Introduction to Intercultural Competence Development

Intercultural competence does not represent an independent area of competence, but is best understood in the sense of Latin competere: "to bring together" as the ability to relate individual, social, professional and strategic partial competences in their best possible combination to intercultural contexts of action. Accordingly, intercultural competence is not a key qualification, but a cross-sectional task whose success requires the interplay of various key qualifications.

Holistic-integrative teaching of competence is supported by conscious didactic development of intercultural teaching materials. In the rarest cases, correspondingly elaborated learning units are available. "Quarry" materials such as role plays, critical incidents or case studies lead to an unbalanced and often interconnected distribution of learning content.

Intercultural competence is realised very differently depending on the primary socialisation contexts of the participants. Consequently, it is not a universal but a decidedly culture-specific competence.

Systematic development of intercultural competence usually takes place either "off the job" as instruction or training or "on the job" in the form of coaching and mediation measures.

The video gives some detail on the reasons, objectives and processes related to mediation in an intercultural business context.