Cultural Competence: What It Is and Why You Need It

The world has become a global village whereby cross-cultural interactions have become exponentially faster than a decade ago. Globalization has made these interactions exceptionally complex yet necessary for the opportunities and positive changes of these interactions. To navigate these cross-cultural interactions, individuals must have the necessary skills, attitudes, and knowledge to work cross-culturally to ensure no conflicts arise. 

Cultural competence is a popular framework that has been adopted in working with different cultures. Cultural competence can be defined as the ability to communicate, understand and effectively interact with individuals across multiple cultures (Gopalkrishnan, 2019). The notion presented by culture in the world can be flexible and dynamic; thus, cultural interaction can help transform cultures (Gopalkrishnan, 2019). Through cultural interactions, individuals learn and gain cultural competence. Cultural competence ensures that individuals have positive attitudes towards others’ cultures and aspire to learn more about them. Moreover, it ensures that individuals are aware of their world view and develop effective cross-cultural communication skills. 

Cultural competence is also known to encourage the acceptance and acknowledgment of people’s different backgrounds, religions, and cultural practices. Everyone comes from different backgrounds that fuel their belief systems (Gopalkrishnan, 2019). They are likely to have different religions, which people from different cultures must learn about and respect. Their different environment aspects will also inform their practices, which is up to us to learn about them and accept them as they are (Gopalkrishnan, 2019). However, with the dynamic nature of culture, one can expect that the global interconnectedness will result in the changing of many cultures to adapt to new attitudes, habits, norms, and customs. This will make it easier to interact with one another and reduce instances of insensitivity, unresponsiveness, and unreasoned assumptions brought about by cultural incompetence. 

Reference 

Gopalkrishnan, N. (2019). Cultural competence and beyond: Working across cultures in culturally dynamic partnerships.  The International Journal of Community and Social Development ,  1 (1), 28-41. https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1177/2516602619826712