PARADIGM SHIFT: Measuring Organizational Intercultural Competence through Relationships, not Individuals

The traditional approach to measuring organizational competence rests on outdated assumptions about reality, individuals, and groups. In a world of increasing complexity and unpredictability, we need a paradigm shift – from measuring isolated individual intercultural competence to diagnosing and developing the dynamic relationships that generate value and adaptability.

This article challenges eight key assumptions, proposes new perspectives and offers a diagnostic tool to support the paradigm shift:

1. From Fixed Reality to Relational Outcomes: Instead of treating the world as having a single "truth" to be discovered, we need to recognize that meaning and outcomes emerge from our relationships with it. Measuring organizational intercultural effectiveness requires understanding these relationships, not just separate objects or people.

2. Beyond Individual Competence: We must move beyond solely assessing individual intercultural skills and talents. The key lies in understanding the quality of relationships between individuals and groups within diverse cultural contexts.

3. Groups are not Individuals: Aggregating individual assessments cannot capture the unique dynamics of groups. Groups are emergent systems, and their competence arises from the coordinated interactions within them.

4. Building, not Causing, Competence: Individual competence contributes to, but does not solely determine, organizational competence. We need to focus on nurturing coordinated adaptability across the diverse workforce.

5. Culture is Dynamic: Culture is not static but constantly evolving. We need to measure how a more nuanced approach to experiencing cultural differences can unlock potential synergies and value creation.

6. Predicting Probability, not Certainty: Future events can only be predicted as probabilities that depend on relational conditions, so measuring competence should include a focus on the probability of successfully adapting to those diverse diverse conditions, not predicting guaranteed outcomes.

7. Diversity as an Asset, not a Battleground for Frustration: We must shift from valuing diversity simply for representation to actively leveraging it for innovation and synergy in changing social conditions. This may require individual development as well as effective group structures. Combined, this will facilitate higher levels of intercultural synergy, generating a sustainably inclusive environment.?

8. Synergy – More than the Sum of its Parts: Diversity's true value lies in its potential to generate more value than individual contributions combined. Measuring competence requires understanding how relationships across diversity facilitate this synergy.

So, how do we measure Intercultural Competence at the organizational level?

The current tools fall short, as they often rely on individual assessments and static models of culture. However, in a joint collaboration with leading intercultural thinker, Dr. Milton J. Bennett , we have been developing a promising possibility that addresses each of the above paradigm shifts – the Intercultural Viability Indicator?:

The Intercultural Viability Indicator (IVI) is a constructivist assessment tool designed to measure a group's potential to adapt to unknown future changes in social environments, including new forms and constellations of diversity and otherness. It operates at a group level, treating the group as a unique entity, not an aggregate of individual measurements. The IVI uses scales based on Milton Bennett’s well-established Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) to analyze the interaction between individuals' self-perception and their perception of group behavior in terms of increasing layers of intercultural sensitivity. These Intercultural ViabilityTM scores are compared across organizations that have completed the IVI, so companies can see how well they are doing in terms of synergy potential across diversity compared to other organizations. Any claims of ‘we value diversity’ can be supported or dismantled by indicative data.

Quick paradigm explainer: imagine three ways of looking at a game: Positivism is like knowing the rules, Relativism is understanding that different players may have different strategies, and Constructivism is like realizing that the game can change based on how players interact with each other and the game itself. In the IVI we recognize that the game (or “reality”) changes based on how we interact with it.

By embracing these new perspectives and adopting an innovative diagnostic tool like the IVI, we can shift from outdated individual-centric models to a holistic understanding of organizational intercultural competence as a product of dynamic relationships and coordinated adaptability. This shift is crucial for organizations to thrive in a world of continuous change and cultural complexity.

Imagine something that replaces ‘diversity audits’ by measuring your organization’s potential to generate value from its diverse workforce. The IVI goes beyond static snapshots of representation or aggregated intercultural competence, offering a dynamic indicator of your organization's cultural agility and its potential to unlock the unique strengths of diverse teams. It’s a data-driven stimulus for strategic action:

• Benchmarking your Intercultural Viability scores against industry leaders?to identify 8 specific business contexts - like meetings or feedback situations - ?either for improvement or to celebrate achievements.
• Unveiling hidden patterns?in collaboration networks,?revealing which sub-groups are most effectively leveraging their differences.
• Guiding targeted interventions?to foster deeper intercultural understanding and unlock hidden pockets of synergy, as well as knowing if intercultural development is more required at the individual level or at a structural level where processes may be putting some cultural groups at a disadvantage.

If this has stimulated your curiosity, then more in-depth information on how the IVI works can be found here: https://www.interculturalviability.com ?

or contact [email protected] ?or [email protected] ?if you are interested in using within your organization.

Happy to start a conversation around your own thoughts and experiences in how to measure Intercultural Competence at an organizational level in the comments below.

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