible. Not only does this help with the performance in an organisation, for example, Healthcare and education but also let the leaders pass through diverse leadership tests which include the skill of respecting and managing cross-cultural differences with strength and tactfulness.
Ways to spot Cultural competence in a leader
There are various ways through which leadership qualities can be assessed in an individual for their cultural competence. If someone is up to spot a leadership first thing for the leadership tests is to observe the work ethic and Character of the individual in terms of dealing with people with differences in opinions and beliefs. Predictive assessment tools and personality assessments can also be used to assess the level of cultural competence and cross-cultural tolerance in an individual as a leader. A strong leader should be tested for his communication skills along with relationship building and trustworthiness, Because he is the one who has to foster strong relationships in an organization between different levels of administration and workforce that incorporates people with different communal opinions and beliefs. This quality helps in building strong bonds with the customer for the beneficiary in the organization by letting them cherish the experiences and contribute to the growth and development of the system in whatever way they think possible because of the sense of belongingness they get out of the company.
Cultural competence not only helps in increasing the productivity of the organization but also lets the employees and clients be more valued and appreciated and improves the company culture.
