Page 492 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

470 Elisabeth Prechtl and Anne Davidson Lund

– skills of interpreting and relating, on interpreting and documents are events
from another culture and relating in them to one’s own;
– skills of discovery and interaction: acquiring new knowledge of a culture
and cultural practices, communicate and interact;
– critical cultural awareness: of criteria, perspectives, practices and products
in one’s own an other cultures.
These five theoretically derived components have been subject to empirical
validation through fieldwork with language learners.

2.3. Insights from management science
In the world of international assignments and ‘culture shock’, technical and
managerial employees have been involved in empirical studies to derive com-
ponents of a theory of intercultural competence. Several factors that contribute
to success in intercultural encounters have been identified.
According to Kealey (1996), three interrelated ‘soft’ or personal skills are
required for effective intercultural collaboration:
– adaptation skills
– cross-cultural skills
– partnership skills
Adaptation skills relate to the ability to cope with experiences resulting from
crossing cultural boundaries; they entail competences such as flexibility and
stress tolerance. Cross-cultural skills, such as cultural sensitivity, realism and
political astuteness, enable an individual to participate in a host culture. Partner-
ship skills, such as openness to others and perseverance, facilitate the establish-
ment of effective working relationships with colleagues from different cultures.
In order to describe important intercultural variables, Kühlmann and Stahl
(1998) asked expatriates about “critical incidents” encountered during their
overseas assignment (Stahl 2001). They derived seven factors critical to success
in an international working environment:

– Tolerance for ambiguity
– Behavioural flexibility
– Goal orientation
– Sociability and interest in other people
– Empathy
– Non-judgmentalness
– Meta-communication skills (Kühlmann and Stahl 1998; Stahl 2001: 201)

According to Stahl, these factors represent “the minimum requirements for
an international assignment” (2001: 203). They represent key components of