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"Culture hides much more than it reveals, and strangely enough what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants. Years of study have convinced me that the real job is not to understand foreign culture but to understand our own."
- Edward Hall, 1959
The influence of culture is accepted in certain disciplines, including the social sciences, anthropology, communication and management. However, within and between disciplines there are diverse and often divergent discourses regarding the nature and role of culture. Hall's quote highlights the difficulty of understanding culture and of establishing what constitutes cross-cultural effectiveness. In recent years the terms "cultural competence," "cross-cultural competence" and "cultural intelligence" have become widespread. Cross-cultural competence also underpins the concept of "culturally inclusive practice," referring to the ability to provide services, such as health and education, appropriately in a culturally diverse society.
In Australia, the need for cross-cultural competence is recognized in national policy and is increasingly in practice in all tiers of government and community organizations. The health industry is particularly active in developing policy, guidelines, resources and training programs to enhance cultural competence. Health organizations, for example, are wellrepresented in a current national research project investigating cross-cultural training (CCT) in the Australian public sector. (See Sidebar I)
A national survey reveals the widening use of and increased demand for CCT across the public sector. The demand for CCT has grown since the late 1970s, driven by multicultural policy and the need for organizational effectiveness in managing diverse workforces and providing services to a multicultural society. Current social trends and policy directions, combined with the recognition of future challenges presented by globalization, migration patterns, multiculturalism and commitment to the Charter of Public Service in a Culturally Diverse Society1 ensure continuing demand for this training.
In this article, I will define cross-cultural competence and examine the role and effectiveness of cross-cultural training.2
What is Cross-Cultural Competence?
To define cross-cultural competence we must first define "culture." A working definition of "culture" is: the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings, which is transmitted from one generation to another. There are scores of definitions that expand on the concept of learned and shared behavior, including phrases such as:
* "Patterns of...