The Importance of Intercultural Competence in Today's Workforce

By: Michael Foster

“It's in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough — it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing. To Steve Jobs, combining the arts with technology was the key to making Apple so successful.”

--Stephen Rosenbaum, excerpted from an article written for Fast Company (2011)

With the ever-shrinking world and globalized workforce, thanks in part to technology at our fingertips, those of us teaching and doing research in the field of world languages work tirelessly to prepare students to be future global citizens who are prepared to enter this multicultural and multilingual labor force. As suggested by the quote above alluding to Steve Job’s view on the workforce – which is one made stronger by the humanities – we must ensure that we are preparing our students to master the new requirements of this global market. 

One essential component of these requirements is to possess intercultural competence, which Deardorff (2006) defines thusly: 

“Intercultural competence is a lifelong process that includes the development of the attitudes (respect and valuing of other cultures, openness, curiosity), knowledge (of self, culture, sociolinguistic issues) skills (listen, observe, interpret, analyze, evaluate, and relate), and qualities (adaptability, flexibility, empathy, and cultural decentering) in order to behave and communicate effectively and appropriately to achieve one’s goals to some degree” (254).

When students learn a new language, they also learn about the culture in which that language is spoken, and they acquire this intercultural competence along with their language skills. Even if a student is no longer currently studying the language, they have learned the necessary skill set of understanding a new culture and how to interact “effectively” with others from that culture, as Deardorff describes above. 

“Is such a skill set really necessary for success in the modern world?” is a common question one might hear when looking for a job after college. The answer to this question is a resounding “Yes,” as possessing intercultural competence was ranked fourth in the top 10 work skills sought by companies according to Future Work Skills 2020. With such an important and fundamental skill set in demand these days, students need the opportunity to converse and interact with multicultural and multilingual professionals from a variety of career sectors to help them see that such careers are right in their own backyard. The upcoming Careers and Cultural Diversity Fair, which will take place in the Ballroom of the EMU Student Center on April 4th from 3:45-5PM, will be such an opportunity for students, staff, administrators, and others in the EMU community to see firsthand how multicultural and multilingual professionals use their intercultural competence and language skills in their careers. 

Specifically, invited guests will interact with participants and share with them their professional background, and their experiences and opportunities linked to working in a diverse workplace. The focus is to cultivate awareness of how broadening their understanding of languages and multicultural competence can help today’s professionals to overcome challenges and to advance in their careers.

One of the best examples of a career providing someone with the skillset of lifelong intercultural competency is when the person is immersed in a new culture and language for a duration of time while they are working. Such an opportunity came around for me over 20 years ago when I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar and taught English. During my Peace Corps service, I had to live with a Malagasy host family for several months to learn the language and the culture before moving to my site, where I then used my newly-acquired language and intercultural competence to settle into life there. All these years later I still credit the Peace Corps for teaching me these important professional skills that I still use in my career today as a teacher educator helping mentor and train future world languages teachers. 

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) go into a variety of careers such as healthcare, government, education, law, business, and others, where they continue to use these valuable skills that they honed and perfected during their time of service. The local Detroit area recruiter from the Peace Corps will be one of the invited participants to the upcoming Careers and Cultural Diversity Fair to speak to members of the EMU community about how they can further develop and utilize their own intercultural competence in such a career path that will undoubtedly serve them throughout their careers. 

Several professionals from different career backgrounds in southeast Michigan, including in healthcare and engineering, will be in attendance to speak with EMU students and community members about these important skills.  We hope that you will spread the word to your students so that they can take advantage of this unique event!