INCA

THE THEORY

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE ASSESSMENT

(INCA)

Produced with support from

© INCA, LdVII, 2004

 INCA THEORY – AN OVERVIEW

July 2004

A) Motivation B) Skill/Knowledge C) Behaviour

i)
Tolerance for Readiness to embrace Ability to handle stress Managing
ambiguity and work with consequent on ambiguity ambiguous
ambiguity situations

ii)
Behavioural Readiness to apply and Having a broad repertoire Adapting one’s
flexibility augment the full range and the knowledge of behaviour to the
of one’s existing one’s repertoire specific situation
repertoire of behaviour
iii)
Communicativ Willingness to modify Ability to identify different Negotiating
e existing communicative communicative appropriate
awareness conventions conventions, levels of communicative
foreign language conventions for
competencies and their intercultural
impact on intercultural communication and
communication coping with different
foreign language
skills

iv)
Knowledge Curiosity about other Skills of ethnographic Seeking information
discovery cultures in themselves discovery of situation- to discover culture-
and in order to be able relevant cultural knowledge related knowledge
to interact better with (including technical
people knowledge) before, during
and after intercultural
encounters

v)
Respect for Willingness to respect Critical knowledge of such Treating equally
otherness the diversity and systems (including one’s different behaviour,
coherence of own when making value and
behaviour, value and judgements) convention systems
belief systems experienced in
intercultural
encounters

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vi)
Empathy Willingness to take the Skills of role-taking Making explicit and
other’s perspectives de-centring; relating culture-
awareness of different specific
perspectives perspectives to
each other

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i) TOLERANCE FOR AMBIGUITY

The significance

In interaction with people of other cultures, people often have concrete aims
they wish to achieve such as agreeing a contract, and in this case otherness
is not only interesting but also a potential barrier. People who are ‘tolerant of
ambiguity’ are able to meet this challenge and accept ambiguity, whilst finding
a solution – and enjoying the experience of otherness.

Tolerance for ambiguity is the ability to accept ambiguity and lack of

clarity and to be able to deal with this constructively.

Since members of foreign cultures show different ways of behaviour, have

different standards and have different opinions, a lot of uncertainty and
unpredictability emerges for an individual. The person who is acting in such an
intercultural situation often does not know which behaviour is expected and
how behaviour is evaluated. For instance, the temporal order of action or the
division of labour in other cultures differ from those of one’s own culture.
Tolerance for ambiguity means to be able to accept such uncertainties and
ambiguities, and to find solutions to problems which they might create.

In contrast, persons with a low degree of tolerance for ambiguity experience

unstructured and ambiguous situations as unpleasant and threatening. They
either try to avoid such situations or to get out of them as soon as possible. If
this is impossible, they feel visibly uncomfortable, misinterpret unclear
situations and simplify ambiguities. When trying to solve such problems, they
often neglect a part of the problem and search for simple solutions. When
confronted with contradictory and ambiguous opinions they search for a
compromise and prefer a very clear and definite way of proceeding.

Motivation
When persons with a high degree of tolerance for ambiguity are confronted
with values, opinions, and ways of behaviour that contradict their own, they
consider this situation interesting and a challenge. Persons with tolerance for
ambiguity consider ambiguity as something positive and are interested in
managing such situations in a constructive way.

Knowledge/skills
They are able to consider several perspectives and opinions when looking at
a problem and they are able to find a solution that satisfies all the people
involved.

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Behaviour
They take into account all the differences and the various aims of the partners
in a situation and, when appropriate, make them explicit. They are calm in
ambiguous situations. They find constructive and satisfactory solutions to
complex and ambiguous situations

ii) BEHAVIOURAL FLEXIBILITY

The significance

In interaction with people of other cultures, it is not possible to achieve goals

effectively without taking into consideration the behaviour considered ‘normal’
in the immediate environment, and the expectations one’s partner has of what
‘good’ behaviour is. It is therefore necessary to be flexible and to a certain
degree able to adapt to the immediate environment to achieve co-operation
and understanding.

Behavioural flexibility is the ability to adapt one’s own behaviour to

different requirements and situations.

In their own cultures, people usually know the behaviour that is expected and
that is considered appropriate. Usually this would be a small spectrum of
possible ways of behaving. When people from different cultures meet, their
usual behaviour might not be appropriate for other people who do not react to
behaviour in the way expected. Thus it is essential in intercultural situations to
be able to expand and adapt one’s own repertoire of behaviour. Persons with
intercultural competence thus show the ability to perceive intercultural signals
and they are able to use different strategies of behaviour in different
situations.

Persons with a high degree of behavioural flexibility are able to use a broad
spectrum of behaviour adapted to specific situations. In the same situation
they can act in different ways. They perceive even weak signals in situations
and are able to adapt their behaviour accordingly. They also take into account
how their own behaviour influences others, and are able to take on the types
of behaviour of others.

Persons with a low degree of behavioural flexibility always act in the same
way, even in situations when they meet persons from other cultures. They are
unable to consider different alternatives of action in a situation. They will not
deviate from a previously determined behavioural procedure. An inflexible
person will not notice the negative effects of their own behaviour on others.
Thus they cannot adapt their own behaviour to specific situations or take on
types of behaviour from others.

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Motivation
Having a wide repertoire of behaviour, they are willing to constantly monitor
the effects of their own behaviour, and adapt it to the specific requirements of
a given situation.

Knowledge/skill
They are generally able to apply a number of different types of behaviour in a
given situation. They are able to perceive even weak signals of a situation and
can adapt their behaviour in appropriate ways.

Behaviour
They take on the behaviour of others and use that in intercultural situations if
their own behaviour is inappropriate.

iii) COMMUNICATIVE AWARENESS

The significance

Problems in intercultural communication often occur because the

communication partners follow different linguistic conventions. People from
different cultures associate different meanings with specific terms; they
express their intentions in different linguistic forms, they follow different
cultural conventions of how a conversation should take place with regard to its
content or its structure. The meaning of gestures, mime, volume, pauses, etc.
also differs from one culture to the other. This is all exacerbated by the use of
foreign languages, when people are often not able to formulate or interpret
intentions appropriately in given contexts.

People often do not notice such problems but when they do, they make
‘psychological’ assumptions, and attribute the differences to different
character traits, to different ‘cultural mentalities’. A speaker who speaks with a
low voice, for instance, is often described as ‘shy’, although he/she may only
want to behave in a polite manner or to indicate that the message is very
important.

Communicative awareness is the ability to recognise different linguistic

conventions, different foreign language skills and their effects on
discourse processes, and to negotiate rules appropriate for intercultural
communication.

Communicative Awareness focuses on the following areas:

Dealing with different communicative conventions

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Communicative awareness is the ability to recognise different communicative
conventions and their impact on discourse processes, and to attune to the
communicative conventions that seem to govern the behaviour of discourse
partners. Based on these assumptions, each person tries to adapt his own
discourse behaviour to these conventions or to explain his own conventions
and situational preferences to others.

Dealing with the effects of different communicative conventions

Communicative awareness also means assessing the discourse situation and
the potential impact of one’s own discourse behaviour in the ongoing
intercultural situation. Based on this assessment of how utterances can
provoke misunderstandings, partners try to negotiate and agree upon
common discourse rules.

Dealing with communicative difficulties

Communicative awareness is also the ability to cope with problems in
communication that result from non-native-language skills. This means to
adapt to different levels of foreign language competence, e.g. by simplifying
utterances, by explaining/avoiding technical terms or by trying for clear
articulation.

Furthermore, communicative awareness includes the use of meta-

communicative strategies that address the discourse situation, e.g. by
mentioning problems of word meaning (‘Maybe I did not understand XX
correctly’), speakers' intentions (‘I promise you…’, ‘What I actually mean…’),
discourse conditions (‘I feel that we are running out of time’), by explicitly
asking for clarification (‘What do you mean by…’) or by giving feedback ‘(If I
understand you correctly, by saying that XX you mean YY’?).

Motivation
They are willing to suspend immediate attributions when confronted with
different linguistic conventions. They are curious to find out about the
meanings and intentions of their communication partners. They are ready to
modify given communicative conventions and to behave correspondingly.

Knowledge /skill
They have knowledge of different communicative conventions and levels of
foreign language competencies and are able to recognise the impact of these
differences on discourse processes. They know how to modify their
communicative behaviour by adapting to the behaviour of communication
partners or by negotiating appropriate rules for the intercultural situation.

Behaviour
They build and test hypotheses about different communicative conventions
and appropriate language levels. They negotiate and agree upon common
rules for discourse interaction. They cope with problems that result from non-

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native-language skills by adapting to different levels of foreign language
competence or by using meta-communicative strategies for clarification.

iv) KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY

The significance

It is not always possible to predict where and how people will find themselves
in an unfamiliar situation, interacting with people of another culture. People
cannot always prepare in advance for a new situation. It is thus important to
have the skills of finding out new knowledge and integrating it with what one
already knows. People need especially to know how to discover practical
information, and also how to observe how people of other cultures act in
accordance with their underlying and often unconscious beliefs, values and
behaviours.

The skill of knowledge discovery is the ability to acquire new knowledge

of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to act using that
knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time
communication and interaction

When two or more people interact with each other, either face to face or at a
distance, they have certain expectations of each other based on previous
knowledge. If they know that they are to meet ‘an English person’, ‘ a woman’,
or ‘a teenager’, they will use knowledge of that person or of that type – and
sometimes it is a stereotype – to anticipate the nature of the interaction and
communication. Even when they meet for the first time, and have no previous
knowledge of each other, their expectations will form immediately – based for
example on the apparent age, gender, ethnicity and social class of the other
person. In situations of interaction which are not face to face – reading a letter
or e-mail – there are other clues that lead to formation of expectations,
sometimes deliberately given but sometimes evident from the paper used, the
style of writing etc.

Even if we have been prepared or taught in advance about the people in

question, this can never be complete or anticipate all circumstances, and we
need to know how to ‘find out’ about others and what they assume to be
‘natural’.

The main difficulty is that other people are not aware of what we need to
know. They are not aware for example that some allusions in what they say
are recognised by people of their own culture but not shared by us. We need
to be aware of what kinds of differences there might be, what the common
hindrances to understanding are, and then develop skills of asking
appropriate questions. In other words, we need the skills of ‘reading’ the

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environment, for example the signs and symbols of the street scene, the
significance of modes of dress, the styles and types of newspaper texts.
Where we cannot read, we have to know how to ask and how to interpret
answers.

When we know in advance that we will be interacting with people in a new

environment, then we can do some prior research, using particular sources of
information, for example travel books, websites, tourist information, even
novels based in the new environment. In this case we need to be able to
differentiate between, for example, information intended for tourism and what
will really help with living and working in a new environment.

Motivation
They have a curiosity to find out about other cultures both in themselves and
in order to be able to interact better with people of other cultural identities

Knowledge/skill
They have the ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural
practices and the ability to act using that knowledge under the constraints of
real-time communication and interaction

Behaviour
They use skills of asking questions, interpreting documents to, for example,
elicit from an interlocutor the concepts and values of documents or events,
identify significant references within and across cultures, identify similar and
dissimilar processes of interaction, verbal and non-verbal, and negotiate an
appropriate use of them in specific circumstances, identify and make use of
public and private institutions which facilitate contact with other countries and
cultures.

v) RESPECT FOR OTHERNESS

The significance

The basis of intercultural competence is in the attitudes of the person

interacting with people of another culture. This means a willingness to
relativise one's own values, beliefs and behaviours, not to assume that they
are the only possible and naturally correct ones, and an ability to see how
they might look from an outsider's perspective who has a different set of
values, beliefs and behaviours. This can be called the ability to 'decentre'. If
people do not have this respect for the way other people act and for what they
believe, then there is no basis for successful communication and achievement
of joint objectives.

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Respect for otherness is manifested in curiosity and openness,
readiness to suspend belief about (the ‘naturalness’ of) one’s own
culture and to believe in (the ‘naturalness’ of) other cultures.

Communication is often about creating a shared understanding about a topic,

from the weather to the humour of a story, to what action to take next.
Successful communication does not necessarily mean agreement or even
compromise. Success means that each understands what the other wishes to
say as fully as possible. So it is possible for people to understand each other
and disagree, and it is also possible for people to agree but not realise that
they have misunderstood each other.

Understanding other people from the same language and culture group as
oneself is not easy and is perhaps never complete. It is far more difficult when
speaking with someone from another culture, i.e. they have:
- a different set of beliefs (what they assume is true e.g. about what is
classed as edible and inedible or what is thought polite behaviour);
- a different set of values (what they assume is important in their lives
e.g. they value honesty more than politeness, or they consider that
older people’s views are more valuable than those of the young);
- and a different set of behaviours (the routine, often unconscious, ways
of acting e.g. they always avoid looking older people directly in the
eyes or they always keep a fast at a given period in the year –
whatever they ‘always’ do, without reflection).
A shared understanding is hindered by this because each starts from a
different set of assumptions. Success depends on two things:
- being able to ‘decentre’ from one’s own culture, i.e. become aware of
what is usually unconscious;
- being able to take the other person’s perspective, and accepting that
their ways also seem ‘natural’ to them.

This requires ‘unlearning’ what seems natural, and this requires a basic
attitude of respect for otherness.

Motivation
They are willing to suspend usual assumptions and seek out new knowledge
from others in a relationship of equality and, as a consequence, to question
their own existing assumptions.

Knowledge/skills
They have knowledge of their own assumptions and those of their society,
and the ability to critically assess the logic of a system of beliefs, values and
behaviours.

Behaviour
They show interest in the other’s experience and in the daily experience of a
range of social groups within a society, and not only that represented in the
dominant culture

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They actively seek the other’s perspectives and evaluations of phenomena
which are taken for granted in their environment, and take up the other’s
perspectives in order to contrast and compare with the dominant views in their
own society

vi) EMPATHY

The significance

Although respect for otherness is a basic condition for successful interaction,

it has to be complemented by the skills of taking up another perspective, of
being able to grasp the ideas, feelings and intentions of other people. It is
possible to accept and respect other people’s beliefs, values and behaviours
without grasping the impact this may have on their actions and the way they
respond to our beliefs, values and behaviours.

People have to take into consideration in real situations that the same
situation is often perceived and evaluated by people from different cultures in
very different ways, and they have to be able to show empathy towards
people from other cultures by applying the skills of changing perspective and
showing real interest in what other people feel and how they perceive
situations.

Empathy is the ability to project oneself into another person’s

perspective and their opinions, motives, ways of thinking and feelings.
Empathic persons are able to relate and respond in appropriate ways to
the feelings, preferences and ways of thinking of others.

Empathetic persons have the skills to describe what others feel in certain
situations. They observe others carefully, are able to notice emotions that are
hardly made explicit and are able to understand them. They are able to see
the relationship with their own feelings and thoughts, the similarities and
differences, and to analyse the possible effects of different perspectives on
the mutual understanding between themselves and their partners. In their own
actions, they consider the perspectives of others and avoid hurting them.

People with low degrees of empathy cannot recognise and describe the
feelings of other people. They are not interested in how other people think or
feel and are thus unable to detect when others don’t feel at ease in a certain
situation. They cannot emulate the way others think and how they perceive a
situation. They cannot imagine how their own behaviour could impact others,

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and thus from time to time they hurt other people’s feelings, and are
unsuccessful in intercultural communication.

Motivation
They wish to take up other perspectives, to put themselves into the ways of
feeling and thinking of other people and to analyse them.

Knowledge/skills
They are able to show empathy towards people from foreign cultures with
their feelings and thoughts. They show interest in what other people feel and
how they perceive situations.

Behaviour

They describe what others feel in certain situations. They observe others
carefully and recognise emotions that are hardly made explicit, and
understand them in their respective contexts. In their own actions, they
consider the perspectives of others and avoid hurting them, for example by
asking about their feelings, and taking these into consideration in their own
actions.

(Michael Byram, on behalf of Torsten Kühlmann, Bernd Müller-Jacquier and

colleagues)

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