Abstract
In today’s business world, we frequently find ourselves interacting with leaders, team members, colleagues in other locales, and an array of stakeholders with diverse cultural backgrounds. These cultural interactions occur whether we are living and working in our countries of origin or in countries where we have chosen to relocate for personal and professional reasons. In this milieu, our success is tied to our understanding of the implicit beliefs, values, and assumptions that guide our individual actions, and the recognition that “our effectiveness with others can be enhanced by knowing, honoring and welcoming difference” (Fisher-Yoshida and Geller, 2009: xv). It is the deepening awareness that “intercultural encounters are a pervasive feature of our modern workplaces and affect most of us” (Nardon, 2017: 4) that frames the focus of Working in a Multicultural World: A Guide to Developing Intercultural Competence. Drawing on her life experiences—growing up in Brazil; attending graduate education in the United States; teaching in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Denmark, and the United States; and serving in a faculty role in a School of Business in Canada—Luciara Nardon notes that This book is aimed at helping you develop constructive ways of thinking about intercultural interactions and acquire the skills needed to deal with the complex multicultural reality of today’s workplace. (p. 4)
Working in a Multicultural World: A Guide to Developing Intercultural Competence (Nardon, 2017) is a refreshing, timely, and theory-based book about practice. Aimed at working professionals, students, and international travelers, Nardon offers a framework and discussion that may be useful to those seeking to better understand and improve personal intercultural awareness and skills. The book is refreshing because it connects extensive research and theory (e.g. learning pedagogy, social psychology, anthropology, management, and neuroscience) to real-world practical applications in an accessible way. Nardon draws from her own research and personal experiences to provide authentic examples of intercultural dilemmas, and various ways in which these dilemmas might be addressed. The book is timely because traditional boundaries separating people across the globe are yielding to permeable interfaces (e.g. international business, web-based video conferences) that connect rather than isolate. The book is both theory-based and practical as the concepts being presented and applied have been developed based on extensive research—both current and classical.
We were each hooked from the outset when an initial glance at the references revealed that the first authors cited were among our favorites, Jack Mezirow (1990), Julia Cameron (2016), and Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe (2007). Mezirow’s adult learning pedagogy—transformative learning—provides a structured approach to learning that “help[s] us understand the process of intercultural learning and the development of intercultural competence … [in which] learning is a process of revising our mental models that result in changes in our interpretation of experience and action” (Nardon, 2017; p. 9). Cameron is well known as screenwriter and author who promotes the use of reflective journaling to develop awareness, enhance insight, unleash creativity, and release writer’s block. Weick (2009) is a renowned scholar who elegantly developed the concept of sensemaking within individuals and in organizations; we see Weick’s work metaphorically as exploring an idea from the inside out. Nardon draws upon the work of these three authors to set the stage for creating stories and using reflective practice to make sense of individual experiences.
The book is composed of nine chapters, which Nardon (2017) organizes around three themes about the development of intercultural competence: (1) understanding the learning process (Chapters 1 and 2), (2) increasing awareness of relevant factors (Chapters 3–5), and (3) developing practical skills (Chapters 6–9) (p. xxi).
Understanding the learning process
In Chapter 1, Nardon (2017) distinguishes between cultural competence and intercultural competence noting that in “intercultural interaction, our habitual or readily available behaviors may not be effective or desirable, and our values, beliefs, and assumptions may not be shared” (p. 8). She introduces transformative learning as the book’s underlying premise for recognizing personal mental models and critically reassessing “assumptions, beliefs and premises” (p. 11). Nardon then represents the stages of intercultural development as evolving from a monocultural mental mode to a cross-cultural understanding, to the goal of an intercultural mental model. Each chapter in the book ends with a Reflective Exercise. In Chapter 1, Nardon asks the reader to brainstorm for 5 minutes a list of words that describe past and present intercultural experiences, and then highlight those that reflect the reader’s beliefs, and consider how these have influenced intercultural interactions.
Chapter 2 unpacks the concept of reflective practice, which Nardon (2017) defines as a “thinking process that consists of focusing our mind on critically examining a thought, event, or situation in an attempt to make it more comprehensible and to learn from it” (p. 23). The idea that we story our experiences is explored along with the power of critical reflection (e.g. questioning one’s assumptions), and both are advanced along with the guidance to engage with this process on a regular—ideally daily—basis. The Reflective Exercise in Chapter 2 asks the reader to develop a “detailed description of an intercultural situation” (p. 38) describing the context, those present, what was said or done, and how the writer felt. Then the writer is asked to reassess the situation and bring in information not presented in the original representation, identify the assumptions that were guiding the behavior of the participants, and consider options for changing the dialogue and the outcome. This story is revisited at the end of each chapter that follows with questions specific to each chapter’s content.
Increasing awareness of relevant factors
In Chapter 3, Nardon (2017) explores the role of context in intercultural interactions and highlights the need for intercultural sensemaking. In this process, cross-cultural individuals endeavor to arrive at a shared “understanding of what is going on” (p. 44), that is then enacted “through … attention, interpretation, and interactions with others” (p. 47). This approach emphasizes that individuals construct situations “through interactions with materials and social elements present in that context” (p. 48). The Reflective Exercise has the reader revisiting the intercultural situation created in Chapter 2 with a focus on the context of the interaction and the macrocultural aspects of the situation. Nardon asks the reader to revisit the situation as described and amended critically reflecting on what was missing, how assumptions were being portrayed, and how goals influenced actions.
Chapter 4 draws upon research and theory in sociology and anthropology to examine the concept of culture. Nardon (2017) uses Swidler’s (1986) definition of culture, “as a toolkit of symbols, stories, rituals, and worldviews that help the people of a culture to survive and succeed” (p. 62). Nardon posits from her experience that we typically attribute culture to others but not ourselves (p. 59). In intercultural interactions, individuals use cultural schemas or stored information that “guides interpretations, expectations, and responses” (p. 65), but Nardon cautions that these filters, if unexamined, may be loaded with cultural biases. In the Reflective Exercise of Chapter 4, the reader is asked to consider how national and organizational cultures have affected the participants’ interactions described in the story.
Chapter 5 focuses on exploring the role of individual differences in intercultural interactions (Nardon, 2017: 77). The discussion includes reviewing personality traits based on Lawlor and Little’s (2016) Big Five Framework, wherein individual personality is said to derive from genetic disposition, cultural environment, and personal plans, aspirations, and personal projects (audio). Individuals’ sensitivity to context is also explored; some individuals are more aware of situational cues than others through a process called “self-monitoring” (p. 83). Nardon advocates self-awareness as a mechanism for “noticing and accepting our sensitivities … [to help us] identify when an intercultural conflict is not about the other, but about how we think of ourselves” (p. 89). In this chapter’s Reflective Exercise, the reader is asked to develop the story as a script for a play or a film. Beginning with character development, the reader is asked to identify what the main character is passionate about, acknowledge his or her talents, and choose a scene and write it in detail. Then in reflecting on the script, the reader is asked to consider each character’s salient traits including both strengths and weaknesses and to recognize the role of culture, context, and individual characteristics at play.
Developing practical skills
Chapter 6 digs deeper into the relationship between individual characteristics and specific situations. Situational strength is defined as the degree to which cues are provided about desired behaviors (p. 96). Nardon (2017) draws upon Meyer et al.’s (2010) work on situational strength to identify factors, including “clarity and consistency of behavioral expectations, the constraints imposed on behavior, and the consequences of behaving in ways that do not fit expectations” (p. 97). Strategies for managing intercultural situations, such as structuring interpretations and structuring action, are explored. As the reader continues to unpack his or her intercultural story, this chapter’s Reflective Exercise asks him or her to focus on how the environment could be altered, roles clarified, and attention targeted to gain a better outcome.
Chapter 7 probes the need for individuals to manage their feelings and emotions by calling on emotional literacy. Nardon (2017) discusses how intercultural reactions are the result of personal feelings, emotional self-awareness, and cultural influences. She reviews mechanisms for managing feelings, including venting in a supportive face-to-face environment, reflective journaling, and mindfulness. The Reflective Exercise in Chapter 7 focuses the reader on acknowledging their feelings, reflecting on one’s ability to be empathetic, and understanding how clarifying feelings can affect the interaction.
In Chapter 8, Nardon (2017) focuses on “ways in which culture influences communication and discusses mechanisms … to communicate more effectively in intercultural situations” (p. 136). She explores the idea of creating common ground in detail. Nardon notes that communication is filtered through an individual’s cultural lens and that this is an often-unconscious process. Valuable strategies, such as being aware of cultural protocols and attending to body language, are necessary skills for productive intercultural exchanges and thus intercultural competence. In this chapter’s Reflective Exercise, Nardon has the reader consider the dialogue that has been scripted, noting what was said, and identifying what was not said or acknowledged, but present. In this process, she asks the reader to consider how the unstated assumptions and feelings affected the interaction, and in reflection, how changing the pattern of communication might change the outcome.
In the final chapter, Chapter 9, Nardon (2017) brings all the pieces together while highlighting that intercultural competence is a process of continuous development. She emphasizes the value of engaging in intercultural experiences as learning opportunities and seeking cultural information through a variety of means. She cautions that while cultural information can be accessed easily with technology, readers need to be critical consumers as such information may be “fraught with contradictions, misinformation, biases, and generalizations that may hinder our ability to work across cultures” (p. 167). Nardon concludes by stating that “intercultural competence is not a trait … [but] a skill” (p. 169) that continuously evolves over time through experiences and training.
Nardon’s (2017) work leans toward the practitioner side of the scholar—practitioner divide. While intended for the individual, a faculty with a commitment to adult learning pedagogy might choose to integrate the book, and the writing and reflection exercise into the dialogic development of a course on developing intercultural competence. Its use would allow for deepening conversations on social and cultural identity among the students, bringing to consciousness the acknowledgment and honoring of difference, and offering skills to enhance communication.