Report on Principles Framework and Applications of Cultural Competence

This report provides a comprehensive overview of cultural competence, its principles, and practical applications within an organizational context. It begins by defining cultural competence and emphasizing its significance in fostering effective cross-cultural interactions and maintaining harmonious relationships among employees from diverse backgrounds. The report introduces a framework for understanding and evaluating cultural competence, addressing issues that arise from a lack of intercultural interaction, such as low team performance, cultural conflicts, and communication breakdowns. It then outlines steps to improve cultural competency, including recognizing cultural factors, understanding diverse cultural backgrounds, and promoting equal treatment of all employees. Furthermore, the report discusses various cultural competence theories and their relevance. The second part of the report focuses on implementing and analyzing the effectiveness of the discussed framework by mapping an intercultural encounter and analyzing its success, or by entering into discussion with someone else about the framework and getting their feedback. The report also examines the importance of cultural identity and its role in individual and organizational success. Finally, the report highlights the significance of building a culturally competent environment to improve team performance, communication, and overall organizational growth. This report is a valuable resource for students and professionals seeking to understand and apply the principles of cultural competence in their respective fields.

Principles Framework and Applications
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:
Table of Contents
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Part 1:.........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Intercultural encounter onto the framework and evaluating its success....................................4
Issues arising due to the lack of the intercultural interaction.....................................................6
Employees’ come with conflicting ideas and thoughts:.............................................................7
Part 2:.........................................................................................................................................8
Steps to improve the cultural competency:................................................................................8
Theories related to cultural competence:...................................................................................9
Cross cultural competence.......................................................................................................10
Attributes defined in the cultural competency theory:.............................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References:...............................................................................................................................14
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Part 1:
Introduction
The major purpose of writing this report is to understand the concepts of cultural
competence and their importance in the application of the business operations of the
organization. Cultural competence is defined as the set of rules, values, and principles that
helps the organization in working in a cross cultural and in an effective way. The attitudes,
principles, and the moral values encapsulated within the unit of the cultural competence help
the organizational systems to work in an effective manner. Cultural competence forms an
essential aspect in every organization where the employees follow the specific set of rules
and principles when the concept of cultural diversity peeps out in the workplace. Cultural
competence helps the industry to maintain the cultural difference existing among the
employees who comes from several cultural backgrounds (Chiu & Shi, 2019). Hence one can
say that the cultural competence plays a major role in every business to establish a mutual
understanding relationship among the employees who comes from different cultural
backgrounds. One can say that nowadays cultural competency is becoming more popular
across many industries and with the aid of modernized technology development which
combines several people from different cultural backgrounds. The concepts of cultural
competency and their applications can be well explained with the help of several theories and
principles.
Lack of cultural competency destroys the cultural relationship among the employees
of the organization and also creates an atmosphere of conflicting cultural ideas. Through this,
there occurs a lack of communication among the business employees. The breakage of the
cultural relationships in the organization due to the lack of the cultural competency, the
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employees will feel distressed and sad to mingle with the employees belonging from other
culture and this directly affects the team work flow. The framework chosen in this report is to
identify the existing cultural relationships within the organization, identifying their strengths
and weakness and finally evaluating the intercultural practices of the organization
(Betancourt et al., 2016).
Cultural capabilities are defined as the skills, knowledge, and the systems which are
required to plan appropriately for adopting the best cultural practices and the intermingling of
the cultural principles in a proper manner (Ying, 2018).
Intercultural encounter onto the framework and evaluating its success
Intercultural interaction is defined as the process in which the employees belonging from
different culture mingle in their work operations and respect the culture of other people in
order to build a strong cultural relationship within the organization. The intercultural
interaction only happens within the business environment only when the cultures and
traditions of all the employees are accepted and they are ready to be getting involved in the
tem work activities (Wolak, 2015). Before introduction of the cultural interaction, it is very
necessary to identify the chaos if any faced by the employees in adopting a specific culture
and the opposing views if any occurring among the employees. If such sort of conflicting
cultural views occurs in an organization, it is necessary to advise the employees that the work
environment is only meant to establish the work practices to achieve the business goals rather
than giving importance to the woes of the intermixed cultures.
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The success of the intercultural interaction occurring within the organization can be
measured in the following ways:
a) Rate of an effective team work.
b) Determining the effectiveness of the work flow and the team work activities.
c) Determining the rate of the communication process.
d) Determining the rate at which the employees participate in the team activities
(Deardorff, 2016).
Rate of an effective team work: The rate of the success of the intercultural interaction can
be determined by measuring the effectiveness of the team work activities. If the employees
from the different cultural backgrounds are able to mingle in a good manner, then obviously
the team work interaction will be also good. The employees will involve in their work
operations and actively participate in the employee work planning process irrespective of
their cultural differences. In addition to this, the culture of one employee is respected by the
other which builds an efficient cultural bond among all employees working in the
organization.
Determining the effectiveness of the work flow
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If the work flow of the organization is good, it means that the organization is built
with effective team work that shares their work experiences and actively participates in the
work flow activities where the cultural difference won’t be a hindrance. In a similar way, if
the work flow is not going good within the organization and if there occurs a cultural
breakdown due to the difference in the cultures and traditions of different employees, this
means that the rate of the intercultural interaction is very low and ineffective.
Determining the rate of the communication process
The communication process occurring among the employees are highly dependent on
the intercultural interaction. If the employees are involved in the team work then they are able
to communicate effectively with other employees irrespective to their cultural backgrounds.
Moreover, one can say that the way of communication is highly effective among them and
the team involvement is also high among those employees. Communication is a process in
which the employees shares information regarding the business operations and talk with their
senior manager. At this point of talk, the flow of communication should be good and this kind
of communication is only possible if the employees are interacted irrespective of their
cultures.
Issues arising due to the lack of the intercultural interaction
Intercultural interaction is very necessary in every organization especially in the case of
the global organizations where the employees interact in their work activities that come from
different parts of the world from different cultural backgrounds. If there occurs a lack in the
intercultural interactions, then the issues that will be occurring in the organization are:
a) Low team performance.
b) Cultural issues and breakdown of the cultural relationships.
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c) Employees coming with conflicting ideas and thoughts.
d) Less participation of the employees in the active team work.
e) Less growth in the company and the reduction of profit levels.
f) Lose of the cultural values and the moral principles of the organization (Neo, 2015).
Low team performance: Since intercultural interaction forms the basis of the team
performance in any organization, people should be able to interact in spite of their cultural
backgrounds so that a strong cultural relationship can be built within the organization. If the
intercultural relationship is lacking within the organization, then the employees won’t be
engaged in an effective team work practice which finally degrades the growth of the
company.
Cultural issues and the breakdown of the cultural relationship:
When intercultural interaction is not happening within the industry, then there occurs
a cultural breakout which disturbs the entire work flow of the business. People come with
conflicting cultural ideas and they destroy the normal cultural values of the organization.
Employees’ come with conflicting ideas and thoughts:
Since there occurs a lack in the intercultural interaction, the employees who come
from different cultural backgrounds will come up with conflicting cultural ideas and thoughts
which put an end to the adoption of the diversified cultural practices in the work
environment. When employees’ cultural views vary from one employee to the other, there
occur a cultural gap which disturbs the work flow activities in the business. In addition to
this, the employees will find difficult to adapt with the diversified organizational culture. This
creates a lack of friendly work environment and the employees feel distressed and sad on not
being able to follow their own culture and traditions.
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Less participation of the employees in active team work:
An enthusiastic and an energetic team is essential in every business for the growth and
the success of the organization. When there arises a conflict in the intercultural interaction,
the employees may not be able to mingle with other employees and discuss about the
business operations in an effective manner. Therefore, in this way the active participation of
the employees is lost and there occurs degradation in the performance of the company.
Less Growth of the company:
The growth of any organization is entirely dependent on the hardworking team of
employees. Even if the employees working in the multinational companies come from
different cultural and economic backgrounds, the employees should work inert and share
their work experiences on daily basis in order to improve them. If the cultural relationships
are broken down in the organization, then the growth of the company will be automatically
affected. With the lack of the effective culture in organization, the employees will face a
dilemma on what cultural values that has to adopt in an organization and this makes them to
lack concentration in their team work and company progress.
Loss of cultural values and the moral principles of the company:
When the cultural values are lost in the company, the employees will be unable to
follow the right culture and there will be the possibilities for the occurrence of the
organizational disputes. The moral values and the ethics of the company will be lost when the
employees are unable to follow a proper culture within the organization (Fernan, 2019).
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Part 2:
Steps to improve the cultural competency:
Cultural competence and the maintenance of the cultural relationships are very essential
in the organization in order to build the cultural relationships and to achieve the goals of the
organization. Some of the ways of improving the cultural competence includes:
a) Recognizing that culture is a factor that lies beyond the skin color of every employee.
b) Finding out the cultural background of each and every employee working in the
organization.
c) Determination of the cultural effectiveness.
d) Understanding the importance of the cultural identity.
e) Treating all employees on equal basis irrespective of their cultural differences (Clay,
2019).
The first and the foremost step to improve the cultural competence is that the organization
should initially identify the present culture followed in the organization along with their
faults. The faults are identified in order to sort out steps to bring new solutions to solve the
problems associated with the cultural competency.
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It is necessary for the organization to understand the culture and the tradition followed by
each and every employee working in the organization. It is the responsibility of the mangers
to give respect to all kinds of culture of the employees followed in the organization. The
cultural background of each and every employee should be given respect and they should be
allowed to follow their own culture and get involved in the effective team work irrespective
of the cultural differences.
The organization should give importance to the cultural identity of all employees working
in an organization. These employees should be treated equally irrespective of their culture
and awareness should be created among all employees that culture plays an important role in
every business and every employee should be able to mingle with the employees belonging to
a different culture.
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Steps
to
impr
ove
the
cultu
ral
com
pete
ncy RECOGNIZING THE CULTURE
FINDING OUT THE CULTURAL
BACKGROUND
DETERMINATION OF THE
CULTURAL EFFECTIVENESS
UNDERSTANDING THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE
CULTURAL IDENTITY
TREATING ALL EMPLOYEES
ON EQUAL BASIS

Theories related to cultural competence:
Several cultural competence theories have been formulated and they are applied in
different organizational sectors. The cultural competency theories states that to build an
organization with cultural competence, necessary skills and systems are required to establish
effective cultural relationships within the organization. The cultural competence theories
were coined by the earlier scholars referring that culture is defined as a group of beliefs,
cultures, and values which differ from one employee to the other working in an organization
(Kim, M. S. 2017). The cross-cultural relationships highly exist in the global industries
especially in the healthcare sectors.
Cultural competence was initially originated from the healthcare sector where the
patients come from different cultural backgrounds and carry their own perspectives towards
medical treatments and life. Therefore it is the responsibility of the nurses working in the
healthcare industry to clearly note the culture followed by each patient and offer them the
treatment which satisfies and suits their culture.
Related concepts:
While talking about the cultural competency, one should understand about its related
concepts. These include cross-cultural interaction, cultural knowledge, and cultural
awareness. The cross cultural interaction is defined as the ability if the person to interact with
other person who belongs to different culture. If a cross cultural interaction happens in the
organization, all the employees will be culturally connected and respect will be given on the
cultural practices adopted by each employee. The second concept talks about the cultural
knowledge. It is necessary that every employee should be aware of their own culture as well
as the culture of other employees in order to have a cross-cultural interaction. The cultural
awareness should be spread among all the employees and everyone should keep in mind that
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it is necessary for the organization to maintain the cultural diversity. The importance of the
cultural interaction and the diversified valued culture should be known to all employees and
everyone should adopt their won cultural practices and must be able to interact with other
people following a different culture.
Cross cultural competence
Cross cultural competence is the ability of the people belonging to one culture to
mingle with the other set of people following a different culture. If this cross cultural
interaction happens in an effective way in an organization, then obviously the effective team
work will be produced. Cross cultural competence is defined as the ability of the organization
to carry out the team work activities and to maintain the effective work flow with the aid of
the cultural interaction (Chiu & Shi, 2019).
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Attributes defined in the cultural competency theory:
Attributes are defined as the characteristics of the cultural competence and there are
broadly five categories of attributes namely cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural
skills, cultural sensitivity, and dynamic processes (Cai, 2016).
Cultural awareness:
Cultural awareness is one which the employees are aware of the cultural practices
followed in the organization and they should be aware of the importance of the intercultural
interaction and their necessity in the growth of the business (Parmenter & Trigger, 2018).
Cultural knowledge
Cultural knowledge is defined as the cultural values and the morals followed by the
people belonging to the different cultural categories. The cultural knowledge is comprised of
the cultural skills and the learning of the moral cultural values which are adopted by different
kinds of employees belonging to different cultural communities (Lareau, 2015).
Cultural skills
Cultural skills are defined as the ability of the organization to understand the cultural
needs of every employee working in the organization and their ability to get intermixed with
other employees who follows a different culture (Johnson, Lenartowicz & Apud, 2016).
Cultural sensitivity
Cultural sensitivity is similar to the cultural skills and it is defined as the ability of the
organization to build a unique cultural relationship within the organization (Hoffman, 2018).
Dynamic process
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This is one of the most important attributes of the cultural competency where the
higher officials in the organization are able to be culturally competent in offering the services
to the employees belonging to different cultures. Hence this attribute plays a major role in the
maintaining the cultural balance among the employees in the workplace. One can say that the
dynamic process establishes a relationship between the antecedents and the consequences.
Dynamic processes are defined as the set of characters like cultural sensitivity, awareness,
cultural knowledge, and cultural skills. Antecedents are defined as the set of actions that
occurs before the happening of a particular event and consequences are defined as the set of
actions which represent the after effects of the antecedents. The different components under
the antecedents are the cultural diversity, cultural encounter, and cultural desire. Cultural
diversity is defined as the variations in the culture followed by several employees working in
the organization. Cultural encounter is defined as the interaction of a senior official with an
employee who belongs to a different culture. Cultural desire is defined as the process in
which the organization desires for the happening of an intercultural interaction in order to
have a successful teamwork and the growth of the organization.
Conclusion
The entire report talks about the importance of the cultural competence within the
organization and the necessity of having an intercultural interaction in order to have
successful growth and the team work within the organization. The related concepts and the
attributes of the cultural competence are discussed in the report. It was found that when the
organization lacks in the cultural competence, it will face issues like lack of effective
communication process and the lack of team growth. The cultural competence is given more
importance in any kind of business because the cultural diversity followed in any
organization determines the relationship among the employees and how far the employees are
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given freedom to follow their own cultural practices and also to interact with the others.
Therefore through this entire report, one can say that cultural competence and their
maintenance is necessary in any organization to preserve the cultural heritage of the
company.
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References:
Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I. I. (2016).
Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic
disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.
Cai, D. Y. (2016). A concept analysis of cultural competence. International Journal of
Nursing Sciences, 3(3), 268-273.
Chiu, C. Y., & Shi, Y. (2019). Cross‐Cultural Competence. Cross‐Cultural Psychology:
Contemporary Themes and Perspectives, 39-55.
Clay, R. (2019). How do I become culturally competent? Retrieved from
https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2010/09/culturally-competent
Deardorff, D. K. (2016). How to assess intercultural competence. Research methods in
intercultural communication: A practical guide, 120-135.
Farnen, K. (2019). Cultural Differences and Communication Problems With International
Business. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/cultural-differences-
communication-problems-international-business-81982.html
Johnson, J. P., Lenartowicz, T., & Apud, S. (2016). Cross-cultural competence in
international business: Toward a definition and a model. Journal of international
business studies, 37(4), 525-543.
Hoffman, B. (2018). Cultural Sensitivity. Science Direct, 34-89.
Kim, M. S. (2017). Culture‐Based Conversational Constraints Theory. The International
Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication, 1-10.
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Lareau, A. (2015). Cultural knowledge and social inequality. American Sociological
Review, 80(1), 1-27.
Neo, S. (2015). 4 Types of Communication Challenges in Multicultural Organizations.
Retrieved from https://trainingindustry.com/blog/workforce-development/4-types-of-
communication-challenges-in-multicultural-organizations/
Parmenter, J., & Trigger, D. (2018). Aboriginal cultural awareness training for mine
employees: Good intentions, complicated outcomes. The Extractive Industries and
Society, 5(2), 363-370.
Wolak, A. J. (2015). Culture and Values. In The Development of Managerial Culture (pp. 11-
39). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Ying, D. (2018). A concept analysis of cultural competence. Interantional journal of nursing
sciences, 34-89.
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