Cultural Competence

Running head: CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Cultural Competence
Name of Student
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Author Note

1CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Cultural competence is recognized as the ability to communicate and interact efficiently
with people belonging of diverse culture. Intercultural or cross-cultural competence is
acknowledged as a series of cognitive and behavioral expertise that help in the process of
effective interaction with people belonging to various culture and social background. An
effective intercultural communication is dependent on the behavior of the respondents and the
desired goal of the communication process is achieved only when the behavior of the
communicators built up on the willingness of the both the parties. It has been monitored that the
intercultural competence is a social impulse that has advanced through the course of time.
Moreover, building intercultural competence is necessary in order to maintain global harmony
and peace in the context of globalization. It has been noticed that a successful intercultural
communication, between different language and cultures initiates mutual bond and trust amongst
the communicators. Hence, the essay will be focusing on the key factors that play important role
in making an intercultural communication to be a successful one. In this regard, the importance
of cultural intelligence along with social, emotionl and cognitive intelligence that constitute the
definition of intercultural competence.
Along with the advancement of the intercultural exchanges and the globalization, the
importance of intercultural competence is becoming one of the major factors in order to have a
successful communication. As a result of the ever changing scenario in the global environment,
cultural competency helps an individual to deal with the different cultures and people belonging
to them. Moreover, it can be said that having cultural competency ensures of having better
understanding for the diverse cultures. The major factors that influence the cultural competence
are behavioral and cognitive skills (Betancourt et al., 2016). The behavioral skills, that are
important to the intercultural competence, are the understanding of the differences amongst

2CULTURAL COMPETENCE
various cultures. The behavioral factors that create impact on the communication also ensure the
reaction of the communicators. The behavioral factors are constituted of several aspects such as
the one of speaking, body language, language of speaking and the surrounding environment. In
addition to this, the cognitive process constitutes the thinking procedure of a person and his or
her attitude towards the other cultures and languages (Wilson, Ward & Fischer, 2013).
Moreover, the process of cognitive competency allows the individual to mold one’s attitude to be
altered and present their thoughts and views in a more refined manner. In addition to this,
cognitive skills help individuals in the process of better understanding of their own culture a
traditions. As a result, individuals acquire the capability to express themselves in a better way
and to defend their own culture. In lieu with the discussion, the focus can be shifted to the other
factors affecting the cultural competency (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013). It has been noticed that
the notion of cultural competency was not developed within a short span. It is a process, which
has seen its evolution along with the evolution of the humankind and the increasing interaction
amongst people in a global scale (Ang & Van Dyne, 2015). In addition to this, it has been widely
observed that people belonging to different cultures have perceived the idea of cultural
competency differently. Changing social structures and personal ideologies helped in the process
of modification of the competency (Elphinstone, 2018). The intercultural competency hence
vastly depend on the individual understanding, and the personal opinion of the communicators.
Moreover, it can be said that the increasing experiences help an individual in the process of
better understanding and developing the sense of cross-cultural diversity in a more efficient way.
Due to the huge diversity of the cultures, it has been noticed that the process of
evaluation of the personality traits is being influenced in a vast way. According to the
sociologists, the appropriate procedure of assessing the cultural and personal traits. A constant

3CULTURAL COMPETENCE
conflict can be witnessed in order to take up the appropriate methodology of measuring the
personality traits (Owe et al., 2013). In this regard the theories that are considered as the most
effective ones in judging the personality and cross-cultural traits, can be taken into consideration.
The first theory that can be taken into consideration is the theory of personality, coined by
American psychologist Gordon Allport (Rand, 2018). The personality theory advocates for
accessing the cognitive approach and it revolves around process of psychological system. The
psychological traits that analyze the individual personality and their understanding is related to
the individualism theory to a great extent. The paradigm in evaluating the cross-cultural
personality can be monitored due to the huge diversity amongst the cultures.
Another important theory that can be taken into consideration is the theory of
ethnocentrism. It has been noticed that the cross-cultural communication is primarily generated
from the ethnocentrism theory. Psychologists have defined the theory as to be the process where
the people tend to perceive their culture and tradition as to be the superior than other
communities. Moreover, it is seen hat this tendency of thinking one’s own culture to be the
superior lead to judging the other communities and traditions (Rand, 2018). Hence, this can
create a barrier in the way of having a successful cross-cultural communication. The people that
are having ethnocentricity views are somewhat incapable of increasing their views and
perceptions regarding the cultural diversity and the harmony between various cultures. This can
cause a conflict between the different communities and hamper the social peace and harmony.
Moreover, the ignorant attitude of the people believing in the ethnocentricity creates a huge
barrier in the process of communication (Dervin & Hahl, 2015). Psychologist have pointed out
that in the juxtaposition of the ethnocentric believes and theories, ethnorelativism theory
supports and acknowledges the cultural diversity to a great extent. In the present scenario of