2/2014 http://www.business-spotlight.de 37INTERVIEW INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIONWhat is intercultural competence and
why does it matter?
In business culture, intercultural com-
petence has to do with the knowl-
edge, skills and attitudes you need to
create value for your business from
cultural differences. We talk about
return on culture like a return on
investment. More practically, it has to
do with people’s attitudes. The atti-
tudes that I think are part of inter-
cultural competence are things like
curiosity. That can be reflected in
the willingness to learn languages.
Many people who are interested in
other cultures like to learn foreign
languages. It has to do with being able
to communicate effectively across
cultures, and it has a lot to do with
respect for differences and feeling
empathyfor people: putting yourself
in other people’s shoes. People who
are interculturally competent are able
to deal with conflict, and they gener-
ally see culture not as a problem but
as a competitive advantage.
I think it matters at all sorts of lev-
els. It matters at the individual level,
for business travel or if you go on a
foreign assignment to a different
country. You’re going to be confront-
ed with differences and you have to
live and work there successfully. It
can be at a level of avoiding misun-
derstandings, but also developing
positive relationships with people. At
the team level, many people these
days work in international teams, and
you need intercultural competence
to run those teams effectively or to
contribute tothem effectively. And at
the organizational level, it’s about
creating synergies between organiza-
tions. As companies grow, they take
over companies from different cul-
tures, and there you are confronted
with cultural differences, involving
not only national culture but also
corporateculture.Has people’s understanding of inter-
cultural communication changed
over the past 20 years?
It’s changed a lot since I first got in-
volved, in the late 1980s. And I think
that’s because more and more people
are confronted with individuals from
different cultures than ever before.
That’s part of globalization. There are
also changes in the way people com-
municate. We’ve now got social me-
dia and the influence of the internet.
New target groupsare becoming in-
volved in intercultural communica-
tion. For example, a group that I
worked with recently was medical
staff in hospitals, who are confronted
with patients from a wide variety of
cultures. We’ve got the spread of the
cultures, we’ve got different people
being involved and we’ve got the dif-
ferent ways in which they communi-
cate and collaborate.Doesn’t that also implythat it’s not
just about intercultural competence?
It’s also about having good interper-
sonal skills, isn’t it?
Something that people often talk
about is the interfacebetween inter-
personal skills and intercultural skills.
Obviously, interpersonal skills are
part of the deal. Intercultural compe-collaborate [kE(lÄbEreIt]zusammenarbeiten
competitive advantage Wettbewerbsvorteil
[kEm)petEtIv
Ed(vA:ntIdZ]
contribute to sth. einen Beitrag zu
[kEn(trIbju:t tu] etw. leisten
corporate [(kO:pErEt] Unternehmens-
empathy: feel ~ for sb. jmdm. gegenüber
[(empETi] Einfühlungsvermö-
gen zeigen
foreign assignment Auslandstätigkeit,
[)fQrEn E(saInmEnt] -einsatz
graduate school Hochschulabteilung
[(grÄdZuEt sku:l] für weiterführende
Studienabschlüsse
(nach dem Bache-
lor)
imply sth. [Im(plaI] etw. implizieren,
beinhalten
interface [(IntEfeIs] Schnittstelle
launch sth. etw. starten, auf
[lO:ntS] dem Markt ein-
führen
MBA (Master of BusinessManagement-
Administration) Aufbaustudiengang
[)em bi: (eI]
research [ri(s§:tS] Forschung
return [ri(t§:n] Gewinn, Ertrag
return on investment Kapitalrendite
(ROI)
[ri)t§:n Qn In(vestmEnt]
shoes: put oneself in sich in jmdn.
sb. else’s ~ [Su:z] hineinversetzen
target group Zielgruppe
[(tA:gIt gru:p]4
“Intercultural
competence
is important at
the individual,
team and
organizational level”
Robert Gibsonis responsible for the development of in-
tercultural business competence at Siemens AG and has
written Business Spotlight’s Intercultural Communication
section since the magazine was launchedin 2001. He
develops and runs intercultural training for individuals,
teams and organizations. He is a former vice president
of SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training
and Research) Europa and is a guest professor in the
MBAprogrammes of the Alma Graduate Schoolat the
University of Bologna. His publications include Intercul-
tural Business Communication(Cornelsen & OUP).36-40 Interculture mainB 2_14 14.01.14 13:46 Seite 37