Page 454 - Cultures and Organizations

Intercultural Encounters 419

tries, as well as 90 of their host country counterparts. It identifi ed three
components:

1. Intercultural interaction and training, related to involvement with the
local culture and people and with transfer of skills
2. Professional effectiveness, related to the performance of daily tasks,
duties, and responsibilities on the job
3. Personal and family adjustment and satisfaction, related to the capac-
ity for basic satisfaction while living abroad, as an individual and as a
family unit

From these three, the expatriates were found to be generally competent
on components 2 and 3 but lacking on component 1. Local counterparts
stressed the transfer of job skills through intercultural interaction and
training as the most crucial dimension of expatriate success. 42
A study by the development cooperation agencies of the Nordic coun-
tries Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden focused on the effectiveness
of Nordic technical assistance personnel in eastern Africa. It criticized the
priorities set by the donors: from nine hundred Nordic expatriates, two-
thirds were implementers (carrying out projects themselves) while only

one-fifth were trainers of local personnel or consultants in local institution
building. According to the researchers, the ratio between the two catego-
ries should have been reversed. This format would have sharply reduced

the number of expatriates needed and changed the profile of skills required
from them. 43

In summary, assuming sufficient institutional support, intercultural
encounters in the context of development cooperation will be productive if

there is a two-way flow of know-how: technical know-how from the donor
to the receiver, and cultural know-how about the context in which the

technical know-how should be applied, from the receiver to the donor. A
technical expert meets a cultural expert, and their mutual expertise is the
basis for their mutual respect.

Learning Intercultural Communication

The acquisition of intercultural communication abilities passes through
three phases: awareness, knowledge, and skills. Awareness is where it all
starts: the recognition that I carry a particular mental software because of