The Intercultural Competence Models

As described in the previous chapter, practitioners use different approaches to understand intercultural competence in different facets of organizational lives, including situations of overseas performance, intercultural adjustment, and effective intercultural performance. However, due to a high level of complexity of intercultural situations some theoretical background and knowledge of existing models of intercultural competence is deemed necessary. This chapter describes the foundational dimensions of intercultural competence and presents modes typical models of intercultural competence, including the compositional, relational, behavioral, traits and skills, developmental and causal models. While these models are descriptive and multifaceted, a more integrated model of intercultural competence would be helpful to better examine and understand the intercultural competence phenomenon in multicultural organizations. Hence, this chapter introduces the collaborative intercultural competence model and explains its dimensions and applications.