University Essay: Intercultural Competence and Entrepreneurship

This essay explores the concept of intercultural competence, defining it as the ability to communicate and behave appropriately and effectively in intercultural interactions. It discusses the key elements of intercultural competence, including knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and how these elements contribute to an individual's understanding of the target market, particularly for entrepreneurs. The essay also highlights the author's strengths in intercultural awareness, specifically their skills and attitudes, and identifies areas for improvement, such as sharpening observational skills and gaining a deeper understanding of global issues. Furthermore, the essay delves into the characteristics of mindful interaction, including the creation of new categories, openness to new information, and awareness of multiple perspectives, and connects these characteristics to intercultural learning. References from Bennett, Deardorff, Lustig & Koester, Shaules, and Spencer-Oatey & Franklin are included to support the discussion.

Running head: INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
Name of student:
Name of university:
Author note:

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INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
1.) According to Bennett (2004), the term intercultural competence refers to the global
citizenship that has been prevalent for many years. It is understood as the ability of
the individual for targeted knowledge, attitudes and skills of communication and
behaviour. These are considered to be appropriate as well as effective intercultural
interactions (Deardorff, 2009). Some of the key elements of intercultural competence
are skills, knowledge and attitudes. The term knowledge refers to the awareness of the
self of the person and that is related to the socio-linguistic knowledge and is
concerned with grasping the global trends and the global issues (Lustig & Koester,
2003). The next key element is skill. This refers to the observing, listening and
evaluation of patience and perseverance. It also refers to learning to view others from
their perspectives. The third key element refers to the attitudes. This connotes to
respecting and valuing others, openness without holding the judgement, curiosity or
perceiving difference as a way of learning and seeking opportunity from it and finally
to discovery that refers to nurturing a tolerant attitude towards ambiguity (Shaules,
2007). Based on this above understanding of intercultural competence and its ability
to help an entrepreneur understand the target market, I feel that the areas of
intercultural awareness I am quite proficient is my skills and attitudes. I am respectful
towards the opinions of others and take into account the advice provided by my
colleagues in making the final decision. I believe in the principle of diversity and
inclusiveness that would attract a wide range of customers towards the particular
business idea. During debate and discussion when we have disagreements I see that as
an opportunity to learn and grow. Even my colleagues agree that that I am tolerant
and receptive about divergent ideas. The areas of intercultural competence that I need
to improve is sharpening my observational skills and having an astute understanding
about the global issues that have an impact on business.

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INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
2.) The characteristics of mindful interaction are creation of new categories, openness to
new information and awareness for more than one perspective (Spencer-Oatey &
Franklin, 2009). The term creation of new categories refers to the persistently creating
new ones. The process of categorization, recategorization, labelling and relabeling.
Children are more active in creating new categories whereas the older adults are
reluctant to create something new. The term welcome, the new information refer the
mindful state and its openness towards the wave of information. Brains have the
propensity to block the inappropriate signals. The awareness about more than one
perspective or view refers to openness to diverse kind of information. Once the mind
is aware about the views of others, recognizes, adopts the variegated perspectives, and
thereby enriches oneself. These three characteristics of intercultural mindful
interaction is related to intercultural learning. It is because in all these characteristics
it can be found that there is an emphasis on creating new avenues of learning, being
receptive towards new information and constantly update ourselves regarding the new
information. On the hand, there is an emphasis on respecting the diversity of views.
All these are compatible with the aspects of skills, knowledge and attitudes associated
with intercultural learning.

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INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
References
Bennett, M. J. (2004). Becoming interculturally competent.Toward multiculturalism: A
reader in multicultural education,2, 62-77.
Deardorff, D. K. (Ed.). (2009). The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence. Sage.
Lustig, M. W., & Koester, J. (2003). Intercultural competence.Intercultural communication
across.
Shaules, J. (2007). Deep culture: The hidden challenges of global living (Vol. 16). Multilingual
matters.
Spencer-Oatey, H., & Franklin, P. (2009). Intercultural interaction: A multidisciplinary approach to
intercultural communication. Springer.