Cultural agility is a term employed in talent management to design a complex competency based on skills whose command allows an individual or an organization to perform successfully in cross-cultural situations. [1] [2] [3] Cultural agility has been conceptualized as an individual's ability to comfortably and effectively work in different cultures (e.g., countries, organizations) and with people from different cultures, national origins, generations, gender, etc. [4] People with cultural agility are able to "build trust, gain credibility, communicate, and collaborate effectively across cultures". [5] The concept appears to overlap with others such as cross-cultural competence and cultural intelligence. [6] The subject has been linked to studying abroad, [7] foreign talent acquisition, [8] immigrants and refugees, [9] career success, [10] sports coaching, [11] leadership development, [12] and global business. [13] Currently, the term is often associated with research carried out by Paula Caligiuri, and a few others like Marisa Cleveland, [14] and Zeinab Shawky Younis. [15] On psychological aspects, the command of cultural agility resources may be facilitated by personality traits like extraversion, openness, and predisposition to novelty seeking, but also by appropriate learning. [16] Self-assessment has been pointed out as a practical approach to evaluate the level of competence reached by cultural agility trainees. [17]
Apart from its colloquial use, the term agility was proposed as a relevant concept to industry and business management in the 1990s by Steven L. Goldman, [18] who published a volume on the subject. [19] An early use of the full term (cultural agility) is found in a series of conferences by Terry Lee named "Leadership for the New Millennium", in 1999. [20]
In recent times, the concept has been amply developed by Paula Caligiuri from Northeastern University and her co-authors, through many academic articles and books, now being widely used in academic literature. [21] Other authors publishing books on agility as a main subject include Peter Gillies from TIAS School for Business and Society (Tilburg, Netherlands), [22] and Guy Morrow, from the University of Melbourne, Australia. [23]
Beyond academic circles, the term has gained popularity in mass media when commenting about the need for acquisition of intercultural skills to achieve adequate inclusion in the socioeconomic workings of an increasingly globalized world. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] A Cultural Agility Collaboration Group has been established by the University of Minnesota to facilitate developing inclusive, equitable, socially just spaces in campuses, and local communities. [29]
Digital technologies facilitate communication across cultures, and help overcome language barriers to some extent. [30]
Although adapting business practices to local cultural preferences may seem generally appropriate, [31] detailed assessment of circumstances may reveal overall benefits from the use of countercultural practices on some occasions. [32]
Opportunities to learn cultural agility theory and/or techniques appear to be growing through:
Recent papers
Books
Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture. It has a variety of meanings in different contexts, sometimes applying to cultural products like art works in museums or entertainment available online, and sometimes applying to the variety of human cultures or traditions in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. It can also refer to the inclusion of different cultural perspectives in an organization or society.
A mindset refers to an established set of attitudes of a person or group concerning culture, values, philosophy, frame of reference, outlook, or disposition. It may also arise from a person's worldview or beliefs about the meaning of life.
Cross-cultural communication is a field of study investigating how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to communicate across cultures. Intercultural communication is a related field of study.
Business performance management (BPM) is a management approach which encompasses a set of processes and analytical tools to ensure that an organization's activities and output are aligned with its goals. BPM is associated with business process management, a larger framework managing organizational processes.
Communication studies is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in different cultures. Communication is commonly defined as giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions effectively. Communication studies is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge that encompasses a range of topics, from face-to-face conversation at a level of individual agency and interaction to social and cultural communication systems at a macro level.
A consultant is a professional who provides advice or services in an area of specialization. Consulting services generally fall under the domain of professional services, as contingent work.
Interculturalism is a political movement that supports cross-cultural dialogue and challenging self-segregation tendencies within cultures. Interculturalism involves moving beyond mere passive acceptance of multiple cultures existing in a society and instead promotes dialogue and interaction between cultures. Interculturalism is often used to describe the set of relations between indigenous and western ideals, grounded in values of mutual respect.
Intercultural communication is a discipline that studies communication across different cultures and social groups, or how culture affects communication. It describes the wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally appear within an organization or social context made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. In this sense, it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act, communicate, and perceive the world around them. Intercultural communication focuses on the recognition and respect of those with cultural differences. The goal is mutual adaptation between two or more distinct cultures which leads to biculturalism/multiculturalism rather than complete assimilation. It promotes the development of cultural sensitivity and allows for empathic understanding across different cultures.
Diversity, in a business context, is hiring and promoting employees from a variety of different backgrounds and identities. Those characteristics may include various legally protected groups, such as people of different religions or races, or backgrounds that are not legally protected, such as people from different social classes or educational levels. A business or group with people from a variety of backgrounds is called diverse; a business or group with people who are very similar to each other is not diverse.
The Bennett scale, also called the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), was developed by Milton Bennett. The framework describes the different ways in which people can react to cultural differences. Bennett's initial idea was for trainers to utilize the model to evaluate trainees' intercultural awareness and help them improve intercultural sensitivity, also sometimes referred to as cultural sensitivity, which is the ability of accepting and adapting to a brand new and different culture.
Talent management (TM) is the anticipation of required human capital for an organization and the planning to meet those needs. The field has been growing in significance and gaining interest among practitioners as well as in the scholarly debate over the past 10 years as of 2020, particularly after McKinsey's 1997 research and the 2001 book on The War for Talent. Although much of the previous research focused on private companies and organizations, TM is now also found in public organizations.
Cultural sensitivity, also referred to as cross-cultural sensitivity or cultural awareness, is the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of other cultures and others' cultural identities. It is related to cultural competence, and is sometimes regarded as the precursor to the achievement of cultural competence, but is a more commonly used term. On the individual level, cultural sensitivity is a state of mind regarding interactions with those different from oneself. Cultural sensitivity enables travelers, workers, and others to successfully navigate interactions with a culture other than their own.
Digital transformation (DT) is the process of adoption and implementation of digital technology by an organization in order to create new or modify existing products, services and operations by the means of translating business processes into a digital format.
Cross-cultural psychology attempts to understand how individuals of different cultures interact with each other. Along these lines, cross-cultural leadership has developed as a way to understand leaders who work in the newly globalized market. Today's international organizations require leaders who can adjust to different environments quickly and work with partners and employees of other cultures. It cannot be assumed that a manager who is successful in one country will be successful in another.
Cultural globalization refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations. This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel. This has added to processes of commodity exchange and colonization which have a longer history of carrying cultural meaning around the globe. The circulation of cultures enables individuals to partake in extended social relations that cross national and regional borders. The creation and expansion of such social relations is not merely observed on a material level. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings increasing interconnectedness among different populations and cultures. The idea of cultural globalization emerged in the late 1980s, but was diffused widely by Western academics throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. For some researchers, the idea of cultural globalization is reaction to the claims made by critics of cultural imperialism in the 1970s and 1980s.
Global leadership is the interdisciplinary study of the key elements that future leaders in all realms of the personal experience should acquire to effectively familiarize themselves with the psychological, physiological, geographical, geopolitical, anthropological and sociological effects of globalization. Global leadership occurs when an individual or individuals navigate collaborative efforts of different stakeholders through environmental complexity towards a vision by leveraging a global mindset. Today, global leaders must be capable of connecting "people across countries and engage them to global team collaboration in order to facilitate complex processes of knowledge sharing across the globe" Personality characteristics, as well as a cross-cultural experience, appear to influence effectiveness in global leaders.
Eileen Sheridan Wibbeke was an Irish-American organizational theorist, intercultural consultant, and author in the field of global leadership known for the development of Wibbeke’s Geoleadership Model of global business leadership competencies.
Intercultural intelligence, or ICI, is a term that is used for the capability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings and consists of different dimensions which are correlated to effectiveness in global environment. Intercultural intelligence differs from cultural intelligence in that it is based from the belief in interculturalism while CQ is based from the belief in multiculturalism. The term was first used in 2006 in response to the qualities observed in international executives that enabled them to succeed globally.
Paula Caligiuri is an American academic, talent management specialist, psychologist, book author, and entrepreneur. As a Distinguished Professor of international business and strategy, she is on the faculty at D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University. Her published contributions in the field of international human resource management have won academic distinctions, and been endorsed in scholarly literature and in wider professional circles. Among her books, Get a Life, Not a Job, Managing the Global Workforce,Cultural Agility: Building a Pipeline of Successful Global Professionals, and Build Your Cultural Agility: The Nine Competencies of Successful Global Professionals, received attention by qualified media. In 2023, she wrote Live for a Living: How to Create your Career Journey to Work Happier, Not Harder with Andrew Palmer (Technologist), which focuses on career development. She is ranked # 392 among the best business and management scientists in the US, 810 worldwide.
Social work management is the management of organisations or enterprises in the social economy and non-profit sector, e.g., public service providers, charities, youth welfare offices, associations, etc. Social work management has been traditionally pursued by social workers, social pedagogues, pedagogues, psychologists without additional management skills and knowledge or legal practitioners and business economists – often without reference to the social economy. Furthermore, Social work management is a field of education & practice established since 1980s in Europe & North America that focuses on person-centred leadership, motivation & strategic issues. It manages organizations in social economy & non-profit sector.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)