THE CULTURAL AGILITY

Phuoc D. Nguyen

Caligiuri (2012) defines “Cultural agility as the mega-competency that enables professionals to perform successfully in cross-cultural situations.” (p. 25). Hunt & Orange (2015) define “Cultural agility might be considered to be the process whereby people in the majority acquire and employ these same skills to build trust and relationship in an increasingly diverse world.” (p. 2). Furthermore, cultural agility is a process of cross-cultural knowledge, attributes, skills, and competency development that enables professionals and organizations to learn, acquire, build, manage, integrate, and develop a set of appropriate cross-cultural competencies and traits for cross-cultural diverse working environments globally. Caligiuri’s (2012) and Hunt & Orange’s (2015) cultural agility definitions focus on individuals only, but not organizations. Globally organizations should establish cultural agility norms first which are based on their cultural change plan and strategy, and then their professionals who will develop their cultural agility competency and attributes to follow it and adapt to cross-cultural situations realistically. Additionally, globally organizations based on cross-cultural situations realistically adjust and update their cultural agility norms appropriately and periodically.

Caligiuri (2012) proposes “As a mega-competency, cultural agility represents the ability to toggle successfully among three possible responses in cross-cultural contexts: minimization, adaptation, and integration.” (p. 50). Hunt & Orange (2015) describe Terry Cross’ (1988) the Cross Model of Cultural Competence consists of six stages: “(1) Cultural Destructiveness, (2) Cultural Incapacity, (3) Cultural Blindness, (4) Cultural Pre-Competence or Agility, (5) Basic Cultural Competence or Agility, and (6) Advanced Cultural Competence.” (p. 3). Whereas Campinha-Bacote (2009) suggests A Model of Cultural Competence of Care for African Americans that involves the integration of cultural desire, cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, and cultural encounters. Terry Cross’ (1988) The Cross Model of Cultural Competence, should consist of seven stages respectively: (1) Cultural Blindness, (2) Cultural Incapacity, (3) Cultural Destructiveness, (4) Cultural diagnosis and training, (5) Cultural Pre-Competence or Agility, (6) Basic Cultural Competence or Agility, and (7) Advanced Cultural Competence. Cultural Pre-Competence or Agility is the same as cross-cultural competencies’ “First-level indicator of cultural agility, a foundation on which the higher-level competencies are developed.” (Caligiuri, 2012, p.28). Basic Cultural Competence or Agility is the same as “Level 2: leverage multiple cultural responses – to use cultural adaptation, cultural minimization, and cultural integration, when needed – and as appropriate.” (Caligiuri, 2012, p.29). Advanced Cultural Competence is the same as “Level 3: succeed in cross-cultural tasks, jobs, and roles – To access accurately and respond effectively in situations where the cultural context will affect the outcome.” (Caligiuri, 2012, p.29). Campinha-Bacote’s (2009) component of cultural encounters should be integrated into the Cultural diagnosis and training stage; components of cultural desire and cultural awareness should be integrated into Caligiuri’s (2012) level first; the component of cultural knowledge should be integrated into Level 2, and the component of cultural skill which should integrate it into Level 3.